IPTV Technology

What is IPTV
IPTV Services
IPTV Requirements
Network Architecture
IPTV Components
Key IPTV Technologies
IPTV Security
Future of IPTV

Outline
IPTV is defined as multimedia services such as
television/video/audio/text/graphics/data
delivered over IP based networks managed to
provide the required level of quality of service
and experience, security, interactivity and
reliability.
ITU focus group on IPTV
Use Access Networks to reach clients, not
general internet links
IPTV is not audio/video through the internet

What is IPTV?
Internet TV & IPTV
Internet TV IPTV
Transport Use general internet Use dedicated, private
network
Geographical Reach Can be access from
anywhere in the globe
Limited by service
provider
Service quality Not guaranteed Guarantees high
quality audio and
video
Access Mechanism A PC with media
player
Set-Top-Box most of
the time
Content Generation Use own content Provided by existing
TV broadcasters
Basic and Premium Television
Interactive TV / Two way
communication
HDTV
Video on Demand
Time shifted TV
Instant Messaging
TV Telephony
Gaming and Betting on
Demand
Web and e-mail
IPTV Services
More control over service for user
What to watch and when to watch
More interactive
Better Quality
DVD quality video, CD quality music
Personalization
Convergence Single device to watch TV, surf web and
video calling
PC is not attractive due to lower picture quality, cost
and boot time
Why IPTV?
Factors helped the growth
Digitization of content
Development of
compression techniques
Growth in Broadband
use
Sri Lankan situation
IPTV available for
ADSL users

Growth of IPTV
IPTV Content Delivery:
TV Head End
IPTV Middleware
VOD Systems
Media Content Protection Systems (DRM)
IP STB
IPTV Process
Content
Production
Content
Aggregation
Content
Delivery
Content
Reproduction
Program
Production
TV Stations
IPTV Service
Providers
TV Sets
End User
Bandwidth for access link
4 Mbps per channel for SDTV
HDTV: 20 Mbps per channel
VoD:
Quality of Experience (QoE) Step beyond
QoS
IPTV Requirements
QoE
QoS
Low delay, jitter and
packet loss
Low downtime,
maintenance intervals
and channel change time

Bandwidth requirements for streaming
High bandwidth continuously
Last mile is the problem
DSL originally employed for burst (web) traffic, Not support
MPEG-2
Need to compress the video streams
Reducing channel change time
Due to multicasting it takes time
Providing VoD
Need to unicast messages
IPTV Technical challenges
IPTV Network
Access
Network
National
Head End
Regional
Head End
Home
Network
IP Core
Network
IPTV Protocols
MPEG-4 / H.264
RTP
UDP
IP
XDSL, Metro Ethernet, ATM
TCP
RTSP
IGMP
Acquiring video from different sources
Video Encoding
VoD delivering
Content security
Conditional Access System (CAS)
Digital Rights Management (DRM)
EPG Server
OBSS Subscriber management system
IPTV Head End
MPEG
Encoder
Media
Streamer
CAS DRM
MPEG
Encoder
IPTV
Delivery
Network
Live TV
VoD Server
OBSS
High speed data network
Technologies used:
ATM and SONET/SDH
IP and MPLS
Metro Ethernet
Core Network
From IPTV Data Center
to the subscriber
1. Fiber
2. DSL
3. Cable TV
4. Satellite
5. Wireless Broadband
6. Internet

IPTV Last Mile (Access Network)
65.00%
22.00%
11.00% 2.00%
DSL
Cable modem
FTTH
Other
IPTV Over ADSL
Middleware A distributed operating system to connect IPTV
components
Runs on IPTV servers and IP-STBs
Integrates with VOD system, Headend, CA/DRM, STB and the
network
End-to-end configuration
User management
Interactive services
Provides channel/package and program together with pay TV
solutions
Links the electronic program guide (EPG) with the content
Acts as a boot server for the STB and ensures that all STBs run
compatible software
IPTV Middleware
IPTV hardware and software infra-structure at
customer premises
Runs the IPTV middleware at client side
Decrypt the scrambled video stream
Video decoding
Produce composite (analog) video output
Program navigation with EPG
PVR

IP STB
IP STB - Operation
User wants to
watch TV
channel
IP-STB connects to
appropriate
multicast group
IP-STB recieves
packets and
encodes it
IP-STB recieves packets,
encodes it and sends to
output device
User watches
TV channel
IP STB - Hardware
Hardware drivers and media codec
Operating system and network stack
IPTV Client
TCP/IP Stack
TV browser
Various plug-ins

IP STB - Software
CAS protect the content from illegal use











Smart card based CA system
IPTV Content Security
OBSS
CAS
ECM
generator
EMM
generator
Multiplexer
TV Signal
TV
distribution
network
Set-Top Box
(decryption)
Call
collector
Transaction data
DRM Protection against theft and piracy of
digital media content

IPTV Content Security
Digital
water
marks
REL
Application
Key
generation
Encryption
DRM Client
module
Channel change on IGMP

Key IPTV Technologies
IGMP LEAVE Green
IGMP JOIN Red
TV Content
User Node A Node B
TV Content
User Node A Node B
TV Content
User Node A Node B
Video Encoding
Improvement in compression to reduce BW
requirement

Key IPTV Technologies
TV set become a all in one box
Replace the PC for entertainment (Limit it for
programming, documenting)
Everything (e-mail reading, FB, answering calls)
from TV remote controller

Future of IPTV
IPTV Transmission
IPTV supports two kinds of services:
1. Multicast IPTV, which consists of an emitter which
sends the same content to multiple
receivers the same time.
Unicast IPTV, which also consists of an emitter which
sends TV content to multiple receivers.
In contrast to multicast IPTV every receiver receives
different content. This kind of service can be used to
send personalized TV content, e.g. video on demand.

Mpeg Transport Stream
Several Codecs combine to create a transport
stream for the media being transmitted.
Codecs are used to encode video and audio
information into a compressed data stream.
Real-time transport Streaming
Protocol
The Real-time Transport Streaming Protocol (RTSP) enables a
client to control a media server by
issuing commands. Necessary for Unicast .
RTSP reuses many design principle from HTTP:
URL identifies resources;
requests contain a method name and various parameters;
replies contain a status code and parameters;
messages are text based.
RTSP is a stateful protocol. The server maintains state of the
client.
With RTSP, every message contains a session identifier, enabling
the server to link received commands to a given multimedia
session.
.
Typical Video setup message
Multicast
Multicast IPTV enables a TV content provider to send TV
content to many subscribers at the same
time.
IP multicast saves considerable bandwidth, since only one stream
is transmitted over the network
When a server multicasts data to several clients, it sends this data
to the corresponding
router only once.
Similarly to regular TV, multicast IPTV supports multiple
channels and sends them at the same time.
IPTV does not broadcast to a user all channels at the same time.
IPTV divides channels into groups and sends to each user the
group that contains the requested channel.
The user can switch between channels at any time.
Multicast Service
Unicast
Unicast IPTV sends a given TV content to a given
user. Video on Demand is a typical service of
IPTV, which enables a user to request a specific
movie and to receive it on his TV set.
Contrary to multicast IPTV, unicast IPTV does
not save bandwidth, since the server must send
the content once for each user.
Unicasting can be extremely demanding on the
server if multiple streams must be generated by
the media server and transmitted over the
network.



Unicast Service
QoE Quality of Experience
QoE is reliant upon error free delivery of packet
data without retransmission.
Very similar to packet voice where packets are not
acknowledged
Customers are much less accepting of poor video
quality
Error Free Transmission
Pixelation due to poor transmission
Components of a typical IPTV
System
A National head-end - Origination point of network
Broadcasts for transmission over the IP network.
Core networks - Usually an IP/MPLS network
transporting traffic to the access network
Access networks - Distributes the IPTV streams to the
DSLAMs
Regional head-end Origination point for local content
Customer premises - Where the IPTV stream is
terminated and viewed using a Set Top Box or
Computer.
Typical IPTV Network Design
Datastream Delivery
Broadcast information coming from the national head-end is
typically distributed using MPEG-2 encoding to the video service
nodes.
Competing compression algorithms are growing in popularity
such as H.264 (MPEG-4 Part 10) or the Society of Motion
Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) 421M (also known as
VC-1)
The channel content can be of standard or high definition.
Distribution over the access network is done though digital
subscriber line access multiplexers (DSLAM) and fiber-to-the-
home (FTTH) services.
The subscribers set top box (STB) acts as the terminating
interface for the network providing output to the television.
For IPTV, each channel is distributed using a multicast IP
address.
Factors Affecting Service
Encoding and Compression The quality of a transmission can be
affected from the source depending on the encoding technique and
level of compression. Generally speaking increased compression
leads to a poorer video quality but a smaller data stream. There is
a tradeoff between bandwidth and compression level.

Jitter in IPTV transmission is defined as a short-term variation in
the packet arrival time. Jitter is typically caused by network or
server congestion. To help combat jitter, STBs use buffers to
smooth out the arrival times of the data packets. I the buffer
overflows or underflows, at the STB, there is often a degradation
of the video output.
Factors Affecting Service

Limited Bandwidth Bandwidth availability is often an issue that
affects the access network or the customers home network. When
traffic utilizes the entire bandwidth, packets are dropped, leading to
video quality degradation.

Packet Loss Loss of IP packets may occur for multiple reasons:
bandwidth limitations
network congestion
failed links
transmission errors
Packet loss usually presents a bursty behavior, commonly related
to periods of network congestion.

Mpeg-2 Compression

Frame Types
I frames- least compressed reconstructed independently
P frames use data from previous frames leading to greater
compression
B frames use data from previous as well as following video
frames leading to even greater compression.
Affect of errd packets is greatest on I frames.
Key QoE Metrics
IPTV is evolving and is not well defined for
testing.
The most popular parameters for testing delivery
of IPTV packets are the media delivery index
(MDI) and PCR jitter for MPEG-2 TS.
Other parameters are also used in the IPTV
network, but require intense packet inspection to
determine transmission problems.
Media Deliver Index (MDI)
MDI is a standards based video quality metric
(RFC-4445)
MDI measures two factors:
Delay Factor
Media Loss Rate
Factors lead to a QoS measure that directly relates
to the customers QoE
Benefits of Using MDI
MDI does not perform any type of stream decoding to achieve its metrics and
therefore does not require significant real-time processing power.

MDI can be used with encrypted media payloads.

MDI is not dependent on any one type of video-encoding technique, so it can
easily be scaled to monitor video quality on hundreds of simultaneous channels.

MDI is typically sampled at multiple points throughout the stream path with the
measurements serving as indicators of problems in the network that can be
proactively addressed before they become service-affecting issues.

Since MDI relies on transport-layer metrics (DF and MLR), it can be used to set
network margins and it directly correlates to impending network problems with
respect to video quality.

Since MDI uses packet-level metrics, it helps validate the performance of
network equipment such as switches and routers that play a key role in
determining whether a packet is delayed or dropped.
MDI Values increase through
network.
Multimedia Systems
Irek Defee
Content Value Chain
Who is involved in making the IPTV possible?
Standart TV
IPTV
What is Next : IPTV NGN


IPTV with NGN is a future of IPTV .

A Next-Generation Network (NGN) can be
describe as a telecommunications packet-based
network that handles heavy traffic (such as voice,
data, and multimedia).
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Customer Premises
VoD Cluster
Headend
IPTV Content Delivery System
Core
Network
STB
IAD
Access Network
- Set-Top Box
- An Integrated Access Device (or IAD) is a
customer premises device that provides access to
wide area networks and the Internet
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Set top box architecture
Hardware
RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer)
GPP (General Purpose Preprocessor)
Video decoding with DSP (Digital Signal
Processor)
or ASIC (Application Specific Integrated
Circuit)
Ethernet, SCART, IR interface
Software
Embedded Linux
Media player
User interface, browser
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What is
VOD?
BBC 2008
51
What is VOD
Select and watch video content (usually over a
network)
Either content is streamed or downloaded with/to
the application
Apps have a subset of VCR functionality
including RWD, Pause, FFWD etc.
Push VOD delivered to set top box from
broadcaster

Eg. BBC iPlayer, YouTube, BBC Archive, Rimokon
quiz, Tiscali, BT vision
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Middleware
And
Video Codecs
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Middleware
Set-top box software that allows us to write
applications
Affect application capabilities
Middleware
MHEG (Freeview / Freesat)
Liberate (Virgin)
ICTV/other (once trialled by Tiscali; used by
US web sites)
HTML/JavaScript (KIT/Proprietary operators)
Mediaroom (BT Vision)


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Codecs
Compression/Decompression
File extension specifies codec used to
compress/decompress
Lossy/Lossless
Codecs
H.264
MPEG2
MPEG4
WMV9


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H.264
1. Up to 50% in bit rate savings: Compared to H.263v2
(H.263+) or MPEG-4 Simple Profile, H.264 permits a
reduction in bit rate by up to 50% for a similar degree of
encoder optimization at most bit rates.

2. High quality video: H.264 offers consistently good video
quality at high and low bit rates.

3. Error resilience: H.264 provides the tools necessary to
deal with packet loss in packet networks and bit errors in
error-prone wireless networks.

4. Network friendliness: Through the Network Adaptation
Layer, H.264 bit streams can be easily transported over
different networks.
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IPTV/Internet TV Platforms/Operators
OPERATOR MIDDLEWARE CODEC DELIVERY
NETWORK
MANAGED
NETWORK
Tiscali (client-side
Java)
h.264 ADSL YES
BT Vision Mediaroom h.264

ADSL YES
Virgin Liberate
(Seac-change)
Mpeg 2 Hybrid fibre
co-ax
YES
Freesat MHEG 1.06
turbo
Not
implemented
Any
dependent on
isp
NO
Freeview
(other than BT
vision)
MHEG Dependant on
ISP
Any
dependent on
isp

NO
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Common
IPTV/VOD
models
58
Server
(contains video)
Server Side Video / Client Side Application
Streamed Video
Contains:
- application code previously downloaded
Set Top Box
Instructions for
video
(play, ff, rw, pause)
are sent to server
Common models
Disadvantages
-Slower to load video
-Longer round trip to server
battling against bandwidth

Advantages
-Greater capacity for video
on servers than set-top/pc

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Server
(contains video and app)
Server Side Video / Server Side App
Streamed Video
AND
Streamed Application
contains:
- no storage in the box


Set Top Box
Instructions for
video
(play, ff, rw, pause)
AND to navigate
the app
are sent to server
Common models
Disadvantages
-Slower to load video/app
-Longer round trip to server
battling against bandwidth
/contention ratio

Advantages
-Greater capacity for video
-Larger app size for
more functionality
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Common models
Set Top Box/PVR
Client Side App / Client Side Video
contains:
- application code previously downloaded
- video previously downloaded
Disadvantages
-Inability to leverage
server
for capacity.

Advantages
-Quick seamless
transitions
between video and
scenes.
-Store app locally and
take
box from a to b (i.e. to
a friends house)

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Set Top Box/PVR
Peer-to- Peer Video / Client Side Application
contains:
- application code previously downloaded
- video streamed from other pcs/boxes
Common models
Disadvantages
-Longer round
trip to through
network

Advantages
-Leverage other
PC/set-tops with
the same video
for speedy
download

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IPTV
PC
MOBILE
STB
BROWSER
APP
MHEG 1.06
MHEG Turbo
ICTV
MEDIA ROOM
Mozilla IE
Windows Media Player
Real Player
Flash
Liberate
Middlewares on devices
Joost
Bablegum
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