IPTV-01: How To

Implement IPTV
Networks
Franchesca Walker
Director, Enterprise
Solutions
Foundry Networks, Inc

Table of Contents
IPTV, Multi-Play Service Bundle: Why, What?
Components of an IPTV Network
IPTV Network Demands
Designing An IPTV Capable Network
Closing Thoughts
3

IPTV, Multi-Play Service Bundle: Why, What?

2006
Foun
dry

Challenges Facing Telcos

Today
Increasing competition from cable operators
Voice is close to free

One-Bill Summary
Customer John Doe A/c # (123)-456-7890

Need to reduce customer churn

Develop ways to grab a greater share of the
customer wallet

Plans and Services

$9.96

Broadband Internet

$19.99

Phone Services

$15.99

Network Television

$40.97

Taxes and Surcharges

$12.86

Total Current Charges

$99.77

Cautious capital outlays after the bursting of the

bubble

9/16/08

IPTV: A Silver Bullet For

Telcos?
The good news of high broadband adoption
>181 million broadband subscribers in OECD countries *

Value-added services possible through IPTV

Single bill for consumers

Extensive data on user viewing habits

Targeted ad insertion increases appeal to advertisers

More for less

Better utilization of installed infrastructure conserves cap-ex and op-ex

Telco operators have been busy pursuing a FTTx strategy to facilitate higher
speeds to the consumer

* Source: OECD Broadband Statistics

Components of an IPTV Network

2006
Foun
dry

Reference Architecture for

IPTV
POP

RHE

SHE for national

content insertion

BNG

Access
Ring

Aggregation
Ring

National
Network for
Content
Distribution

Access
Ring

Aggregation
Ring
RHE

BNG
Access node
(PON OLT, DSLAM)

Interaction with network

(E.g. Multicast Join/Leave)
Middleware client-server
interaction

POP

Media
Server
Farm

Legend
RHE: Regional Head End
SHE: Super Head End

Major Players In The IPTV Market

Today

Component

Vendors

Residential Gateway

2Wire, Linksys (Cisco), NetGear, Westell, Amino etc

Set-top box

Amino, 2Wire, Scientific Atlanta (Cisco), Motorola

Broadband Access Node

Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei, ECI Telecom, Zhone, Calix, Occam

Networks, AFC/Tellabs, Motorola, Siemens, Ericsson

Aggregation Node

Foundry, Cisco, Alcatel-Lucent, Juniper, Redback

Broadband Network Gateway

Cisco, Alcatel-Lucent, Juniper, Redback (Ericsson)

Head-end servers

Kasenna, Bitband, Broadbus, Arroyo

Head-end acquisition
systems

Harmonic

Head-end encoders

Optibase, Tut Systems, Skystream, Scientific Atlanta (Cisco)

Middleware

Microsoft, Myrio (Siemens), Minerva Software, Orca Interactive,

Thales, Bitband, proprietary software in large service providers
who had an early start

DRM Software

Irdeto Access, Nagra, Verimatrix, proprietary software.

Microsoft MS-TV2 middleware has DRM capabilities embedded
in it.

Policy Management Software

Major players: Tazz Networks, Bridgewater Systems

IPTV Network Demands

10

2006
Foun
dry

IPTV Network Demands (1 of

3)
Need for high bandwidth
Standard Definition (SDTV) video:
Requires about 4 Mbps per stream (MPEG-2)

High Definition (HDTV) video:

Requires 14-18 Mbps per stream (MPEG-2)

Importance of latency
High latency negatively affects user experience directly:
IPTV involves procedures such as DRM authorization, channel zapping,
Interactive applications such as VoD, content search under interactive TV / network PVR
etc.

IGMP Join Latency

11

IPTV Network Demands (2 of

3)
Quality of Service
IPTV co-exists with other services such as high-speed Internet access, VoIP and
interactive gaming

Optimization of channel change time in some middleware by sending a burst of

unicast traffic before streaming multicast traffic
Wire-speed performance without packet loss an absolute requirement
Resiliency
Subscribers expectations of high availability are table stakes

High Density
Trend in access networks: compact platforms close to the subscriber

12

IPTV Network Demands (3 of

3)
Future-proof Infrastructure
IPTV is expected to accelerate the shift to IPv6
Flexibility in Service Delivery Models
Centralized transport through a BRAS
Network Infrastructure Security
Detect and prevent malicious attempts to take over the network

13

Sequence Of Actions During A Channel

Zap Operation
Channel zap/channel surfing has an important bearing on user experience
when watching IPTV
RHE

Access
Access++
Aggregation
Aggregation
Network
Network
1
2

User changes
channel to watch
the new channel

3
4

Media
Server
Farm

Multicast stream

IGMP Leave
of old channel

IGMP Leave Latency

Stop multicast of
old channel

5a Digital Rights Management Checks for new channel

5b DRM response
6a
7

New channel
delivered to user
TV

IGMP Join of
new channel

6b Issue IGMP Join / PIM

New Multicast stream

Join through Network

if needed

Set-top box processing delays

(e.g. jitter buffer delay, MPEG
decoder delay etc)

14

IGMP Join Latency

Problem Statement for IPTV

Networks
How do we economically scale and future-proof aggregation networks to
ensure high performance guarantees?
Many aggregation networks built to date have focused on best-effort
service delivery
What happens if the above is not met?
Packet loss due to poor router/switch performance has visibly negative
effects

Example of a pixelized image

(Source: Packet Loss Recovery for
Streaming Video,
http://nms.csail.mit.edu/papers/pv2
002.pdf)

15

Designing An IPTV Capable Network

16

Major Design Considerations: Access

Network (1)
Access considerations:

Access technology
Bandwidth available per home
Number of TV channels
# of concurrent channels per subscriber
Bandwidth per service type per subscriber

Delivery mechanism to the subscriber. Popular choices:

1) N PVC:1 VLAN model with different services over a single VLAN
2) N PVC:1 VLAN model with unique VLAN per service
3) 1 PVC:1 VLAN model: Each service of each subscriber mapped to a unique
VLAN

All of the above models assume 1 ATM PVC to the subscriber.

17

Major Design Considerations: Access

Network (2)
Subscriber management and encapsulation. 2 most common
choices:
DHCP
PPPoE for data with IPTV traffic delivered over a separate VLAN.
Increasing number of IPTV deployments are moving away from
PPPoE to DHCP for data service also
For operators currently using PPPoE, a recommended approach:
Use of PPPoE for data service only
Use DHCP for video and voice traffic

18

Major Design Considerations:

Aggregation Network (1)

Aggregation choices:

Access-Aggregation Network interface

Layer 2 or Layer 3 network?
Layout of the network
Location of video content

Bandwidth needs:
Number of broadcast/premium TV channels to be offered over the network
Amount of unicast-based services expected in the network
Using oversubscribed equipment not a good idea

19

Major Design Considerations:

Aggregation Network (2)
Expected viewer habits:
Are some channels heavily watched? If yes, always have these channels
delivered to the access node
Premium channels requested on demand

Desired resiliency:
Fast SONET-like (sub-50 millisecond) resiliency?
Are redundant links to access node desired?
Multicast redundancy

Security:
Prevent subscribers from sourcing multicast traffic
Encryption of transported video traffic
Ensure that Denial of Service (DoS) guards are in place in aggregation network

20

Design 1: IPTV Network Design

Layer 2 Aggregation Network With Ring Topo

BNG

Aggregation
network

Subscribers

Access device (e.g.

DSLAM, PON OLT etc)
BNG Broadband Network Gateway

21

Design 2: IPTV Network Design

Layer 3 Aggregation Network

Video source

RP1
R1

Switch1

Switch4

Switch2

Switch3

RP2
Aggregation
network

R4

Subscribers

R2
R3
Note: Topology of the aggregation
network may be any generic mesh
Subscribers

22

Design 3: IPTV Network Design

Multicast Overlay On Top of MPLS Network

Video source

RP1
R1

Switch1

RP2
Aggregation
network

R4

Subscribers

R2
R3
Note: Topology of the aggregation
network may be any generic mesh
Subscribers

23

Design 4: IPTV Network Design

Multicast Distribution Using VPLS

Video source

R2
R1

R3

All routers R1 .. R6
are part of a common
VPLS instance

VPLS In The Aggregation

network

R4

Subscribers

R6
R5
Note: Topology of the aggregation
network may be any generic mesh

End-points of
the VPLS

Subscribers

24

PIM-SSM and IGMPv3:

Why Source Specific Multicast?
Challenges with Any Source Multicast (ASM):
Poor access control in traditional Any Source Multicast (ASM)
model
Inefficient handling of well-known sources
Limited multicast address space and address allocation

25

How to Implement IPTV

Networks

Closing Thoughts

26

Explosive Subscriber Growth in

IPTV
Worldwide IPTV Subscribers by Geographic Region

31.8

0.4

1.4

0.0

CY04

4.8

2.0

0.0

0.1

CY05

CY06

20

14.4
2.3

0.7

0.2
0.0

30

10.2

0.8

0.3

20.2

8.9

3.8

6.9

10

0.4

1.1

CY07

CY08

2.5

Subscribers (M)

40

17.4

0
CY09

Calendar Year

Source: Infonetics Research,

IPTV Equipment, Services and Subscribers Market Share and Forecast, October 2006

Explosive world-wide subscriber growth in this segment in the coming

years
2008 is the year the hockey stick effect takes shape!

27

Tremendous Growth Potential World-wide!

Source: Infonetics Research,

IPTV Equipment, Services and Subscribers Market Share and Forecast, October 2006

Demand for world-wide edge routing and switching equipment for

IPTV expected to grow 34% this year and 20+% over the next 2 years

28

What to look for in an IPTV

Solution

Guaranteed wire-speed performance independent of packet size

Advanced QoS architecture required for multi-play services
Low latency architecture assures better user experience
High Availability Architecture that minimizes service downtime
High Density solutions available in a variety of cost optimal
configurations
Future-proof infrastructure with readiness for 100-GbE
The only IPTV aggregation platform with true 100-GbE readiness
today
High infrastructure security

29

How to Implement IPTV

Networks

Thank you

30