role of iptv standards in achieving quality of service

An LG Electronics Company

Role of IPTV Standards in Achieving Quality of Service

Rich ChernockTelecom 2008Las Vegas, NV April 16, 2008


IPTV Basics

� IPTV = Delivery of TV services over IP network

� Telco answer to cable inroads into telephone business

� Enabled by very high bandwidth broadband facilities

� Worldwide deployment status:

� 2005 – between 2.0 and 3.2 million subscribers

� 2006 – between 3.6 and 6.2 million subscribers

� 2007 – between 10.8 and 15.0 million subscribers projected

� One estimate of actual for 2007: 14.2 million

� 2010 – between 48.8 and 63.1 million subscribers projected

� Current deployments use proprietary components(comprehensive standards in development)


IPTV

Consumer

IPTV Network Provider (NP)

IPTV

Service

Provider

(SP)

IPTV

Content

Provider

(CP)

IPTV System Architecture – Very High Level View

Operations Support Systems (OSS)Business Support Systems (BSS)


IPTV System Architecture – ATIS-IIF View


IPTV Standards: What Are They Good For?

� Interoperable retail receivers

� Reduced capital cost for IPTV service providers

� Convenience and lower cost for consumers

� Greater choice of services for consumers

� Interoperable infrastructure components

� Reduced cost for IPTV service providers

� Interoperable quality monitoring equipment(due to stream structure standards & monitoring RPs)

� Lower cost monitoring equipment

� More effective monitoring


Worldwide IPTV Standards Efforts

� ATIS-IIF (Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions – IPTV Interoperability Forum)

� Established June 2005

� Mission: Comprehensive standards for IPTV, focus on US

� ITU-T (International Telecommunications Union) IPTV Focus Group

� Established April 2006

� Mission: Coordinating & promoting global IPTV standards

� Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB)

� European DTV standards group, expanding recently into IPTV

� TTA (Korea), CCSA (China), ARIB (Japan)


ATIS-IIF Process

� Work is done by “committees”

� Issues are identified for each committee to work on

� Members of the committee submit contributions

� “Working text” is generated for each issue, and continuously revised as new contributions are discussed and accepted (usually after modification)

� When working text is considered complete, it moves into “initial closure” – available for industry comments

� After considering comments, document moves into “final closure” (publication)


ATIS-IIF Organizational Structure

� Five “committee”

� Architecture –formed Sep 2005

� Digital Rights Management (DRM) – formed Sep 2005

� Quality of Service Measurement (QoSM) – formed Sep 2005

� Testing and Interoperability (T&I) – formed Dec 2006

� Metadata & Transaction Data (MTD) – formed Jan 2007

� Each committee is working on one or more “issues”


ATIS-IIF QoSM Committee

� Completed Documents

� IPTV QoS Framework (Dec 2006)

� QoS Metrics for Linear Broadcast (August 2007)

� QoS Metrics for Public Services (January 2008)

� Currently Active Issues

� Quality of Experience Model for Linear Broadcast

� QoS Metrics for Regulatory Areas

� QoS Metrics for Broadcast Advertising

� QoS Metrics for Video on Demand

� Fault Modes for IPTV


Quality – A 50,000 Foot View

� What matters most to a customer?

� Being able to watch their preferred show/movie without glitches

�Customers don’t/shouldn’t care about MPEG, IP, RTP, QAM…

� To maintain customer satisfaction, the goal is to make this so

� The ability to monitor the entire distribution system is crucial

�End-to-end service assurance


� Terrestrial & Cable

� ATSC & SCTE standards specify broadcast stream structure

� ATSC & SCTE have detailed Recommended Practice for Validation

� ATSC A/78 & SCTE 142

� Emphasis on error severity

� Widely available, low-cost, effective broadcast monitors

� Example:

Triveni Digital StreamScope™

� IPTV

� Quality monitoring to date is more ad hoc, less effective

� Work is currently underway in ATIS to change this

� QOS metrics/measurements standards available for Linear TV, EAS

Quality Monitoring: Terrestrial/Cable vs. IPTV


IPTV distribution system

� Very complex system

� Considerably different requirements than voice / data

� All functional blocks that touch flows can introduce impairments at the transport level

� Transport impairments often result in QOE hit

� Traditional “QOS” metrics (packet loss & latency) may show problems

� Often root cause is deeper in the transport

� Not all IP packets are created equal!

� Can be categorized – with different metrics appropriate for each category


Quality impairments w/transport causes

� Lip Synch

� Tiling – aka Pixelization

� Channel loss

� Video w/o Audio

� Audio w/o Video

� Jerkiness

� Freezes

� Audio glitches

� � Root causes reflected by higher level symptoms


Categories – KISS principle

� Origination of digital content

� Digital Turnaround, Encoder/Mux, Video Server

� Is the transport correctly formed at origination?

� Manipulation of digital content

� Groomers, Rate Shapers, Splicers

� Have the modifications caused transport level impairments?

� Transport of digital content

� Core networks, routers, switches

� Have the network elements caused significant transport problems

� Last mile

� DSLAM, QAM modulator

� Are compliant streams being delivered to viewers?


Highest monitoring priorities

� Video/Audio Quality

� Need for in-depth transport monitoring wherever contents are modified

� Encoding, Muxing, Rate Shaping, Insertion, QAM …

� Depth of monitoring equivalent to SCTE 142/ATSC A/78 is necessary

� Non-video components also important

� EAS messages

� Splice Messages

� Topology and flows

� Network topology: Inventory and real-time status

� Flow characteristics: Unicast and multicast flow paths, latency and losses

� Essential for localization and root-cause

� Need to be Transient aware

� Equipment Health

� Common information elements for assessing failures


Summary

� Standards are good!

� IPTV has the same monitoring needs as for Broadcast, Cable and DTH systems

� Monitoring for QOE problems requires looking at transport and network issues

� Rapid detection/localization/repair of issues requires the ability to comprehensively monitor transport metrics

� Monitoring strategies exist that allow cost-effective localization of problems


QUESTIONS?

Rich ChernockTriveni Digital, Inc.

[email protected]

role of iptv standards in achieving quality of service

Documents

iptv basics3 iptv

global iptv standards

iptv distribution system3

documents iptv qos framework

linear broadcast qos

stream structure standards

regulatory areas qos

atisiif qosm committee3