Internet Protocol television

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This article is about Internet Protocol Television. For the television network in Iowa, see Iowa Public Television.

IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) describes a system where a digital television service is delivered to subscribing consumers using the Internet Protocol over a broadband connection. This service is often provided in conjunction with Video on Demand and may also include Internet services such as Web access and VOIP where it may be called Triple Play and is typically supplied by a broadband operator using the same infrastructure.

IPTV is expected to grow at a brisk pace in the coming years as broadband is now available to more than 100 million households worldwide. Many of the world's major telecommunications providers are exploring IPTV as a new revenue opportunity from their existing markets and as a defensive measure against encroachment from more conventional Cable Television services.

Architecture

IPTV is the service offer not a protocol. An IPTV system requires two-way communication and therefore typically uses broadband technology based on xDSL over the Local Loop. This results in a star network topology. The hub of the star is called a Head end and uses a DSLAM (Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer). This differs from conventional cable television systems which use a ring network topology.

Protocols

IPTV covers both live TV (multicasting) as well as stored video (Video on Demand VOD). The playback of IPTV requires either a personal computer or a "set-top box" connected to a TV. Video content is typically MPEG2TS delivered via IP Multicast, with H.264 thought to replace MPEG-2 . In standards-based IPTV systems, the primary underlying protocols used for IPTV are IGMP version 2 for channel change signaling for live TV and RTSP for Video on Demand.

Advantages

Advantages of IPTV include two-way capability lacked by traditional TV distribution technologies, as well as point-to-point distribution allowing each viewer to view individual broadcasts. This enables stream control (pause, wind/rewind etc.) and a free selection of programming much like its narrowband cousin, the web.

Tripleplay is an expression used by service operators describing a consumer package including telephony, data and video. Offering tripleplay on a broadband connection requires the use of IPTV and IP Telephony (Voice over IP, VoIP).

Alternatives

Alternatives to IPTV are traditional TV distribution technologies such as terrestrial, satellite and cable TV. However, cable can be upgraded to two-way capability and can thus also carry IPTV.

VOD in the US is usually delivered over cable TV using the DVB protocol and is not labelled IPTV services.

Companies

Operators

The largest operators in IPTV today are:

Kingston Interactive Television Launched October 1999 [Study01.htm]
Fastweb in Italy (http://www.fastweb.it/)
Imagenio, operated by Telefonica in Spain [1]
Yahoo! BB / Softbank in Japan
NOW Broadband TV in Hong Kong, launched in Q4 2003 [2]
SuperSun in Hong Kong, launched in Q3 2005
Media on Demand (MOD) in the Republic of China, operated by Chunghwa Telecom ([3])
Homechoice in the United Kingdom

In 2004, SBC agreed to pay Microsoft $400 million dollars for software to be used to deliver IPTV services to up to 18 million customers. Separately, SBC is investing over $4 billion USD in its network infrastructure to prepare for the rollout, the largest part with Alcatel ($1.7 billion) including access and fiber technologies, IP routing, Ethernet switching solutions, and network systems integration services. Additionally, Alcatel will work with SBC to ensure the video systems integration. Since the SBC deal, Microsoft and Alcatel have subsequently announced a global collaboration agreement to develop an integrated IPTV delivery solution. In January 2005, US based Verizon signed an agreement to use Microsoft IPTV solution, as well.

Previous to this, Swisscom/Bluewin has been running real live trials since November 2004 with over 600 customers. Besides this, Bell Canada, BellSouth, Reliance Infocomm (India) and TelecomItalia are testing this new technology.

Beyond simple press announcements (excepting Fastweb, Magnet Networks, Yahoo BB and Swisscom/Bluewin), Belgacom will offer a commercial IPTV service for 2005. Details can be found at (Belgacom TV) (in English) and a demonstration of the Belgacom TV service (demo)

Vendors

The term "IP/TV" is an active registered United States trademark owned first by Precept Software, Inc. and now by Cisco Systems, Inc. The IP/TV product is an audio/video system, including both servers and viewers, based on the RTP/RTCP and SDP protocols. It often uses IP multicast as well. IP/TV was introduced in 1995.

Digital broadcast equipment manufacturer Tandberg Television, Harmonic Inc and Optibase [4] has a range of headend hardware and software catering to IPTV applications.

Tut Systems, Inc. produces IPTV encoding and processing equipment for digital headends and video transport applications.

Outsourced IPTV head-end service provider Broadstream Communications is the first legal transporter of IPTV content to small and medium sized markets that can not cost-justify an owned and operated IPTV head-end.

IPTV 24/7 Quality monitoring and analysis vendors