A

Report on
IPTV

Submitted By:
Nikhil Khandelwal

Introduction:
According to the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) IPTV Exploratory Group,
IPTV is defined as the secure and reliable delivery to subscribers of entertainment video and related
services. These services may include, for example, Live TV, video-on-demand (VOD) and Interactive TV
(iTV). These services are delivered across an access agnostic, packet switched network that employs the
IP protocol to transport the audio, video and control signals. In contrast to video over the public Internet,
with IPTV deployments, network security and performance are tightly managed to ensure a superior
entertainment experience, resulting in a compelling business environment for content providers,
advertisers and customers alike. In other words, IPTV is television delivered via an IP based network.
Main Components of an IPTV System:

TV Head-End
The TV head-end is the station or broadcast center where the delivery of IP multicast streams, encoding,
recording, and encryption take place. When viewers are watching TV delivered by an IPTV system, the
content they are viewing originates or is being delivered from the TV head-end.
Resource Management
Resource management is done through another piece of hardware referred to as the application server and
refers to an IPTV systems ability to keep track of customer privileges and utilize content information.
Middleware
The middleware, also known as the interactive portal, is the graphical user interface (GUI) that the
viewers see. The electronic program guide, navigation, or any visual guide with which the viewer
interacts make up the middleware.
Video-on-Demand Platform (Optional)
VOD content is essentially stored content that is delivered to viewers whenever they choose as a unicast
from the server. A unicast is a one-to-one stream of the content and is displayed when a viewer selects a
certain program, such as a movie, to watch on-demand.
Transmission Network
The transmission network is how content gets from Point A to Point B or Point A to multiple points. In
the case of IPTV, the transmission network is the IP based network, be it through an Ethernet or wireless
connection.

Gateway
The gateway is the equipment at the end of the transmission network that brings the video content into the
viewers home. In the case of an IPTV system, this would be the viewers home router.
End User Customer Premises Equipment (CPE)
The end user customer-premises equipment is the set-top box or smart TV that decodes, decrypts, and
displays TV content (multicast & unicast) on the TV screen in a viewers home. The CPE takes the data
packets sent from the head-end over the IP transmission network and turns it into a picture for the viewer
to see.

IPTV Schematics

Description:
In IPTV system, the content to view is of two types: one is the content from the national providers and the
second is the content from the regional providers. The content provided by the national providers is sent
to the IPTV service providers national head through wireless connection or satellite. The IPTV service
providers receive the content then encode and encapsulate the content to be sent over the IP network.
There is a VoD asset distribution and management unit which manages the VoD servers which stores the

Video on demand content to provide video on demand services for the national content. The service
providers also have a middleware unit which is a GUI for the users to choose the content as the National
content is very large. The content provided is walled garden content to put restrictions on the content
provided. The CA/DRM is used to provide the content to the subscribers at high speed seamlessly and is
responsible for the security and protection of the content against theft and piracy. The IPTV service
assurance part makes sure that the practices and policies are applied to ensure fault and tolerance
management, performance and QoS management, etc. This national content is then sent using a router
through the IP core network and then the edge router routes this national content from the IP core network
to the Metro aggregation and distribution network. The regional content is received by the service
providers regional head from the regional channel providers using wireless connection. The service
provider provides the same services to the regional content as the national content except for the use of
walled garden content, middleware, CA/DRM and VoD asset distribution and management. This regional
content is encoded and encapsulated to send it to the video switching office or access network using the
Metro aggregation and distribution network, where the regional and national content are aggregrated. The
content from the Metro aggregation and distribution network is provided to the video switching office
which makes the required switching to provide the correct content and services to the users access node.
The access node of the user can be a DSLAM or a Metro Ethernet access switch. The Metro Ethernet
access switch requires a Residential gateway between the access switch and set top box. The access node
provides the user to view the video content using the set top box.
National head
The content arrives from the most of the most of the networks at the national head of the IPTV service
provider through wireless connection or satellite.
The content received from the broadcast (UHF) and/or satellite reception is encoded and encapsulated
because the content is sent in the form of packets through the IP networks.
Walled garden content is the content provided by the IPTV networks in which they have complete control
and restrict the users from access non-approved contents or application.
`CA/DRM - Conditional Access (CA) refers to technology that enables "some television viewers to
watch some things while not allowing others to watch the same thing." It is the way the television
industry has decided to make sure they get paid for their content. Much of the Web has been built upon
the same model through SSL. Digital Rights Management (DRM), on the other hand, was build
around a separate set of premises..
Digital rights management (DRM) is responsible for the protection against theft and piracy of digital
media content.
A VOD server (video-on-demand server) is a specialized server that delivers video content such as
movies and television shows over the internet or in this case over the iptv network, in response to requests
from users. It features intelligent content management, flexible billing and robust content delivery
capabilities. The main characteristic of VoD is to provide seamless video to users on any broadband
network.
Middleware:
A distributed operating system to connect IPTV components and Links EPG

End-to-end configuration

User management and Interactive services

Provides channel/package and program together with pay TV solutions

EPG- An electronic program guide (EPG) is an application used with digital set-top boxes and
newer television sets to list current and scheduled programs that are or will be available on each
channel and a short summary or commentary for each program. EPG is the electronic equivalent
of a printed television program guide. Electronic program guides and interactive program guides
provide users of television, radio, and other media applications with continuously updated menus
displaying broadcast programming or scheduling information for current and upcoming programming.
Some guides, such as ITV, also feature backward scrollingto promote their catch-up content.
Main aspects of QoS for IPTV
IPTV packets are given by the highest priority over other packets. This mechanism is implemented in
the network layer or in the MAC layer. In either case, when packets are competing for the output link,
packets from IPTV flows will be processed with higher priority. Hence, although there may be other
Internet applications, their traffic will not affect the QoS of IPTV.
CPE
Customer premises equipment (CPE) is telephone or other service provider equipment that is located
on the customer's premises (physical location) rather than on the provider's premises or in between.
Telephone handsets, cable TV set-top boxes, and Digital Subscriber Line routers are examples.
Historically, this term referred to equipment placed at the customer's end of the telephone line and
usually owned by the telephone company. Today, almost any end-user equipment can be called
customer premise equipment and it can be owned by the customer or by the provider.
Residential Gateways
The "router" used in home and small networks is more accurately called a "residential gateway." A
router is the first line of security from intrusion into a network. Enabling the highest level of security
on the router is the best way to keep your computer system and information safe from attack. Routers
contain software called firmware that should be updated as released by the router manufacturer. Most
routers connect to other network devices only via network cables and do not require drivers to operate
in Windows or other operating systems. However, routers that connect to a computer via a USB or
FireWire typically require drivers to operate properly. Routers often act as the DHCP servers in small
networks, issuing unique IP addresses.
Set top box
In IPTV networks, the set-top box is a small computer providing two-way communications on an IP
network and decoding the video streaming media. IP set-top boxes have a built-in home network
interface that can be Ethernet or one of the existing wire home networking technologies such as Home
PNA or the ITU-T G.hn standard, which provides a way to create a high-speed (up to 1 Gbit/s) local area
network using existing home wiring (power lines, phone lines, and coaxial cables)