IPTV

(Internet
Protocol
Television)
A Technical Note

VMG (gunda.venu@gmail.com)
 IPTV (Internet Protocol Television)

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Contents
1 What is IPTV .......................................................................................................................................... 4
2 Unicast Vs MultiCast ............................................................................................................................. 5
3 Network Diagram of IPTV System ......................................................................................................... 5
4 IPTV Architecture .................................................................................................................................. 5
4.1 Content/Headend ......................................................................................................................... 7
4.2 Core Network: ............................................................................................................................... 8
4.3 Telco Access Network ................................................................................................................... 9
5 Video Streaming Protocols.................................................................................................................. 10
6 References .......................................................................................................................................... 11

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1 What is IPTV
IPTV is Internet Protocol TV which means television services over the Internet or Internet Protocol.
Many people are confused with Internet TV with IPTV. Internet TV is where movie is played all
ready stored in the server. You would have seen bit torrent, online movies these are internet TV
where as IPTV is the real television streamed through internet rather than through cable. This
delivery of digital television is made possible by using IP over broadband connection. IPTV contain
the Data, Audio and Video which is also called Triple Play.

To understand how IPTV changes the business of television we need to first discuss the current
business of television. The television service industry can be divided roughly into content owners
and creators, content distributors, and advertisers. The owners and creators are the major
networks (ABC, CBS, and so on), the cable networks (CNN, HBO, and so on), and the movie studios
(otherwise known collectively as Hollywood). In general, the content owners do not sell their
content directly to consumers. Instead, the content is aggregated, packaged and sold to consumers
via content distributors or multichannel video program distribution (MVPD) services. Today these
are primarily the local TV broadcast stations (who may be owned by the major networks), cable
operators (who may own cable networks), and direct broadcast satellite (DBS) operators, namely
DirecTV and EchoStar in North America.

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2 Unicast Vs MultiCast
A unicast session is the conventional networking method two computers use to communicate with
one another within private one on one environment or session.

In IPTV, VOD server is best example for the Unicast. Take an example, typical IPTV network consists
of VOD Server, IPTV Network and STB (Set Up box) which is connected to Television. User usually
controls IPTV through the remote control which is given along with STB box. Take an example user
wants see a movie, first she sends a command to through the STB to VOD server the web pages.
This is the unicast only between use and VOD server. Then user finds the title of movie start
purchasing that movie. It is also unicast between the user and VOD Server. The communication
enables the client to control VOD Server is through RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol)

Multicast is the process of process of single source sending to multiple destinations at single time.
Using IGMP, clients are able to receive the broadcast packets and enable the routing of the
broadcast stream to network. IGMP allows an individual host machine to “Join” and “leave”
multicast groups by responding to queries by a mulicast capable router. MultiCast enables a video
server to broadcast to a video network. It saves a tremendous amount of network bandwidth over
unicast, but there is no reliability mechanism so lost packets stay lost.

3 Network Diagram of IPTV System

4 IPTV Architecture

 Content/Headend. The source for much of the video content within the system. The
central point within the network is the headend or super headend. This is where the
broadcast programming and ondemand content is captured or ingested into the system.
 Core Network. Transports all of the system's content (that is, video, music, channel
lineup, and data). The core network is the "backbone" for the IPTV broadcast system
within the region of service. Also, local content and local advertisement insertion for
each region could be inserted at the core network.

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 Access Network. The "last mile" for the network operator. It provides the network
connectivity of the IPTV services to consumer homes.
 Home Network. Where the IPTV service enters the home (via a router/gateway). It is
also where the distribution of all of the data (voice, data, and video) takes place among
all IP devices in the home.

Many smaller operators obtain content from the “Content Aggregator” that acquires the various
programming in bulk and makes it available to many operators. The super headend is where the
bulk of content is captured and formatted for distribution within a network, including the
broadcast and on demand services.
After content is captured via within the headend, it is formatted to distribution within the
system. This includes the coding schemes ie., MPEG-2, MPEG-4 etc., The statistical multiplexer,
or rate shaper, may also be used to create the required bitrates for distribution network.
The multiplex program streams are then encapsulated in IP Packets.
The signal leaves the super headend over an extremely high bandwidth wide area network to
Video hub offices (VHO)
The WAN and VHOs constitute the core network. WAN is the backbone of the core network and
uses high bandwidth IP transport formats such as gigabit Ethernet or ATM to connect the VHO
Site.
The multicast streams enter the video hub via the WAN. The video hub may also have local
receivers, which offer additional local content.
Local content is processed much like national content, possibly getting digitally encoded,
transcoded or turned around.
Each region will have its own unique channel lineup, which would include the numerous
multicast broadcast channels and VOD channels.
IPTV data then travels the VHO (core network ) to (access network) video central offices (VCO)
over a high bandwidth network.
Each VCO will route data to video network access interfaces.

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In the Telco case, the DSLAMs route the desired video data from the network over a twisted pair
DSL line to the consumer’s home

4.1 Content/Headend

The equipments used in the Headend is similar to digital cable television headends.
But equipments are based on PC server platforms used for most web application rather than
cable technology
The following functions of Content/Headend
o Content Reception: Consists of components that receive both analog and digital video
feeds either directly from the content provider or from a content aggregation facility
such as provided by the National Digital Television Center
o Signal Conditioning: Consists of signal processing equipment designed to enhance the
video signals coming in from the content reception equipment. This might include
integrated receiver decoders (IRDs), noise reduction, and digital video processing
products
o Content Preparation: The content encoders prepare the video streams in a format that
is suitable for IP transport and reception by an IP STB. This will consist of either digitizing
(and encoding) analog content or transcoding digital video content into the format used
by the codec employed by the IPTV system
o Digital rights management: As part of the encoding process, the encryption component
of the digital rights management (DRM) system encrypts the content and wraps it in a
DRM container to prevent unauthorized usage of content.
o DRM License Server: Manages, authorizes and reports content transactions as well as
manages the encryption of content of data. The server verifies content license requests
and issues content licenses to trusted, authenticated DRM end user clients.
o VOD Servers: VOD or Media Servers are optimized to serve multiple streams
simultaneously to clients. Content may be stored on the server for multicast (a single
stream sent simultaneously to multiple viewers) to an ensemble of viewers at a fixed

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time, or for unicast to individual users in a VOD system. Depending on the system
architecture, VOD servers can reside either in the super headend or in the core network
(VHO).
o Application Server: The application servers can vary greatly between IPTV deployments,
depending on features, functionalities, scalability, middleware, system control, and so
on. Application servers could include electronic program guide (EPG), Conditional Access
System (CAS)/DRM servers–entitlement, navigation/ middleware server, IPTV portal or
walled garden, e-mail, and remote diagnostics. Much like VOD servers, application
servers can reside either in the super headend or in the core network (VHO).
o Billing system. The subscriber database contains subscriber specific information with
respect to the level of service the user is authorized to use and other information to be
used for billing
o Gateway/load balancer. Provides load balancing and session control and sends the data
stream to the network interface.

4.2 Core Network:

Core network consists of fiber backbone (WAN) and various VHOs.
The core network gets data from the super headend (content/headend) and delivers
data to the access network.
The primary purpose of the core network is to provide adequate bandwidth for all of the
data and video network traffic between service areas and the national content (super
headend) source
The core network also provides the capability for insertion of local content (including
emergency alert system, or EAS) into each service area.

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4.3 Telco Access Network

Access network provides the network link core network to consumer homes.
It provides a network translation from the switched network to whichever access
technology the network the operator uses to get data into customer homes as well as
the last critical step in connecting homes to the overall network. The access network
always called “Last mile”.

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5 Video Streaming Protocols

Multimedia and Networking is the core to IPTV. Multimedia application utilizes the various media types
such as text, graphics, animations, audio, and video.

The task of streaming and decoding digital audio and video over IP network provides a new set of
challenges. The video streaming protocol mainly addresses the

Quality of Service
Time Management
Session Management
VOD trick mode support

Various Streaming Media Protocols:

FTP (File Transfer Protocol)

HTTP (Hyper text transport Protocol)
RTP (Real Time Protocol)
RTCP (Real Time Control Protocol)
RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol)

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6 References
IPTV Crash Course by Joseph weber and Tom Newberry.

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