TABLE OF CONTENTS:

S. NO.

TOPICS

Introduction

>About IPTV

Working

Technology

Protocols

>H.246 AVC

>IGMP

Main Building Blocks of IPTV

10

>Stream Server

10

>Video Server

10

>Level III Device

11

>DSLAM

12

>CPE(Customer Premises Equipment)

13

>STB

14

Advantages of IPTV

15

Disadvantages of IPTV

16

Conclusion

17

Bibliography

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PAGE NO.

Introduction
Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) is broadcast-quality television and/or video
signals that are delivered to subscribers or viewers using a broadband connection over
Internet Protocol (IP). While IP stands for Internet Protocol, it does not actually mean the
television content is streaming over the Internet. IP is simply the same method, protocol,
or technology that enables you to access the Internet and IP-delivered television content
is utilizing the same technology for delivery.
IPTV operates on a different premise than traditional satellite or cable television
in that only selected programming and on-demand content are delivered to the consumer.
With Satellite and cable, all channels are being pushed all the time to the consumer's
home rather than a per-selection basis. IPTV's ability to provide two-way communication
(you request a program from the TV guide and the program is delivered to you) offers
true interactivity for the customer with the environment. HDTV, movies, past TV shows,
and all other content can be distributed on demand and service providers can tailor the
requested content and advertising based on customer preference.

IPTV also offers such potential as on-demand video gaming and because it is
using your broadband connection, it can interact with other Internet services such
as Voice over IP (VoIP). Consumers may have caller ID displayed on their
television. The potential is truly unlimited.

History
In 1994,ABC's World News Now was the first television show to be broadcast
over the Internet, using the CU-SeeMe videoconferencing software. Internet radio
company AudioNet started the first continuous live webcasts with content from WFAATV in January, 1998 and KCTU-LP on January 10, 1998.[1] [2][3] In the past, this
technology has been restricted by low broadband penetration. In the coming years,
however, residential IPTV is expected to grow at a brisk pace 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. In the mean time, there are thousands of IPTV
installations within schools, corporations, and other institutions that do not require the use
of wide area connectivity.

Working

First things first: the venerable set-top box, on its way out in the cable world, will
make a resurgence in IPTV systems. The box will connect to the home DSL line and is
responsible for reassembling the packets into a coherent video stream and then decoding
the contents. Your computer could do the same job, but most people still don't have an
always-on PC sitting beside the TV, so the box will make a comeback. Where will the
box pull its picture from? To answer that question, let's start at the source.
Most video enters the system at the telco's national headend, where network
feeds are pulled from satellites and encoded if necessary (often in MPEG-2, though
H.264 and Windows Media are also possibilities). The video stream is broken up into IP
packets and dumped into the telco's core network, which is a massive IP network that
handles all sorts of other traffic (data, voice, etc.) in addition to the video. Here the
advantages of owning the entire network from stem to stern (as the telcos do) really come
into play, since quality of service (QoS) tools can prioritize the video traffic to prevent
delay or fragmentation of the signal. Without control of the network, this would be dicey,
since QoS requests are not often recognized between operators. With end-to-end control,
the telcos can guarantee enough bandwidth for their signal at all times, which is key to
providing the "just works" reliability consumers have come to expect from their
television sets.
The video streams are received by a local office, which has the job of getting
them out to the folks on the couch. This office is the place that local content (such as TV
stations, advertising, and video on demand) is added to the mix, but it's also the spot
where the IPTV middleware is housed. This software stack handles user authentication,
channel change requests, billing, VoD requests, etc.basically, all of the boring but
necessary infrastructure.
All the channels in the lineup are multicast from the national headend to local
offices at the same time, but at the local office, a bottleneck becomes apparent. That
bottleneck is the local DSL loop, which has nowhere near the capacity to stream all of the
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channels at once. Cable systems can do this, since their bandwidth can be in the
neighborhood of 4.5Gbps, but even the newest ADSL2+ technology tops out at around
25Mbps (and this speed drops quickly as distance from the DSLAM [DSL Access
Multiplier] grows).
So how do you send hundreds of channels out to an IPTV subscriber with a DSL
line? Simple: you only send a few at a time. When a user changes the channel on their
set-top box, the box does not "tune" a channel like a cable system. (There is in fact no
such thing as "tuning" anymorethe box is simply an IP receiver.) What happens instead
is that the box switches channels by using the IP Group Membership Protocol (IGMP) v2
to join a new multicast group. When the local office receives this request, it checks to
make sure that the user is authorized to view the new channel, then directs the routers in
the local office to add that particular user to the channel's distribution list. In this way,
only signals that are currently being watched are actually being sent from the local office
to the DSLAM and on to the user.
No matter how well-designed a network may be or how rigorous its QoS controls
are, there is always the possibility of errors creeping into the video stream. For unicast
streams, this is less of an issue; the set-top box can simply request that the server resend
lost or corrupted packets. With multicast streams, it is much more important to ensure
that the network is well-engineered from beginning to end, as the user's set-top box only
subscribes to the streamit can make no requests for additional information. To
overcome this problem, multicast streams incorporate a variety of error correction
measures such as forward error correction (FEC), in which redundant packets are
transmitted as part of the stream. Again, this is a case where owning the entire network is
important since it allows a company to do everything in its power to guarantee the safe
delivery of streams from one end of the network to the other without relying on third
parties or the public Internet.
Though multicast technology provides the answer to the problem of pumping the
same content out to millions of subscribers at the same time, it does not help with
features such as video on demand, which require a unique stream to the user's home. To
support VoD and other services, the local office can also generate a unicast stream that
targets a particular home and draws from the content on the local VoD server. This stream
is typically controlled by the Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP), which enables
DVD-style control over a multimedia stream and allows users to play, pause, and stop the
program they are watching.
The actual number of simultaneous video streams sent from the local office to the
consumer varies by network, but is rarely more than four. The reason is bandwidth. A
Windows Media-encoded stream, for instance, takes up 1.0 to 1.5Mbps for SDTV, which
is no problem; ten channels could be sent at once with bandwidth left over for voice and
data. But when HDTV enters the picture, it's a different story, and the 20-25Mbps
capacity of the line gets eaten up fast. At 1080i, HDTV bit rates using Windows Media
are in the 7 to 8 Mbps range (rates for H.264 are similar). A quick calculation tells you
that a couple of channels are all that can be supported.
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The bandwidth situation is even worse when you consider MPEG-2, which has
lower compression ratios. MPEG-2 streams will require almost twice the space (3.5 Mbps
for SDTV, 18-20 Mbps for HDTV), and the increased compression found in the newer
codecs is one reason that AT&T will not use MPEG-2 in the rollout of its IPTV service
dubbed "U-verse."
Simultaneous delivery of channels is necessary to keep IPTV competitive with
cable. Obviously, multiple streams are needed to support picture-in-picture, but they're
also needed by DVRs, which can record one show while a user is watching another. For
IPTV to become a viable whole-house solution, it will also need to support enough
simultaneous channels to allow televisions in different rooms to display different content,
and juggling resulting bandwidth issues is one of the trickiest parts of implementing an
IPTV network that will be attractive to consumers.

IPTV technology

As often occurs in markets based on rapidly evolving technologies, IPTV may be

able to leapfrog the standard cable offering in certain areas. However, because more
bandwidth is inherently available in data streams sent over coax than those that use
twisted-pair wiring, the IPTV industry faces significant challenges.
Bandwidth needs
The majority of IPTV transmission today uses MPEG2 encoding, which is a
"lossy" compression algorithm that encodes standard video (SDTV) into roughly 4Mbit/sec streams and HDTV into roughly 20-Mbit/sec streams. The size of HDTV
streams is problematic for wireline providers, as only the enhanced DSL technologies can
transfer a stream exceeding 10 Mbits/sec, and they suffer from limited reach and/or high
cost. This is pressing the IPTV providers to change their encoding to MPEG4, which
roughly doubles the compression ratio of MPEG2.
Using the combination of enhanced DSL and MPEG4 technologies, wireline
carriers can transmit a single HDTV stream with some bandwidth available for voice and
data. However, subscribers demand more than one HDTV channel, forcing wireline
carriers to press forward with aggressive, optics-based transmission schemes. The most
successful appears to be PON, an Ethernet-oriented scheme that provides roughly 100
Mbits/sec per subscriber and uses passive optical splitters. PON-based systems can
deliver several HDTV streams, broadband data, and several VoIP streams to each

subscriber. Wireline carriers can only be truly competitive with cable when these
networks are in place.
Whatever the technology used, the increase in bandwidth of IP traffic is
tremendous. Just a few households receiving HDTV channels have the same bandwidth
demand as a small city of DSL users--which profoundly affects existing equipment.

Loss sensitivity
MPEG4, typically encoded to comply with H.264, uses an extremely complex
distributed Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) to remove high-frequency components. It
also takes advantage of the limited color space that the human eye can perceive to further
remove information content. In addition, it uses motion prediction to estimate what the
forward frame will look like and only sends the differences between the actual frame and
the predicted frame forward. Since the only information that is sent is the difference
between the predicted frame and the actual frame, required bandwidth is reduced.
All of these are combined in a stream of key frames (I-frames) containing
complete images, each followed by one or more P-frames, each of which contains the
predicted frame data. Interspersed between the I and P frames are a short sequence of B
frames, which contain the differences between the I and P frames at different time points.
Because the complete image is refreshed at the I-frame rate, which typically occurs at
two frames per second, error magnification can be significant. Errors in the P and B
frames will persist for up to half a second, and I frame errors can cause errors for up to a
second.
Almost all of the video sent assumes that the previous frames were correct, which
is very different from SDTV in which the screen is refreshed more than 12 times per
second. In order to maintain perceived quality consistent with that of SDTV, IPTV must
be designed so that frames are not dropped.

PROTOCOLS

Protocol encoding for IPTV

The roundtrip delay of today's networks does not allow time for the
retransmission of errored or dropped frames. The video stream typically is encapsulated
using real-time transport protocol (RTP), encoded as described in the IETF standard, RFC
2250 or "RTP Payload Format for MPEG1/MPEG2 Video." This encapsulation places
key information, such as temporal references and frame-type information in the header,
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where it can be used to recover from errors and frame losses even before the video
decoding is performed. The RTP-encoded frames are transmitted using user datagram
protocol (UDP) encapsulation. UDP is extremely lightweight and does not provide any
correction for errors or losses. This differs from Internet traffic, which uses transmission
control protocol (TCP)/IP. The UDP/IP frames are transferred over the wireline providers'
networks using Ethernet equipment.
By using the same protocol stack as the Internet, wireline providers reap the benefit
of lower-cost datacom equipment. This benefit is increased through the use of multicast
IP protocols. By encoding a video stream as a multicast Ethernet frame, many subscribers
can share the same stream. The selection of which streams to send to which subscribers
now can be made using multicast control protocols, such as Internet group management
protocol (IGMP) at the edges and protocol independent multicast (PIM) at the core. This
has the tremendous benefit of allowing the demands of the users to dictate where the
video streams flow.
IPTV covers both live TV (multicasting) as well as stored video (Video on
Demand VOD). Video content is typically compressed using either a MPEG-2 or
a MPEG-4 codec and then sent in an MPEG2 Transport Stream delivered via IP
Multicast in case of live TV or via IP Unicast in case of Video on Demand.

In standards-based IPTV systems, the primary underlying protocols used for:

# Live TV is IGMP version .
# VOD is RTSP.

PROTOCOLS
H.264/MPEG-4 AVC Coding (advanced Video Coding)
Features:
H.264/MPEG-4 AVC cuts the bandwidth required to deliver full-screen DVDquality digital video to consumers up to 700 kbps that is suitable within the capabilities of
a 1.5 Mbps DSL loop. H.264 opens the door to new opportunities and reduces operating
and deployment costs when compared to MPEG-2.
There are several reasons:

H.264/MPEG-4 AVC addresses the needs for greater compression, leading to

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lower data rates, while maintaining broadcast quality for video-on-demand (VOD)
and high-definition television (HDTV) needs.

This advance has followed the evolution of video compression technique toward
higher quality and lower bandwidth.

More content can be transmitted on longer loops to more customers. Where

MPEG-2 could only reach customers in a 9,000 sq. ft service area per CO,
H.264/AVC video streams can reach customers in a 16,000 sq. ft service area per
CO.

In normal digital television MPEG-2, HD video requires around 30Mbit/s of

bandwidth, but newer compression technologies (such as MPEG-4 H.264) require
only 6-9Mbit/s, which is very achievable over existing DSL infrastructure.

H.264 compresses video more efficiently, cutting transmission costs over satellite
or terrestrial links.

H.264/MPEG-4 AVC enables reaching greater distances over DSL with more
content.

H.264/MPEG-4 AVC benefits bandwidth demand, storage requirement, and

download times H.264/MPEG-4 AVC addresses the needs for greater
compression, leading to lower data rates, while maintaining broadcast quality for
video-on-demand (VOD) and high-definition television needs.

H.264 meets the needs of both broadcast and the Internet by cutting the MPEG-2 bit
rates in about half for digital video transmission-without a loss in video quality.
This advance has followed the evolution of video compression science toward higher
quality and lower bandwidth, and it opens new doors for service providers operating over
the local copper loop infrastructure. Using H.264/MPEG-4 AVC and new H.264-enabling
technology platforms for encoding, transport, and decoding, Telcos and ISPs can boost
their average revenue per user (ARPU) with exciting and compelling new video-ondemand, HDTV distribution, and interactive TV services. The age of IPTV over DSL has
arrived.
IGMP

The Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) is the Internet protocol, part of
the Network Layer. IGMP is formally described in the Internet Engineering Task
Force (IETF) Request for Comments (RFC) 2236.
9

IGMP provides a way for an Internet computer to report its multicast group
membership to adjacent routers. Multicasting allows one computer on the Internet
to send content to multiple other computers that have identified themselves as
interested in receiving the originating computer's content.

Multicasting applications:

updating the address books of mobile computer users in the field

sending out company newsletters to a distribution list

"broadcasting" high-bandwidth programs of streaming video to an audience

IPTV Main Building Blocks

Streaming Server

Streaming server resides at the head- end. It can encode and stream live streams in
real-time and pre-encoded streams that are stored on the video server.

Streaming server transmits the streams to the switch or router which transfers
them over the backbone to the central/remote offices and from there to the end
user location.

10

Video Server

Video servers fulfill several purposes .For store and forward transmissions video
servers store digitally encoded content and stream it through level III devices via
operators networking infrastructure.
Video servers receive newly encoded digital content that is uploaded from the
streaming server.
Video servers also enable time shifted TV applications. Viewers at home can then
watch any program at a time convenient to them.

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Level III Device

A switch or router that supports Multicast transmission. The router or switch

resides at the head-end, interfacing with the network.

Another router or switch receives data at the central office and transmits either to
DSLAMS located there, or into end-user network.

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DSLAM

A DSLAM (Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer) is a network device,

usually at a telephone company central office, that receives signals from multiple
customer Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) connections and puts the signals on a
high-speed backbone line using multiplexing techniques.

Depending on the product, DSLAM multiplexers connect DSL lines with some
combination of asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), frame relay, or Internet
Protocol networks.

13

DSLAM enables a phone company to offer business or homes users the fastest
phone line technology (DSL) with the fastest backbone network technology
(ATM). The DSLAM (Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer) resides at the
central office, connecting xDSL subscribers to the backbone and subsequently to
the head-end.

When distributing TV over IP, the DSLAM should support multicast

transmission. If it doesnt, the switch or router at the central office has to replicate
each channel for each request. This can cause congestion at the DSLAM input
level. If the DSLAM supports multicast, it receives one stream for each channel
and replicates the stream for each end point.

CPE (Customer Premises Equipment)

The equipment located at the end-point that receives the TV/IP

stream. Usually the term CPE refers to the DSL modem.

The DSL modem receives the stream from the DSLAM or Level III device and
transfers it directly to the PC for display on the desktop or to the IP STB.
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Set-top Box (STB)

Gateway between TV set/PC-TV and NT (PSTN line, satellite or cable) Signal processing
receiving, decoding/decompressing
STB also accepts commands from the user and transmits these commands back to the
network, often through a back channel.

Functions - TV signal receiver, modem, game console, Web browser, e-mail capabilities,
video-conferencing, cable telephony

Components - Electronic Program Guide (EPG), CD ROM, DVD player etc.

Many STBs are able to communicate in real time with devices such as
camcorders, DVDs, CD players and music keyboards

Hardware

Data network interface

Decoder

Buffer

Synchronization hardware

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Types of STB
(1) Broadcast TV Set-top Boxes - (Thin Boxes)
More elementary level set-top box with no return channel (back-end). Some memory,
interface ports and some processing power.
(2) Enhanced TV Set-top Boxes - (Smart TV set-top box, Thick Boxes)
These have a return channel, usually through a phone line. Video on Demand, Near Video
on Demand, e-commerce, Internet browsing, e-mail communications and chat.
(3) Advanced Set-top Boxes - (Advanced digital Set-top boxes, Smart TV Set-top box,
Thick Boxes)
Like a PC -processors, memory and optional large hard-drives.
(4) All-in-one Set-top Boxes - (Integrated set top box, Super Box)
A fully integrated set-top box. Features could include everything from high-speed
Internet access to digital video recording to games and e-mail capacity.

Advantages of IPTV

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.

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, a method in which information can be sent to
multiple computers at the same time, with the newly released H.264
format thought to replace the older MPEG-2.

In standards-based IPTV systems, the primary underlying protocols used for IPTV are
IGMP version 2 for channel change signaling for live streaming

16

Disadvantages of IPTV
IPTV is sensitive to packet loss and delays if the streamed data is unreliable. IPTV has
strict minimum speed requirements in order to facilitate the right number of frames per
second to deliver moving pictures. This means that the limited connection
speed/bandwidth available for a large IPTV customer base can reduce the service quality
delivered.
Although a few countries have very high speed broadband-enabled populations, such as
South Korea with 6 million homes benefiting from a minimum connection speed of
100Mbit/s, in other countries (such as the UK) legacy networks struggle to provide 3-5
Mbit/s and so simultaneous provision to the home of TV channels, VOIP and Internet
access may not be viable. The last mile delivery for IPTV usually has a bandwidth
restriction that only allows a small number of simultaneous TV channel streams
typically from one to three to be delivered.
The same problem has also proved troublesome when attempting to stream IPTV across
wireless links within the home. Improvements in wireless technology are now starting to
provide equipment to solve the problem.

Due to the limitations of wireless, most IPTV service providers today use wired home
networking technologies instead of wireless technologies like 802.11. Service Providers
such as AT&T (which makes extensive use of wireline home networking as part of its UVerse IPTV service) have expressed support for the work done in this direction by ITUT, which has adopted Recommendation G.hn (also known as G.9960), which is a next
generation home networking standard that specifies a common PHY/MAC that can
operate over any home wiring (power lines, phone lines or coaxial cables)

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CONCLUSION

The basic aim behind seminar is to gain in depth knowledge about the topic on
which seminar is being presented. It imparts technical knowledge to the students who learn
from their presentation. They gain information on the latest technologies by seminar of
other students.
IPTV enables broadband service providers provide the triple play to users, open
opportunity to takeover TV market and earn money. On the other hand viewer will get
advanced and on demand entertainment.
An IPTV offers you a advanced multi channel high definition TV (HDTV) as well
as on demand entertainment. IPTV technology promises to give better and more contents
available, Because of two way connection between viewer and service provider will know
the views personal preferences and entertain them accordingly. IPTV Middleware providers
gives focus on making more content available to viewers, easy to use and portable
solutions.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Websites:

www.google.com
www.iptv.com

www.iptvparts.com

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