IP STREAMING AND BROADBAND, TOGETHER ON THE ROAD TO THE TWO-WAY IP HIGHWAY? Chris Dinallo Pace Micro Technology Americas Abstract “Much the way the Compact Disc and Internet has changed this planet forever, so will IP Today’s broadcast transport mechanisms Streaming.” C. Dinallo limit the services that can be offered to subscribers. The content itself must be manipulated (encrypted, multiplexed, IP STREAMING CRITICS modulated) in many stages before being sent down the cable. At the end of the cable, the set-top box needs special capabilities to Sure some will say that they have no use make that content usable to the subscriber. for Internet Protocol (IP) Streaming (also All this is done using costly, time-consuming commonly referred to as Streaming Media) proprietary techniques. Enter IP (Internet because broadcast technologies can do Protocol): an open standard transport everything they need. Plus, who’s to argue mechanism that allows operators to deliver providers have been delivering content to existing program content with little or no millions of users for over 50 years. Much the manipulation. In addition, IP streaming way the LP has been surpassed by the CD, IP allows operators to offer new and enhanced Streaming will too have its day. To value-added services to subscribers, such as understand why, one has to look deep into photo galleries, home movies, audio jukebox, the characteristics that cause a new email, advanced personal video recording technology to succeed. The CD didn’t put the (PVR), Web access, chat, gaming, Web- LP out to pasture just because it eliminated enabled programs, e-commerce/t-commerce, the poor quality of pops and hisses. It offered video on demand (VOD), subscription video much more. Value-adds like durability, on demand (SVOD), voice over IP (VoIP), portability, enhanced content (text & and streaming media over home networking. graphics), and yes good quality sound. Vinyl LP records just couldn’t possibly compete Attendees will learn the following from this with this new paradigm shift in listening session: technology. To understand if and how IP Streaming can flourish, let’s explore beyond the surface of all the benefits of what it ♦ Why is IP streaming a better alternative? brings. And to do justice for those hard-liners ♦ What will it take from a technology and still listening to their LPs, we’ll discuss the business standpoint to move toward IP? costs and challenges associated with this ♦ What can be done with IP streaming that technology that the network operators have to can’t be done today? ♦ deal with regardless if they are cable, Benefits to operators. satellite, terrestrial, or DSL providers. The ♦ Benefits to consumers/subscribers. focus of this paper will be on cable since it ♦ Deployment challenges. has the most investment in legacy transport networks. approach. Where the “bundle” is comprised WHY SWITCH TO ANOTHER of familiar needed services combined with TRANSPORT MECHANISM? the new enhanced services. To do this, the provider creates a “bundled service” in which Today’s broadcast transport mechanisms many of the provider’s standalone features constrain the services that can be offered to are combined into a package and offered to the subscribers by virtue of being mostly a the subscriber at a cheaper rate than if the one-way pipe of information. Audio and subscriber bought the same services video content flows downstream from the individually. Bundled services are a proven head-ends to all set-top receivers. It’s an all mechanism that achieves greater value across or none condition where each set-top receives many industries. Telephone Local Exchange the same data flow and is very restricted in Carriers (LECs) have been doing it with great how it can communicate back to the head- results for years. For example, some LECs ends. In addition, the content itself must be offer “premium” packages that include: Call manipulated (encrypted, multiplexed, Waiting, Caller ID, Caller ID w/ Name, Call modulated) in many stages before being sent Block, 3-Way Calling, Call Return, and Call downstream. Similarly, once downstream the Transfer. It not only provides a great value to cable the set-top receiver needs special the subscriber, but produces a substantial capabilities to make that content usable to the deterministic repeating revenue stream for subscriber. This is done using proprietary the provider, sometimes as much as 50% of techniques. And although this works fine for the basic service. broadcast services it does not address how to Providers want to leverage this same get custom services to specific set-top mechanism, albeit using services tailored to receivers. Nor does it leverage open their industry: Photo Galleries, Email, Web standards such as Internet-Protocol (IP) in Access, Chat, Web Enabled Programs, which the large development community SVOD (Subscription Video on Demand), could be leveraged to develop more enhanced VoIP (Voice over IP), and yes, IP Streaming services in a timely fashion. What we’re Media. IP can and has served all of these getting to is how IP Streaming can be utilized capabilities. Whether or not it makes fiscal to achieve the vital two-way interaction sense to have streaming media over the cable between the provider and a specific plant is yet to be determined. In addition, subscriber. because the Internet has become ubiquitous, It is this two-way interaction that is driving it makes good business sense to leverage that providers to get excited about IP Streaming. infrastructure as a transport mechanism for For it enables the additional revenue they can content delivery. create from their subscriber base. It allows Even as one decides IP Streaming is the right for new services to be deployed that have thing to do, there is still the question of how never been possible before. Services like; to do it and what transport to use. The sharing your digital photos and home movies obvious choice would be to encapsulate the over the broadband network. These are value- IP data packets into the MPEG-2 payloads adds that are new, novel, and provide a value for broadcast (known as IP over MPEG-2), to the subscriber. Yet, cool new concepts but doing so would not unleash the full don’t always succeed in the market without potential that IP Streaming can offer. To the proper business model to carry them merely broadcast IP data packets to all set- forward. top receivers does not help enhanced services Such enhanced value services are best that need to target specific set-tops. What’s introduced to market utilizing a bundled needed is a mechanism for direct point- (FTP), Usenet, and e-mail. These casting. Furthermore, MPEG-2 transport does applications implement one standard IP not offer a return communication path. Here transmission type named unicast. Unicast is again, enhanced services do not gain any the method used for two distinct endpoints to advantage over legacy mechanisms for fast communicate directly (i.e., point-to-point). two-way interaction. Thus, two criterias As IP routers became more powerful, become apparent: (1) point-cast for direct multicast transmission came into existence, addressing as opposed to broadcast which offered more efficient use of the transmission and (2) two-way shared bandwidth across the network (i.e., communication for interaction. Given this, a point-to-multipoint). Multicast enables a better approach is to use the IP over DOCSIS single endpoint to communicate with many transport layer. For DOCSIS addresses these endpoints in one transmission session. This is two criterias and much more. Refer to sidebar much the same as the way broadcast TV or on IP Streaming over DOCSIS to gain more radio arrives at everyone’s home or car insight into two-way communication. within the network’s geographic area, yet in a To understand what IP Streaming can digital medium. Applying this technique of offer, let’s briefly discuss how it came about multicast to transporting multimedia data and then we can explore how it enables the (audio, video, graphics, text, & data) now has advantages of two-way interaction. the added benefit of reaching many subscribers while not overloading the digital bandwidth available in the network. INTERNET PROTOCOL – IP Providers, especially cable operators, have a huge pipe to deliver multimedia data. The Internet was created by U.S. defense Furthermore, since their network topology and academic institutions to facilitate the was designed as an ‘edge’ network, IP sharing of data. It was conceived as a transmission gives them an advantage to computer-based system in the data efficiently transport their services to millions communication domain. Since then it has of subscribers in a dynamic and interactive evolved tremendously to affect everyone. fashion. The evolution was started by the Internet IP also has two transport delivery methods Engineering Task Force (IETF), an Internet that reside on top of the layered IP standards group responsible for the design architecture. The first is Transmission and upgrade of all Internet communication Control Protocol (TCP). TCP is connection- protocols, Internet Protocol (IP) standards based where the data packets are transported were designed to solve the issues of using guaranteed delivery approaches that communications between computers across have automatic retries. Providers can use this heterogeneous networks. These standards for situations where data corruption or total deal primarily with issues such as loss is not tolerated. TCP does have networking, routing, and congestion control associated overhead with it, so nothing is for and do so by specifying a means fordata to be free. The second transport method is User converted into smaller manageable sized data Datagram Protocol (UDP), which is packets. IP is also a layered architecture. connection-less. UDP is a highly efficient Residing on top of IP, many other powerful transfer mechanism of data packets that standards were created.