IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) is a system where a digital television service is delivered using Internet Protocol over a network infrastructure,

IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) is a system where a digital television service is delivered using Internet Protocol over a network infrastructure, which may include delivery by a broadband connection. A general definition of IPTV is television content that, instead of being delivered through traditional broadcast and cable formats, is received by the viewer through the technologies used for computer networks. For residential users, IPTV is often provided in conjunction with Video on Demand and may be bundled with Internet services such as Web access and VoIP. The commercial bundling of IPTV, VoIP and Internet access is referred to as "Triple Play" service (when these three are offered with mobility, the service is referred to as "Quadruple Play"). IPTV is typically supplied by a service provider using a closed network infrastructure. This closed network approach is in competition with the delivery of TV content over the public Internet, called Internet Television. In businesses, IPTV may be used to deliver television content over corporate LANs.








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.

The term IPTV first appeared in 1995 with the founding of Precept Software by Judith Estrin and Bill Carrico. Precept designed and built an internet video product named "IP/TV". IP/TV was an MBONE compatible Windows and Unix based application that moved single and multi-source audio/video traffic, ranging from low to DVD quality, using both unicast and IP multicast RTP/RTCP. The software was written primarily by Steve Casner, Karl Auerbach, and Cha Chee Kuan. Precept was acquired by Cisco Systems in 1998.[2] Cisco retains the "IP/TV" trademark.

Internet radio company AudioNet started the first continuous live webcasts with content from WFAA-TV in January, 1998 and KCTU-LP on January 10, 1998.

Kingston Communications, a regional telecommunications operator in UK, launched KIT (Kingston Interactive Television), an IPTV over DSL broadband interactive TV service in September 1999 after conducting various TV and VoD trials. The operator added additional VoD service in October 2001 with Yes TV, a provider VoD content. Kingston was one of the first companies in the world to introduce IPTV and IP VoD over ADSL.

In 2006, AT&T launched its U-Verse IPTV service, comprising a national head end and regional video-serving offices. AT&T offered over 300 channels in 11 cities with more to be added in 2007 and beyond. On March 2009, AT&T announced that U-verse had expanded to 100 or more High Definition channels in every U-Verse TV market. While using IP protocols, AT&T has built a private IP network exclusively for video transport.

In the coming years, however, residential IPTV is expected to grow at a brisk pace as broadband was available to more than 200 million households.....

Future
In the past, this technology has been restricted by low broadband penetration and by the relatively high cost of installing wiring capable of transporting IPTV content reliably in the customer's home. In the coming years, however, residential IPTV is expected to grow at a brisk pace as broadband was available to more than 200 million households worldwide in the year 2005, projected to grow to 400 million by the year 2010. 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.

Also, there is a growing number of IPTV installations within schools, universities, corporations and local institutions.


IPTV Regulation
Historically Broadcast TV has been regulated differently than Telecom and Internet. As IPTV allows TV and VOD to be transmitted over IP networks new regulatory issues arise.[8] Professor Eli M. Noam, highlights in his report " TV or Not TV: Three Screens, One Regulation?" some of the key challenges with sector specific regulation that is becoming obsolete due to convergence in this field. To find out more about the issues go to the Canadian Regulator and check out the report


Definition
It is important to note that historically there have been many different definitions of "IPTV" including elementary streams over IP networks, transport streams over IP networks and a number of proprietary systems. Although (in Mid 2007) it is premature to say that there is a full consensus of exactly what IPTV should mean, there is no doubt that the most widely used definition today is for single or multiple program transport streams (MPTS) which are sourced by the same network operator that owns or directly controls the "Final Mile" to the consumer's premises.[citation needed] This control over delivery enables a guaranteed quality of service, and also allows the service provider to offer an enhanced user experience such as better program guide, interactive services etc.

The official definition approved by the International Telecommunication Union focus group on IPTV (ITU-T FG IPTV) is as follows:
"IPTV is defined as multimedia services such as television/video/audio/text/graphics/data delivered over IP based networks managed to provide the required level of quality of service and experience, security, interactivity and reliability."

Markets major western countries and most developed economies have IPTV deployments, the world's leading markets for IPTV for now are France.......

Markets
While all major western countries and most developed economies have IPTV deployments, the world's leading markets for IPTV for now are France (led by Free, then Orange, then Neuf Cegetel; total of over 4 million subscriptions), South Korea (1.8 million subscriptions), Hong Kong, Japan, Italy, Spain, Belgium, China, Switzerland and Portugal. Services have also launched in Slovenia, Romania, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Scandinavia and, with two competing players, Iceland. The United Kingdom launched IPTV early and after a slow initial growth, in February 2009 BT announced that it had reached 398,000 subscribers to its BT Vision service. IPTV is just beginning to grow in Central and Eastern Europe, and now it is growing in South Asian countries such as Sri Lanka, Pakistan and especially India. but significant plans exist in countries such as Poland and Russia.

The first IPTV service to launch on the Chinese mainland sells under the "BesTV" brand and is currently available in the cities of Shanghai and Harbin.

IPTV and conventional satellite TV distribution have been seen as complementary technologies, they are likely to be increasingly used together

Although IPTV and conventional satellite TV distribution have been seen as complementary technologies, they are likely to be increasingly used together in hybrid IPTV networks that deliver the highest levels of performance and reliability. IPTV is largely agnostic to the transmission medium, and IP traffic is already routinely carried by satellite for Internet backbone trunking and corporate VSAT networks. The use of satellite to carry IP is fundamental to overcoming the greatest shortcoming of IPTV over terrestrial cables – the speed/bandwidth of the connection.

The copper twisted pair cabling that forms the last mile of the telephone/broadband network in many countries is not able to provide a sizeable proportion of the population with an IPTV service that matches even existing terrestrial or satellite digital TV distribution. For a competitive multi-channel TV service, a connection speed of 20Mbps is likely to be required, but unavailable to most potential customers . The increasing popularity of high definition TV (with twice the data of SD video) increases connection speed requirements, or limits IPTV service quality and connection eligibility, yet further.

However, satellites are capable of delivering in excess of 100Gbps via multi-spot beam technologies, making satellite a clear emerging technology for implementing IPTV networks. Satellite distribution can be included in an IPTV network architecture in several ways. Simplest to impliment is an IPTV-DTH architecture, in which hybrid DVB/broadband set-top boxes in subscriber homes integrate satellite and IP reception to give near-infinite bandwidth with return channel capabilities. In such a system, many live TV channels may be multicast via satellite (IP-encapsulated or as conventional DVB digital TV) with stored video-on-demand transmission via the broadband connection. Arqiva’s Satellite Media Solutions Division suggests “IPTV works best in a hybrid format. For example, you would use broadband to receive some content and satellite to receive other, such as live channels”.

An alternative approach is the IPTV version of the Headend in the Sky cable TV solution. Here, mutilple TV channels are distributed via satellite to the ISP or IPTV provider’s point of presence (POP) for IP-encapsulated distribution to individual subscribers as required by each subscriber.

This can provide a huge selection of channels to subscribers without overburdening Internet trunking to the POP, and enables an IPTV service to be offered to small or remote operators outside the reach of terrestrial high speed broadband connection. An example is a network combining fibre and satellite distribution via an SES New Skies satellite of 95 channels to Latin America and the Caribbean, operated by IPTV Americas.

While the future development of IPTV probably lies with a number of coexisting architectures and implementations, it’s clear that broadcasting of high bandwidth applications such as IPTV is accomplished more efficiently and cost-effectively using satellite and it’s predicted that the majority of global IPTV growth will be fuelled by hybrid networks.

” flowing into the home. A switched IP network works differently. Content remains in the network, and only the content the customer selects is sent into the customer’s home. That frees up bandwidth, and the customer’s choice is less restricted by the size of the “pipe” into the home. This also implies that the customer's privacy could be compromised to a greater extent than is possible with traditional TV or satellite networks. It may also provide a means to hack into, or at least disrupt (see Denial of Service) the private network.

A telco IPTV service is usually delivered over a complex and investment heavy walled garden network, which is carefully engineered to ensure bandwidth

A telco IPTV service is usually delivered over a complex and investment heavy walled garden network, which is carefully engineered to ensure bandwidth efficient delivery of vast amounts of multicast video traffic. The higher network quality also enables easy delivery of high quality SD or HD TV content to subscribers’ homes. This makes IPTV by default the preferred delivery platform for premium content. However the investment for a telco to build an end-to-end IPTV service can be substantial.

By contrast "Internet TV" generally refers to transport streams sent over IP networks (normally the Internet) from outside the network that connects to the users premises. An Internet TV provider has no control over the final delivery and so broadcasts on a "best effort" basis. Elementary streams over IP networks and proprietary variants as used by websites such as YouTube are now rarely considered to be IPTV services.

Compared to telco IPTV, Internet TV is a quick-to-market and relatively low investment service. Internet TV rides on existing infrastructure including broadband, ADSL, Wi-Fi, cable and satellite which makes it a valuable tool for a wide variety of service providers and content owners looking for new revenue streams. However, due to the fact that IPTV is always delivered over low cost IP STBs, which have limited computing power, the capability for IPTV operators to provide diverse multimedia services is limited. This is where Internet TV has an advantage as it is delivered to a subscriber's (generally) powerful PC.

The relative ease of establishing an Internet TV service seems at first a threat to telco IPTV operators’ multimillion dollar investment, but both services do not necessarily compete for the same customers and there are some synergies between the two such as a common technology platform in the form of web-based technologies for content storage and delivery.

Broadcast IPTV has two major architecture forms: free and fee based. As of June 2006, there are over 1,300 free IPTV sources available.[12] This sector is growing rapidly and major television broadcasters worldwide are transmitting their broadcast signal over the Internet. These free IPTV sources require only an Internet connection and an Internet enabled device such as a personal computer, HDTV connected to a computer or even a 3G cell/mobile phone to watch the IPTV content. Various Web portals offer access to these free IPTV sources. Some cite the ad-sponsored availability of TV series such as Lost as indicators that IPTV will become more prevalent.

Because IPTV uses standard networking protocols, it promises lower costs for operators and lower prices for users. Using set-top boxes with broadband Internet connections, video can be streamed to households more efficiently than current coaxial cable. Home networks based on standards such as G.hn can be used to deliver IPTV content to any set-top box in a home, without having to install new Ethernet wires and without relying on technologies like 802.11, which are not optimized for reliable delivery of video streams. ISPs are upgrading their networks to bring higher speeds and to allow multiple High Definition TV channels.

IPTV uses a two-way digital broadcast signal sent through a switched telephone or cable network by way of a broadband connection and a set-top box programmed with software (much like a cable or DSS box) that can handle viewer requests to access to many available media sources.

Local IPTV, as used by businesses for Audio Visual AV distribution on their company networks is typically based on a mixture of: a) Conventional TV reception equipment and IPTV encoders b) IPTV Gateways that take broadcast MPEG channels and IP wrap them to create multicast streams.

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Watch Now Architecture of a Video Server Network

World Wide Internet TV

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Architecture of a Video Server Network

Depending on the network architecture of the Service Provider, there are two main types of Video Server architectures that can be considered for IPTV deployment, Centralized, and Distributed.

The Centralized Architecture model is a relatively simple and easy to manage solution. For example, as all contents are stored in Centralized servers, it does not require a comprehensive content distribution system. Centralized Architecture is generally good for a network that provides relatively small VOD service deployment, has adequate core and edge bandwidth and has an efficient Content Delivery Network (CDN).

A Distributed Architecture is just as scalable as the Centralized model, however it has bandwidth usage advantages and inherent system management features that are essential for managing a larger server network. Operators who plan to deploy a relatively large system should therefore consider implementing a Distributed Architecture model right from the start. Distributed Architecture requires intelligent and sophisticated content distribution technologies to augment effective delivery of multimedia contents over service provider's network.

Key Areas of an End-to-End IPTV Technology Solution

When considering deploying a telco IPTV service, understanding the technical implications of delivering the solution should be of paramount importance. Within the overall technical parameters of an IPTV service rollout, there are four key areas that need to be addressed to ensure a robust and scalable service delivery: content distribution, middleware, transport infrastructure and customer premise equipment.

The content distribution module contains live encoding platforms, video file repository and IPTV video servers which are the key elements enabling video feeds for an IPTV service.

In general, content distribution (in the headend[disambiguation needed]), processing and adaptation are all part of the functions of a TV headend.

While the live video encoder and IPTV video server are conceptually considered to be part of the TV [headend], they not necessarily need to be placed at the same physical location. Multicast video sources are usually located at the top level of the core network for better bandwidth efficiency, whereas unicast IPTV video sources are commonly installed at the local PoP level to minimize core bandwidth usage.