IPTV or HypeTV?

While there are substantial differences between IPTV and Internet video, they are commonly blended together and hyped as the next big driver for everything from advertising, entertainment and social communication to business solutions and more. However, there still are some lingering questions about whether the network is really ready to support these applications and services with the high quality expected by end users (or the consumer).

Let’s start with a high-level definition of both types of video. IPTV is a commercial service that delivers TV using an IP network, which in most cases today is not the public Internet. As IPTV is a paid-for service, which requires high QoS and very high bandwidth, it typically is delivered inside the service provider’s restricted network — also referred to as the “walled garden.” (See my recent blog on net neutrality, “Can the Internet Really Be Neutral?”). Internet video is all the other video that can be accessed using the public Internet. This typically is referred to as “over-the-top” content created and stored outside of the service provider’s network. Yet, it consumes massive amounts of capacity on the public Internet portion of the network and ultimately can lead to congestion and hence reduce the user’s (or consumer’s) service quality experience.

Comcast Corp. and AT&T Inc. are two of the first service providers experimenting with limiting download bandwidth primarily because of the growing number of video users. Content delivery networks (CDN), such as Akamai and Limelight, are in a quandary over how to deliver and charge for higher bandwidth content, such as HD television, over existing networks. This is likely why in Apple’s recent earnings call, Steve Jobs called the Internet-delivered television segment of the market a “hobby” that he expects to continue into 2009.

In addition to these business challenges, there are technical challenges as well. Recent testing done by the Multi-Service Forum (MSF) regarding IPTV shows there are still difficulties creating an interface between IPTV set-top boxes and the IMS infrastructure. A vast array of potential screen sizes requires video to be encoded and/or delivered at different bit rates for the same content. Pirated or illegal content needs to be monitored and removed from countless Web sites. There are issues with QoS implementations over ADSL2+ and VDSL networks that impact IPTV quality.

But beyond these challenges lies a tremendous opportunity. The demand for network video is increasing rapidly. According to Infonetics Research, the number of subscribers of IPTV services is expected to grow from roughly 23 million in 2008 to about 70 million in 2011. Add to this other video services such as mobile video, user-generated content (UGC) and Internet on-demand video. A report by Juniper Research (not associated with Juniper Networks) predicts the value of the UGC market will increase from nearly $1.1 billion in 2007 to more than $7.3 billion in 2013.

All this content will be delivered over multiservice networks, which will need to balance bandwidth constraints, QoS demands, and ever-expanding types of end devices used to view the content. As the major service providers already are discovering, they are forced to balance planning and offering their own video services against the requirement to carry video content from external sources. Further, as IPTV delivery networks grow in scale, the core of the network will need the ability to handle more multicasting. And finally, content will be delivered to several new types of IP-enabled devices, such as Ethernet-connected televisions being developed by vendors such as Samsung. These new TV sets will deliver larger and higher density pictures, which will put additional strain on the network.

It will be very interesting and exciting to see how the telecom industry will respond to these challenges and how service providers and equipment vendors will adapt the network infrastructure to take advantage of the business opportunities offered by IPTV and network-based video.

Luc Ceuppens is senior director, head of product marketing, High-End Systems Business unit at Juniper Networks (JNPR).

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