Managing Cable TV Migration to IP – Part 1

Series Introduction: Market Drivers and Tech Challenges

Advanced Digital Cable Leadership Series IP Migration strategies for Cable Video

Part 1 Series Introduction: Market Drivers and Technical Challenges

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Table of Contents Introduction The Market Imperative to Cable IP Migration

The Impact of Web-Based Video Consumption Cord Cutters and Non-Subscribers Content Owner Strategies Telecommunications and Mobility Operators

Putting IP to Use in New Service Models New Revenue Opportunities Shaping an IP Migration Strategy

Network Migration Service Migration Quality Assurance Advanced Advertising OSS and Organizational Support Assessing the Business Case

Conclusion

The capabilities, system requirements and/or compatibility with third-party products described herein are subject to change without notice. ARRIS and the ARRIS logo are trademarks of ARRIS Group, Inc. Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to either the entities claiming the marks and the names of their products. ARRIS disclaims proprietary interest in the marks and names of others. © Copyright 2011 ARRIS Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of ARRIS Group, Inc. is strictly forbidden. For more information, contact ARRIS.

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Introduction The question of how MSOs can best deploy Internet Protocol technology to remain competitive in a fast-changing subscription television marketplace represents one of the greatest strategic planning challenges cable operators have ever faced.

Consumption of entertainment video has moved beyond the TV set to PCs, tablets and smartphones, leaving operators no choice but to make sure their services can be accessed by subscribers wherever they are, which necessarily requires use of IP technology. But while there’s growing consensus among operators worldwide that this must be done, there’s much confusion and debate over how and when. MSO's need to debate the timing of investments in IP, CapEx vs. OpEx, the extent to which linear content must be included in the IP flow, what the cost-benefit justifications are, what types of migration strategies to pursue, whether IP-based infrastructure can meet the performance requirements of cable TV and much else. Never before have MSOs faced the magnitude of these difficult decisions while under such tough competitive pressures and investment community scrutiny.

The implementation of IP distribution capabilities suited to the quality, security and performance requirements of premium content touches every aspect of network operations, from the back office to the headend to the core and distribution plant to the customer premises. Complicating matters, operators must devise network

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migration strategies that meet short-term and long-term goals alike, which means technology choices must be orchestrated to address needs as they arise in the most cost effective way possible while avoiding incremental steps that lead to dead ends and stranded capital.

Consequently, all parties to the decision-making process must have sufficient grasp of the technology issues to ensure that nuances of great strategic importance are not overlooked as a result of a failure to take into account all the business implications of any given technology choice. A planning process that engages all stakeholders will ensure that capital outlays are calibrated to timely introduction of the service enhancements that are essential to retaining and acquiring subscribers while avoiding aggressive spending that could hinder financial performance.

This document serves as the introduction to the ARRIS Advanced Digital Cable Leadership Series on IP Migration Strategies for Cable Video - a set of documents that ARRIS has produced to provide all executives who have a role in the IP migration decision-making process an in-depth review of the technology options and the cost-benefit tradeoffs associated with various migration strategies as they relate to meeting various service goals. The purpose here is not to advocate any one strategy or any one set of vendor solutions but rather to offer a clear and comprehensive discussion of the business and technology issues that must be weighed as each company determines a strategy best suited to its needs.

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Many suppliers, ARRIS included, offer end-to-end solutions which, with little participation by other vendors, could serve the IP migration needs of any MSO. However, we believe that operators are best served by pursuing strategies that take a best-of-breed modular approach to putting all the components together, thereby avoiding the one-size-fits-all solutions that characterized past network evolutions in both cable TV and telco IPTV. The ability to take an open, modular approach to IP migration requires that management and staff be well versed in the very different approaches to cable TV network designs and functionalities associated with IP technology as well as support from suppliers deeply steeped in IP who have the vision, experience and open mindedness to help them work across multiple vendors to achieve the best possible outcome. In so doing, they can be assured they will be able to create an IP cable TV network which in every respect is as robust as the legacy digital cable platform but far more cost effective operationally and far better suited to the service requirements of the evolving marketplace.

The Market Imperative to Cable IP Migration Several market forces now in play dictate a move to IP-based delivery of cable TV content. While cable operators are well positioned to introduce IP-based premium content incrementally, starting with the TV Everywhere strategies that are widely in play over broadband, ultimately the consumer-driven trend lines point to a time when all cable TV services, including linear as well as on demand, will be delivered in IP mode. These include:

the increasing rate of Web-based entertainment video consumption, which is rising rapidly across all broadband users but is especially significant among young people;

the emergence of handheld and tablet devices, which together with wireless-connected laptops and netbooks, are fueling consumer demand for access to entertainment content anywhere, anytime;

the moves on the part of cable TV programmers and studios to leverage over-the-top platforms to distribute ever more premium content at low or no cost;

steps on the part of cable competitors toward use of IP technology to deliver new services and applications that cannot be matched by legacy cable TV platforms.

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The Impact of Web-Based Video Consumption There has been a lot of debate over how big an impact the viewing of Web video will have on TV viewing. So far, as has been noted repeatedly in various cable forums, the amount of time people with broadband connections spend watching Internet video pales in comparison to the hours spent watching traditional TV programming, although just how big a disparity there is remains controversial. Nielsen’s recent State of the Media Report, covering the first half of 2010, said the average person in the U.S. spends about 143 hours per month watching TV(1). In its most recent tracking of Internet video consumption, the ratings company said the average user spent four and a half hours watching Internet video in January, 2011, marking a 44.5 percent jump over January 2010 (2). But comScore, which specializes in reporting on Internet traffic, said the average time spent viewing Internet video was topping 14 and a half hours per month (3).

Figure 1: Traditional vs Online Viewing

Whichever report is closer to the truth, the gap between TV and Internet video consumption is huge. But the trend suggests the gap will narrow quickly, especially as penetration of connected TVs, tablets and smartphones increases in the months and years ahead. Indeed, according to an annual global traffic survey produced by Sandvine, a provider of Internet traffic management tools, real-time entertainment (streamed video and music) was the largest contributor to data consumption on both fixed and mobile access networks and registered 42.7% of fixed peak-hour traffic in North America last year compared to 29.7% a year earlier (4). It accounted for 41.3% of mobile peak-hour traffic compared to 26.5% a year earlier.

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Figure 2: Internet Traffic Growth and Sources

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The important thing to remember in looking at this data is the fact that viewing of real time, long-form video, including premium content, has just begun to take hold. It is also interesting to note that as Web viewing has increased, the time consumers spend watching TV has not decreased. In fact, TV watching has increased slightly over the past year. However, with the emergence of more long-form viewing on the Web this could change. According to Nielsen, while YouTube’s supply of short-form, free video continues to dominate in the stream count among Web video sites in the U.S., by far the dominant provider, when it comes to time spent by viewers on a video site, is Netflix -- which saw usage jump 18% from an average of nine hours per month in December 2010 to 11 hours in January 2011. With over 20 million subscribers to its video-on-demand service, Netflix is now ranked fifth in total volume of video streams among all Internet sites and is by far the fastest growing site by this metric, with over 200 million streams in January 2011, representing a 38% increase from December 2010, according to Nielsen. YouTube, with nearly 8.5 billion streams, was down by 2.6% over the same timeframe. Perhaps most startling of all, Netflix alone now accounts for 30% of peak-hour broadband data traffic in North America, according to Sandvine.

Cord Cutters and Non-Subscribers In a presentation on the question of risks posed by over-the-top video to subscription service providers Credit Suisse analysts suggested in 2010 that low-to-middle income households with moderate TV viewing habits and recession-squeezed budgets were the most likely candidates for “cord cutting". In order to save money, theses families are willing to accept delayed access to favorite programs with reliance on off-air reception for their traditional broadcast TV channels. In a survey of 1,000 Netflix subscribers, Credit Suisse found that 17% of those users were using Netflix as a substitute for at least some pay TV services, ranking them as “cord shavers” if not cutters. While all-out cord cutting and cord shaving may not add up to a huge proportion of cable and other pay TV subscribers today, the long term impact of such trends on distributors’ bottom lines could be “highly negative,” the Credit Suisse analysts said. Such perspectives emanating from investment analysts, long before any significant effects are tabulated, can have serious consequences to the enterprise value of cable operators if they are not perceived as taking steps to counter the risks.

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Perhaps even more important than the threat of cord cutting is the need to take steps that will draw new, first-time, subscribers to cable. A younger generation of users who have grown accustomed to getting their entertainment from the Internet will be more likely to subscribe to cable TV services if those services are accessible as Web content from handhelds, PCs and tablets as well as connected TVs, none of which require a traditional cable set-top box.

Content Owner Strategies Given how important carriage fees are to their bottom lines, it is no surprise that representatives of leading cable networks and motion picture studios have repeatedly affirmed their commitment to maintaining the high value of cable TV service to consumers. But, at the same time, they continue to experiment with various OTT models to determine where new revenue opportunities might be found through advertising or user payments. So far these forays into OTT have failed to demonstrate a path to sufficient revenue from these sources to justify cannibalizing the pay TV business. Yet content owners continue to push the envelope, expanding the quantity of premium programming available through various Web outlets, shortening the release windows and experimenting with new advertising and paid-access models. The unanswered question so far is whether the OTT prospects start to change once TV access to such content becomes widely available through penetration of connected TVs, game consoles and IP-enabled set-tops. For cable operators and programmers alike the opportunity to leverage OTT to maximum advantage comes with shared strategies that serve to provide users the convenience of OTT access in ways that are most conducive to preserving the premium subscription revenue streams. By demonstrating a commitment to delivering premium content in IP mode, cable operators will have leverage to work with programmers in devising new business models that serve their mutual interests to maximum effect. Indeed, to the extent that cable’s move to IP extends availability of live, time shifted, as well as on-demand programming to all devices, the pay TV industry will effectively eliminate any incentive programmers might have to supplant the pay TV distributor model with direct-to-consumer OTT models. Migration to IP is the path to locking in the traditional cable-programmer relationship for a long time to come.

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Telecommunications and Mobility Operators It’s also important to note that the same pressures to accommodate new consumer trends and service opportunities via IP that are impacting cable operators are affecting strategic planning and new service enhancements among cable’s competitors, especially the telcos, most of which are already operating in IPTV mode. The leading telcos’ ability to put IP technology to use to provide premium video services to mobile customers over 3G and 4G networks is an especially significant development. At this point, telcos are delivering mostly on-demand content from TV Everywhere-type portals to a growing list of portable and mobile devices. But it won’t be long before subscribers can get their favorite programs streamed live to these same devices. Needless to say, the availability of such content will serve to fuel demand for access to premium content over mobile, making it harder to sell pay TV subscriptions to new subscribers if they can’t benefit from place-shifted as well as time-shifted service access.

Putting IP to Use in New Service Models IP broadband-based TV Everywhere strategies, already in play among most major MSOs, are clearly an important step toward addressing changing demand trends, especially as MSOs extend the availability of premium content beyond PCs to all classes of devices, including tablets, smartphones and connected TVs. But, because TV Everywhere content is delivered as on-demand fare over subscribers’ unmanaged broadband connections, it does not afford operators the flexibility to use IP with distribution of live linear content or to exploit the benefits of IP-based features across all content categories and devices. A first step in this direction among North American operators, initiated by Comcast and Time Warner Cable at the outset of 2011, entails making live broadcast channels as well as on-demand content available over the IP connection. Both MSOs in announcing deals with Samsung and, in Time Warner Cable’s case, a deal with Sony for distribution of content to those manufacturers’ tablets and connected TVs, made clear they anticipated reaching similar agreements with other manufacturers. Such deals, requiring simulcasting of linear programming over IP, move MSOs beyond reliance on off-net TV Everywhere modes of on-demand distribution, thereby becoming a justification for opening an on-net, or managed network, migration path to IP TV distribution. At the same time, these strategies represent very incremental initial steps which, by virtue of the low penetration of the partner manufacturers’ connected TVs and tablets, require only very small bandwidth

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allocations to unicast flows compared to the large allocations that will eventually be needed when a significant share of subscribers must be served via IP. (As discussed in Part 2 of this series, bandwidth requirements of IP content will also be minimized with smaller user footprints to the extent that operators employ switched IP multicast technology, which works the same way as switched digital video does in the MPEG-2 domain.) By moving to an IP-based mode of delivering TV service, MSOs free themselves to create service packages that are more responsive to shifting demand at the low-income end, the high end and in between. Specifically, operators can:

serve all devices with a full slate of linear as well as on-demand programming;

create branded blends of service that incorporate multiple tiers of cable TV programming with managed OTT options;

offer universal navigation systems that integrate and prioritize OTT content with cable TV programming in a way that’s advantageous to operators and consumers alike;

exploit the interactive applications, widgets and other features emerging from a worldwide base of IP developers;

leverage these capabilities to introduce personalized interfaces with social networking, recommendations, preferred content listings and user-specific applications and advertising messages;

deploy IP media gateways to create whole-home DVR service through connectivity to low-cost IP set-tops, and connected TVs;

support whole-home media management for organizing and accessing photos, music and videos across all devices;

integrate “companion device” functionalities to use while viewing TV, such as TV navigation, complementary applications, in-depth advertising messages and expanded viewing options associated with specific programs;

exploit the H.264 compression capabilities of IP-compatible CPE so as to minimize the bandwidth pressures of supporting new, high-quality tiers of service, such as early-window superior-quality HD/3D home theater service or network-based PVR;

facilitate fully converged fixed and mobile services, including direct handoff between fixed and mobile access links as users enter and leave their premises.

By offering low-cost basic tiers with OTT options on a managed service that delivers a high-quality branded experience across all devices, operators can greatly enhance the appeal of subscription service to budget-constrained households compared to anything those consumers might obtain going the a la carte OTT route. For households with deeper pockets that want a full slate of cable TV programming, the

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combination of the OTT blended service with universal navigation and other features such as whole-home DVR and media-management, represents a next-generation service experience that should eliminate any thoughts of changing service providers or cord shaving.

New Revenue Opportunities While there’s nothing more important to operators’ ongoing success than retaining subscribers and drawing new ones, it’s also important to note that by employing IP technology toward those ends, operators also open a path to new revenue sources that might otherwise not be available. One of these is the aforementioned opportunity to leverage cost-saving benefits of IP to introduce new high-value services, including higher bandwidth speeds, whole-home DVR with managed home network service and “first-run” home theater service. These are especially important, because they open new revenue streams that provide a pay-as-you-go foundation for helping to fund the costs of IP migration. Another revenue opportunity stems from the benefits accruing to third parties such as OTT content providers or connected-device manufacturers who affiliate with cable operators. There is great value to an OTT supplier whose content gains exposure through an MSO’s blended service navigation system. For manufacturers, the availability of cable programming on their devices greatly enhances appeal to consumers. The biggest revenue opportunity might be in advertising, where the ability to extend IP-based content to all devices vastly expands the ad placement opportunities as the cable industry moves into new modes of advertising, such as interactive response, dynamic on-demand and addressability. The emergence of an integrated multi-device advertising placement environment in cable TV comes in tandem with a major shift in thinking on Madison Avenue, where leading agencies are pursuing ways to cost efficiently extend campaigns to touch all users via all of their access methods. Moving to a blended service paradigm with integration of select OTT content into the service mix will also extend the advertising opportunity into the Web video realm. Here, the ability to insert local ads sold by MSO sales forces into OTT content could be part of the deals struck with OTT suppliers in exchange for providing them exposure on the traditional and virtual cable programming guide.

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Figure 3: new Revenue Opportunities

Shaping an IP Migration Strategy Network Migration Several approaches to implementing IP TV delivery over the HFC plant are under consideration, each with its upsides and downsides. These include:

IP Home – Content is delivered over the traditional MPEG-2 transport infrastructure and then is encapsulated in IP packets for distribution to all devices within the home;

Overlay Network – Delivery to mobile devices is achieved via a separate video processing an management system form content delivered for traditional viewing. Those devices may be connected to the DOCSIS network;

Hybrid Distribution Network – Most content is delivered over MPEG-2 and encapsulated in IP at the home gateway while some content, possibly VOD and new high-tier services, is delivered as managed service over DOCSIS;

IP Video over DOCSIS – all content is delivered in IP over bonded DOCSIS channels, either leveraging the new dynamic upstream/downstream bandwidth management and other advanced capabilities of current-generation CMTSs or bypassing the CMTS with direct IP streams to network modules that attach DOCSIS MAC (media access control) frames to IP packets for delivery to any device in the home, including TVs & portables.

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Figure 4: Cable IP Video Alternatives

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Choosing a migration strategy hinges in part on what the MSO hopes to achieve early on with the introduction of IP-based TV, how urgent the need to get to all-IP operations is deemed to be, and the likely cost-benefit impact of any given approach on the achievement of near-term service and expense management goals. Equally important, the migration decision depends on the practical and technical issues attending each approach in the context of current operating conditions, including where in the life-cycle of equipment evolution and vendor selection any given MSO is with respect to back office operations, asset and data management, encoding and transcoding, video servers, CMTSs (cable modem termination systems), optical networking components and node configurations, edge QAMs (quadrature amplitude modulators), SDV (switched digital video) deployment, elimination of analog TV channels and migration of customer premises equipment. This means IP migration must be considered in the context of a wide range of network technologies and issues, including evolving bandwidth management options tied to SDV, optical transport, MPEG-4, increasing bonded-channel counts, the emergence of CMAP (Converged Media Access Platform) technology and much else. The document in this series entitled ARRIS Advanced Digital Cable Leadership Series on IP Migration Strategies for Cable Video Part 2: Preparing to Implement IP Cable TV Services serves as an in-depth overview that will help engineers and non-engineers alike to sort through the many issues that must be considered as they map their strategies.

Service Migration Hand in hand with choosing the network migration path, operators must sort through myriad issues related to service migration, starting with laying out service and feature goals and then identifying the technical requirements attending each on an end-to-end basis. Decisions must be made respecting:

asset management and workflow architectures; data management and storage platforms; content protection systems; the expansion of video control planes to encompass all devices; back office subscriber management, entitlement and billing systems network management and monitoring systems modes of adaptive streaming, transcoding and other aspects of content

processing and formatting; the role of content delivery networks (CDNs) and distributed storage in

distribution architectures.

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And, of course, there’s a great deal of discussion and evaluation that must be focused on the customer premises, including:

how media gateways play into the migration strategy; design and functionality issues attending gateways; how best to facilitate the tie-in between IP migration, gateways and the move

to whole-home DVR; the integration of applications on “companion devices” (tablets and

handhelds); the need to accommodate migration to ever more sophisticated IP-based

service enhancements such as home security, energy control and health-related applications over managed home networks.

An in-depth discussion of what must be decided to accommodate implementation of advanced IP services can be found in the document entitled ARRIS Advanced Digital Cable Leadership Series on IP Migration Strategies for Cable Video Part 2: Preparing to Implement IP Cable TV Services.

OSS and Organizational Support The technical elements of the network and business are not the only areas to be addressed during a transition to IP. The convergence of devices in the home will require the training of operations personnel to address services as a whole. Each new element and the transition from traditional MPEG/DVB delivery will require updates to skill sets throughout the support and operations departments of an organization. In addition, each architectural and transitional path has its own set of operational benefits and costs that must be considered when developing a plan. Operators that choose low-cost equipment paths without consideration for operational impacts risk spending far more year over year than necessary to support IP service delivery. This can easily lead to quality of experience issues for the subscriber, increasing churn, cord-cutting, and cord-shaving. The ARRIS Advanced Digital Cable Leadership Series on IP Migration Strategies for Cable Video Part 3: Systems, Processes and Components Essential to Meeting New Service Goals provides a comprehensive analysis of these topics.

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Advanced Advertising With the new revenue opportunities surrounding advanced advertising across all device environments, a new set of technical and planning issues comes into play. Along with shaping the business models attending such capabilities at both the national and local levels, cable operators must weigh new technical solutions tied to:

multi-platform campaign management; distribution of ads in multiple formats; device-specific approaches to dynamic placement; device-optimized messaging, including tie-ins between companion devices

and the TV. Operators will find a thorough review of these topics in the ARRIS Advanced Digital Cable Leadership Series on IP Migration Strategies for Cable Video Part 4: IP Migration Offers another Payoff from New Advertising Models.

Quality Assurance Another major area of planning in the IP migration process is related to all the processes and technologies that go into assuring a consistent, high level of customer experience in the complex converged service environment. This entails understanding and choosing new approaches to performance monitoring, preventive maintenance, work force management and customer service. It requires new approaches to customer relationship management from initial orders to provisioning, up-sells and trouble shooting. These aspects related to IP migration are discussed in the ARRIS Advanced Digital Cable Leadership Series on IP Migration Strategies for Cable Video Part 5: IP Cable TV Service Assurance.

Assessing the Business Case Finally, we conclude our series with the ARRIS Advanced Digital Cable Leadership Series on IP Migration Strategies for Cable Video Part 6: Business Case Analysis for IP Migration. Here we look at the cost/benefit tradeoffs of various scenarios, ranging from doing nothing to staged migration to accelerated migration to all-IP. What approaches to incremental rollouts of IP services might help extend cost allocations over longer periods? How does one calculate the ultimate cost of transition in the context of anticipated revenue gains, operational savings, equipment savings tied to converging triple-play services, and Capital Expenditure savings resulting from subscribers’ purchases of off-the-shelf IP devices?

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Conclusion There is no denying MSOs face a formidable challenge in developing strategies that will deliver what consumers want while assuring a smooth, cost-effective transition that creates a stable foundation for IP cable TV that’s every bit as solid and reliable as today’s digital cable platform. But with careful planning and full consideration of all goals and issues, operators can be assured the technology solutions and services expertise are available to take them where they need to go. Openness to new ideas, an understanding of how an IP-based cable TV platform works in contrast to legacy operations, and reliance on vendors who are devoted to working with other vendors in the interest of building the best possible solutions for their customers will lead to optimal solutions. Cable companies have every reason to believe that with their migration to IP they will be positioned to sustain their status as the leading providers of subscription TV and broadband services in the years ahead.

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References

(1) Nielsen Wire: State of the Media: TV Usage Trends, Q2 2010

http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/media_entertainment/state-of-the-media-tv-

usage-trends-q2-2010/

(2) Nielsen Wire: January 2011: Online Video Usage

http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/january-2011-online-video-usage-up-45/

(3) comScore Video Metrix Service http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2011/2/comScore_Releases_January_2011_U.S._Online_Video_Rankings

(4) Sandvine: Fall 2010 Global Internet Phenomena http://www.sandvine.com/news/global_broadband_trends.asp

(5) Wikipedia: www.wikipedia.org

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List of Acronyms

3D Three Dimensional Television – a system to give the illusion of depth to a video display

3G Networks Third generation of mobile systems also known as International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT-2000) specifications

4G Networks 4G is the short name for fourth-generation wireless, the ITU-R

organization specified the IMT-Advanced (International Mobile

Telecommunications Advanced) requirements for 4G standards

CapEx Capital expenditure

CDN Content delivery network—a collection of computers that cache data at various points in a networks for delivery to end users

CM Cable modem -- connects a computer or local network to broadband Internet service through the same cable that supplies cable television service

CMTS Cable modem termination system – a DOCSIS network device that manages and communicates with many Cable Modems

CPE Customer Premises Equipment—Communications equipment that resides in the customer's premises

DOCSIS Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification-- an international telecommunications standard that permits the transmission of internet protocol communications transfer over an existing Cable TV (CATV) system

DLNA Digital Living Network Alliance—a standard used by manufacturers of consumer electronics to allow entertainment devices within the home to share their content with each other across a home network

DTCP Digital Transmission Content Protection—a digital rights management (DRM) technology that aims to restrict "digital home" technologies including DVD players and televisions by encrypting interconnections between devices

DRM Digital rights management—a generic term for access control technologies that can be used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals to impose

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limitations on the usage of digital content and devices.

DVR Digital Video Recorder—a system or device that records video on a hard disk.

E-MTA Embedded-Multimedia Terminal Adapter—a device that combines a DOCSIS cable modem and analog telephone adapter.

Gnutella A popular peer-to-peer file sharing network on the Internet.

HD High-definition— refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition (SD) video, and most commonly involves display resolutions of 1,280×720 pixels

HE Headend – a location used to aggregate and distribute communications signals from/to an HFC network

HFC Hybrid fiber coaxial – A communications access network constructed from the economical use of optical fiber and electrical coaxial cable technologies

HSD High Speed Data—a subscriber service offering for access to the internet at speeds faster than previously offered with “dial up” modems.

HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol—a set of rules for transferring files (text, graphic images, sound, video, and other multimedia files) on the world wide web.

IP Internet protocol—the packet data protocol used for routing and carrying messages across the Internet and similar networks

IPTV Internet protocol television – television and/or video signals that are delivered to subscribers or viewers using internet protocol, the technology that is also used to access the internet. Typically associated with a wire line telecommunications company deployment of video services

iTunes iTunes is an audio playback program developed by Apple Computer used to import songs from CDs and other audio files from a hard drive. The program can also download songs (for a fee) from the iTunes Music Store.

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MAC Media Access Control - data communication protocol sub-layer

MGCP Media Gateway Control Protocol - architecture for controlling media gateways on Internet Protocol (IP) networks

MPEG Moving Picture Experts Group, is the name of a family of standards used for coding audio-visual information (e.g., movies, video, music) in a digital compressed format

MPEG-2 An earlier version of the MPEG standards

MPEG-4 A newer version of the MPEG standards

MSO Multi Systems Operator – Cable service providers with multiple locations and services

MTA Media Terminal Adaptor – A network device used to bridge signals from one protocol to another. Typically used in a cable network to terminate the DOCSIS network and supply telephone and Ethernet connections to the consumer.

OSS Operational support system—a set of programs that help a communications service provider monitor, control, analyze and manage a telephone or computer network

OTT Over-the-top—a general term for service that you use over a network that is not offered by that network operator. These services ride on top of the service you already get and don't require any business or technology affiliations with your network operator

P2P File Sharing Peer-to-peer file sharing – software that allows you to swap music, video and other files over the Internet.

PC Personal computer

PPStream a Chinese peer-to-peer streaming video network software. Since the target users are on the Chinese mainland, there is no official English version, and the vast majority of channels are from East Asia. PPStream adopts P2P streaming technology and supports high-volume traffic; several hundred thousand users can watch a live stream at 300-500 Kbps using only one server with a 5-10 Mbps connection

QAM Quadrature amplitude modulation - is both an analog and a digital modulation scheme used to convey two analog message signals, or two digital bit streams, for transmission of the information between two points

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RTMP Real Time Messaging Protocol was initially a proprietary protocol

developed by Macromedia for streaming audio, video and data over

the Internet, between a Flash player and a server. Macromedia is

now owned by Adobe, which has released the specification of the

protocol for public use.

RTP Real-Time Transport Protocol—an Internet protocol standard that specifies a way for programs to manage the real-time transmission of multimedia data over either unicast or multicast network services

SDV Switched digital video

SSL Secure Sockets Layer—a commonly-used protocol for managing the security of a message transmission on the Internet

TV Television

UI User interface—a program that controls a display for the user and that allows the user to interact with the system interface

VoD Video on demand—a service that allows viewers to select and watch programs or films without the need for a schedule

Table References (5)