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White Paper

April 2007

Harmonic's On-Demand Delivery Platform

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White Paper Harmonic's On-Demand Delivery Platform

Background

Consumer reaction to the convenience of watching television programming free of pre-scheduled time restrictions is

driving profound changes in the technology platforms employed by cable operators and other providers in the competitive

TV services marketplace.

Wide adoption of DVR-based time shifting combined with the growing abundance of Internet-delivered TV programming

has led consumers to increasingly expect immediate access to a vast range of entertainment options at the click of a button.

In response, TV service providers are maximizing their ability to flexibly transition to ever more on-demand content by

evolving their distribution platforms away from distinct infrastructures for broadcast and on-demand programming.

So far, the most significant technological change sparked by the on-demand television revolution has been the

implementation of IP-based networks for video delivery, which cable operators initially utilized for launching first-

generation video-on-demand (VOD) services. Today both broadcast and on-demand services are running over core IP

networks, and, in the case of telephone companies, IPTV has moved IP-based distribution all the way to the home.

But while IP networks have become the de-facto standard for both broadcast and on-demand video networks, the historical

separation between suppliers of video delivery systems for broadcast and on-demand services has persisted – until now.

Harmonic, a leader in cable TV headend solutions for many years, has bridged the gap by offering the complete platform

service providers need to deliver programming in whatever mode they choose.

It’s clear that operators can no longer be restricted by the old distinctions between broadcast and on-demand technology

providers. We now are experiencing the rise of new and advanced on-demand services based on live broadcast TV content

such as ‘Start Over’, ‘Look Back’ and full Network PVR. As the anytime, anywhere viewing trend continues to evolve, the line

between broadcast and on-demand services will blur even farther.

Harmonic’s new video delivery framework takes advantage of all the components residing within a headend to provide the

optimal broadcast and on-demand service.

Control Plane and Data Plane

Service providers must put together a comprehensive system of components to create a flexible, scalable on-demand

video delivery platform. As complex as it may seem, the on-demand platform is essentially based on two main layers – the

Data Plane and the Control Plane (see Figure 1):

• Data Plane – represents the video aware components on which the video is delivered. There are five

stages of video processing for the on-demand platform:

– Content Preparation – Preparation of on-demand media.

– Content Ingest – The process of ingesting on-demand media into the video delivery

platform.

– Content Distribution – The means by which content is distributed across servers within the

video network in response to consumers’ requests for on-demand content.

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– Delivery – The means by which on-demand content is delivered from the video equipment in

response to each customer’s order.

– Edge Access – The infrastructure that governs how the on-demand service traffic is distributed

across the access network to the home.

• Control Plane – represents the back office and business management system of the on-demand

platform. It encompasses all business-related components of the system, including content security,

billing, subscriber management and session management.

Figure 1. Data Plane vs. Control Plane

StagingProcessor

Acquisition+ Ingest

IntelligentContent

Distribution

OfflineEncoding

VideoServers

CAS

Data Plane(Harmonic)

ControlPlane

Billing

Ad CampaignManagement

BMS/Middleware

EdgeProcessingPlatforms

HFC/DSL/FTT

Harmonic’s focus over the years has always been on the Data Plane, i.e. the video delivery components, and this focus

continues to be relevant for our next-generation on-demand platform. Harmonic has a full offering encompassing all the

necessary components for the Data Plane of the on-demand video network as displayed in Figure 2 and described below:

Figure 2. Harmonic’s End to End On-Demand Delivery Platform

S A T

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StreamLiner®

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Armada®Ingest Gateway™

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• Content Preparation – For offline content preparation Harmonic’s portfolio includes the CLEARcut™ offline Encoding

studio, which utilizes Harmonic’s award winning DiviCom® Electra™ Encoders to achieve best video quality and

minimal storage size. For live content ingestion, the Electra and Ion™ encoders offer high-quality MPEG-2 and MPEG-4

AVC (H.264) video, while the ProStream™ 1000 stream processing platform with Mentor™ re-encoding technology is

the world’s only dense re-encoding solution for converting incoming VBR content to CBR without impacting the video

quality.

• Content Ingest – The Ingest Gateway is a simple and intuitive workflow system responsible for ingesting offline

content from catchers or encoding stations, processing metadata, interacting with conditional access systems (CAS)

and distributing the content to the on-demand servers. LIVEcut™ is a new addition to the Ingest solutions that offers

an operator the ability to schedule, manage and control the live content to be ingested into the on-demand servers.

• Content Distribution – Harmonic’s Armada® intelligent asset manager is the world’s most advanced content delivery

system. Leveraging years of research, it takes advantage of advanced algorithms for reactive distribution of content

based on ever-changing consumer behavior in various serving areas.

• Delivery – The StreamLiner® is an advanced video delivery software system that runs on off-the-shelf hardware from

server vendors such as IBM and HP. It is a highly scalable, flexible and reliable video server.

• Edge Access – Harmonic’s world-leading edge and access components for on-demand delivery include the NSG

family of edgeQAMs, the world’s most widely deployed edgeQAM, as well as a wide array of fiber optic and HFC

equipment.

Offline On-Demand Content Preparation

Growth in on-demand services is constantly increasing the demand for stored digital content. To meet this requirement,

operators need storage encoding stations that can encode content at low bit rates without sacrificing picture quality.

This requirement becomes ever more essential as the volume of on-demand content consumption increases. High-quality

content ensures subscribers are satisfied with their on-demand service offerings, while low bit rates maximize storage

capacity as well as the throughput capacity of the on-demand network.

Harmonic’s CLEARcut Storage Encoding Solution provides a complete system for creating high-quality, low bit-rate SD and

HD digital content for on-demand applications (Figure 3). The CLEARcut Storage Encoding Solution consists of CLEARcut

Studio software, pre-loaded on the CLEARcut Server, and a DiviCom SD or HD encoder. A user-friendly GUI and simple

workflows automate the control of a video tape recorder (VTR) or DVD player, and simplify the process of content creation

for operators.

CLEARcut uses standards-based Digital Program Insertion technology or VITC interfaces to control stream captures from

video tape players, DVD players, and live broadcast streams. The use of Harmonic’s award-winning encoders enables

operators to leverage over 15 years of compression experience to achieve essential broadcast quality at minimum bit rates.

The Harmonic encoder line used with CLEARcut incorporates a wide range of tools specifically tailored for on-demand

applications, including ‘Capped VBR,’ which results in a 25% decrease in file size without any loss in video quality.


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Recording Station

SDI Matrix

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Decoder

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MetaDataEngine

DeckControl

GOPControl

TaskEngine

MuiticastCapture

External API

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TCPSDI

RS422

SD/HDEncoder

Tape Deck

DVD Player

Figure 3. Architectural View of the CLEARcut Encoding Station

Because pre-compressed content is often not in the format required by the service provider for on-demand distribution,

CLEARcut also incorporates transcoding capabilities (Figure 4). MPEG-2 assets can be sent to the CLEARcut station for

transcoding from MPEG-2 to H.264 or re-encoding from MPEG-2 to MPEG-2.

Figure 4. Examples of CLEARcut Transcoding Applications

MPEG-2 Bit-Rate Re-Encoding from 6.0 Mbps to 3.75 Mbps

Decoder

Decoder

Decoder

MPEG-4HD Encoder

MPEG-4HD Encoder

MPEG-2HD Encoder

CCS Station

CCS Station

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MPEG-2 HD to H.264 HD Conversion

MPEG-2 SD to H.264 HD File Upconversion

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For editing purposes CLEARcut incorporates an advanced MPEG-2 and H.264 Editing and Trimming tool for fine tuning the

complete asset. For example, a common editing operation is the attachment of bumpers (trailer or leader) to prepared

assets. CLEARcut employs advanced stream processing tools which allow operators to attach any number of pre-encoded

bumpers to existing assets while retaining the asset’s MPEG compliance.

One further capability of CLEARcut is the ability to attach the appropriate metadata to a completed asset. The CLEARcut

Enhanced Metadata Editor provides the capability to create CableLabs-compliant metadata and associated files and

supports a wide range of additional standard and proprietary metadata for various on-demand systems, including the

Microsoft TV environment. The entry of metadata through the CLEARcut Metadata Editor is accomplished via formatted

GUI windows that guide the user through the entire process of creating the asset package (asset summary), title asset,

movie asset, still image asset and preview asset as defined in various metadata standards.

To summarize, the CLEARcut Encoding station is not merely a capture tool. It’s an advanced offline storage encoding

solution capable of ingesting content from multiple sources (tapes, DVDs, live and MPEG-2 content), manipulating the

content to appropriate format, editing it and attaching the required metadata. Altogether it serves as an ideal tool for

offline content preparation.

Real-Time On-Demand Content Preparation

The preparation of broadcast live channels for on-demand applications is often as challenging as offline content

preparation. Several key requirements for handling the incoming live content must be met in order to make it possible

for the on-demand platform to ingest and play it out properly. Harmonic is focused on developing content preparation

platforms well-suited for live on-demand service offerings. In the coming sections we’ll review the key challenges related

to real-time content ingest and the solutions available as part of the Harmonic On-Demand Platform.

Challenge # 1 - Incoming content is variable bit-rate (VBR)

Live content is often broadcast in VBR mode, allowing network operators to realize considerable bandwidth savings thanks

to statistical multiplexing techniques. In order to ingest the live VBR content into the on-demand platform operators must

convert the content into CBR mode. There are serious problems with traditional technologies that might be used to address

this challenge:

1. Rate-shaping – Based on re-quantization technology, rate-shaping is widely deployed for grooming

of incoming signals into a fixed bandwidth pipe. However, problems arise in converting content to

CBR when the source material peaks at high bit rates. The re-quantization technology is capable of

executing a significant reduction in bit rate, but the result is often severe macro blocking and video

degradation.

2. Re-Encoding – Re-encoding solves the VBR-to-CBR conversion challenge, but it requires a decoder and

an encoder for each channel, which makes the solution quite expensive.

To solve this challenge, Harmonic has introduced a new product tailored for VBR-to-CBR conversions (Figure 5). The

ProStream 1000 stream processing platform with Mentor re-encoding technology is a dense re-encoder solution capable

of full decode and re-encode of up to 32 SD channels in a single 1RU chassis while retaining superior video quality. There

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is no competitive platform in the market available today that can offer such density of decoding and encoding at single-

channel encoder quality levels. This world’s first capability is vital to successful implementation of Live TV on-demand

service offerings.

Figure 5. Sample Architecture of ProStream 1000 with Mentor Re-Encoding Technology

Challenge # 2 – Incoming content is not “on-demand friendly”

The second most common challenge with live content ingestion is that the incoming content is not “on-demand friendly.”

In other words, the Group of Pictures (GOP) encoding structure and other compression-related parameters are not in the

format required by the video servers to ingest and stream properly.

Harmonic has tackled this challenge in two ways:

1. Because the Mentor platform utilizes re-encoding technology, it can be used to control the GOP

structure of the broadcast stream as well as other parameters such as resolutions, making the streams

very “on-demand friendly.”

2. In instances where the content was prepared with Harmonic encoders, the operator has the ability to

configure the live broadcast encoders with “on-demand friendly” settings, which are made available

on all of Harmonic’s broadcast encoders.

Challenge # � – Incoming content is encrypted

If the live content being ingested is encrypted, it needs to be scrambled in a manner which ensures several portions of

the stream (specifically various MPEG headers) are left in the clear. This technology, also known as “selective encryption,”

enables on-demand servers to properly ingest the content while supporting trick-play capabilities.

Harmonic’s ProStream 1000 platform with ProCipher™ technology offers selective encryption technology for encryption in

both AES and DVB-CSA formats and can be used for preparing the incoming content properly. Therefore operators can use

the Harmonic ProStream 1000 upstream of the on-demand servers for both re-encoding and selective encryption, making

it the most ideal solution for live content preparation.

Video

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Prostream 1000 EdgeQAM

Core Network

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StreamingNetwork

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Another method of resolving this concern is encryption at the downstream edge device, i.e., the edgeQAM. Harmonic’s

NSG edgeQAM family incorporates advanced encryption technologies, including Motorola’s MediaCipher and DVB-CSA

algorithms, giving operators the ability to keep on-demand content in the clear until the final modulation stage.

Ingest Solutions

The Harmonic ingest solutions support both stream-based and file-based content ingest. These two ingest methods are

treated similarly in most respects. When content is initially submitted to an ingest server, advanced MPEG content processing

is performed to ensure the content accommodates the optimal on-demand format. Content is ingested through a variety

of standard file transfer mechanisms, including FTP-push, FTP-pull or live capture of UDP/MPEG-2 transport streams.

The Ingest solution incorporates three main components: (a) Ingest Data Path (b) Ingest Gateway (c) LIVEcut.

The following diagram illustrates the three main components within a network architecture

Figure 6. Ingest Flow of Offline and Real-Time Content


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Ingest Data Path

Harmonic’s Ingest Data Path (IDP) is a highly optimized software module used for ingestion of offline and real-time content.

The IDP can reside both on a StreamLiner server used for on-demand streaming applications as well as on a separate

hardware platform. By placing multiple Ingest Data Path systems together the Harmonic on-demand platform is capable

of real-time ingest of hundreds of simultaneous SD and HD channels in MPEG-2 or H.264.

The Ingest Data Path exposes a control scheduling interface for defining which channels to capture at what time and for

what application.

Ingest Gateway

The Harmonic Ingest Gateway (IGW) provides a single entry point for ingesting offline video assets into one or a cluster

of Harmonic StreamLiner server nodes in accord with CableLabs’ Asset Distribution Interface (ADI) standards. The Ingest

Gateway fully automates the workflow of asset ingest with no human intervention required in the entire asset ingest

process. Operators need not worry about the integration required for asset ingest in an ecosystem with equipment from

multiple vendors, because the entire asset ingest process is all automated by the Ingest Gateway.

In order to achieve this automated workflow process, the Ingest Gateway interfaces with all critical components and

manages all aspects of the asset ingest process:

• Ingest Data Path for ingestion of content

• Asset distribution service end-point devices, such as catchers

• Local content creation tools, such as CLEARcut

• CAS / DRM (conditional access / digital rights management) asset encryption systems

• Middleware / business management system (BMS)

The workflow followed by the IGW is quite simple. As an asset arrives the IGW reads its incoming metadata as well as pre-

defined business rules and builds a workflow process for the asset. It then requests the Ingest Data Path to fetch the asset

from the source catcher and pass it on to the CLEARcut for video processing (transcoding, concatenation of bumpers) and

from there to the offline DRM encryptor for encryption. Once these processes are complete the IGW instructs the IDP to

ingest the asset and transmit to the appropriate StreamLiner Video Server based on Armada’s distribution instructions.

When the IDP notifies the IGW the asset has completed ingestion, the IGW instructs the catcher to delete this asset and

notifies the middleware or BMS of the availability of the asset.

This process continues endlessly and can work with multiple catchers simultaneously, essentially creating a mass production

line for asset ingest.

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LIVEcut

The Harmonic LIVEcut software enables operators to define schedules of live captures. The schedules are then transferred

to the Ingest Data Path enabling the IDP to capture the appropriate programs. The input to the LIVEcut can be an Electronic

Program Guide (EPG) as well as a manually entered schedule (Figure 7).

Figure 7. Snapshot of LIVEcut User Interface for Definition of Live Content Captures

Content Distribution Within a Cluster

Harmonic’s on-demand content distribution solution leverages a well-honed understanding of optimal approaches to

orchestrating content placement across server clusters, so that resources are used with maximum efficiency as the volume

of on-demand content scales upward. With millions of VOD sessions deployed on Harmonic’s systems worldwide, usage

data have shown time and again that placing the most popular content at the edge of the network close to customers

is the optimal architectural solution for network planners. Statistics demonstrate that a small number of highly popular

titles generate more than 50% of the revenue, with the top 80-120 titles generating approximately 50% of the sessions

in any given time. This type of behavior encourages the placement of edge servers in local facilities and library servers in

regional/national facilities.

In the past, the content distribution challenge was addressed through efforts to accurately predict the popularity of

content. Predictive methods were successful when the amount of content was minimal and replacement cycles stretched

over long time periods. In today’s on-demand environment, with live content ingest and thousands of hours of content

to be distributed in very short timeframes, it’s no longer operationally feasible to rely on attempts to predict how popular

a given program will be at any given point in time within each specific region. The correct solution is a dynamic content

distribution method which takes into account network topology and reacts quickly to ever-changing consumer demand

patterns.

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Live Video

CLEARcut

StreamLinerLibrary Server

StreamLinerCluster Controller

IP Network

StreamLiner ClusterWorkstation

StreamLinerEdge Servers

StreamLinerEdge Servers

Armada RTApplication

Following years of research and development, Harmonic has developed a software platform that solves this problem,

Armada intelligent asset manager, which is used in conjunction with a clustered server architecture built on Harmonic’s

StreamLiner server software platform (Figure 8). StreamLiner is an optimized software architecture that turns standard IA

server hardware into specialized, high-performance video servers designed to support VOD, near video on-demand (nVOD),

network video recording (NVR), time-shifted broadcast television (TSTV), scheduled playout (such as barker channels), and

similar video record and streaming delivery services.

In an on-demand network multiple StreamLiners are placed together to operate in a logical grouping known as a StreamLiner

cluster. By connecting multiple StreamLiner nodes using an IP/GbE network it is possible to build a highly scalable solution

that can meet the most stringent and complex network needs. The architecture supports clusters consisting of hundreds

of decentralized StreamLiners, co-located servers dedicated to different service regions or any combination of distributed

and co-located equipment. Although StreamLiner is a peer-to-peer clustering solution, it does embrace notions of locality

and hierarchy. Several StreamLiner nodes may be co-located to serve the most popular titles to a particular city or district,

while other groups of StreamLiner nodes act as centralized library servers with high-capacity storage that can make the

entire content library available to all nodes within the cluster.

Designing a StreamLiner cluster also offers the advanced benefits of on-demand node virtualization. The virtual network

achieved within the cluster is the key to offering advanced capabilities such as high-end and quick-to-react load balancing

mechanisms as well as advanced failover solutions within the cluster. This ensures unparalleled reliability along with

maximum flexibility.

Orchestrating content distribution across the server network, Armada is fundamentally a resource allocation system

that adds dynamic, intelligent asset management and distribution through the process of node virtualization within the

StreamLiner cluster. Amanda constantly monitors asset usage patterns and dynamically triggers asset replication within

a cluster based on the usage pattern while taking into account the changing characteristics of network topology and

capability. The software uses actual customer demand data together with baseline business rules to allocate the existing

on-demand network resources to satisfy current and future consumer requests.

Figure 8. StreamLiner Cluster Architecture with Armada

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RAM storage is ideal for media assets requiring a high peak number of streams, but as demand lessens, it’s more economical

to store and stream those assets elsewhere, such as on SAS/SCSI drives. Even low-cost SATA storage can be effectively

utilized for assets with minimal views. Instead of struggling against an ever-changing demand curve, or limiting customer

choice, operators can use Armada to continuously and automatically monitor viewer behavior and make adjustments

in storage assignments accordingly. This ensures that every StreamLiner node is fully utilized with the right balance of

streaming capacity and storage space in relation to its local region and to the popularity of content at any given time.

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SCSI/SAS SATA

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Armada in combination with StreamLiner Cluster represents the industry’s most cost-efficient, performance-scalable video

delivery service platform. This achievement rests on the ability to optimize selection of RAM, SAS, SCSI and SATA storage

options for the specific demand curve of content in a given service area (Figure 9).

Figure 9. Content Demand Curve

StreamLiner Solution Overview

The StreamLiner product line at the heart of Harmonic’s on-demand video delivery platform represents the industry’s most

flexible and cost-effective video recording and streaming solution. StreamLiner on-demand software is optimized to turn

standard IA-based architecture servers from companies such as IBM and HP into high-end video on-demand severs. The

platform delivers the industry’s highest stream density with superior price, performance and feature advantages when

compared with proprietary hardware solutions.

Each StreamLiner node provides self-contained storage and streaming resources comprised of chassis, control processor,

RAM, direct-attached storage, storage expansion modules and network interfaces capable of serving thousands of

simultaneous streams. The modular design of the Harmonic product architecture solution allows it to scale from hundreds

of streams on a single server to millions of streams across tens of distributed server nodes.

StreamLiner Hardware Platform Overview

StreamLiner is available on a range of hardware platforms enabling operators a variety of selection options that can

be optimally designed to fit the needs of any on-demand network. Each StreamLiner platform incorporates a simple

configuration model. A base model is available with a given capacity of streaming throughput and storage. Expansion of

each hardware model is possible by simply plugging into the existing base model one or more expansion platforms.

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This capability to expand the capacity of an already deployed StreamLiner node gives operators optimal flexibility in

meeting growing capacity requirements. Operators can choose to either expand the capacity of existing nodes without

service interruption or expand the network by adding more StreamLiner nodes to an existing StreamLiner Cluster controlled

by Armada.

Figure 10 illustrates the simplicity of expanding StreamLiner models with expansion options:

Server Expansion

Figure 10. StreamLiner Server Expansion Options

StreamLiner can be deployed in a single server configuration with internal hard disk drive storage – for example, up to 1.5 TB capacity using 300 GB SAS disk drives.

StreamLiner server with a storage expansion chassis allows scaling both stream and storage capacity of the basic server platform. In these configurations, storage capacity can readily be expanded to a total of 4.5 TB with the addition of just a single SAS expansion chassis.

StreamLiner library server configurations are used for larger content storage requirements. This is achieved by interfacing multiple storage expansion chassis and their associated hard disk drives to a single server platform.

The basic building blocks of the StreamLiner platform are composed of base server models and expansion models:

StreamLiner Server Models Description

StreamLiner 2002 Minimal storage platform with high CPU processing capabilities used as the cluster management platform.

StreamLiner 2110 Small scale storage server with high streaming capacity. Targeted as a streaming server.

StreamLiner 2204 Medium scale storage server with low range streaming capacity. Targeted for small size installations.

StreamLiner 2206 Medium scale storage server with mid range streaming capacity. Targeted as a centralized library server.

StreamLiner 2210 Medium scale storage server with high streaming capacity. Targeted as both a streaming and library server.

StreamLiner 2304 High end storage server with low range streaming capacity. Targeted for installa-tions with a small subscriber base and a large content library.

StreamLiner 2306 High end storage server with mid range streaming capacity. This StreamLiner can store tens of thousands of hours with the appropriate expansion models. It is an ideal selection for centralized library servers.

StreamLiner 2308 High end storage server with high streaming capacity. This StreamLiner can store tens of thousands of hours with the appropriate expansion models. It is an ideal selection for centralized library servers.

StreamLiner 2916 Memory based server for high capacity streaming. Ideal as a streamer in a centralized or regional location.

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StreamLiner Expansion Models Description

StreamLiner X215 Offers 0.73 TB additional storage with high range streaming capacity.

StreamLiner X225 Offers 1.46 TB additional storage with high range streaming capacity.

StreamLiner X220 Offers 1.46 TB additional storage with mid range streaming capacity

StreamLiner X230 Offers 3 TB of additional storage with mid range streaming capacity.

StreamLiner Delivery Options

StreamLiner servers can deliver content using one of two methods. The first is the most commonly deployed method,

known as real-time streaming, which consists of streaming video over IP in UDP sessions. The second approach is known as

“‘trickle" or "download" VOD. In this approach, the StreamLiner uses xFTP and HTTP protocols to push the asset to a target

CPE platform such as a STB or a personal storage platform (i.e. PC).

This second method is often deployed by service providers who want to enhance their service offering with an on-demand

service but do not have the network infrastructure to ensure the quality of service required for real-time streaming. The

StreamLiner platform provides operators an upgrade path from trickle VOD to real-time streaming by allowing them to use

the same backend system when their networks are ready to support real-time streaming


Edge and Access

Harmonic’s introduction of the world’s first dense edgeQAM in 2001 paved the way for VOD services to become economical.

For its contribution Harmonic was awarded “biggest contributor the future of content delivery” in 2003. Since then

Harmonic’s Narrowcast Services Gateway™ (NSG) has been deployed by more operators than any other solution on the

market with millions of streams in operation world wide.

The NSG family of edgeQAMs represents the industry’s broadest line of Gigabit Ethernet/IP-enabled edge devices designed

for scalable Video-on-Demand (VOD) deployments in cable television networks. The compact and high density NSG serves

as a highly integrated digital video gateway that perform a variety of critical functions, including multiplexing, program

filtering and routing, conditional access scrambling, RF modulation and upconversion.

The NSG 9000 is a scalable edgeQAM system housed in a modular, 2-RU chassis that can scale to RF outputs of up to 72

simultaneous MPEG transport streams (Figure 11). The NSG accepts digital MPEG input through its gigabit Ethernet (GbE)

ports, and then directs the multimedia to different QAMs and upconverters to create the outgoing transport streams as

QAM-RF output signals. In addition to providing unparalleled output density, the NSG 9000 supports a variety of applications

besides VOD, including switched digital broadcast, broadcast television and modular CMTS as defined by DOCSIS 3.0.

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Figure 11. NSG 9000 Scalable EdgeQAM


In order to maximize scalability and flexibility, the NSG 9000 is designed as a completely modular system. The chassis is

fitted with a passive backplane, while all the processing and modulation functions are performed on retrievable modules.

The chassis has nine QAM RF module slots; each module has two QAM RF ports, and each port is capable of supporting up

to four adjacent QAM channels. The system can host two AC and/or DC power supplies, which can be redundant to each

other.

Interoperability

Harmonic’s solutions are based on industry-leading open architecture and provide the industry’s highest performance with

extreme deployment flexibility, infinite scalability, and better economics than any other solution on the market. Harmonic

systems future-proof the investment of video service operators by enabling best-of-breed component selections that can

evolve as technology advances in contrast to the constraints imposed by the single, proprietary end-to-end solutions

offered by most legacy product vendors. In addition to breakthrough technology, Harmonic’s open architecture products

yield disruptive price points with lower fixed costs and lower operating expenses.

To demonstrate our open solution, below is a representative list of some of Harmonic’s interoperability partners:

Component Interoperability Partner

Middleware / BMS Siemens (formerly Myrio), Minerva, NDS Metro, Quative (Kudelski Group), Tandberg OpenStream (formally N2BB), CCOR nABLE, Ortikon, Cascade, Tandberg ITTV Portal, Seachange Axiom (NGOD)

Content Management System

Tandberg OpenStream, Lysis, nABLE, Seachange Axiom (NGOD)

DRM / CAS Latens, NDS, Nagra, Conax, WideVine, Verimatrix, SecureMedia, Irdeto

Headend / Encoders Harmonic, Tandberg, Motorola (former Tut Systems), Videotele, Opti-base, Cisco (former Scientific Atlanta)

Set-top Box Motorola, Scientific Atlanta, Pace, Amino, Entone, Kreatel, Thompson, Wegener, ADB, i3, YuXing, Sunniwell

Server Hardware IBM, Hewlett Packard

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© 2007 Harmonic Inc. All rights reserved. Harmonic, the Harmonic logo, Building Better Bandwidth, Armada, CLEARcut, DiviCom, Electra, Ingest Gateway, Ion, LIVEcut, Mentor, ProCipher, ProStream and StreamLiner are trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks of Harmonic Inc. in the United States and other countries. Other company, product and service names mentioned herein may be trademarks or service marks of their respective owners. All product and application features and specifications are subject to change at Harmonic’s sole discretion at any time and without notice. 04/07

Harmonic Inc.549 Baltic WaySunnyvale, CA 94089U.S.A.

T 1.800.788.1330 or 1.408.542.2500 (outside the U.S.)F 1.408.542.2510www.harmonicinc.com

Summary

Harmonic’s on-demand delivery platform encompasses an extensive array of solutions for the end-to-end video delivery

network architecture (Figure 12). At the entry point to the solution, Harmonic offers a wide range of offline and real-time

content preparation tools developed solely for the on-demand arena. Downstream, Harmonic’s advanced offline and live

ingest solutions ensure operators can manage the continuous flow of on-demand content with minimal effort.

A key element of the solution is the StreamLiner distribution and delivery platform whose flexibility, scalability, reliability

and performance are unmatched in the market. The Armada content distribution system relieves operators of the impossible

task of predicting popularity of content, and automatically transfers content between StreamLiner nodes and storage

media (RAM, SCSI, SAS, SATA) for optimal results. At the edge, Harmonic’s leading modulation and HFC infrastructure

equipment completes the solution by offering operators the most reliable RF networking gear available.

Harmonic’s complete on-demand delivery platform is the first solution to offer an end-to-end system for operators looking

to deploy on-demand systems. Harmonic provides operators a single point of contact and minimizes the risks of designing

and developing advanced video delivery networks.

Figure 12. Harmonic’s End to End On-Demand Delivery Architecture

CLEARcut

StreamLiner(Libraby Server)

Home

NSGEdgeQAMs

LIVEcut

Ingest Gateway

Mentor

Electra

Catcher

Control Network

Video Network

StreamLiner(Edge Server)

Cluster Controller(Armada)

HFC

HFC Infrastructure

Documents

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