Collaborative: IP Video Gets Ready for Primetime

Posted: 8/2003

IP Video Gets Ready for Primetime

By Tara Seals

Demand
for IP video applications among small and medium-sized businesses is rising.
Helping things along is a flurry of recent product launches catering to service
providers interested in delivering IP video to this market segment, while
leapfrogging limitations in existing broadband networks and the high costs of
deployment.

InStat/MDR reports the telco video
market is growing. By 2007, the research firm forecasts there will be 19 million
telco subscribers to video services, including broadcast TV or video on demand.
The firm also predicts worldwide telco video revenue will reach $5.8 billion by
the same year.

Two recent announcements may give
those predictions wings: Qwest Communications International Inc. Chairman and
CEO Richard Notebaert told analysts on a conference call, "We hope to be
able soon to offer our customers video services as part of a bundle," and
said Qwest is finalizing video partnerships. Meanwhile, SBC Communi-cations Inc.
and BellSouth Corp. joined up with Verizon Communications Inc. in May to
announce an initiative to deploy fiber to the premises (FTTP). The three issued
a set of common technical requirements for the technology, saying they are
seeking proposals from vendors based on those requirements. The deployment of
next-generation broadband networks will offer nearly limitless bandwidth for
home and business Internet, voice and video services.

Accordingly, vendors are rolling out
products that anticipate widespread fiber deployments. Catena Networks has
introduced its CN1000FX family of FTTx solutions. The new solution suite will
enable carriers to drive fiber deeper into their networks and offer video.
Catena says its FTTx solutions also will help carriers future-proof their
networks and cost-effectively address a wide range of applications and
deployment scenarios — including new-build and neighborhood-overlay
opportunities.

"The economics of deploying
fiber within the ‘last mile’ can vary from neighborhood to neighborhood. A
‘one-size-fits-all’ solution that addresses every scenario does not exist,"
says Frank Dzubeck, president and CEO of Communications Network Architects, an
industry analyst and consulting firm.

The CN1000FX family allows carriers
to address multiple applications with the same access system. The CN1000FX suite
features solutions addressing FTTP and fiber-to-the-neighborhood (FTTN)
applications.

"With our CN1000FX family of
fiber solutions, carriers can exactly match their broadband deployments with
subscriber demand and accelerate time-to-revenue," says Jim Hjartarson,
Catena president and CEO.

While end users wait for fiber, DSL
technology is catching up with the needs of IP video delivery, so SMBs soon may
have greater options for such services.

"The commercial availability of
headend and access technology … has dramatically reduced the barriers to entry
for telcos that are looking to compete with cable companies with triple play
service offerings," says Steve Klein, vice president and general manager at
Corecess Global.

Take for instance multicasting,
which allows local replication of common video streams, avoiding the costs
associated with sending numerous, identical copies of video content through the
transport infrastructure. Legacy DSLAMs and digital loop carriers without true
video capabilities use colocated Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP)
routers to achieve multicasting, which makes for extra equipment costs and
difficulties with scalability.

Catena Networks has announced a
video-over-DSL solution based on its CN1000 Broadband Loop Carrier (BLC)
platform, which integrates the functions of a next-generation digital loop
carrier, a video-enabled DSLAM, a fiber multiplexer and a packet-ready media
gateway. The CN1000 BLC provides POTS and DSL on every line, and has integrated
IGMP and multicasting capabilities to support video.

"With telco service providers
looking at new application areas and bridging from communication to
entertainment services, high-quality, cost-effective and scalable end-to-end
video-over-broadband solutions are required," says Bethany Mayer, vice
president of product marketing, SkyStream Networks. She says the keys lie in
combining high-performance products and ensuring support of industry standards
and the compatibility of interoperable solutions. SkyStream Networks and
Corecess Inc. have announced an integrated platform, based on SkyStream’s
Mediaplex 20 Video Services Router and Corecess’ 6800 Intelligent Access Server
and 8100 VDSL remote DSLAM.

Delay, jitter and packet loss can
have dramatic effects on real-time applications such as voice and video, making
those applications unusable. Converged voice, data and video deployments are
growing, says Zeus Kerravala, vice president of enterprise infrastructure at The
Yankee Group. "But there’s a catch: These networks present new and complex
performance management challenges."

In answer, Viola Networks, a
provider of IP network performance assurance and assessment software, unveiled a
new network performance management platform specifically designed to address the
unique needs of real-time converged networks that support applications like IP
video conferencing. The new system, NetAlly RealTime, will provide service
providers, systems integrators and enterprises a tool for pre-service network
readiness assessment, on-demand network troubleshooting and ongoing network
performance monitoring.

Such monitoring capabilities make
video more cost-effective to deploy, say boosters, and cost-effectiveness is the
key to the service going mainstream.

"The race to IP video is not
about simply adding new features," says Eddie Drake, vice president of
software development at Myrio Corp., a middleware provider. "It’s about
understanding an operator’s needs and delivering the right product. At this
stage in the market, improving the cost efficiency of their video deployments is
paramount to them."

Myrio released TotalManage
enhancements designed to improve scalability, performance and reliability
include automatic provisioning and remote management, Highly Available
Architecture, compatibility with the Federal Information Processing Standard for
the Emergency Alert System and a standards-based multicast data communication
channel.