Network Requirements for IPTV and OTT Service

Is your IP core or access network ready for video streaming?

The first thing each service provider should do when starting to plan to launch an IPTV or OTT service is check if the IP core or access network is ready for video streaming. There are requirements that need to be met in different parts of the network, from IP core routers to DSLAMs and CPE devices. In this blog, I will give you a short overview of these requirements to help you get started.

First, you need to decide how to organize the IPTV assessment. Should you use an in-house network department or look for external consultants? If you have enough resources and expertise, with little guidance, you can do the majority of the tasks on your own. However, I strongly recommend engaging external network consultants with extensive experience in IPTV and OTT, at least for a final review. This will give you an independent view of your network and an interpretation of the measured results from the IPTV/OTT perspective.

Does all the network and access equipment support multicast related requirements?

Technical Requirements for IPTV/OTT Service

After you define the organization of the assessment, you can move on to the technical requirements. With the introduction of IPTV in the network, in general, there are two main things you need to check: is there enough bandwidth in all parts of your network to serve the planned number of IPTV users, and secondly, does all the network and access equipment support multicast-related requirements and is ready for multicast and unicast streaming?

For checking the bandwidth requirements, you need to dimension your IPTV service, such as defining number of SD and HD TV channels, the number of planned subscribers, and the VOD and nPVR concurrency. Based on these, you can calculate the required bandwidth on each DSL line, in the access network, and in the core IP network. In case you are not familiar with IPTV solutions, you can get a basic overview in the blog How to start an IPTV/OTT Turnkey Solution?

The main difference between IPTV and OTT services is that for OTT, unicast streaming is also used for linear TV. This means you don’t need to care about multicast support, but it generates bigger bandwidth requirements for your core network. Based on the dimensioning of the TV service, you can plan several edge locations for streaming to offload your IP core network.

Check your network architecture diagram and all the network connections and make sure there are no bottlenecks.

You should carefully check your network architecture diagram and all the network connections to make sure there are no bottlenecks. Don’t forget to check these in all regions where you want to deploy IPTV and OTT services to avoid situations where you have plenty of bandwidth in the core but are struggling with the interconnection toward regional networks.

Multicast Availability Through Network

Regarding multicast, first check multicast availability across your whole network. Again, don’t forget to check all regions where you plan to offer IPTV service. Make a list of all the different vendors and models of network equipment in your network, especially DSLAMs and DSL modems, and verify that all equipment supports multicast. Check with the vendors for some best practices documents regarding multicast support, and make sure your configuration is really aligned with the best practice guidelines.

DSL modems are a frequent source of issues with multicast streaming. Such issues take a lot of time to solve in production and have a heavy impact on the satisfaction of your users. Especially with several different models and vendors, it is hard to troubleshoot, so it is highly recommended to prepare and test your access network before a commercial launch. The first thing worth checking is if the SW installed on the modems supports multicast and all required features, such as IGMP snooping. Secondly, make a detailed test with 2-3 concurrent multicast streams on the modem and running WiFi and multicast traffic at the same time, if such a scenario will be used. The later is usually an issue without proper fine-tuning of the modem configuration.

Even when you follow all the steps mentioned and prepare well for the IPTV launch, you will surely face some streaming issues for specific customers based on the line quality or some other specifics. In such cases, it is extremely important that your access maintenance team fine-tune DSL line parameters per specific subscriber.

You need to have a tool showing you historical report on the DSL lines performance, per each DSL line.

DSL Line Reporting

Another important thing about DSL lines is the reporting. You need to have a tool showing you historical reports on the DSL line's performance per DSL line. This will give you a very good view of your DSL line quality and readiness for IPTV in the assessment stage. I highly recommend you get such a reporting system if you don't already have it. In any case, you will need it once you launch your IPTV service in production if you want to avoid spending days troubleshooting directly with your customers.

As it goes for the IP core network, you need to define how to route the multicast traffic. It is good practice to separate multicast VLAN in the core and toward end users. There are several methods for multicast routing you can use. The most commonly used is the PIM, which is supported by the majority of core IP routers. Similarly, you also need to define the organization of the access network, whether to use VLAN per user or VLAN per service, the two most commonly used approaches.

The Most Important Parameters for IPTV to Measure

Based on all that has been written so far, you should be able to define several assessment points in your network and start measuring. The most important parameters for IPTV that you need to measure are jitter, network delay, available throughput, and packet loss. Make sure that your measurement is done on all types of network equipment used and in all regions where you plan to use your service. In addition, measurement should be organized to cover both end-to-end delivery of the service and delivery of the service on all used network paths.

It is also very useful if you can connect one real multicast stream and few test STB devices and test the video streaming quality over time.

It is also very useful if you can connect one real multicast stream and few test STB devices and test the video streaming quality over time. Beside monitoring video quality on the TV screen, check also STB logs for some video receiving or decoding errors and compare the results with the DSL lines monitoring tool. This will give you a good insight into the video streaming capability of your network.

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I hope you will find this blog useful, and it will help you define your IP network to be ready for the IPTV service. In case you need some additional information, guidance in performing the measurements, or a second opinion on your network design, don’t hesitate to contact me. We look forward to helping you.

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UniqCast suggests reading next: 'How to run a data-driven OTT service and prevent subscriber churn’

Also, you can download our Tech Paper and learn more about our IPTV/OTT/DVB turnkey solution. It is an easy-to-understand text prepared in a way to explain and guide you in the IPTV/OTT technology, allowing you to quickly understand new technology.