What is IPTV and Why All the Fuss?

IPTV is a simple and low-cost broadband product replacement concept with massive implications for business and society. In its simplest form, IPTV protocol enables the creation of a single-shared use high-speed transport infrastructure.

The new transport and service infrastructure can deliver digital television, data, and voice signals, along with connectivity services to consumers, while also enabling-upon demand-P2P exchanges between content creators and consumers.

The design implication is that the proposed IP suite and multiplexing processes can be used to deliver broadband, that is, multiple services with multiple signal types, at a fraction of the cost of extending the current time divided multiplex (TDM) telephone network and/or the hybrid fiber coax (HFC) TV and channel slotted satellite/radio networks.

The use of IP protocols to transport the audio, video, and voice signals is not new at all. However, the usage of significant amounts of broadband consumer bandwidth and IP to meet the high performance and quality demands of rich media signals is actually quite new to the market.

Massive amounts of consumer bandwidth, IP packet switching, and routing all together provide a much more flexible service infrastructure. This could even be used to eliminate the current expensive and inefficient service overlays for each revenue stream.

Figure 1 is a simplistic rendering of today's general service infrastructure (on the left) and the planned IPTV infrastructure (on the right). Each legacy network on the left has its own capital, resources, and service operation dedicated to a single service. The spare idle capacity for subscriber growth, service restoration, and changes is also dedicated to each service. In total, the overall cost of revenue production increases and the general efficiency of the network capital declines, all as new services are added. On the right is a single infrastructure that captures scale economies, by adding a home media gateway and simple broadband capacity additions that will meet demand and service objectives.