Basics of IPTV by Howard J. Gunn
PDF of this tutorial
A
Acquisition This is the process of acquiring, digitizing, cataloging, and indexing content in the IPTV realm for its later retrieval or searches, which also includes the creation of both metadata and consumption policies. Consumers typically acquire a license or official permission to use the acquired content.
Authentication The process of validating one's own identity. These processes to gain computer access can be as simple as entering a sign-in username and password on a physical port location, or as complex as multiple biometrics, such as fingerprints, DNA tests, voice recognition prints, and facial scans. The process of authentication can also be extended to the consumer device, the content itself, and even to the applications to display, copy, or transmit the content.
Authorization The process of validating that you and/or the device have the approval to initiate an action. The authorization is typically associated with source policies that can be executed in regards to the person, the device, or the content itself. Receivers can also implement authorization policies, such as locking either a cell phone touch pad or other research centers with a password for a couple of years, but this satellite has now been retired from experimental service.
Accounting The process of collecting event and historical information for future analysis, processing, billing, and usage.
Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA) The generic security functions and the processes in use today to protect data, content, information, and physical assets. This abbreviation, as used in IPTV, is focused on identifying the person and device, establishing related policies, and keeping track of the events associated with policy enforcement. AAA helps build and execute physical and logical perimeter defenses that can be integrated with retail content and enterprise content protection to insure the protection of trade secrets, customer information, and compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley reporting and operations.
Asymmetric The difference in the data rate between the two directions of a transmission line.
Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) A low cost, point-to-point transmission technology deployed to enable a non-multiplexed phone line, also known as a "copper pair," to transport discrete high frequency tones that carry discrete digital data, without impairing the basic analog telephone service. The ADSL modem is used in video applications to increase the bandwidth on the physical connection. ADSL also enables the carrier to exploit its unique ability to carry more bits in one direction than the other.
Asynchronous A transmission environment with no implicit timing relationship between the transmission's data source and data receiver.
Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) A packet protocol composed of 53 byte cells having five byte headers and 48 byte payloads, which are used by carriers to transport packets on virtual circuits.
B
Bandwidth The capacity of a given transmission channel. The greater the bandwidth, the more information can be transferred over that network at one time. Bandwidth deals with the width of a channel, namely how many can fit down the pipe at a time.
Baseband The ability to support multiple channels and signal types on the same transport medium by time sharing available bandwidth. Ethernet, for example, shares all bandwidth through interleaving bits. All chips are said to be baseband-oriented since they interleave messages as well.
Bridge A local area network (LAN) device that filters and transfers data packets between LAN segments. Briges enable multiple LAN segments to operate as a single TCP network that provides point-to-point connections between sources and bridged LAN destinations.
Broadband The ability to support multiple channels and signal types by carving up bandwidth into-separate frequencies.
C
Central Office (CO) A local hub site, or office, used to terminate all of the local access lines, trunks, and cables in a particular geographic area. This usually includes a voice switch and serves an area where prices are the same for all similar customers. There may be one, or multiple, COs in an exchange rate area.
Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC) A local telephony service provider granted a non-exclusive franchise right to a geographic area within a federally chartered exchange rate area on February 8, 1996.
Connectivity A physical or logical transmission path that enables the flow of communications between two points.
Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) The private telephone devices attached to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). In general use today, it identifies the range of private consumer electronics on the end of a carrier network that facilitates the use of the carrier services. These consumer devices now include telephones, modems, terminals, routers, fax machines, set top boxes, and Ethernet devices. CPE is usually associated with devices that a consumer buys and connects to carrier lines.
Custom Publishing A collaborative activity taking place between customers and publishers. Customers choose components from a catalog or inventory. The publisher produces the specific content in a formatted product usable by the purchaser. Individual web page creation, portal end points as Yahoo, and the sending of electronic files compatible with the receiving device are the modern electronic forms of custom publishing. Ultimately, P2P processes and SOA programming enable TV programmers (or publishers) to directly interact with consumers in order to maximize the value of the exchange through the unique custom IPTV publishing features.
D
Dedicated A communications line used between two private end points. All dedicated lines in the US must start and end at a customer site under regulations that describe special access services. These lines can generally be used for transmission services between two pieces of CPE.
Dial-Up A standard telephone line used to connect a data device to a remote one through the PSTN to build a connection. The data connection is initiated by placing a standard phone call and shifting the connection to the modem controls. Such examples include the Internet and fax machines, which are traditionally used to connect consumers to data centers. In practice, any phone line can be used as a dial-up connection. The throughput of the line is variable, based on the quality of the wire and the type of connection system employed.
Digital Media Asset Management (DMAM) The right of the content owner to inventory which, in certain cases, can even track and protect their digital assets from unlicensed or unauthorized uses.
Digital Rights Management (DRM) The owner's right to determine the use and licensing of his content, which is formed and executed by AAA.
Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAM) The equipment located in the carrier network to aggregate multiple DSL wires, modems, and terminal adaptors.
Digital Television (DTV) This is the consumer device, the programmer, and the transmission processes for modern digital TV. It is used with IPTV as a telecommunication system for broadcasting and receiving both moving pictures and sound. It represents the single proprietary digital ingestions and single proprietary translation to screen processes at the receiver devices. DTV is conceptually designed for end-to-end digital signals and devices which includes the ability to output analog signals to analog devices.
Digital Versatile Disk (DVD) An optical disk storage medium that has a capacity roughly eight times that of CD-ROMs. The media can store high resolution video of SDTV quality and multiple audio formats. This has built-in support for consumer inter-activity.
Distribution The means of making digital media products and services available to people, through such means as print, web, CD-ROM, broadcast, cable, e-mail, and DVD.
Dynamic IP The means to associate a temporary address with a physical site and device, upon demand. An address is assigned to a device every time it connects to the Internet. It is a number, separated by dots or periods, used to identify a specific location and device connected to an IP network. Every device connected to the Internet has a unique IP address. Since the site and device do not have a permanent address, as it changes every time, it is difficult to locate the endpoint or send information to the device.
E
Editorial The business and intellectual process of editing or modifying raw content to incorporate into a media product or service, which ultimately adds significant consumer value.
Ethernet A frame and packet-based LAN transmission technology that operates over virtually any type of media.
Exchange Rate Area A geographic area assigned by the state, where all subscribers are expected to pay the same prices for their acquired services. There are over 5,000 such territories in the US. These areas cross geo-political, and even state, borders, but have no direct bearing on the TV franchising in the same locations. These areas are bundled within local access transport arrangements (LATA), which is a federally mandated area for common treatment, services, and charges.
F
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) The process, used on the Internet, to move files from one machine to another. FTP can be used to retrieve text, still images, and composed pages from a DMM repository.
Full Text Indexing The automatic creation of a data structure of all of the words in a document, along with the number of its occurrences and positions.
H
High Defintion Television (HDTV) The digital standards specified to dramatically improve the contribution and distribution quality of TV signals and display devices in the consumer market.
Hybrid Fiber Coax (HFC) A current broadband cable delivery modality.
Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) The formatting language used to create a consumer readable page of data bits, such as a web page, that can be read by a computer and put on a screen or printed out. HTML is a page formatter programming language and, in the IPTV environment, it plays an important role of the man-to-machine interface to the TV environment as well.
Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) The primary protocol of the World Wide Web and private intranets, which is an important process for future IPTV networks. This is also used to link together both HTML pages and other resources.
I
Indexing This involves creating a data structure that allows rapid look-up of information in a database. Full text indexing is used to index text documents. Time domain indexing and editing are techniques used to index movies and audio tracks associated with IPTV.
Information This is processed data converted into an intellectual property component that can be used by a receiver. Information has significant value in our society, since it creates new knowledge within its own receiver.
Information Services (IS) This is the process of managing the creation, storage, and delivery of information. The term is used to describe the functionality created by information technology (IT). Both terms are generally used in the context of enterprise services delivered by private companies to their constituents. IPTV, for example, is a new public IS process designed to extend enterprise-type services to the mass market.
Intellectual Property Rights The owner of intellectual information has the right to grant permission to a receiver for its use and conveyance. The intellectual property is practically a secret only known to the individual owner and revealed once the information is conveyed. Once conveyed, or dispersed through any media channel, the ownership of the intellectual property may transfer by contract to a different owner. In most cases, the granted permission may include certain restrictions with respect to the use of a piece of content, such as intellectual property or information. Such restricted permissions may be related to printing, copying, and language translation. Intellectual property rights are conferred to different owners in exchange for fees, such as royalties. IPTV includes a variety of AAA and asset management processes to protect these ownership rights.
Internet Service Provider (ISP) An organization that provides shared access, among other services, to the Internet, and it can be an application or managed service provider. The SP designation is generally used to describe and IS in a data center. IPTV is a closed proprietary network that can offer ISP services.
L
Local Area Network (LAN) A baseband transmission infrastructure used to enable communication between devices in a small local geographic area, a campus, a building, or a work group. A LAN typically uses a network address translation to convert the private IP address site into public one. This is done by assigning a dynamic IP number to the device during its public IP session.
Life Cycle Information has a life cycle with respect to time and perceived value by the owner and consumer. For example, a hot stock tip has a short high value life cycle. People getting the tip the day after the deal closes may find the information may not be timely, but it still has value. Historical, or stale, content like web information has traditionally had the lowest intrinsic value.
M
Media Access Control (MAC) A unique physical address typically associated with an Ethernet card inside of a data device attached to a LAN.
Modem A transmission device used to adapt a computer baseband signal into analog noises that can traverse the cable and radio networks.
Metadata This data describes a piece of content, such as author, title, date, format, size, which includes machine AAA processes, sector management processes on storage devices, various addresses and aliases of the content and device. All this consists of media address controls (where the device is connected), network addresses (the name and address of the device on a private network), IP addresses (the public port names and addresses that service the private network address, telephone number), and the device address associated with the content one. This type of data is used within both the programming guides and search processes of IPTV.
Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) A standards making body. This term is most often used to refer to a set of compression techniques for digital audio and video applications.
Multipurposing This involves using pieces of content to produce products in many different ways, including multiple output formats (print, web, CD, film, videotape, DVD, etc.) and product types (newspapers, books, movies, albums, television shows, internet services, etc.).
N
Network Interface Device (NID) A device required by government regulations which terminates copper pairs from the serving central office. It also provides the government-specified interface and demarcation point between the public carrier and customer network of private wires and cables from consumer devices to the NID. The term is sometimes used to describe the legal and technical boundary between carrier and consumer networks.
P
Post-Production A film industry term referring to the creation of titles, special effects, etc., and their incorporation into a film or video that is otherwise finished, such as an ad insertion.
Programming Guide This presents information provided to the consumer in an attempt to help them make decisions concerning their desired programming. Such guides typically consist of a directory enabling network (DEN) which, in IPTV systems, is typically an indexing process that parses out a portion of the indexed metadata to the on-line transaction processors that supply the call servers, connection managers, and accounting functions. Certain transactions may request additional indexed information, such as where there is stored content. These indexes may point to other indexes on how to get the information transmitted, which may cause other application programs to issue control commands to network elements.
Production The process of turning information and content into products and services for consumers, such as the page layout of reading material, staging HTML pages to a website, creating CD-ROM images, and creating master videotapes.
R
Repurposing This involves information or content from an existing media product and reusing it in another product, usually in a different format or application, such as ITunes. IPTV creates major new processes for repurposing the delivery of repurposed information and content.
S
Standard Definition Digital Television (SDTV) The set of digital standards describing the distribution quality signals and TVs specified to emulate the current performance characteristics and aspect ratio of both analog TVs and delivery systems. Contribution and business quality signals may be displayed on DTV devices, but may or may not pass over SDTV networks.
Static IP A fixed IP address assigned to a specific computer or network device on an IP network, which remains the same whether the device is on or off. Private IPTV systems have multiple static IP addresses which may or may not be on the Internet.
The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) A standards body for the video industry.
Streaming This occurs in audio or video transmissions over a data network when someone is listening or viewing at the receiver at the same time as the bits arrive over a transmission system. The term implies a one-way transmission to the listener or viewer on the Internet. IPTV creates the ability to provide two-way interactivity while streaming. The process allows pipelining a stream of bits into a player application, without having to first transfer an entire large file. The listener or viewer typically gets uninterrupted audio and video on IPTV systems while they may get additional artifacts on Internet streams due to latency, collisions, and gaps.
T
Television Services The process of delivering information and content to consumers. IPTV alters the traditional passive nature of the television delivery system. The new interactivity and software applications within the IPTV service are designed to replace the current television service experience.
Thumbnail This is a miniature representation of a graphic or photo, and its intent is to provide just enough information to give an indication of what the image looks like. A thumbnail may be a compact representation of information or content, such as a short low-resolution video clip in IPTV systems or a sample of an advertisement.
Trick Play A digital emulation of "fast-forward" and "rewind" video viewing modes.
Triple Play The perceived value created by bundling different services and service packages into a consumable one with more value in comparison to discrete packages of voice, data, and video services.
U
Universal Resource Locator (URL) This is used to describe resources that can be converted to IP addresses, and it identifies the protocol, host name, and file name of the requested Internet resources, such as IPTV programming guides.
