Nimbra MSR platform’s optimized IP multicast capabilities, guaranteed IP transport and signaled control plane make it the optimal network solution for Virtual Head-End applications. It makes distributing TV signals from one Head End to multiple regional telcos simple, efficient and cost-effective.
Market
IPTV holds the promise to save rural telcos competing against intruding cable carriers. Cable operators already offer triple-play services encompassing video, data and voice. Telcos must integrate video to retain and build subscriber levels.
Telcos have mastered voice and data, but video presents new challenges. The cost of ingesting and transmitting video tops the list. Expensive IPTV head end costs start at $500,000 and can easily scale to $2 million over a five year period. Initial hardware costs alone can cripple rural telcos.
Virtual head ends offset the costs of IPTV services by aggregating the investment across multiple telco cooperatives. In this scenario, the telcos share development, content aggregation and distribution costs to create a single, networked head-end. Content is then multicast throughout the shared network to deliver the needed programming and services for each telco video subscriber. The result is triple-play capabilities at a fraction of the cost.
Challenges
The major challenges for network solutions for Virtual IPTV Head Ends are:
- Operators must ensure high quality service to their subscribers as well as to their content providers. The hand-off between the shared infrastructure and the operator’s systems is crucial. The signals must be delivered predictably and in a way that can be easily monitored.
- Capacity utilization of the backbone helps keep costs down and is key to making a profit from a Virtual Head-End implementation.
- The infrastructure must provide the reliability and availability that operators and consumers expect from subscription television services.
- Virtual Head-Ends must be scalable so that the cost of the system can be shared among as many operators as possible. The telcos must also be able to easily modify the network configuration as needed without disrupting any services. They must be able to add new channels and other content without creating hits that generate customer complaints and reduce subscription renewals.
Net Insight offering
The Nimbra MSR solution uses an Layer 2 (L2) distribution mechanism called E-Tree that is optimized for TV distribution. The solution sets up an optimized distribution tree over any type of topology, including mesh, ring and linear bus. E-Tree is highly scalable and can handle several hundred end-points. The transport from ingress to egress is guaranteed. Every single packet will get through. Lossless routing simplifies the demarcation between the Virtual Head End operator and the receiving telco.
Lossless routing means there is no need to over provision to ensure QoS, which saves money. Ethernet transport in the Nimbra solution carries very low overhead and the utilization of the transport links are highest available.
The Nimbra MSR solution is controlled by a signaled control plane that works with the NimbraVision Network Management System to monitor the distribution, provisioning the multicast distribution tree and to handle protection mechanisms. Provisioning the IP multicast distribution tree is simple; just define ingress and egress ports of the tree in the NMS. Add or remove destinations in the multicast tree without affecting other destinations using simple point-and-click operations. The Nimbra solution then automatically sets up the distribution tree and handles restoration in the event of failures. Nimbra also offers a unique Head End Protection that handles disaster recovery of the IPTV Head End.
Net Insight MSR products are offered with different form factors to support Virtual Head Ends, including the compact Nimbra 320/360/380 and the powerful Nimbra 680 and 688. Transport capacity can be a mixture of IP, WDM and SDH/SONET in order to use the best available infrastructure.
Key benefits
The major benefits of the Nimbra MSR platform for Virtual Head End applications are:
- Scalable IP multicast (E-Tree) with guaranteed transport.
- Highest network utilization on the market.
- Signaled control plane and advanced network management for easy provisioning and detailed monitoring.
- Highest availability assisted with automatic mesh restoration and HE protection for disaster recovery.