One of the hottest topics in the IP-communications arena is Internet Protocol Television, or IPTV for short. This new technology promises to make video content more widely and easily available to end-users—and to boost the revenues of content owners and service providers at the same time.

 

But what exactly is IPTV (News - Alert)? And what business case can be made for service providers to adopt the technology? A white paper published by RadiSys, titled “Must See IPTV,” answers these and related questions about IPTV.

 

First off, what is IPTV? Here’s how RadiSys defines it: “IPTV is a catch-all term used for various methods for delivering multichannel TV, on-demand video and other on-demand multimedia content via an IP-based network.”

 

RadiSys points out that IPTV is also sometimes referred to as “telco TV,” or “video over broadband,” and stresses that IPTV, unlike Internet TV,  does not send video content over public Internet connections. What the technology does do is enable a service provider’s private DSL or fiber infrastructure to deliver video content.

 

Because it delivers a video stream to the consumer only when he or she is tuned in to a particular channel, IPTV is part of the new “on-demand” services arena.

 

In the white paper, RadiSys lists several key trends now occurring in the IPTV market. These are:

 

Declining voice revenue – telcos are experiencing eroding of their voice revenue thanks to VoIP services like Vonage (News - Alert) and Time Warner Cable Digital Phone; as a result, they’re turning to IPTV to offset the declines.

 

Increased competition – Telcos now are competing with VoIP providers, wireless carriers, cable operators and competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs), and need IPTV to attract and keep customers.

 

Maturing technologies – Enabling IPTV are a variety of technologies—including Ethernet, MPEG-4 video compression, and ADSL2+--that are now mature enough for use in commercial deployments.

 

Broadband infrastructure – More broadband networks than ever are available for delivering high-bandwidth video content, thanks to build-outs from the likes of AT&T, BellSouth (News - Alert), and Verizon.

 

Personalization – IPTV meets the requirements of consumers who demand customized services such as on-demand video and song downloads.

 

Many of these trends point to IPTV as a way to turn passive television viewers into interactive customers, and boost revenues for providers. Using figures from iSuppli, RadiSys predicts that there will be more than 63 million IPTV subscribers by 2010, up from 2.4 million in 2005. To date, Asia is the most lucrative market.

 

Any telco looking to grab a piece of the market by building infrastructure for IPTV, RadiSys advises, should keep the following factors in mind:

 

If all this seems a bit much to wrap one’s hands around, here is some good news: ATCA, is an open architecture standard used for designing high-availability, high-density, rack-mounted telecom solutions. ATCA, RadiSys explains in the white paper, “defines electrical interfaces, mechanical form factor, switch-fabric configurations and system-management interfaces for the chassis, blade, modules and shelf-management controllers.”

 

The company adds that ATCA is viewed by many telcos, infrastructure vendors and systems designers as an ideal way to meet the infrastructure requirements of IPTV deployments. ATCA’s growing popularity is due to the technology’s ability to meet all of the key service provider requirements listed above.

 

“ATCA provides systems designers and infrastructure vendors with the tools and features necessary to meet service provider requirements for IPTV,” RadiSys says in its white paper.

 

To learn more about RadiSys’ ATCA solutions for IPTV, please visit the company’s TMCnet.com channel, ATCA.