Question 8/9 - The IP enabled multimedia applications and services for cable television networks enabled by converged platforms
(Continuation of Question 8/9)
Motivation In addition to the distribution of television programming, the IP enabled cable television infrastructure can provide a means by which a myriad of advanced services are realized for the subscriber/consumer, including those that are based on cloud services and interactivity.
Rapid development of IP technologies enables cable television networks to be a versatile infrastructure for various interactive multimedia services, and their enabling platforms. Future IP based cable television networks, at a very high level, will connect with at least four entities:
- hybrid fibre/coaxial (HFC) access network;
- IP network;
- public switched telephone network (PSTN);
- third party entities.
Additionally, the convergence of these entities (their delivery mechanisms as well as their services/applications) will catalyse the hybridization of new services and applications.
The system architecture for future IP-enabled cable networks should include the specifications of the functional components and define the interfaces between the above mentioned entities, including their delivery mechanisms, and IP-based cable television networks.
IP-enabled advanced multimedia applications and services will require strict latency and packet-loss control. While it may not be necessary to develop new codecs for these applications and services, it is required to specify which codecs should be mandatory to guarantee the quality of service (QoS) of these advanced multimedia applications and services over IP-enabled cable television networks. The new Recommendations will describe the mandatory and optional requirements for IP-enabled multimedia applications in accordance with the specified QoS and security.
Question Study items to be considered include, but are not limited to:
- What are the mechanics required of the subscriber's environment, to enable the trusted/secure access of multimedia services/applications?
- What are the subscriber environment interfaces necessary for the fulfilment of IP enabled multimedia and multi-sensory applications/services.
- What are the mechanisms that need to be implemented in order to accommodate the various services that will extend the reach of the cable network.
- What are the technologies necessary for the provisioning multimedia interactive services, including primary cable services, third party services, machine-to-machine (M2M) services, cloud services, etc.
- What type of call signalling protocol should be used for these applications?
- What multimedia transport and encoding methods should be employed to fully leverage historic HFC network capabilities, as well as future IP-enabled services and applications?
- What device provisioning method should be appropriate for these services and applications?
- What type of event messaging should be required for these applications?
- What class of security and privacy should be required for these applications?
- What type of audio and video codecs should be specified for these applications?
- What parameters should be specified for latency and packet-loss control?
- What class of QoS should be used for these applications?
- What class of QoS should be specified for these applications in relationship with each codec parameter?
Tasks Tasks include, but are not limited to:
- The preparation of updated or new Recommendations, as required.
An up-to-date status of work under this Question is contained in the Study Group 9 work programme (
http://itu.int/ITU-T/workprog/wp_search.aspx?sp=15&q=8/9).
Relationships - Recommendations
- Reference architecture: ITU-T J.700
- Application platform: ITU-T J.200, J.201, J.202
- Set-top box: ITU-T J.290, J.291, J.293, J.295
- Gateway device: ITU-T J.294
- Home network: ITU-T J.190, J.192
- Questions
- Study groups
- ITU T SGs 11, 13, 15 and 16 (on architecture and IP networking studies)
- Standardization bodies
- Broadband Forum (BBF), ETRI, ETSI, DVB, IETF, SCTE
