All things related to multicast

[Dov Zimring <>]

These are Ethernet/IP Set Top Boxes and I see no reason these couldn't 
be used in the enterprise.  Most of the commercial deployments I've been 
involved with are telephone companies that own or share a Cable MSO and 
are looking to extend their footprint to provide video service via Fiber 
or DSL.  Encoding, transcoding, Video on Demand, integrated on screen 
caller-id, all that fun stuff

A few of the players in this space:
http://www.aminocom.com
http://www.i3micro.com/i3web
http://www.2wire.com
http://www.bastinc.com

For commercial deployments these vendors integrate with various 
middleware vendors to handle user accounts, retrieve corresponding 
program guides and take care of all the back office accounting and 
billing.  There are a number of middleware vendors out there, to name a few:
http://www.myrio.com
http://www.minervanetworks.com
http://www.infogateonline.com/content.asp?id=15

There's a laundry list of other vendors for encoding/transcoding, VoD, 
encryption, etc.  I've spent lots of time in the trenches deploying IPTV 
over DSL with video headends that were built for CATV and then 
retrofitted for IPTV.  Happy to share what I know.

Regards,

--
--
Dov Zimring
Triple Play Architect
Occam Networks
work:   (805) 692-2903
mobile: (805) 705-8813
http://www.occamnetworks.com



Alan Crosswell wrote:

> Dov,
>
> What products are people using in your space?  Ethernet set-top 
> boxes?  Which ones?  Anything that could be applied in the 
> enterprise.  Many of us are looking at converging campus CATV.
> /a
>
> Dov Zimring wrote:
>
> > I work in the world of commercial IP Video deployments over DSL and
> > Fiber, both of which utilize multicast for distribution of  "broadcast"
> > content.  Today the set top boxes are typically IGMPv2 and the service
> > provider's subscriber interface performs the function of an IGMP
> > router.  Most of the equipment used in this space has per port interface
> > statistics which allow you to collect tracking info as a function of
> > network management.  To validate bandwidth engineering assumptions
> > studies have been done which look at per device group membership
> > regularly throughout the day.  Viewing trends are available per channel
> > and at a given time of day.  To date I've only seen this info used for
> > network monitoring and engineering purposes but it clearly lends itself
> > to Nielsen market research type opportunities.  The statistics cover
> > 100% of your viewing population, if you want to know exactly how many
> > impressions a certain add made - you'd have the info at your fingertips.
> >
> > The DSL Forum is hashing out a new architecture for migrating from
> > legacy low capacity ATM networks to IP/Ethernet networks in the telco
> > carrier markets.  Conditional access, admission control and security are
> > a few of the many issues they attempt to address in this.  Fast channel
> > change times are critical for end user enjoyment and thus more important
> > then conditional access so encryption is required end to end for content
> > security and electronic program guides on a set top box won't allow the
> > remote to select a channel that is not included in the purchased package
> > but nothing prevents a hacker from plugging in a laptop and scanning all
> > available multicast groups to see what's really there.  They can join
> > groups but will end up with encrypted content.  Admission control is the
> > most interesting problem right now.  With HDTV, DVR, VoD, VoIP and
> > gaming all contending for last mile bandwidth, how do you inform the end
> > user that the TV upstairs can't switch from that standard def to that
> > high def channel because Johnny just purchased a time slot on a network
> > intensive multi-player game?