Juniper Networks, Inc. announced a series of product enhancements that enable network providers to more efficiently and reliably transport video services throughout the IP network core. The new features include several enhancements to MPLS-based point-to-multipoint (P2MP) broadcast video distribution and new capabilities for the SDX-300 Service Deployment System. Together, these enhancements improve the cost-effective delivery of a vast amount of content while simplifying the operations, administration and management of IPTV delivery networks, thereby speeding the deployment of advanced network-based services.

Developed within the company's Open IP Service Creation Program (OSCP), Juniper is introducing Liquid LSPs, a solution that leverages the SDX-300's open APIs to ensure efficient network handling of video-on-demand content. Using an open API, third-party video serving platforms communicate with the SDX-300 and Juniper routers to map the best possible path between subscribers and content sources to increase network efficiency, while also preserving high levels of video quality. The Liquid LSP feature also supports Fast Failover capability for split-second failover, ensuring the quality and reliability of video services even in times of network congestion and equipment failures.

By enabling the dynamic activation and modification of LSPs between video serving locations, Liquid LSPs enable providers to serve videos from multiple locations, reducing costs and increasing network design flexibility. Today, only Juniper and its OSCP partners offer this unique capability, which spans from the network layer to the application layer.

Providing its IPTV customers an added layer of service assurance, SeaChange International was first to integrate its open IPTV platform with Juniper's Liquid LSP capability.

"Juniper can help operators deliver cost-effective use of network bandwidth as IPTV services grow content and attract more subscribers," said Steve Davi, vice president of Engineering, SeaChange. "Liquid LSP complements the intelligent content propagation of SeaChange's back-office software. It's a rock-solid approach to QoS that we can offer to our customers now."

Juniper has also implemented a number of enhancements to further extend the industry-leading point-to-multipoint (P2MP) capabilities of JUNOS. P2MP is an MPLS-based multicasting solution that provides efficient, scalable and reliable delivery of broadcast TV traffic across the backbone. P2MP enables providers to leverage the simplicity of MPLS for core video distribution without adding new protocols or increasing operational complexity. The new features include the extension of constrained shortest path first (CSPF) functionality to P2MP LSPs, which enables the network to automatically determine the most efficient path through the network for a given video stream. This allows a few super head-ends to service many remote video sites over long distances while assuring delivery quality of the broadcast TV channels.

Juniper is also announcing enhancements to BGP (Border Gateway Protocol)-based VPLS (Virtual Private LAN Services), a technology pioneered in the industry by Juniper. BGP-based VPLS is a key enabling technology for carrier-class Ethernet services, and simplifies the scaling of metro video distribution networks. Together, these JUNOS enhancements increase the efficiency of broadcast video distribution networks.

"Much of the attention around IPTV to date has been focused on the network edge, but efficient delivery of IP-based video through the core IP network is just as important to our customers," said Shailesh Shukla, vice president of service provider marketing and partnerships, Juniper Networks. "The enhancements we are delivering today reinforce Juniper's unique commitment to addressing our customers' requirements for all aspects of next generation IPTV and multiplay networks, and are also a concrete example of the benefits possible with the Open IP Service Creation Program we introduced in June."