Research and Markets has announced the addition of IPTV Home Networking Strategies to their offering.

This report describes the strategic importance of the Home Network for IPTV (IP TV) operators. It describes how a Home Networking strategy can improve the competitiveness of an IPTV service against Cable and Satellite services, and position the IPTV operator well in the looming battle against the PC and CE (consumer electronics) industries.

Today's Typical Home Networks

The Home Network connects both the home computer(s) and the IP TV Set-Top Boxes to a broadband service. The broadband service is typically an ADSL, a VDSL, or a Fiber to the Premise (FTTP) from an incumbent or competitive carrier. This network may also support Voice over IP (VoIP) services. This network may also provide communication between a media center computer and the IP TV Set-Top Box. In the simplest case the media center computer can act as a server that stores and plays both video and audio content on the network-connected home entertainment system.

Physical Layer Technologies

The physical layer technologies for the Home Network are under development today. There are several technologies emerging that appear to be good approaches. However, as these technologies are being developed, the requirements for them are changing.

The wireline home networking technologies are all appropriately targeting speeds in the range of 100 Mbps or higher. This will make them appropriate choices for both VDSL and FTTP broadband access services.

There is no single physical layer home networking technology available today that can serve all of the subscribers' homes that a service provider might serve with an IP TV service.

Managing the Home Network

The next generation of services has created the new requirements for the Home Gateway to fulfill:

• Providing a remote management service for the Home Gateway & the devices beyond.
• Allowing the right device or application to connect to the right service platform with the right service class / Quality of Service.
• Recognizing and potentially uniting devices' capabilities.
• Playing a role in the local network to implement device capabilities and offer customers a better "integrated home environment".

Telephone companies have developed sophisticated systems for managing broadband services that reach as far as the DSL modem in the subscriber's home. Previous to broadband services, the managed domain did not extend past the end serving office. The standard analog telephone is a dumb device that has little or no capability for supporting remote testing; consequently there was technically no way for the service provider to manage this POTS service out to the home.

ISDN services did include the ability to perform loop back and other tests out into the subscriber's home, but little use was made of this except after trouble was reported by the subscriber. Typically there was no way of logging or gathering other information available from devices in the subscriber's home to monitor and anticipate problems on the line.

DSL started with the same approach. The DSL loop itself was not managed. This generated a significant number of issues for the DSL service providers in the early days of the service. Interference with pre-existing T1 and ISDN services were a particular problem. Service providers such as SBC developed management systems that gave them the ability to use information available from DSL modems to monitor the performance of each line even if the subscriber has not registered a complaint. These service providers use this information to optimize the over-all operation of the network by minimizing interference between neighboring DSL services as well as DSL services and other services such as T1 and ISDN services. These systems have proved that they can significantly improve the performance of the broadband network and increase customer satisfaction and reduce the number of problems reported.

Today's broadband services stop at the DSL modem. If the subscriber uses this service with a single computer, then only a short cord is required to connect the computer to the DSL modem. If the subscriber sets up a LAN in the home, then managing this network is his or her responsibility.

This situation becomes much more complex with IP TV. Sharing a broadband connection between several IP TV Set-Top Boxes and even only one computer requires a Home Network. In addition, this Home Network sits on the critical path of the IP TV service. If it is not capable of supporting the required IP TV traffic, it will result in the degradation of the IP TV service and may generate considerable customer dissatisfaction.

Topics Covered

1. Executive Summary
2. The Elements of the Home Network
3. The Physical Layer
4. IPTV Home Gateways
5. IPTV Set-Top Boxes
6. Managing the Home Network
7. Advanced Home Network Architectures
8. Opportunities, Risks, and Recommendations
9. Appendices

Table of Figures
Table of Tables

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c35237