Actividades de normalización sobre IPTV del UIT-T

Dado que IPTV se está transformando en un servicio cada vez más importante en el mercado y la industria esta enfrentando desafíos debido a aspectos técnicos y regulatorios, el UIT-T ha recibido propuestas para fortalecer su trabajo en la normalización de la IPTV. El UIT-T celebró una reunión de consulta abiernta en Ginebra el 4 y 5 de abril de 2006 sobre el servicio de IPTV y su normalización. En la reunión participaron miembros y no miembros del UIT-T.

Nota del Editor: Documento sólo disponible en inglés.

Given that IPTV is becoming an increasingly important service in the market, and the industry is facing challenges from technical as well as regulatory issues, ITU-T received proposals to strengthen its work on IPTV standardization. ITU-T convened an open consultation meeting in Geneva, 4-5 April 2006 on IPTV service and its standardization. The meeting was well attended by both ITU-T Members and non‑Members.

It was highlighted that there is an urgent need to increase the international effort on various issues, in particular, interoperability since many ITU-T study groups and various regional standards development organizations have already accomplished a lot of work on IPTV and that ITU is an excellent place to initiate, coordinate and harmonize global activities for IPTV standards.

Based on the results of the open consultation meeting, and authorized by ITU-T Recommendation A.7, the IPTV Focus Group (FG IPTV) was established. This decision was also supported by all Chairmen of ITU‑T study groups. The mission of IPTV Focus Group was to coordinate and promote the development of global IPTV standards taking into account the existing work of the ITU-T study groups as well as standards development organizations (SDOs), Fora and Consortia.

The FG IPTV was comprised of six working groups covering all aspects related to IPTV. The first meeting of the focus group was held from 10 to 14 July 2006 in Geneva and its seventh and the last meeting was held in Malta in December 2007.

The first task for FG IPTV was to define “.IPTV”. This is what ITU-T has defined as IPTV:

 “IPTV is defined as multimedia services such as television/video/ audio/text/graphics/data delivered over IP-based networks managed to support the required level of QoS/QoE, security, interactivity and reliability.”

Following provides summary of activities and achievements of the six FG IPTV working groups.

Working group 1: Architecture and Requirements

WG1 activities concentrated on defining and describing IPTV services requirements, IPTV framework architecture (NGN and non-NGN) and IPTV service scenarios. WG1 specification was driven by a systemic IPTV service-wise approach, based upon practical experience and global expertise. It prepared three documents as follows:

IPTV services requirements: The IPTV services requirements document provides a list of requirements that have been elaborated according to an IPTV service-wise, global and systemic approach. These requirements have been organized according to a functional taxonomy (e.g. QoS requirements, security requirements, middleware requirements, etc.), and further classified into required, recommended and optional requirements.

IPTV architecture: This document describes the IPTV functional architecture intended to support IPTV services based on the IPTV service requirements and definitions.  Starting from a basic description of IPTV players, roles and services, a high level IPTV functional model is outlined.  This model is then developed into a set of functional architectures which support NGN and non-NGN transport networks, as well as operation modes with or without IMS.

IPTV service scenarios: The IPTV service scenarios document provides a list of IPTV use cases that are meant to illustrate how IPTV services can be designed, deployed and operated. From this perspective, use cases have been classified according to an IPTV service taxonomy that includes (but is not limited to) on-demand services, advertising services and broadcast services.

Working group 2: QoS and Performance Aspects

WG2 championed and promoted the development of global QoS and performance standards necessary to ensure high end-user satisfaction, and hence high end-user acceptance, for IPTV services.  WG2 produced the four following documents:

Quality of experience requirements for IPTV services: This document defines user requirements for quality of experience for IPTV services. The QoE requirements are defined from an end user perspective and are agnostic to network deployment architectures and transport protocols. The QoE requirements are specified as end-to-end and information is provided on how they influence network transport and application layer behaviour. QoE requirements for video, audio, text, graphics, control functions and meta-data are provided.

Traffic management mechanisms for the support of IPTV services: This document describes a set of traffic management mechanisms which are aimed to facilitate the efficient support of IPTV services over the network infrastructure. Traffic management mechanisms for the home, access, and core networks are discussed. The network supporting IPTV services will span a number of network domains which may be designed, deployed and operated by different providers and which may differ in their traffic management capabilities. Therefore, it is expected that the network provider(s) will implement a subset of these mechanisms to ensure IPTV service objectives are satisfied efficiently. Furthermore the traffic management mechanisms also depend on the specific network architectures used for IPTV services as defined in the IPTV architecture specification. The document further provides mappings of IPTV service components to the IP network QoS classes defined in ITU-T Y.1541.

Application layer error recovery mechanisms for IPTV services: This document describes specific mechanisms and the applicability of these mechanisms to IPTV services and network conditions, and provides recommendations and guidance on their use. It has been determined that with the use of these mechanisms, consumer television quality can be achieved using the standard Y.1541 QoS classes 0 and 1.

Performance monitoring for IPTV: This document defines monitoring points, monitoring parameters and monitoring methods for IPTV services. It covers both network and service related performance monitoring parameters from the physical up to the application layers.

Working group 3: Service Security and Content Protection

WG3 focused on addressing the urgent needs for globally acceptable IPTV security standards as the market demands. It identified security requirements, defined the security architecture and described security mechanisms to satisfy the business & security requirements for the IPTV system architecture. WG3 produced the following document.

IPTV security aspects: This document addresses threats, requirements, architecture, and mechanisms that pertain to security and protection aspects of IPTV content, services, networks, terminal devices, and subscriber (end-users).

Working group 4: IPTV Network Control

WG4 focused on specifying detailed functional requirements of network control and multicast capability. It described various aspects of IPTV network control. It also described functional requirements and frameworks for supporting multicast capabilities in terms of IPTV network control. Finally identified protocols relevant to IPTV services and categorized these protocols relative to their specific functions in relation to IPTV services. WG4 received 178 contributions and produced three documents. WG4 produced the following three documents.

IPTV network control aspects: This document describes various aspects of IPTV network control. It provides a list of detailed requirements to address control and signalling matters related to authentication and authorization, content delivery, consumer domain attachment and initialization, quality of service (QoS), quality of experience (QoE) and security.

IPTV multicast frameworks: This document on IPTV multicast frameworks describes functional requirements and frameworks for supporting multicast capabilities in terms of IPTV network control.

IPTV related protocols:  This document identifies protocols relevant to IPTV services and categorizes these protocols relative to their specific functions in relation to IPTV services.

Working group 5: End Systems and Interoperability Aspects

WG5 scope included IPTV terminal devices and the home network which would support IPTV services. It provided terminal device and home network architectures, and identified interfaces and service/functional requirements in harmonization with other ITU-T study groups and other SDOs. The home network activities were based most significantly on the HGI work. WG5 progressed particularly in the area of defining and describing the basic framework and architecture for a home network, as well as defining and describing the many interfaces between different devices within a home network. WG5 produced the following two documents.

Aspects of IPTV end system – Terminal device: This document outlines functional requirements of the terminal device, capabilities expected to be supported by the terminal device, and the terminal device architecture.

Aspects of home network supporting IPTV services: This document addresses the home network architecture aspects in the context of IPTV. 

Working group 6: Middleware, Application and Content Platforms

WG6 identified and defined middleware platforms, including applications, content formats, and their uses to facilitate effective and interoperable use of an IPTV system for presenting and interacting with IPTV services. It studied aspects of services which were relevant to discovery, navigation, selection, acquisition, delivery and presentation including interaction, of content. WG6 produced the following five documents.

IPTV middleware, applications and content platforms: This document identifies and defines middleware platforms, including applications, content formats, and their uses, that facilitate effective and interoperable use of an IPTV system for presenting and interacting with IPTV services. This document is a general document for IPTV middleware, application and content platforms. It describes content provisioning, service discovery, channel and content identification and location resolution, and profiling. This document refers to text on middleware, content coding, metadata, which can be found in other documents.

Toolbox for content coding: This document addresses the use of video and audio coding in services delivered over Internet Protocols (IP). It describes the use of H.264/AVC video, VC 1 video, AVS video, HE AAC v2 audio, HE AAC v2 audio, Extended AMR WB (AMR WB+) audio, and AC-3 and Enhanced AC-3 audio. In addition, this document describes the use of speech codecs within an IPTV environment and the specified codecs for this use. This document adopts a "toolbox" approach for the general case of IPTV applications delivered directly over IP and MPEG2 ­-TS. This document is not a specification for the use of Audio and Video Codec’s for use in IPTV Services.

IPTV middleware: This document identifies those aspects of architecture specific to IPTV middleware and describes the various functions with explanatory definitions where appropriate. 

IPTV metadata: This document gives the overview of the metadata for IPTV services and describes its elements and delivery protocols, identifying relevant standards. The IPTV metadata, the information on services and contents processed by the service and content delivery infrastructure, provides descriptive and structural framework for managing IPTV services. Aspects of transport, representation, content provisioning, and security of metadata are covered.

Standards for IPTV multimedia application platforms: This document identifies and analyzes the relevant standards for IPTV multimedia application platforms.
 

Where to find FG IPTV documents

FG IPTV documents are available to the public and there is no need for having an account number or a password to access any of the documents.

http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/IPTV/ 

IPTV Global Standards Initiative (IPTV-GSI)

In accordance with decisions taken at the April 2007 meeting of Study Group 13 the work of the FG IPTV ended in December 2007 and its deliverables were transferred to the appropriate study groups via Study Group 13 for further consideration and, when appropriate to develop draft Recommendations based on the focus group deliverables.

Based on proposals developed by the chairman of Study Group 13 and the chairman of the FG IPTV (and with the support of all study group chairmen and endorsement by TSAG) the ongoing work will be carried out under the umbrella of a Global Standards Initiative (the IPTV-GSI). This means that the ongoing work on the FG IPTV deliverables  will be done by the ITU-T study groups (based on allocation developed by a coordination group, the Joint coordination Activity on IPTV (JCA-IPTV)) with coordinated planning and through co-located meetings of the involved study groups and/or rapporteur groups

The first IPTV-GSI event took place in Seoul, Korea, from 15-22 January 2008. Several of FG IPTV documents became draft Recommendation in this meeting paving the way for speedy progress.

Information regarding IPTV-GSI can be found at:

http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/gsi/iptv/

An ITU user ID (TIES account) is needed to access files in this website.

The next IPTV-GSI event will be from 30 April to 7 May 2008 in Geneva, Switzerland.

Ghassem Koleyni
Chairman of the Former ITU-T FG IPTV and
present ITU-T IPTV-GSI TSR (Technical and Strategic Review) Coordinator
(Nortel)