Achieving Quality IPTV over DSL

1 Executive Summary DSL has provided for the delivery of broadband services since the mid-1990s. By the fourth quarter of 2010, the world had over 350 million DSL lines in service, accounting for over 65% of the total broadband access market. In such a competitive access environment, differentiation is fundamental to business and driving revenue. To that end, IPTV has been considered a technology with major potential for providing new and attractive services, and delivery of high quality IPTV content becomes a necessity for continued growth and viability of DSL access. Most TV viewers have high expectations with respect to their Quality of Experience (QoE) for television services. This expectation translates into equally stringent requirements for Quality of Service (QoS) of the underlying delivery mechanisms. The viewer expects to have their required QoE and expects the underlying technology to be easy to use, stable, and flexible. In this context, it is critical to apply measures which drive copper access to provide the highest levels of line speed, signal quality and service stability. IPTV over DSL must continue to enhance its capabilities in order to compete with TV services provided by terrestrial TV, hybrid fiber coaxial cable services, fiber to the home and satellite delivery of TV. This white paper outlines the issues raised by IPTV over DSL in terms of the users' experience, the technical requirements, and the tools both current and emerging that allow DSL to support IPTV services successfully to millions of viewers. 2 Introduction IPTV over Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL) is a solution to delivering high quality services such as live and interactive television over a broadband connection. With hundreds of millions of DSL lines in service, maintaining and improving quality of the DSL broadband access to support stringent IPTV requirements is key in retaining customers and driving additional revenue services. The impact of quality in IPTV is not only applicable for the installed base of DSL, as DSL penetration continues to grow and IPTV requirements become more stringent, IPTV over DSL solutions are met with increasing challenges: Increasing bandwidth demand as HDTV and 3DTV content become popular The number of televisions in the home is growing Customer expectations of service responsiveness and selection are growing How can IPTV over DSL meet these expectations and challenges while simultaneously facing competitive TV services offered by cable and satellite technologies? The Broadband Forum's Technical Report TR-126 [1] addresses requirements …