ZTE Provides IPTV for China Netcom
Beijing Netcom commences full-fledged IPTV testing, using the state-of-the-art video codec called H.264.
Beijing Netcom, the Beijing branch of China Netcom, is Bejing´s largest fixed-line telecoms carrier and Internet service provider. It has the greatest technical and economic strength among China Netcom´s affiliated telecoms companies and constitutes one of the most important markets for China Netcom. As it has a leading role, it is regarded as an industry wind vane for operators. It was significant that China Netcom was to try IPTV in its Beijing network and this was the first IPTV project China Netcom put out to tender, although trials had been started without a tender process in other areas such as northern Shanxi Province and northeastern Harbin city.
Fixed-line operators cannot stop the erosion of their voice business by VoIP and mobile services but while they are faced with challenges, they are also offered new opportunities. Maintaining sustainable growth, ARPU and profits will be major tasks. Transforming and reinventing their businesses, bringing more services and capabilities to the market are regarded by the industry as inevitable requirements for further development. IPTV deployment is seen by global fixed-line operators as a major focus to enable new revenue growth.
Beijing Netcom planned to build an IPTV trial network that could cater to 50,000 customers and support 10,000 concurrent IPTV application users. The first bidding documents were issued to IPTV equipment manufacturers in December 2005.
ZTE, Huawei, UTStarcom, Alcatel Shanghai Bell and Siemens signed up to tender for the project. ZTE walked away a winner in February 2006 because of the company´s extensive technical experience in the audio and video field and its complete IPTV solution which provides innovative, integrated and high quality services. ZTE was to install this first ever IPTV trial for Beijing Netcom using the advanced H.264 digital video encoding standard.
Beijing Netcom has now started the trial operation of IPTV in some areas of Beijing and will enlarge the service coverage area over the next year. Named Broadband Space, the IPTV service is available at present for residents with telephone numbers starting with 8495. Apart from accessing current cable TV channels, these IPTV users can choose to watch seven or eight channels of programs provided by Beijing Netcom, including sports, entertainment and interactively requested programmes.
ZTE´s solution for Bejing Netcom is centred around the following areas:
Fig. 1 Architecture for service layer platform
The ZTE IPTV system can provide characteristic and competitive services (Fig. 2) such as VoD, information services and video communication services which can bring operators substantial and sustainable revenue streams. The new network was planned to provide subscribers with TV on demand (TVoD), Subscription Video-on-Demand (SVoD), live TV, time-shifted TV, interactive games and karaoke in the initial stage. Information services, instant messaging, e-business and e-government will be rolled out gradually. The system can integrate with existing billing systems, enabling a unified platform and process for subscriber management, billing and cost calculation.
Fig. 2 Services provided by China Netcom´s IPTV system
In this project, ZTE adopted the most advanced H. 264 solution which can deliver IPTV services through broadband networks including xDSL, LAN, WLAN.
The H.264 standard offers a wide range of application areas such as Global Eye System, videoconference, video phone, VoD, live TV and mobile TV. It is also a standard that will play a great role in consumer electronics such as HDTV, STB, digital TV and personal video recorders (PVRs).
The new industry standard H.264 reduces networks´ bandwidth requirements. Given the same bandwidth, the network can therefore reach more users. Especially in a DSL provisioning scenario, H.264-based compression technology increases the available subscriber lines by 30 percent. The use of H.264 can also greatly improve picture quality at any given bit rate. It can deliver high definition video within from 5Mbps to 8Mbps of bandwidth compared with MPEG2 which requires 15Mbps bandwidth to deliver the same quality video.
Its highly efficient use of bandwith and low delay for real-time service make it easily adaptable to IP and mobile networks. The adoption of H.264 can save on equipment costs in every part of the network including streaming severs, storage and the bearer network. This codec has been fully developed and tested and is ready for large-scale commercial use.
China Netcom´s H.264 IPTV system can provide subscribers with the following services:
As the H.264 codec is capable of freeing up transmission bandwidth and alleviating the impact of delivering video content on the bearer network, it can help operators reduce network construction costs and has therefore drawn wide attention from operators in China. Now, most leading IPTV vendors are engaged in development and application of the H.264 video compression standard.
The Shanghai Research Institute of China Telecom carried out IPTV internal testing in August last year, in which mainstream telecoms vendors like ZTE participated. After the test, China Telecom began to consider the adoption of H.264, while before this the most popular standard in China was MPEG-4 ASP. China Telecom subsidiary Shanghai Telecom has also launched an IPTV trial based on H. 264.
ZTE has installed other trial IPTV networks including a 100,000 subscriber contract for the Jiangsu Branch of China Telecom and others for the Yunnan, Shaanxi and Guangdong branches of China Telecom. ZTE has incorporated the H.264 coding standard in Jiangsu Telecom´s IPTV commercial network, further showing that this technology has matured and can be widely used in IPTV systems.
ZTE´s IPTV system features a telco grade solution, reliable content and service management platforms, a stable and scaleable video content distribution network and user-friendly terminals.
The IPTV contract with Beijing Netcom may signal the beginning of a broader cooperation with China Netcom. ZTE not only has the largest share of IPTV trials in Chinese market to date, but also has trials in Europe and Latin America making ZTE one of the most successful and experienced IPTV vendors in the world.
-
Going Digital with ZTE Digital Home Total Solution
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
No comments:
Post a Comment