Multicast Delivery of IPTV Over the Internet

Abstract

Television represents one of the great
advancements in information delivery. Traditionally, television
service has been delivered using dedicated communication
methods such as terrestrial and satellite based wireless
transmissions and fixed cable based transmissions. Some of these
delivery mechanisms have advanced and now provide services
including voice and Internet access. Another communication
method, traditional telephone service, has greatly improved
and expanded to deliver services such as television and Internet
access.
This convergence of service provides cost savings, allowing
providers to utilize existing communication networks to deliver
additional services to its customers, often at minimal or zero
infrastructure cost. One disadvantage of this method is customer
reach is still limited to those with access to dedicated service
provider networks. The ability to disengage television service
from these dedicated networks and move it to a more ubiquitous
network would greatly improve the customer reach of the
providers.
The most obvious network choice for a delivery medium
is the Internet. Given that television delivery mechanisms have
already started the progression towards IPTV, the service is
a natural fit. One issue hindering this transition is bandwidth
availability. In private delivery networks, the issue of bandwidth
availability for IPTV is often combated through the use of IP
Multicasting. Considering the Internet is already believed to be
bandwidth constrained, the use of multicasting could be deemed
a requirement. The following paper will explore current issues
with deploying IPTV over the Internet, the use of multicast to
combat some of these problems, and the inherent challenges of
pushing multicast based IPTV services over the Internet.