ViUsage-BI

The objective of the Video Usage POC is to collect the business intelligence data that is received by the IPTV middleware platforms, ViSDP and Ad Insertion platforms, and supplement it with relevant service data, such as EPG or VOD, then use this information to analyze usage and buying behaviors. Marketing and sales organizations can use this information to create new offerings, special content offers (i.e. VOD, Music, Media), targeted advertising, churn analysis, etc. Today this information is sparsely located in a variety of places throughout a Service Provider’s organization. The goal of this POC is to build solutions that can be leveraged to gather this kind on information in a data warehouse environment. In Phase 1 of the project we built an enterprise data warehouse solution, which hosts the business intelligence data, then allow a reporting engine to leverage the content for data reporting that is both meaningful and will meet Service Provider requirements.

ViQoS

In deploying an IPTV environment, service providers will require an integrated OSS solution to deliver end-to-end management in order to proactively monitor and manage all the IPTV elements – from the video head end to the customer facing access network.  The integrated OSS solution should offer service providers options to monitor the end-to-end health and status of the overall video solution, as well as the overall service Quality of Service (QoS).  Note that Quality of Experience (QoE), which is an important term defining the user perception of quality, is not directly addressed as part of this POC.

The objective of this Proof of Concept (POC) is to demonstrate the end-to-end video monitoring of an IPTV environment and the supporting Video SDP (ViSDP) platform by integration of fault, performance and service management HP OpenView applications.  This will demonstrate that HP has a comprehensive OSS platform that would allow service providers to monitor and manage Video Services quickly and more efficiently.

The Video QoS (ViQoS) solution would allow service providers to monitor and manage IPTV Solutions from not only a traditional fault and performance management perspective but also from a service quality management perspective.  The features of this solution include:

1. Effectively isolate, troubleshoot, diagnose, help resolve and predict problems across heterogeneous technology domains by means of using HP OpenView Operations and Network Node Manager (for Fault Management) and HP OpenView Performance Insight and the bundled performance Agent (for Performance Management).  Note that problem resolution/solving would depend on a feedback loop into the EMSs and the supporting NOC/Tiers and this is not addressed as part of this POC.
2. Furnish a complete picture of the IPTV environment —from the CPE, the core and access networks required to provide services to customers, the Ethernet transport, to the streaming video servers, storage, and head ends.  Note that the CPE monitoring is done only on a reactive polling basis. 
3. Display the customer service impact and overall service levels to help prioritize the problem resolution.

ViSDP

The objective of this Proof of Concept (POC) is to demonstrate that by using a COTS SOA Application Server, we can create a BSS platform that would allow service providers to offer Video Services quickly and more efficiently.

The Video SDP (ViSDP) would allow service providers to integrate IPTV Solutions into their environment much more seamlessly than integrating various components directly into IPTV. Some other reasons to provide a layer like ViSDP are:

1. Scalability of IPTV environment. Currently the number of subscribers that a given instance of IPTV system can support is not enough to support the needs of service providers, this would require a SP to deploy more than one instance of IPTV (potentially greater than 5-10, depending upon size of customer base they are targeting)
2. Support for an ecosystem to allow easy integration with SP needs, such as order management, subscriber management, package management, revenue collection and partner settlement within the IPTV platform, is primitive at best.
3. Abstract complexity of IPTV provisioning from OSS/BSS system
4. The API’s exposed by the IPTV vendors often talk about terms that the service providers are unfamiliar with and requires a number of different API operations to add a given customer/subscriber. The ViSDP would expose simple business oriented services for subscriber management, IPTV channel/package management services, revenue collections, etc. These businesslike API’s would talk to the SP in terms of customers, services and orders.
5. Support for quickly deploying services with having to change with ever changing set of API’s and having to deal directly without a business façade layer poses a serious risk for SP’s having to incur serious downtime because of not having isolation from the platform.
6. Support for multiple different IPTV platforms.

AT&T Lightspeed Project

The purpose of the AT&T Request for Purchase (RFP) was to determine the most optimal solution for the fourth (4th) generation of Lightspeed IPTV Servers, as well as Server Evolution beyond 4th Generation. This RFP was seen as a significant foundation for many other projects and revenue opportunities at AT&T for HP and Intel. The HP CME Solution Center addressed AT&T’s requirements (and broader ones) by standing up a “lab” facility. This lab leveraged HP’s previous and future worldwide IPTV investments (IPTV COE) as well as a significant amount of expertise developed as a result of this investment.

Network Distributed Intelligence (NDI)

AT&T’s stated goal for the Network Distributed Intelligence (NDI) Program is “To define a network architecture that will unify ALL CUSTOMER SERVICES … across a common network platform, based on the IMS architecture.”

Physically, the NDI Program created an intelligent network element called a Content Distribution Gateway (CDG) that resides at the edge of the access network, which provided the following key values to AT&T.

1. Intelligent management of content and services at the edge of the AT&T network.
2. Enablement of Three Screens functionality with the ability to manage content and services in a consistent way across multiple AT&T (Broadband, IPTV and Mobility) lines of business.
3. Enablement of Local Advertisement Insertion (LAI) in the AT&T network providing a foundation for new revenue streams.

Local Advertising Insertion Project

This project focused on the discovery of channels from the IPTV/Cable infrastructure allowing administrators to be able to indicate which channels in which markets are available for local/regional ad-insertion. From the local ad insertion point of view, this will allow the Service Provider (SP) to define smaller markets (smaller than current Nielsen Designated Market Areas (DMA)). This is essential for SP’s to be able to sell in smaller geography.

HP Cloud Solutions for Media Solution

Together, HP and Intel have built an intelligent media cloud solution that enables content-driven organizations to deliver video and other content to a growing array of clients, devices, and screen types. This next-generation media cloud and associated systems take full advantage of industry-standard platforms to provide exceptional flexibility, economy, and scalability.

Among the emerging habits consumers have for controlling how they consume media, time-shifting and place shifting are probably the most visible and are growing year after year. Media planners and content creators are in the middle of figuring out how to reach the audience and deliver their content at the time and place of their choice. Media Cloud is a service designed for just that. It will allow users to watch personalized TV/Video content from the cloud on the device of their choice and at their convenience. Media cloud provides functionality to store personalized content recorded from their service provider’s network and the capability to deliver that back to the TV or to the device of their choice (like PC/Desktop/Laptop, Mobile, etc). Both time-shifting and place-shifting user behavior plans to challenge the status quo business models (ad driven) by which video content gets delivered today.

Microsoft Certification for ISS Platforms for Microsoft Mediaroom

The most current project has just started. It’s main objective is to work with Intel and Microsoft to Documenting the Test Architecture, tests, results and analysis of Microsoft Mediaroom that will be deployed on Hewlett-Packard BladeSystem c-Class blade servers using Virtual Connect technology at our largest customers.