Video service assurance across hybrid transport networks

Dimetis Whitepaper
for the Television Broadcast Industry
(working draft, incomplete)

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“Assuring End-to-End Broadcast Video Quality over Next Generation Networks”
------------------------

ABSTRACT

A tectonic paradigm shift in network transport techniques is rocking
the broadcasters’ confidence in the transmission quality of mission-critical television
streams. Broadcasters are unsure of when of if their media streams are receiving
priority treatment and transport service providers are themselves unable to answer these
questions. Yet the implementation of hybrid, unmanaged Next Generation Networks
(NGN) continues to proliferate, jeopardizing the broadcasters’ ability to guarantee
delivery of broadcast-quality payloads even for their premium HDTV content.

Dimetis provides a next-generation Broadcast Operation Services and Support toolset
which simplifies this NGN chaos in a uniform manner, restores confidence in the integrity
of broadcast transports, and then lets broadcasters leverage these disruptive changes to
their advantage.

Adoption of Internet Protocol has reached an inflection point – based on recent MPLS /
LSP advances for broadcast traffic – and its momentum will now only increase. Dimetis
is showing broadcasters how its Broadcast OSS strategy can ease this inevitable
migration and help them forge a robust Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) to exploit
end-user demand for mobile media delivery.

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1 Rough Draft - 7/30/2008 CONFIDENTIAL for review only pg. 1 of 29

Table of Contents

I. Your Broadcast Business currently employs a hybrid of multiple transport
networks to deliver media payloads:

SERVICE ASSURANCE PROBLEMS AND EXCESSIVE COSTS WITH CURRENT LONG-HAUL
SERVICE PROVIDERS

MPLS IMPROVEMENTS IN IP TAGGING SCHEMES
ATM-GRADE PERFORMANCE OVER IP CORE BACKBONES
“BOUTIQUE” Carriers Are Mpls-Savvy
MANAGING MEDIA DELIVERY QUALITY ( SLAS, QOS) OVER HYBRID NETWORKS

II. Unified Control over Hybrid NGN Transports - The Key to ReEstablishing
Media Payload Assurance
BRIDGING THE GAP – WHY MANAGEMENT IS THE KEY
CLOSED LOOP FULFILLMENT ASSURANCE – HARNESSING FRAGMENTED NGN
TECHNOLOGIES INTO A COHERENT OPERATIONAL ENVIRONMENT

CURRENT HETEROGENEOUS TRANSPORT NETWORKS CANNOT BE CENTRALLY
MANAGED END-TO-END

Current EMS tools
Current OSS tools
BOSS – THE BROADCAST OPERATIONS AND SUPPORT SYSTEM

MORE THAN TRANSPORT MANAGEMENT IS REQUIRED FOR END-TO-END PAYLOAD
ASSURANCE
MANAGEMENT SCENARIOS INTEGRATING BROADCAST CONTRIBUTION ELEMENTS

III. Managing Complex Hybrid Networks is Now Easy with Dimetis BOSS

IV. BOSS is a standards-based management tool that can Grow and Adapt with
Your Network Evolution – SID model, SOA, ESB etc see shahin

V. You may want to migrate to a consolidated, homogeneous network strategy.
BOSS provides a logical path for Migrating to Homogeneous Next Generation
Networks

VI. BOSS can Help You Migrate to a Robust Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)
for Integrating Media Distribution over IPTV, Broadcast, Video-on-Demand,
Webcast, & MobileCast – all with Realtime Payload Assurance

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I.
Your Broadcast Business currently employs
a hybrid of multiple transport networks to deliver media payloads

The broadcast business has always relied on the effective application of cutting-edge
technologies. But today’s challenge of network evolution may be stressing the your ability to
manage change. Disruptive trends reshaping transport network operations may leave you
feeling adrift, so Dimetis is providing this logical overview of key industry trends that will be
shaping your future operating practices. Hopefully this study will illuminate a rational
migration path for coping with and exploiting these accelerating technological advances.
As a technology-centric operation, broadcasting currently relies on a dense web of transport
networks to carry mission-critical video, radio, and data streams.
regional contribution
o In-Studio Gb LANs
o Editing Bay WANs
o Satellite Links
o Microwave Truck Remotes
o Transmitter Links
global distribution
o realtime
o file transfer
on-demand, event transmission

Some of these
networks are
owned and
managed in-
house, some by
contract suppliers,
and some by
telecom service
providers
(carriers).
The matrix at right
maps the scope of
this complexity
facing today’s
broadcaster.

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This explosion of media transports has resulted in a plethora of options which are utilized in
an unmanaged way – leaving the broadcaster exposed to:

Unmonitored corruption of media quality & service outages
No automated Failover or Failback capabilities
Excessive cost for legacy network leases
Unmonitored waste of under-utilized transport capacity
Excessive downtime & cost for diagnosing & repairing transport outages
No Comprehensive Service Quality Assurance for mission-critical payloads
No comprehensive view over transport operations, utilization, & options
This uncontrolled expansion of transport options is understandable, occurring over decades
as broadcasters added network functionality as needed. But now this jumble of disparate
network gear and protocols has created a hybrid of heterogeneous, unmanaged complexity
that can marginalize both the broadcasters’ profitability and service quality.

SERVICE ASSURANCE PROBLEMS
AND EXCESSIVE COSTS WITH CURRENT • Black Frame
LONG-HAUL SERVICE PROVIDERS
• Audio Loss
In addition, the service providers you use for • I-Frame Bit Error
long-haul distribution has also been affected by • P-Frame Bit Error
the creep of heterogeneous transport protocols • Freeze Up
into their operations resulting in a similar
unmanaged level of operations that can and
often does directly impact the quality and QoS degradation of Media Payloads has
become more common and more frequent
reliability of your media payloads across their with today’s next-generation networks
networks.

Service Provider networks are not homogeneous. End-to-end transmission of Media Payloads
is typically transported over a mix of disparate network protocols

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Despite having contractual Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with these carriers, their lack of
(and incapability of providing) realtime Quality of Service (QoS) monitoring means they:
1) are often unaware of QoS corruption,
2) have no means of mitigating QoS degradation in realtime, and
3) you have no recourse for pro-actively assuring end-to-end QoS.

Until a downstream distributor or subscriber calls to complain about corrupt sound, image
quality, or file transfer – you have no awareness of the problem because you (and your
carrier) have no realtime visibility into the integrity of your media payload stream end-to-end.
These long-haul carriers are also
struggling to integrate Next Generation IP
networking into their transport mix.
Unfortunately the excellent service
assurance traditionally provided by ATM
transports (defined in chart) is no longer
the operating norm. Because today’s new
IP networks offer the carrier lower
equipment cost and lower operating
expense, they are compelled to add IP
transports into their long-haul architectures.
Now the IP protocol is in an important transitionary phase – offering
powerful QoS advantages for broadcast streams while suffering a lag in
UNFORTUNATELY advanced service quality implementation. It’s appeal and advantage over
THE EXCELLENT ATM is that it is a “connectionless” protocol. IP traffic runs in a mixed mode
SERVICE with multiple user streams competing for passageway - maximizing inherent
ASSURANCE
utilization efficiency in the transport pipe and lowering operating costs
TRADITIONALLY
compared to ATM. This strategy is ideal for data traffic which has no
realtime performance constraints.
PROVIDED BY ATM
TRANSPORTS IS But for realtime video streams, the “connection-oriented” nature of ATM
NO LONGER THE means that each user’s stream was assigned a permanent portion of the
OPERATING NORM transport pipe for the duration of the transmit session – thus guaranteeing
100% QoS when using ATM’s “Constant Bit Rate” (CBR) feature. However,
the cost of provisioning each user’s stream or “Private Virtual Circuit” (PVC)
incurs a higher OPEX penalty compared to IP.
The carriers’ migration away from ATM reliability is not based on abandoning legacy ATM
components, but rather by adding IP transports into portions of the backbone which they find
useful. Thus their backbone is no longer ATM-homogenous and can no longer ensure end-
to-end ATM QoS assurance.

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MPLS IMPROVEMENTS IN IP TAGGING SCHEMES

The good news is that the IP protocol is continually improving on its connectionless model,
and is actually moving closer to ATM’s connection-oriented SLA approach. IP’s original SLA
tiers were based only on DiffServ tagging of the data packets. However the
needs for video and VoIP QoS urged the improved “MPLS” tagging scheme
IP NOW HAS AS which improved traffic resiliency for media streams.
GOOD A TRAFFIC
One important MPLS feature has tamed a specific need of broadcasters for
ENGINEERING point-to-multipoint distribution. Traditionally a broadcaster will distribute
CAPABILITY AS programming to a dozen regional head-ends nationwide using simultaneous
ATM. BUT THE satellite feeds, requiring only one upload stream to the distribution node.
PROVISIONING However, this “Multi-Casting” via IP was a challenge until the Label Switched
SKILLS AND Path “LSP” was aggressively implemented recently by Juniper and others.
ADEPTNESS OF
LSP moves IP from the pure connectionless model toward ATM’s connection-
CARRIERS TO
oriented advantage for video. Without LSP and its destination / connction
TAKE ADVANTAGE
taggin, IP networks had to duplicate a separate copy of each stream to each
OF THESE
distribution head-end. Thus point-to-multipoint (P2MP) distribution of a
ADVANCES HAS
300Mbps uncompressed HDTV signal yielded a 3 Gbps load on the IP
NOT KEPT UP backbone – inefficient and error-prone. Now with LSP tagging, only one stream
is carried on the backbone and its destination / connection tagging then
replicates and routes duplicates only at the destination edge of the network.

ATM-GRADE PERFORMANCE OVER IP CORE BACKBONES (adapted from Juniper Networks)

Since video is so loss-sensitive, it requires that service providers specify point-to-point worst
case latency/jitter bounds and packet loss metrics that can match those of ATM services.
From a network-architecture perspective, that requires IP routers to guarantee worst case
latency and jitter bounds on a per-node basis for premium traffic in the presence of
background best effort data traffic. In addition, IP routers have to guarantee bandwidth for
each premium application on an end-to-end basis.
“Carriers don't like the idea that their "premium traffic is just floating around out
there," he says. "What you're going to see in the industry is an increased drive
by the IP players to deal with premium traffic without having everything fall into
the best-effort hole."
- Tom Nolle, president of consulting firm CIMI Corp.

To ensure the deterministic delivery of video the IP network must also support rapid recovery
from a failure. Reducing outage times to subsecond intervals is critical to sustain high levels
of video quality and minimize error recovery dependencies. MPLS resiliency is on a par with
SONET/SDH recovery times, but has the added ability to recover from an outage using local
repair techniques. MPLS also can reallocate lower traffic class bandwidth resources to video
in a converged core, so that an entire duplication of capacity is not held in reserve (as it is
with SONET rings). This reduces the number of idle links in the network while maximizing
revenue potential.
Another key benefit of IP/MPLS over pure SONET/SDH transport for video distribution is the
ability to grow the network rapidly and easily as site count and content capacity increase.

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Core routing platforms now scale into the terabit-per-second range with wire speed and low-
latency forwarding. Weighed against the disadvantages of a traditional SONET/SDH
solution, IP/MPLS emerges as a compelling choice for video distribution when implementing
a robust, large-scale backbone.
Quality of Service: Jitter is an especially important consideration. For instance, a one-
second delay in a television program is not important to the end user. However,
variances in that delay will be experienced as frame freezes, asynchronous dialogue,
or slight omissions from the program. The loss of even a handful of packets can result
in a noticeable—and unacceptable—blip on the TV screen. The QoS abilities of legacy
routers have historically been an issue in transitioning to an IP solution. Improved
queuing mechanisms for guaranteed QoS have helped to resolve this issue, along with
the ability to take better advantage of MPLS features such as Resource Reservation
Protocol traffic engineering (RSVP-TE) and DiffServ TE.

Resiliency: Expected failover for video is on the order of that provided by
SONET/SDH (50 ms). This is achieved through the use of MPLS Fast Reroute (FRR).

Replication - For bandwidth efficiency, it is necessary to perform an efficient
replication within the network to eliminate duplicated traffic over the same link.

These new MPLS schemes now mean the IP protocol inherently has as good
a traffic engineering capability as ATM. But the provisioning skills and
CARRIERS HAVE adeptness of carriers to take advantage of these advances has not kept up.
JUST BEEN TOO Frankly carriers have just been too busy meeting the revolutionary demand
BUSY MEETING THE for streaming web content, IPTV, and mobile media convergence to focus on
REVOLUTIONARY the QoS needs of broadcast television customers.
DEMAND FOR
STREAMING WEB COSTLY “BOUTIQUE” CARRIERS
CONTENT, IPTV,
While today’s “common carriers” struggle to digest the impact of Next Gen
AND MOBILE MEDIA
Networks on their core businesses, there are boutique carriers like Level3
CONVERGENCE TO
and MediaXstream whose core business model is to service the niche needs
FOCUS ON THE QOS
of QoS-dependant clients like broadcasters. They are up-to-date on the latest
NEEDS OF
IP advances and more importantly have customized and implemented
BROADCASTERS advanced management systems which fully leverage the advantages of Next
Gen Nets to their customers’ advantage. However, broadcasters must pay an
arm and a leg to carry their payloads over these boutique service providers.

Dimetis is in the business of showing broadcasters how they can:
1) Use common carriers at lower cost to achieve the same premium QoS results as boutique
carriers for long-haul video transport
2) Achieve advanced QoS management and provisioning benefits over their own in-house
networks and transports

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MANAGING MEDIA DELIVERY QUALITY ( SLAS, QOS) OVER HYBRID NETWORKS

So if IP/MPLS transports are now capable of ATM-grade performance, what’s the problem?
Simply put, while properly provisioned and managed IP can now deliver broadcast-quality
service assurance, transmission networks are:
1) not homogeneously using
advanced IP/MPLS gear
2) not operated and managed with
optimal IP/MPLS parameters
3) not operated with homogeneous
transport protocols.

Thus transport streams must survive multiple hurdles across divergent network standards,
fragmented protocols, and un-coordinated carrier operating standards.
Clearly there is a paradigm shift with Next Generation Networks that can benefit
broadcasters. Yet you still wonder about end-to-end media delivery quality over mixed hybrid
transports and networks. And, as long as you are lacking absolute metrics from realtime
performance measurements, one cannot and should not be certain about media stream
integrity. Dimetis is in the business of helping broadcasters leverage this paradigm shift to
their advantage by:
1) consolidating and delivering realtime QoS performance metrics from any
point in the contribution or distribution network using any existing monitoring
AS LONG AS YOU gear from any vendor over any network
ARE LACKING
ABSOLUTE 2) providing automated, non service-interrupting fail-over and failback
METRICS FROM
protection for network resiliency over any mix of transport protocols or
REALTIME
service providers
PERFORMANCE 3) guaranteeing end-to-end broadcast-quality QoS over any network
MEASUREMENTS, transport or carrier
ONE CANNOT AND
SHOULD NOT BE
4) supporting on-demand provisioning of any network to support broadcast
quality television transmissions from event-based venues
CERTAIN ABOUT
MEDIA STREAM 5) assuring point-to-multipoint distribution quality
INTEGRITY

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II.
Unified Control over Hybrid NGN Transports -
The Key to ReEstablishing Media Payload Assurance

The NGN resources that now exist are technologically capable of delivering
NGN ADVANCES
payload assurance adequate for assuring broadcast-quality transmission. But
the missing link is the management capability to uniformly weld these
HAS CREATED A
components into a seamless and coherent operating environment. Present
FRAGMENTED
Methods of Operation (PMO) for these heterogeneous resources do not provide
MOSAIC OF
a centralized operational environment capable of enabling centralized, uniform,
HYBRID
and realtime control over the QoS and SLA parameters that can guarantee
TECHNOLOGIES
payload integrity.
FOR WHICH
THERE IS NO
BRIDGING THE GAP – WHY MANAGEMENT IS THE KEY
UNIFIED
MANAGEMENT The legacy ATM transport environment gave carriers a centralized management
TOOLSET toolset with which they could assure broadcasters reliable broadcast-quality links
over a homogeneous network. But the emergence of NGN advances has created
a fragmented mosaic of hybrid technologies for which there is no unified
management toolset nor over-arching method of coherent operation. With the
rapid advance of NGN technologies, the existing management tools have simply
not kept up:
1) PMO provide no end-to-end, realtime monitoring metrics readily available to
provide visibility into the integrity of media payload streams
2) PMO cannot identify locations and sources of unplanned network congestion
in realtime
3) PMO cannot centrally control the QoS parameters for every router, switch,
satellite, encoder/decoder, and transport link that carries your broadcast
stream
4) PMO do not provide realtime failover mechanisms or strategies for every
router, switch, satellite, encoder/decoder, and transport link that carries your
broadcast stream
5) PMO do not let the broadcasters establish transport links on-demand capable
of supporting remote events. Maintaining the exorbitant cost of satellite trucks
is evidence of this need.
6) PMO do not readily provide point-to-multipoint distribution
What is needed for bridging this gap is a management toolset and
operational methodology capable of implementing Closed Loop WELDING HYBRID
Fulfillment Assurance across the entire mosaic of hybrid NGN equipment NETWORK
and systems. The industry focus should now be on enhancing the ELEMENTS INTO
operational capabilities that will harness new NGN systems to better A COHERENT
serve the broadcasters’ needs. OPERATIONS
CONSOLE FOR
BROADCAST

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CLOSED LOOP FULFILLMENT ASSURANCE –
HARNESSING FRAGMENTED NGN TECHNOLOGIES INTO A COHERENT OPERATIONAL
ENVIRONMENT

The sheer scope of the management challenge can seem daunting, looking at the diagram
below. Yet the key to streamlining operations across this mosaic is found by simply tapping
into the management interfaces of every existing component and then consolidating those
data and control parameters into a centralized, uniform management tool. This integration is
precisely what Dimetis has achieved and Section III will describe the Dimetis BOSS
management architecture. But prior to that explanation, a fuller understand if existing
management approaches and tools should be helpful for the broadcaster.

HETEROGENEOUS TRANSPORT NETWORKS CANNOT BE CENTRALLY MANAGED END-TO-END
USING LEGACY MANAGEMENT TOOLS

Two fundamental classes of management tools exist for the carrier:
1) Stand-alone Element Management Systems (EMS) supplied by equipment vendors
which provide data interfaces for the remote monitoring and control of that
equipment’s operating parameters
2) Highly integrated Operations Support Systems (OSS) that serve as sophisticated
database engines that carriers use to operate and manage both their network
operations and their back-office business applications.

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Current EMS tools
Looking at the first method, one can easily understand why stand-alone EMS tools were
never built to integrate into a uniform, cross-platform operating system. So today’s
broadcaster is typically faced with a barrage of fragmented management screens and tools
which cannot quickly profile and characterize the realtime condition of his transport stream,
much less provide a single console for realtime system-wide control.

Enter Dimetis, the proven leader in closed-loop performance assurance with a centralized
management interface capable of polling and controlling every single piece of equipment in
the broadcasters’ shop. By accessing and consolidating the operational parameters of
every component, the broadcaster gains a single integrated console for monitoring and
controlling his network performance.
Of course to achieve this cross-platform, cross-technology integration, the Dimetis platform is
a hardware and software agnostic system. While it features interoperability with any existing
piece of gear or network management tools, it’s agnosticism assures seamless integration
with any future acquisitions to future-proof the manageability of your operational
infrastructure.

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Current OSS tools
One might expect the large OSS tools to delivery highly
integrated functionality – which they indeed do. But the
scope of their operational advantage focuses on the
back-office tasks. Originally developed as Billing
Support Systems (BSS) they have evolved into
sophisticated Customer Relationship Management tools
for minimizing churn by improving subscriber loyalty.
They also integrate EMS and provisioning capabilities for
monitoring and controlling network components to
assure QoS for VoIP and IPTV across the access network.
But with their focus on serving wireline and wireless
subscribers, they have yet not tackled the management
challenge of welding hybrid network elements into a
coherent operations console for their broadcast clients. In
short, the rapid advance in NGN options has culminated in
a level of network complexity that has surged ahead of the
ability of legacy toolsets to adequately manage it, resulting
in a mission-critical performance gap for broadcasters.
Legacy OSS cannot monitor or
provision end-to-end elements of
hybrid networks

BOSS – THE BROADCAST OPERATIONS AND SUPPORT SYSTEM

Correcting the broadcasters’ performance gap
using state-of-the-art management tools and
strategies is the specific mission of Dimetis.
To achieve this goal, we have developed a
broadcast-centric management platform which
we’ve named the Broadcast Operations and Support System (BOSS). Drawing on over 10
years of broadcast engineering and management expertise, we’ve assembled a team of
world-class industry experts – drawn from notables such as Telcordia, Deutsh Telecom, and
ADC – who have built their careers designing and implementing robust and elegant
broadcast solutions

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MORE THAN TRANSPORT MANAGEMENT IS REQUIRED FOR END-TO-END PAYLOAD ASSURANCE

And yet the challenge
of managing complexity
continues to expand
when we include the
contribution elements
unique to the broad-
casters’ fulfillment
chain. A faulty encoder
is as likely to disrupt
the video stream as a
network router and
monitoring this node is
a critical link in the
broadcasters’ end-to-
end fulfillment chain.

MANAGEMENT SCENARIOS INTEGRATING BROADCAST CONTRIBUTION ELEMENTS

The encoder failure scenario above is an
obvious example of the value that stems
from having a management system based
on closed-loop fulfillment. Dozens of failure
recovery scenarios can be played out
spanning the transmitter link to the remote
news truck to the satellite uplinks – all of
which Dimetis systems are managing
seamlessly today for our top-tier broadcast
clientele.
But once a centralized monitoring and
control system that integrates studio
contribution elements is in place,
significantly advanced operational
capabilities can be further realized:
1) File transfers from video servers can be scheduled for automatic sending during off-
peak hours
2) Scheduled event timers can automatically initiate camera feeds, telecine playback,
etc.
3) Playout distribution can be localized with regionally-relevant titling using BOSS
control of the studio titler
4) Remote control of studio switchers can initiate data crawls for pre-programmed
content

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Hopefully these brief examples characterize who the Dimetis BOSS platform can not only
enhance the reliability of media stream transport, but can also contribute to the automation of
daily operational chores around the studio.

WHY BROADCAST OPERATIONS WOULD INVEST IN THEIR OWN NETWORK MANAGEMENT
TOOLSET

The most obvious answer is that if network service providers are incapable of supporting
end-to-end payload assurance, then broadcasters must shoulder that responsibility
themselves. While Dimetis has made the installation of the BOSS platform a non service-
interrupting management overlay, it also can also be implemented in a phased manner to
initially solve only those most pressing problems unique to your specific operational needs.
Individual management modules of the Dimetis BOSS platform can be purchased separately
to support a pay-as-you-grow model.
Moreover, we can look at different classes of broadcasters to understand how each can
benefit:
1) Many national broadcasters like Disney or CNN own and operate their own distribution
networks. For these operators – who are already shouldering in-house network
management – implementation of the Dimetis BOSS platform is a logical, painless, and
profitable exercise for improving payload assurance and increasing efficiency of transport
utilization while reducing operational costs.
2) Smaller broadcast operations wanting to better manage local contribution links and their
regional LANs will find the value of BOSS worth the effort to install discrete BOSS
modules which will improve payload reliability while simplifying operational tasks.
Seamless monitoring and control over remote trucks, transmitter links, remote editing
bays and in-house payload routing has proven a valuable investment by dozens of
Dimetis customers during the last decade.
3) Playout centers and broadcasters wanting to automate scheduled control of contribution
activities like . . .

4) Content originators needing to improve file transfer reliability – say more
5) Broadcasters wanting a coherent NGN upgrade path to consolidate legacy mixed
transports into a simplified, homogeneous IP/MPLS network. Dimetis can help manage a
planned phase-out of existing ATM service contracts, and retirement of costly microwave
/ satellite links with new NGN strategies and systems that will reduce operating and
vendor costs while improving payload integrity.
6) Broadcasters wanting to minimize costly service contract with boutique carriers can
alternatively implement direct QoS control over public carrier networks. Using the Dimetis
management interface to control end-to-end QoS over a common carrier’s network can
eliminate dependence on boutique carriers for assurance of payload quality. However
one may ask - how can a carrier give broadcasters the permission to directly provision
their network gear? The answer is that – while common carriers like AT&T have not kept
up with advanced QoS provisioning and management capabilities themselves – they are
willing to allocate and lease a portion of their backbone to outside control.

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7) Event-based broadcast providers who contract their on-demand transport services.
Upgrading operations to use Dimetis-managed NGN networks may significantly reduce
both the CAPEX and OPEX of traditional satellite remote trucks. Dimetis’ ability to
support on-demand provisioning of existing metro fiber rings means that adequate
spectrum can often be located adjacent to event venues.

IV.
Managing Complex Hybrid Networks is Now Easy with Dimetis BOSS

The Dimetis BOSS platform is a hardware and software agnostic system, enabling
interoperability with any existing piece of gear or network management tools. This
agnosticism assures seamless integration with any future acquisitions to future-proof the
manageability of your operational infrastructure.

Dimetis BOSSprovides a unified digital broadcast monitoring / management system,
providing payload assurance across the entire network in an organized, structured hierarchy
- from points of content origination to final customer distribution:

● Multiplex and Playout Centers (DVB-T, -S, -C, ATSC and IPTV)
● Broadcast networks (contribution as well as distribution)

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● Terrestrial TV distribution
networks, from the Head-End to
the final POPs (Points of
Presence), including the
transmitter, the Cable RF
converters or DSLAM locations

The BOSS platform displays the whole
transmission network in an easy-to-use
user interface (GUI) where all faults and
alarms are logged and collated at
centralized management locations. Alarm
filtering / correlation on defective Network visibility on a regional / country-wide
equipment and/or out-of-specification level as well as site-specific detail
signal parameters can next be performed,
typically color-coded on overview screens / maps to highlight the source location of a
problem. This ensures simple error recognition and fault isolation. Any operation to resolve
the fault can subsequently be executed either automatically or manually.

The Big
Picture View
with Drill-
Down Detail
In the event of
an error, a
problem can
progress
through
several
downstream
segments and
trigger
“cascaded”
alarms in
various other
downstream
locations.
An effective
Broadcast
Umbrella alarm management across various types of broadcast equipment OSS
monitoring
system must
reliably inform the operator about the root cause of the error along with all resultant
consequential errors. Sophisticated alarm correlation techniques are therefore an important
component of this type of system to assist in quick fault isolation / identification while filtering
/ screening secondary effects.

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IPTV and DVB / ATSC Monitoring

In monitoring any type of complex
broadcast network, a structured design
and implementation approach is an
absolute necessity in order to achieve
overall system quality and efficiency.
As faults and errors occur, targeted
actions (initiated either automatically or
manually upon alarm trigger) can be
performed to eliminate and / or mitigate
them.
A structured and robust monitoring
system will allow:
● all network devices to be defined
and configured in a database.
● the recording of all performance
information and alarms from
devices / element managers,
allowing a comprehensive IPTV Network Monitoring
overview of network status.
● provisions for n+1 back-up / recovery switching (for both video signals as well as
equipment service profiles) based on error severity as defined through the correlation
engine.

In the case of IPTV deployments,
monitoring at the DVB / IPTV layer of the
whole distribution network from Head-end
to DSLAMs is important for complete
system visibility. All Single Program
Transport Streams (SPTS) across the
entire network should be collectable and
capable of having all data thoroughly
analyzed via strategically placed IPTV
probes and / or Transport Stream
Analyzers / Recorders (Figure 3 and
Figure 4).
For DVB / ATSC networks, localized Centralized DVB / IPTV Monitoring and Control
monitoring and control of remote site
equipment reporting upward to a higher
level monitoring authority best suites the
characteristics of this environment. Monitoring and control can include everything from
playout devices to tower transmitters to entry door security.

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the QOS agent in the BOSS Platform
By its very definition, video is an unforgiving
service. For real-time, non-streamed applications
where retransmissions are impractical, variations in
its timing and/or delivery sequence will most likely
result in scrambled images and subscriber
malcontent. Highly compressed video images will
suffer even more from delivery aberrations.
Additionally, the complexity and nature of the
broadcast video delivery network may easily mask
a problem’s root cause.

As a real time means to measure, assess, and
manage video performance and quickly isolate
various Transport Stream Recorders.
problems in their early stages, Video Transport
Stream Recording servers are recommended
across various strategic points in the network.
(Reference Figure 1) These specialized devices,
while like normal servers in that they can record
large amounts of video up to 40 Terabytes in
capacity, have the added capability to analyze Bypass
DVB-T
multiple format video transport streams in real O
I Record Retriev DVB
time. The Stream Recorder should allow on-line DVB-S
N e
U
T
P
analysis and visibility into PSI/PSIP, SI and PRT DVB-C U
P
U IPTV
T
data tables and permit storage of complete or IPTV
T

partial Multi-Program Transport Streams. Offline TByte
Storage
TByte

analysis of the recorded sequences should also TByte

be accommodated.

Again, the rationale is to provide visibility and
Slide 20

analysis into video information details not Transport Stream Recording Server Architecture
necessarily obvious in the viewed image. This
allows for performance degradation identification and resulting fault isolation before a major
problem occurs.

In block diagram form, the Transport Stream Recorder is show in Figure 2 below. An agile
design allows the ability to process multi-format inputs and outputs (DVB, ATSC, GigE-IP, &
DVD), providing network flexibility.

Various recording modes should also be available including: Continuous, Single Recording
and Event Triggered.

From a control system standpoint, a Client/Server architecture is ideal. This allows for
monitoring and control of all services from multiple servers from one centralized, or perhaps
several other remote/redundant locations, via IP connectivity. This also supports file and
system management as well as easy recording configuration of the entire network.

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Additionally, specific recorded video sequences based on adjustable parameters from any
networked server should be capable of easy retrieval for further analysis and inspection. For
maximum flexibility, these video recording sequences should be available in a variety of
output formats, including DVD-compatible and native Client/Server files, IP-streaming over
GigE, & DVB streaming over ASI. Any additional formats like QPSK, QAM, and/or OFDM
would be considered a plus.

Finally, all communication to/from the Transport Stream Recording servers should be
performed via SNMP for maximum system flexibility and expansion. This provides a
straightforward interface with next generation Broadcast Operation Support Systems that
manage all service types, spanning legacy to next generation converged media services.

Additional features of importance in an effective broadcast network monitoring system are:

● Configuration of the entire network via a GUI interface with graphical elements
● Element manager support across multiple equipment manufacturers (i.e. performing
as an “umbrella” management system for multiple pieces of dissimilar equipment)
● SNMP monitoring and control capability of all devices in the entire system
● Visualization of system status
● Centralized fault management with:
- fault recognition / alarm processing
- error correlation
- user error messages (SMS, fax, e-mail, etc)
- redundancy switching (manual or automatic)
● Disaster recovery
● Event logging of all events (alarms, user and system actions, etc.)
● Archiving / housekeeping
● User administration

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V.
BOSS is a standards-based management tool that can Grow and Adapt
with Your Network Evolution – SID model, SOA, ESB

Dimetis BOSS supports both the proprietary network technology such as DTM as well as
standardized MPLS, PBT and IP over DWDM. Link Manager is a scalable solution based on
a comprehensive video end-to-end service management platform. It supports both uni- and
bi-directional, point-to-point and point-to-multi-point services for broadcast and telecom
environment. It addresses one of the most critical issues of broadcast and telecom providers,
how to get a compressed / uncompressed video signal across WAN based on customer
definable QoS parameters.

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Dimetis BOSS provides specific functionality to provide:

● Reduced network complexity and
improved transport efficiency thru
traffic engineering across multiple
networks reducing the complexity of
multiple element/network
management system

● Design of network configurations for
complex equipment and circuit
layout records such as video
routers, encoders, decoders,
multiplexers, switches, routers, etc.
using standard templates for the
assignment of resources,

● manage current inventories of network resources and capacity, down to a port and
virtual channel level,
● order and schedule future resources to meet expected demands,
● troubleshoot network outages.
● Complex end-to-end service activation/monitoring spanning multiple network
elements/EMSs, encoders, decoders and video routers
● Automated, manual or assisted inventory reconciliation thru auto-discovery
● Automated fulfilment-assurance chain for fault resolution and service continuity
● SLA based service monitoring and charging

The BOSS Platform consists of the following modules:
● ESB
● Inventory
● Activation
● Broadcast Activation
● SLA Manager
● Performance Manager
● Fault Manager
● License Manager
● Security Manager
● Mediation

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1. ESB: The Enterprise Service
Bus with message-oriented
middleware (MOM) and closely
coupled with web services is the
communication system between the
Link Manager components. ESB
includes services as coordination of
business processes, or protocol
transformation. The internal and
external Link Manager solution is
based on telecom standards of Tele
Management Forum (TMF) e.g.
NGOSS, OSS/J and SID. OSS/J is
the leading industry standard, which provides a full range of API to external OSS
components.

2. Inventory Manager:
The inventory management
system supports a very
flexible schema where the end
user can setup a network
technology based on his/her
needs thru simple
administration. Furthermore
the existing processes within a
telecom/broadcast
environment can be
captured/modified or adjusted
as per customer need thru a
very powerful process
manager. An innovative GUI
based on latest SW
technologies allows user to easily carry out their day-to-day job, by simply click and drag-
and-drop elements into the GUI. Users can select between the mouse-driven approach vs.
the traditional tabular screen.

The inventory systems manages the following objects:

● Site:
● Equipment:
● Segment
(leased lines)
● Cables
● Service path
● Customer

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Based on the above 6 objects, all current and future networks can be managed within a
single centralized platform. Key functionality groups of the inventory system are:

● Bandwidth and resource management
● Traffic Engineering for both broadcast and telecom services
● Future service planning
● Flexible process support
● Template management
3. Activation: The Activation Engine has the functionality to configure different capability
of Network Elements deployed in the network; the network element can be physical device or
logical component. The Network Elements require initialization parameters for them to
initialize and perform the services they are intended to. The Activation Engine Module
handles configuration and activation of Product, Service & Resource and also executes the
service templates. Activation Engine receives the clients request and validates the operation
details and corresponding parameter details and accordingly calls the Device Adapter to
communicate with the Network Element and process the execution output and send the
response back.

Activation main capabilities are:

● Configuration of network elements
● Device adaptor toolkit: The basic functionality of this module is to separate the device
specific implementation with the core device provisioning interface.
● Discovery manager: The discovery of network elements irrespective of the type of
the network element.
4. Broadcast Activator: Broadcast Activation is a powerful engine to control and monitor
broadcast specific devices, including:

● Encoder
● Decoder
● Video routers
● Multiplexer
Broad Activation supports a number of existing devices. In addition a flexible SDK allows for
modification of existing adapters.

5. SLA Manager: The Service Level Assurance system, which monitors the network
and associated devices in the network continuously. This system checks/collects the
predefined and specific parameters from the network elements. The SLA system determines
the specific fault condition of the network depending on the retrieved parameter value and
accordingly takes corrective action such as activate the redundancy service path for the
customer using the faulty path. SLA communicates with the Activation System to collect
information from the network elements or components.

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6. Performance Manager: The Performance management module involves the periodic
collection of quality metrics that characterize the performance of the network resources over
service intervals. It also facilitates the visualization of trends that can indicate periodic or
gradual degradation of physical re-sources. The Performance management module is made
up of three main functional components –

● Data collection and storage
● Monitoring
● Reporting
● Threshold calculation of performance counters and raise alarms
● Fault Manager: The basic functionality of the fault management system is to provide
following –
● Detects, isolates, prioritize, and correct malfunctions in a telecommunication network
● Compensate for environmental changes
● Maintaining and examining error logs
● Accepts and acts on error detection notifications, tracing and identifying faults
● Carry out sequences of diagnostics tests, correcting faults, reporting error conditions,
and localizing and tracing faults by examining and manipulating database information

When a fault or event occurs in a network element, the fault management system
understands the same and accordingly correlates them, report the root-cause and then take
corrective action. The fault management system has the following internal component to
handle fault in the network:

● SNMP Trap Manager to receive and understand fault trap messages from the
network element
● Passive fault component is done by collecting alarm details from the device
periodically, and processes them accordingly.

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● Active fault component actively monitors each configured devices and check their
health status and determine the service availability.
7. License Manager: Independent service which provides the functionality to define the
licensable features and other licensable components, encrypt/decrypt license contents and
also validates licensable attributes.

8. Security Manager: This component will handle two types of functionality –
● User Management – this to define user and user groups
● User Access Control List – this to define and associate different user access
rights. This also provides the functionality to validate and authorize different
functionality per user depending on allocated user/group access rights.

9. Mediation: is a future module of the link manager solution. It provides the detailed
traffic information which is traversing the networks from a point to multiple points. The
mediation system feeds the captured data into billing system.

Dimetis BOSS HW and SW requirements

1) The Link Manager Framework should be compatible to deploy on different application
servers, like – JBOSS, BEA, IBM, TIBCO, Tomcat etc.

2) Supported platforms – Linux, Solaris & Windows

Following defines the Hardware requirement to run the Dimetis BOSS solution:

Software Instance Hardware Required (Minimum)

1 Oracle 10G 2 GB memory, 80 GB HD (Scalable) with
dual processor, server machine

2 Activation engine 2 GB memory, 80 GB HD with dual
processor, server machine

3 Inventory engine 2 GB memory, 80 GB HD with dual

4 Activation and Inventory 2 GB memory, 80 GB HD with dual

5 Activation and Inventory 4 GB memory, 160 GB HD (Scalable) with
with Oracle dual processor, server machine

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VI.
BOSS can Help You Migrate to a Robust Service Oriented Architecture
(SOA) for Integrating Media Distribution over IPTV, Broadcast, Video-on-
Demand, Webcast, & MobileCast – all with Realtime Payload Assurance

To support the avalanche of mobile multimedia and home theaters a newer generation of
OSS needs to be introduced, in order to support the concept of “Virtual Home Environment”
or a “network agnostic kind of service at any time”. Crucial for a successful future scenario
is an accurate inventory/Service Resource Management along with an on-line discovery
system.

NGN is according to widely accepted ITU-T definition “a packet-based network able to
provide services including Telecommunication Services and able to make use of multiple
broadband, QoS-enabled transport technologies and in which service-related functions are
independent from underlying transport-related technologies”. The end-to-end packet-based
networks include both the transport and access networks, eliminating the need for converting
packets into circuit and vice versa. Converged networks including UMTS, WiMAX, WLAN
along with IMS are adding more complexity to the already mentioned requirements. The
UMTS term “Virtual Home Environment” (VHE) is becoming even more important, since
subscribers can use their “unified services” everywhere at any given time, independent from
the underlying technology.

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Requirements for new OSS to serve NGN

Various organizations such as ETSI, ITU and TMForum are developing standards in order to
guide ISVs building modern OSS/BSS with a future proof? approach. TMForum’s TMF053
(NGOSS), GB922 (SID) and ETSI’s Tispan are activities with a focus on NGN requirements,
independent from the standard body ISVs need to meet the general requirements of new
networks. Because of the dynamic nature of the NGN and dynamic transient services, a
different set of OSS/BSS applications are required. Some of the specific requirements from
the OSS point of view are:

Split of converged services and underlying technologies,

Dynamic service-portfolio (self-configurable) based on broadband access,

Inter-networking with legacy environment,

Virtual (unified) home environment within converged networks (Fixed/Mobile).

The operation and maintenance of NGN in carrier-grade environment based on a dynamic
underlying transport network (e.g. IMS, IP Multimedia System) requires a robust, scalable,
flexible and open OSS architecture. A crucial part of the new OSS will be an accurate and
always up-to-date inventory and service resource management. The inventory system
serving as the database-of-record for network inventory provides the infrastructure
foundation necessary to support flowthru provisioning and automated service delivery.
Because of the possible changes of the underlying technology for the same service (e.g. by
moving from a home cell to UMTS cell in a future scenario), the database of record needs to
be updated and kept up-to-date on-demand at all time. This will enable other OSS
applications such as Fault Management to provide a better end-to-end view of possible faults
respectively all affected customers.

flexible inventory is part of the new OSS

While most carriers are implementing the Triple-Play services (voice, data and video) right
now, future networks will support services beyond the traditional Triple-Play. In order to
provide a network agnostic service, a flexible Service Resource Management (SRM)
inventory system needs to model the objects in a way that services are independent from
transport network. In order to support the flexibility of the platform during the operation, an
extendable, easy-to-adapt data model is required. The associations between services and
transport need to be pre-built and dynamically re-assigned during a user movement from one
access technology to the other. Since the intelligence of dynamic routing resides in the
network elements itself, there is no means to update the inventory data manually and/or as a
batch process. The so called “online-discovery” needs to pull the data out of various
networks, reconcile them and feed them back into SRM inventory on-demand. While
reconciliation of a limited number of NE and the associated services are easy to handle, a
carrier-grade environment pose a thread to the stability of the inventory solution.

As mentioned earlier a solid SRM inventory solution provides the foundation of the flowthru
provisioning. In order to provision multiple services among multiple technologies, a powerful,

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scalable and technology neutral process engine is required to activate services and the
underlying transport networks in various domains, such as UMTS HLR, Radius-Server (or
Diameter) and softswitches. In order to meet the requirements for a VHE, the same services
need to be prepared in various domains, but the status needs only to be changed, once the
service is really in use. In all the other cases, these unused resources (such as bandwidth for
a leased line) can be shared with other users/applications and hence their status is defined
as pending/unused. The multitude number of possible NMS/EMS or application transactions
for a single user increases dramatically for hundreds of users.

In a highly heterogeneous environment, a flexible inventory systems needs to keep track of
all ongoing activities in the network. While the inventory platform can keep the data in a
centralised (or distributed) database, an activation/configuration engine needs to
communicate with various subsystems, e.g. configuring a softswitch for a specific customer
in IMS, registration in the HLR database and registration on the video application server. In
order to provision the services properly and time effectively, at first all resources need to be
allocated in the inventory system. Hereafter each target provisioning unit needs to be
provided with
the
configuration
information. At
the end of this
chain the
status of the
overall service
package (e.g.,
“Cross-
Technology
Voice Service”)
for that
customer can
be updated.
Failing to miss
one target
platform will
force the
rollback of all
activated
services
respectively
changing the
status of the An accurate inventory platform as foundation for the new OSS
service.

Other areas of interests for service providers are self-provisioning tools for value added
services. In order to provide customers with the ability to create or upgrade an already
provisioned service (such as upgrade one LSP from 1Mbit to 2Mbit), the Order Management
System needs to forward the requests to the end-to-end-flowthru provisioning system. After
the inventory search of the customer’s data, the associated bearer-service, e.g., MPLS LSP
respectively bandwidth, can be checked and more bandwidth allocated. In this case the
bandwidth order needs to be passed to the identified activation engine in the IMS network.

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In order to manage various services in a technology-agnostic manner, the underlying data
model needs to decouple services and technologies (good point!). Furthermore a flexible
association between service such as “Voice Service” and the various underlying
technologies such as MPLS, WiMAX and UMTS needs to be created. In order to keep the
data accurate while still maintaining performance during the operation, the 1 to n association
between service and the underlying technologies needs to be updated while the user is
moving from one technology to another technology. This ensures an always accurate
snapshot of all services (including all the linked technologies) and provide Fault and
Performance Management application with the most recent data.

A carrier-grade, future-proof, scalable, flexible and open OSS is shown in Figure 2. Here a
centralized and clustered Enterprise Application Interface (EAI) or a Java Messaging
Services (JMS) can be used to glue all the OSS components of the new OSS platform
together. The advantage of the centralized EAI bus as opposed to an overall point-to-point
solution, is a more flexible and scalable approach. All the required OSS components can be
used as plug-ins based on their standard-adapter (e.g. using SID – I don’t think you will get
this from the SID). In order to distribute the load of computing among various servers, the
following application, inventory, process engine and activation engines can be physically
located on various servers. This ensures for a very robust and scalable solution, while
maintaining the flexibility of the OSS. Online-discovery shall operate as a mega-discovery
system connecting to various technologies and reconciling this information to a meaningful
data set. In order to keep the data volume and the resulting computing resources as low as
possible, the necessary data need to filtered and processed by the rule-based discovery.

Dimetis GmbH, headquartered in Dietzenbach, Germany, is a leading software and hardware Systems
Integrator, providing standards-based and customized OSS solutions. Its BOSS Platform is deployed in
various configurations at some of the world’s largest Carriers and TV Broadcasters. www.dimetis.de

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