My opinion on NGB: A brief discussion on historical opportunities and strategic thinking

Interpretation of NGB: NGB must be broadband, but NGB is not simply equivalent to bandwidth. The demand for bandwidth should depend on the application services carried by NGB, and the continuous increase in applications will in turn promote the development of bandwidth. Determine investment according to output, select technology according to business, integrate broadband and narrowband, fully access, smoothly transition, and benefit in the long run. This is the only way for China's NGB development.

1. Developing NGB is a historical opportunity for the radio and television industry

Currently, the digitalization of China's radio and television is developing vigorously. By the first half of 2009, the number of cable digital TV users in the country had exceeded 50 million, accounting for more than one-third of the country's cable TV users, forming the country's largest cable digital TV user group.

While the number of digital TV users is growing rapidly, all parties involved in the digital TV industry have to face an embarrassing reality:

Cable TV users have not felt the advantages of digital TV. Except for a few areas that have launched interactive TV services, most users find that digital TV seems to have only added a few more channels, and their way of watching TV has hardly changed. Their experience is not much different from before the overall conversion.

For operators who spent a lot of money and resources to achieve the full conversion, most network companies did not get more "incremental" income except for a small increase in price. And this small increase in price must also repay the huge investment in set-top box equipment, and it will take 5-6 years to complete the task of recovering the cost. "Full digital conversion" is putting radio and television in a dilemma.

However, while the radio and television industry is facing bottlenecks in its own development, competition from telecommunications is already at the gates, and IPTV is competing fiercely for users in major cities. In addition, Internet TV applications based on IP technology are booming, and many recently launched flat-panel TVs have built-in browsers, multimedia players, and Internet protocols, allowing users to download videos and watch live programs directly on the TV. Internet TV is no longer subject to the geographical restrictions of radio and television. Once this market driven by consumer electronics products is launched, it has shown a shocking impact on radio and television.

NGB provides a rare opportunity for radio and television. The next generation of radio and television network is based on the achievements of cable television digitization and mobile multimedia radio and television, supported by the independently innovated "high-performance broadband information network" core technology. It is a next generation radio and television network that is suitable for my country's national conditions, "three-network integration", wired and wireless, and full-network. Its main features are "full-network", "interconnection", and "controllable". After the next generation of radio and television network is built, TV programs will be greatly enriched. Audiences will not only be able to watch a large number of high-definition TV programs, but also can watch them anytime and anywhere and customize programs according to personal needs. It can provide Internet services and telecommunications network services at the same time. The Internet speed is dozens of times faster than the current Internet, and making phone calls is more convenient and cheaper.

When telecommunication broadband is gaining momentum by replacing copper with optical fiber, and digital television is facing internal and external troubles and crises again, promoting NGB to achieve a strategic breakthrough is an urgent task before us.

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2. Strategic Thinking of NGB

1. Determine the technology strategy based on the differences between radio, television and telecommunications

I believe that most cable operators agree on the importance of NGB, but when it comes to specific implementation issues, quite a few operators are on the verge of contradiction and hesitation: Should NGB be full coverage or full access? In terms of operation, should it be full media or full business? In terms of technology, should it be upgraded gradually or in one go? How can radio and television break through the difficulties caused by various problems?

Cable networks and telecommunications networks are quite different in technology and operation models. Through these differences, we can determine the unique strategy for the development of radio and television NGB.

The biggest feature of the telecommunications network is "wide at the top and narrow at the bottom". The so-called wide at the top means that the Internet outlets in the whole country are all in the telecommunications network. Telecommunications is inherently a point-to-point interactive network with huge interactive bandwidth at the local end. It can become narrower as it goes down (to the user end), until the bare copper wire in the end user's home, which was originally only used for voice services, and later could transmit dozens of KB of data, and now ADSL can reach several M. But in general, the bandwidth of telecommunications access to households is very different from that of wired coaxial cables. The physical characteristics of the telecommunications network determine that its business model must be based on selling bandwidth, and its promotion strategy is: full coverage and household access.

The characteristics of wired networks are exactly the opposite of telecommunications, that is, "narrow at the top and wide at the bottom". The coaxial cable of the user terminal can reach hundreds of MHz bandwidth, but the bandwidth of the connection to other networks at the broadcast end is very limited. Therefore, the operation form of wired networks is point-to-point broadcasting. The physical form of radio and television networks determines that their development path will be mainly based on selling services, and the promotion strategy must be: full coverage and full access. As long as full access is achieved, not only can a more complete user behavior model be established, but it will also bring huge profit space for the operation of the entire network.

When radio and television are making all-out efforts to tackle NGB, the view that NGB is equivalent to high bandwidth is in full swing. I have a different view on this. This view unilaterally emphasizes how NGB will bring tens of megabits of bandwidth to users, but is unclear about what radio and television need this bandwidth for. In fact, radio and television's coaxial cables - ready-made broadband resources of several G are already in users' homes. The problem to be solved now is how to make use of these resources, rather than using NGB as an excuse to lay out a broadband access network similar to that of telecommunications to compete with telecommunications for business.

Due to the natural physical differences between the two networks, the wired network cannot completely copy the other party's approach when developing the NGB two-way function. It is not difficult to see from the above analysis that we must base ourselves on the current status of the HFC (fiber to the community, coaxial to the home) network, give full play to the value of the HFC network, make the best use of its strengths and avoid its weaknesses, and achieve full coverage and full access as soon as possible through technological innovation to create a breakthrough. We particularly emphasize that we must achieve full network coverage and comprehensive solutions quickly and at low cost. We need to race against time with telecommunications. At the same time, compared with telecommunications, the financial strength of radio and television is indeed much different. Low cost is our realistic choice.

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2. Basic ideas for the development of NGB in the radio and television industry

Activate existing stock

To achieve fast and comprehensive access, radio and television operators have to consider the existing network assets. Currently, nearly 60 million set-top boxes, mostly one-way, have been distributed to users. This is a market stock worth 20 billion yuan, like a deep ravine in front of operators that cannot be bypassed. When we develop NGB, we must use innovative technical solutions to protect the original investment from being wasted.

Activate potential

We need to make full use of the existing resources at hand - HFC network. The copper coaxial cable buried in the wall has unlimited potential, but unfortunately it is rarely used now. The purpose of developing NGB is to create value, not to compete with telecommunications in bandwidth, but to use NGB to allow users to change from watching TV to using TV, thereby creating new value. This is the ultimate goal of NGB.

3. NGB’s technical route selection: full broadband coverage and narrowband access

1. Interaction brings unlimited added value

Hangzhou Wasu is a relatively outstanding digital TV operator in China. As can be seen from Figure 1, its monthly basic service package is about 21 yuan, which is the same as the digital TV subscription fees in most of the country after price adjustment. On the right is the one-way service section, which is basically provided free of charge, with a maximum fee of 5 yuan. On the left side of the screen is the essence of interactive TV: two-way interactive services. This part of the business brings Wasu an average of 28 yuan per household per month! While the average return rate of cable TV users in most parts of the country is only 3 US dollars, Hangzhou has achieved an average of 6 US dollars (total of one-way and two-way services). This is a remarkable achievement.

Figure 1: Hangzhou Wasu Interactive TV startup screen

The reason why Hangzhou has achieved a substantial increase in operating income is that Wasu has insisted on taking the path of two-way interaction since the beginning of digital TV construction. Of course, Hangzhou has a unique advantage. When they carried out the overall digital transformation, they already had 200,000 broadband users jointly developed with Netcom. Therefore, their digital TV users have had the conditions for two-way interaction since the beginning, which is also the basis for Hangzhou to quickly gain profits.

From the example of Hangzhou, we can see that in order to make substantial progress in improving ARPU value, it is necessary to move towards interactive TV - because "interaction is the source of added value", and two-way is the basis of interaction. Therefore, the two-way transformation of cable networks is the only way for NGB to develop.

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2. NGB starts from narrowband

What kind of network does radio and television need to effectively improve ARPU? What services does the market need? How much bandwidth is needed to meet these services? With these questions in mind, we conducted a market survey on interactive services that users are interested in in a community in the central urban area of ​​Shanghai. The results are shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Survey on a Community Interaction Business

After sorting the interactive content that users are most interested in, we found that the upstream bandwidth required by these popular services is at most 50K. Conversely, as long as we prepare a 50K reverse channel for users, most attractive services will be sufficient to carry out.

This survey result is very enlightening. Since tens of KB bandwidth is enough to meet the needs of almost all interactive services of radio and television, why do we need to go to great lengths to force tens of Mbps bandwidth immediately? Since radio and television's business does not copy the broadband development model of telecommunications, it is mainly based on selling services. As long as the bandwidth provided by the operator can meet the needs of users, users do not care how much bandwidth they get.

In addition, through investigation, we found that in most cities in China that use cable networks to develop broadband access services, the actual access rate is only about 20%, and a large amount of bandwidth is not effectively used. The reason is that radio and television do not have access gateways for broadband Internet. No matter how much their access services develop, they are nothing more than distributors of telecommunications operators. Once telecommunications companies believe that the development of radio and television will exceed their own, they can completely curb it through economic means. The idea of ​​trying to recover the huge cost of the entire network transformation by developing broadband access services has no practical examples, at least so far. Therefore, we should focus on the "business" of interactive TV, rather than the "bandwidth" of access.

We firmly believe that the transformation of the entire network to two-way broadband is an inevitable trend for NGB. However, in the early stages of NGB development when interactive services are not yet sufficient, operators should provide bandwidth in accordance with business needs. It is a practical development approach to first choose a narrowband transformation solution with smaller investment, and then expand and upgrade it to a broadband solution at any time as the business expands.

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3. Narrowband backhaul + IPQAM - a realistic approach to achieving NGB

Most interactive services only require limited upstream bandwidth, and this idea provides a foundation for the narrowband solution of two-way network reform. In conjunction with narrowband upstream, we use IPQAM for downstream transmission, which can also provide rich business functions and good operation support capabilities. This technology is exactly the same as the Switchcable technology that has just emerged in the United States. In the user's home, no matter how much bandwidth there is, a terminal can only watch TV on the same channel at the same time. Although HFC provides a large bandwidth and can receive hundreds of TV programs, it can still only watch one set at a time. With IPQAM, after the content is processed by IP, it can be distributed to users through IPQAM according to user needs. In this way, bandwidth is always achieved through the exchange mode, and the part that no one watches can be saved for other purposes. IPQAM has been proven to be particularly suitable for radio and television networks to implement broadband services internationally. We believe that the application of this advanced technology in China will likely break the current deadlock of digital television.

At the same time, it is understood that only a small number of set-top boxes in existing cable networks have built-in expansion slots or USB ports, which can be expanded to broadband by adding network cards. In addition, most set-top boxes only have a 232 interface and are no longer capable of upgrading to broadband terminals. However, as long as the set-top box has a 232 interface, it can support narrowband bidirectional upgrades. Therefore, using narrowband technology to revitalize existing set-top boxes is a realistic option for operators at present.

4. Smooth transition to full broadband in steps

NGB is a long-term undertaking. Future development cannot be constrained by current needs and technology choices. In particular, we must avoid the practice of "a bear trying to pick corn", which is to simply pursue technological perfection, constantly replace old technologies with new ones, and repeat construction and investment. When we develop NGB now, we must be able to build on the past and forge ahead, while also being able to smoothly transition and upgrade.

To achieve full access, it is bound to involve huge investments. How many of the more than 2,000 radio and television operators in the country can afford such a huge burden? Any investment has to consider the input-output ratio. There are many different technologies to choose from. If the standard for choosing a technology becomes purely whether the technology is advanced, it will undoubtedly fall into a misunderstanding. The update cycle of IT technology is generally between two and three years. Within three years, newer and more advanced technologies will replace the original technology. Therefore, we think it is more reasonable to set the static payback period of a technology investment to less than three years. After three years, the early investment has been recovered. When more advanced technology emerges, operators have enough room to choose: whether to continue using the original technology or replace it with the new technology. Therefore, in the early stage of developing NGB, when we are not rich enough to spend a lot of money without requiring it to generate returns within a few years, we have to consider how to start from reality and use the most appropriate investment to bring the most effective results.

Because most of the current services can be realized by narrowband, in the early stage of NGB, it is a good idea to find a very cheap narrowband technology to activate the existing set-top boxes. However, the network structure must be designed to be broadband, and broadband and narrowband can be smoothly upgraded at the user end and replaced at any time according to the development of the business. In the future, broadband will eventually be realized throughout the network. This idea does not violate the law of technological development, but can be gradual and down-to-earth, so as to eventually achieve broadband throughout the network.

5. Fully consider the feasibility of implementation

In addition, when carrying out two-way network transformation, operators in various places are facing a headache: user cooperation. In many technical solutions, the implementation of network transformation must go deep into the user's home for construction, which will not only damage the decoration of the home and affect the appearance, but also cause great trouble to the user. Once any network transformation plan encounters user resistance, it will be very difficult to promote it. Even if it is barely completed, its coverage rate and future operational effects will be greatly reduced. A good two-way transformation technical solution should avoid "disturbing the public", reduce the construction volume to a minimum, or even completely avoid entering the home for construction.

Through the above analysis, we propose the basic principle of "determining investment according to output and selecting technology according to service", and recommend realizing NGB through a model of full access, broadband and narrowband integration, smooth transition, and long-term benefits.

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According to national conditions and the current status of the Internet, the development of NGB should be gradual.

Initial stage: achieve full network broadband coverage, full narrowband access for users, small investment, fast transformation, allowing radio and television to step into the two-way era and introduce many interactive services. Broadband access is developed on a household basis according to user needs.

Medium term: Utilize narrowband backhaul terminals to fully promote value-added services, accumulate funds for broadband upgrades, explore user broadband needs, and gradually replace narrowband terminals with broadband terminals.

Later stage: Narrowband services for users across the entire network will be gradually replaced by broadband, and will be gradually and smoothly upgraded to a full-access broadband network.

4. Tianbo NGB two-way network transformation plan: Tianditong

If China wants to develop NGB, it must find the "suitable" technology, comprehensively consider factors such as network characteristics, market demand, economy, reality and ease of construction, and choose the most cost-effective solution based on a comprehensive evaluation of these factors.

Figure 2: Celcom network transformation plan

1. Flexible selection of broadband and narrowband networking technologies

Tianbo Company innovatively proposed the "Tianditong" broadband-narrow integrated cable TV two-way network transformation technology. As shown in Figure 2, when Tianbo transforms the existing network, it will place an access terminal on the optical node of each community, and then enter the residents' homes through the existing split distributors and amplifiers. Users can flexibly configure various access terminals according to their needs. Because whether the equipment at the user end is broadband or narrow is determined by the user's own choice, this plan is called the "broadband-narrow integrated" two-way transformation plan. The biggest advantage of this plan is that no surgery is required on the existing network, whether it is coaxial cable or amplifier, no changes are required, and the installation cost is very cheap.

This NGB solution retains the original broadcast content and adopts two different modes, narrow and wide, on the user side (this is Tianbo's patented technology). It can not only be used as a narrowband network alone, but also as a mixed network of narrowband and broadband, complementing each other.

Figure 3: Coaxial cable frequency band allocation

There are two solutions for coaxial access to households: broadband and narrowband. Broadband follows the EOC route, which includes WOC, MoCA and PLC technologies, while narrowband is the DOC technology patented by Tianbo. Taking WOC broadband access technology as an example, it is based on the WiFi over Cable system. The frequency band allocation of radio and television coaxial cables is shown in Figure 3. The lowest 5-65MHz is used for equipment such as CableModam, and cable TV channels are transmitted between 65-862MHz. The working frequency band of Celcom is between 900-1GHz. This frequency band is a surplus resource that is not currently used by radio and television. Celcom narrowband runs at 900MHz and broadband runs at 1GHz, achieving two-way in one step without affecting existing services. Depending on the network conditions, Celcom can deploy different broadband access equipment as needed.

Narrowband terminals are very cheap, requiring only a few dozen yuan to invest. Broadband covers the entire network, and narrowband access is provided to each household. The hardware cost of each household is only about a hundred yuan, and bidirectional access can be achieved in the entire network very quickly. Since the transformation of the network trunk line adopts broadband (central office access and optical nodes), the terminal can be very flexibly transitioned from narrowband to broadband at any time according to needs, which is also the essence of the Tianditong system. At the same time, the Tianditong solution does not require any construction at home. It only requires connecting a central office to the optical node in the community, and adding a relay during multi-stage amplification to complete the networking. No changes are required at the user's home. All two-way functions can be achieved by simply plugging a small device outside the set-top box.

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2. Composition of Tianditong products

The "Tianditong" broadband-narrow integrated cable TV two-way network transformation series products mainly include: central office products, relay products, and terminal products.

Central Office Products

Based on the WOC (WIFI downconversion) technology system, the data baseband signal is modulated to a low or high frequency band in OFDM mode, mixed with the cable TV signal, and then output to the cable TV network. Without making any major changes to the original network equipment and wiring, the one-way broadcast cable TV network is transformed into a two-way, broadband, digital next-generation broadcast and television access network. Currently, it can provide 108M bandwidth per channel, which will soon be upgraded to 300M bandwidth, while meeting the access needs of different types of broadband terminals and narrowband terminal products.

Relay products

Based on the WOC (WIFI frequency reduction) technology system, it is used in situations where there is a unidirectional line amplifier between the central office and the terminal to ensure the normal transmission of bidirectional data signals. It is connected across the cable TV signal input and output ports of the line amplifier to separate the downlink mixed signal at the input of the line amplifier, amplify the cable TV signal through the line amplifier, regenerate and amplify or jump the data signal through the relay equipment, mix the cable TV signal with the data signal at the output of the line amplifier and transmit it downstream, and the uplink data signal is transmitted directly through the relay equipment, while meeting the access requirements of different types of broadband terminals and narrowband terminal products.

End products

The two-way access terminal products of “Tianditong” cable TV network mainly include: T1000 series narrowband terminal and T2000 series broadband terminal. The product is placed at the user end and is mainly used to separate cable TV signals and data signals to meet the needs of users for interactive TV and broadband Internet access.

The T1000 series narrowband terminals use cost-effective RF chips to achieve two-way data transmission on coaxial cables. The product is compact and has a sophisticated appearance. It can be directly connected to the RF port of the set-top box and connected to the set-top box via the RS232 serial port, providing a low-speed return channel for the set-top box to achieve two-way interactive services such as video on demand, TV websites, TV shopping, and interactive games. The maximum rate can reach 500Kbps.

The T2000 series WOC broadband terminal provides users with 1 to 4 RJ-45 Ethernet interfaces and an RF interface. The Ethernet interface is used to connect to the Ethernet interface of the user's set-top box or PC, and the RF interface can be directly connected to the RF interface of the user's TV or set-top box for watching TV programs. The broadband terminal uses WiFi technology, which is highly reliable and suitable for high-speed transmission. It digitally modulates digital signals to the radio frequency band (950-1050MHz). Using the cable TV network to establish a broadband IP data network, the broadband terminal realizes the transmission of two-way IP data, with a maximum throughput of up to 150Mbps, which fully meets the bandwidth requirements of the next generation of broadcasting and television networks. In addition, the T2000 series products can also provide broadband terminals with USB interfaces. The USB interface is used to connect to the set-top box to realize two-way interactive services, with a maximum rate of up to 54Mbps. The technology of broadband terminals is very mature and the cost is very low. By the end of the year, the cost can gradually drop to less than 150 yuan.

The T1000 series narrowband terminals and T2000 series broadband terminals can not only be networked independently, but can also be used in combination, providing operators with a new "broadband and narrowband in one" two-way network transformation solution, making two-way network transformation more flexible.

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V. Operational support capabilities of the Celcom system

The Tianditong system has strong operational support capabilities because it can achieve precise terminal positioning. The application of this system can greatly improve the network's operational service capabilities, improve service levels, and provide a realistic foundation for building a service-oriented modern radio and television enterprise.

1. Business support

Celcom can conduct statistical analysis on the usage of value-added services such as video on demand, and present them in the form of charts, providing a basis for operators to formulate business promotion strategies based on the different preferences of different types of users.

Since all set-top boxes are connected to a two-way network, we can collect data horizontally and vertically. Horizontally, we scan the status of all set-top boxes at the same time point; vertically, we target a certain set-top box and ask it to report all activity status within a period of time. Such comprehensive data collection will produce very detailed user behavior analysis results, accurately record the viewing behavior of any user at any time, and based on the recording results, we can obtain user behavior information such as user online rate, single TV program ratings, and comparison of multiple TV program ratings, which will be presented in the form of charts, providing an important basis for TV program advertising, and its commercial value will be immeasurable.

2. Network management

Broadband and narrowband terminals are online 24 hours a day and can scan the network at any time to analyze the network quality. Not only can they monitor the network status through the signal feedback of each optical node, but they can also use each set-top box as a network terminal monitor to report important indicators such as the signal level strength, bit error rate, and carrier-to-noise ratio of the terminal node at any time, accurately locate possible fault locations in the network, and even know where the problem will occur before the user reports it. It can realize real-time monitoring of the entire network equipment, including equipment status query, remote configuration of equipment parameters, active alarm of equipment failure, etc., quickly and efficiently realize monitoring and management of the entire network equipment, and effectively reduce manpower maintenance costs.

User service has always been the most important issue for radio and television enterprises, but in the past, due to the lack of necessary means, our services always seemed to be inadequate. The terminal precise positioning system of the Tianditong system has solved this problem, allowing the user service level of radio and television enterprises to leap to a higher level and truly become a modern service-oriented enterprise.

3. Terminal management

With the development of the national economy, every household is no longer satisfied with just one set-top box. After the overall conversion, generally speaking, a family needs to purchase at least one set-top box for secondary terminal viewing. Discussions on the main and secondary terminals have been endless, and residents have also had great controversy about this, which is indeed a management difficulty for operators.

The charges for the secondary machine are usually half of the charges for the main machine. How to distinguish the main machine from the secondary machine has always been a headache for operators. If they cannot distinguish well, it will cause a large loss of viewing fees. In addition, foreign-related hotels in certain areas can watch foreign programs. If the set-top box authorized by the hotel is sent to residents' homes, legal problems will arise.

The identity of the terminal can be controlled by using the Celcom Kitten (narrowband terminal). There are two ways to control the identity: one is through the central office. The address of the narrowband terminal is fixed, and this address is allocated by the central office. Each central office controls a limited number of main machines and a limited number of secondary machines (such as 60 main and secondary machines). Once a secondary machine is out of the control of the central office, it will be judged as illegal. The other is to control the behavior of the secondary machine through the communication method of the Kitten.

Similarly, since the narrowband terminal is bound to the set-top box by an address, the status of the set-top box terminal can be managed, fault alarms of the set-top box can be issued, and accurate positioning can be performed.

The ultimate goal of NGB is to turn watching TV into using TV. NGB's core competitiveness lies in service, not bandwidth. NGB's technical route must be a link between the past and the future, inclusive and open. NGB's financial model is to select inputs according to output and bandwidth according to demand. Tianbo is willing to contribute the latest and best technological achievements to my country's radio and television industry in the most open cooperation model, and make its own contribution to building my country's NGB into a truly "full-process, full-network, interconnected, broadband two-way, manageable and controllable" next-generation radio and television network.