Broadcom broadband experts explain IPTV development trends

What is IPTV? Many people think that Internet TV is IPTV, but this is actually a misunderstanding. TV that can access the Internet belongs to the category of IPTV, but IPTV is definitely not just TV that can access the Internet. IPTV is actually a service, a technology that presents multimedia content in the form of IP packets on TV, PDA, mobile phone, and mobile TV terminals through wired or wireless. It can be seen that IPTV is not limited to TV, but has a wider range of carriers and platforms. With the substantial progress of the trend of the integration of the three networks, what will be the development trend of IPTV in the future? Recently, Fred Taylor, senior marketing manager of Broadcom Broadband Communications, shared Broadcom's research on the future development trend of IPTV.

"Any service and technology that can be transmitted and played through IP packaging can be called IPTV." Fred Taylor pointed out, "Look at the content we are transmitting now - from satellite, optical fiber and cable to various conditional reception devices, such as set-top boxes, and then connected to various content playback devices. It is difficult for consumer electronic devices to access content. Such an architecture requires different types of set-top boxes. Broadcom believes that in the future a family will only need one set-top box, which will transmit content to various consumer electronic devices through wired or wireless methods."

Today’s content acquisition model

In the future, a family will only need one set-top box

In terms of connection protocols, currently available ones include MoCA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc. Among them, MoCA is the abbreviation of Multimedia over Coax Alliance. MoCA was founded in January 2004 by Cisco, Comcast, EchoStar, Entropi, Motorola and Toshiba. MoCA hopes to provide a way to transmit multimedia video information using coaxial cable (Coax); they use Entropic's technology (c-link) as the basis for the MoCA 1.0 specification.

MoCA members believe that the penetration rate of coaxial cables in American households is as high as 70%, the entire infrastructure is very complete, and the technology of transmitting multimedia video data through coaxial cables is already quite mature and stable, making it suitable for transmitting multimedia video data. But in fact, the places with coaxial cable jacks in the home are still concentrated in the living room and a few bedrooms or study rooms, and their use is still more restricted than wireless technology (WiFi) and HomePlug. Since MoCA uses the 800~1500MHz frequency band, it is still a considerable challenge for the 5~1000MHz cable network, which has a great actual impact on MoCA.

As the types of home appliances increase, it is natural to interconnect these appliances. In this regard, DLNA is a protocol standard that covers the entire MoCA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and other connections. The DLNA standard is advocated by the Digital Living Network Alliance (also known as the Digital Living Network Alliance). This alliance is composed of major IT/CE manufacturers including Intel, Microsoft, SONY, SAMSUNG, etc., and currently more than 700 manufacturers have joined. As long as the relevant devices comply with the DLNA standard, the interconnection between devices can be achieved. The DLNA standard is based on the intermediate layer of the original network architecture, which allows devices that support this layer definition to communicate with each other without having to do other settings. The DLNA standard has been supported by many semiconductor manufacturers.

"In 2007, there were 2,013 DLNA-certified products, but this year, the number has exceeded 8,000! This covers most home appliances including TVs, set-top boxes, DVD players, PCs, etc., so the trend of connecting home appliances through the DLNA standard will become more and more obvious in the future." Fred Taylor emphasized, "In the future, digital homes can achieve overall interconnection through media gateway set-top boxes and media center set-top boxes." As shown in the following two figures.

Media Gateway STB Architecture

Media Center STB Architecture

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He pointed out that the advantage of the DLNA standard is that it can achieve mutual control between various devices. For example, you can control the set-top box on your mobile phone and set relevant options on the TV. This greatly reduces the trouble of controlling home appliances, because people who use several home appliances often have to switch between several remote controls. "Currently, many TVs, Blu-ray players and set-top boxes are DLNA certified, so everyone can use this function in the future." He said.

The advantage of the DLNA standard is that it can achieve mutual control between various devices

Broadcom currently has many products that support the DLNA standard, which can easily achieve interconnection between home appliances. At present, Fred said that the large amount of Internet content has pushed up the demand for bandwidth, and the increase in bandwidth has stimulated more connection points, which in turn has added more content. This virtuous cycle has promoted the rapid growth of the number of home networked devices.

Broadcom currently has several products that support the DLNA standard

According to AB I research, the shipment of home networked media devices will increase from less than 200 million this year to more than 600 million in 2015! This is a very amazing number. IMS Research also shows that the annual compound growth rate of global broadband networks is as high as 16.9%! These fast-growing networked devices will undoubtedly promote the development of IPTV.

IMS Research also shows that the compound annual growth rate of global broadband networks is as high as 16.9%.
In China, we use the term "triple play" to refer to this trend, because in China, satellite, cable, wireless access and broadband access are owned by different operators, so the situation is more complicated. As for the future of China's triple play, Fred is very optimistic about China's triple play, but he said that it is difficult to give a clear prediction of future development because it involves different operators. "However, the future development is definitely to achieve the playback of multimedia content on different electronic devices through various transmission channels." He pointed out.

The day after the interview, Broadcom announced the acquisition of Gigle Networks, a developer of single-chip system (SoC) solutions for home interconnection via power lines. This shows that Broadcom already has the technology needed to connect all home devices to the Internet, and all it needs to do in the future is to integrate these technologies.