Content Delivery Networks in Share it TV Systems A complementary distribution chain to TV broadcast

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Content Delivery Networks in Share it TV
Systems A complementary distribution chain to
TV broadcast using networked Personal Video
RecordersThe Share it! project

• Bostjan Marusic, John Morris
• Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of
  Ljubljana
• Philips Research Laboratories

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Talk outline

• Trends and drivers
• Overview of the state-of-the-art
• The Share it! Project and its approach
• P2P networking
• Usage scenarios enabled by Share it!
• Physical and logical network architecture
• Bandwidth and transcoding issues
• Challenges
• Conclusion

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The changing world of television

• Trends and drivers
• watch it when you want
• Your own personal channel
• Interactivity (selection mechanisms, downloadable
  applications)
• Users taking an active role in the content
  creation
• Always on (24/7) broadband Internet becoming a
  reality
• Challenges for the traditional broadcast
  distribution model

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The changing world of television

• PVRs promise to revolutionize the way TV is
  watched
• The death of prime-time - Broadcast times and
  schedules become less relevant to the user
• Users can use Metadata to search for programmes
• New convenient ways to record programmes
• From the promotional trailer
• Direct recording of a series (a programme group)
• Watch segmented programmes (eg highlights)
• Interactive content selection (eg browse the News)

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Personal Video Recorders

• PVR local storage personalization
• Powerful signal processing, cheap mass storage
  devices (over 100 hours), always-on Internet
  access
• Personalization based on User profiling
• In respect to content type (genre)
• In respect to content acquisition mechanisms,
  presentation
• Automatic selection and storage of content
  according to users preference (profiles)
• Agent Recommendations
• Content aggregation into personalised virtual
  channels
• Mixing of broadcast and locally stored content

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State-of-the-art in PVR technology

• TV-Anytime standardization efforts
• The TV-Anytime Forum is a global association of
  organizations that develops specifications to
  enable audio-visual and other services based on
  mass-market high volume digital storage in
  consumer platforms simply referred to as local
  storage (see www.tv-anytime.org).
• Four key specifications, which cover metadata,
  content referencing and location resolution,
  rights management and protection, and an overall
  systems specification.
• Interoperability
• Multimedia Home Platform MHP
• A standard for downloadable java applications

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State-of-the-art in PVR technology

• PVRs have an IP connection
• Remote management (remote recording)
• Enables 3rd party service provision (additional
  metadata)

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The Share it! Project

• ShareIt!
• An IST funded project - Consisting of
• CE manufacturers (Philips)
• Broadcasters (BBC, NOB),
• Network providers (KPN, Elisa) and
• Research Organisations (FhG, UoL)
• The partners worked together on the myTV project
  developing the first TV-Anytime implementation
• ShareIt! takes the next step in the PVR
  revolution
• A distributed storage networking of PVRs using
  P2P mechanisms
• Provides a complementary programme distribution
  mechanism
• Lets users become content and service providers
• Enhances the user experience as well as providing

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The Share it! System
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P2P networking A new style of distributed
computing

• P2P is a new style of distributed computing in
  which
• networked nodes share resources (content,
  bandwidth)
• The network topology is decentralized
• Easy deployment
• Fault tolerance
• In general all nodes in the network are equal
• Some may provide some additional services
• Every node can communicate with any other node
• No intermediate servers.
• Originally publicised by content exchange
• New developments aim to provide professional
  grade solutions
• Standardising P2P communication protocols
• Performance
• Security

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Scenarios Enabled by Share it!

• An end-user can search for content
• Regardless of the source (broadcast or network
  storage)
• If a programme has been stored in the network the
  user can access it
• An end user can connects to the system remotely
  and can view and manipulate stored content.
• An end user grants access to a limited set of his
  own content to another user of the Share it!
  system, possibly in another home.
• Users form groups of users based on their
  interests.
• Personalized virtual channels can be created
  mixing broadcast local and network stored content

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P2P Functionality in Share it!

• Discovery of devices/users in the network
• No central directory required
• Search for Content
• Search queries and responses are propagated
  through the network on a hop-by-hop basis
• Advantages
• Alternative content sources
• Load balancing
• Insensitivity to node failure - fault tolerance
• Things that are not P2P in Share it!
• Once content is located the actual transfer is
  achieved by conventional CS mechanisms
• Some rights management models require a
  centralized entity (rights broker)

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The Share it! network

• Network organization (topology and protocols)
• Is a home-to-home network
• In-home devices use the same protocols
• They are behind a gateway (assumed to be not
  aware of Share it!)
• In-home devices have different access privileges

• Logical level
• Users self organize into user groups interest
  groups
• User groups are the logical context in which
  content is being exchanged
• Groups provide a means to authenticate users
  joining groups
• A user can join multiple groups simultaneously

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Bandwidth assumptions and transcoding

• The available bandwidth to the Share It! depends
  on the physical connection - typically for ADSL
• upload (from the box) 200 kbit/s, download (to
  the box) 1 Mbit/s
• Inside the home bandwidth (symmetric) 10 Mbit/s

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Challenges

• Content identification and acquisition in the P2P
  world
• Rights Management and protection of distributed
  content
• Bandwidth considerations and transcoding
• Seamless integration of broadcast and stored
  content
• Scalability of P2P networking solutions

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Conclusion

• Networking PVRs complement and enhance
  traditional broadcast models
• End users benefit from a richer experience
• Enables consumer and community content creation
• New types of service combining stored and
  broadcast content and using new distribution
  methods are enabled
• Network operators, content creators, equipment
  manufacturers and other players in the chain will
  benefit from the increased demand for their
  products and services generated by the enhanced
  system capabilities.