IPTV (Internet Protocol Television)
Introduction

The end user finally percepts the quality and IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) service portfolio, as well as the usability in order to satisfy his requirements. Several actors are responsible for the delivery of the content from their originators such as TV stations and studios but probably also from other users. In this section the IPTV domains and services are described together with the explanation of how the standardization develops from requirements to architecture.

End to end chain for delivery of the IPTV content to the end user usually contains these 4 main domains that are involved in the provision of an IPTV service (Figure below):

IPTV Domains

The four IPTV domains definitions could be provided by the ITU-T or ETSI TISPAN specification [34], [35], [9]. Most of the standardization bodies follow the same schema to produce end to end solution specifications that apply also to the IPTV. First of all it is necessary to specify all requirements for the service but also from the UE and network capabilities point of view (stage 1). Secondly it is the specification of the functional architecture, functional entities and their task, relevant reference point among the functional entities as well as high level procedures for services (this is done usually in stage 2). In the final stage 3 it is required to conclude all details needed from the implementation perspective as for example the protocol models and detailed protocol procedures.

There are two main aspects of the IPTV. First one is technological one resulting to the IPTV architecture and second one is the user’s perspective aspect which can be seen from the provided IPTV services and user experience.

From the user’s perspective is not really important what architecture the IPTV service provider selects, but it is surely more important which services are provided. Most of the existing non-NGN solutions provide only basic set of services like linear TV (live TV channels), video on demand (VoD), and some of them also PVR (Personal Video Recording).

New NGN based IPTV solution should therefore provide much more services, features but most important also new user experience in watching TV with more interactivity, personalization, mobility and last but not least comfort in consumption of the right content in the right time and right way.