 | Issue: | Asia-Pacific I 2013 |
| Article no.: | 13 | |
| Topic: | Strict SLAs and service aware media | |
| Author: | Per Lindgren | |
| Title: | VP for Business Development | |
| Organisation: | Net Insight | |
| PDF size: | 257KB |
About author
Per Lindgren is the VP for Business Development and founder of Net Insight. He previously served as an Assistant Professor at KTH (Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm), where he worked with optical networks, EU projects related to new broadband services, and the like.
Per Lindgren has a Ph.D. in telecommunications
Article abstract
New production models and dramatic increases in video traffic drastically increase network complexity. In addition, the growth of data traffic is turning telecom and media networks into increasingly IT-based workflow environments. This hinders bandwidth utilization, and tends to diminish the overall QoS. Traditional media transport services over IP/MPLS networks cannot keep up with today’s service-level requirements. Instead of traditional IP/MPLS methods, a service aware approach to transporting media across networks is likely to provide a new yardstick for the industry.
Full Article
The media industry is undergoing a paradigm shift in the way media is produced and distributed, and the Asia and Pacific markets are no exception. New production workflows are emerging and a cost-efficient IP/ MPLS-based infrastructure, previously used only for traditional datacom and telecom services, is increasingly being used to transport streaming media.
The operational benefits of transporting all traffic over a common IP/MPLS network can be huge. Opportunities exist for the entire transport network from production and contribution to distribution and delivery. Broadcasters and media companies in Asia and the Pacific are embracing network production models and tapeless production for remote broadcast and workflows to significantly reduce their operating expenses and streamline their automation processes. In addition, the dramatic increase of Internet video traffic and the demand for new premium OTT services, is leading to an emergence of very high-capacity media CDNs (Content Distribution Networks) in APAC as well.
An IP infrastructure equips broadcasters, service providers and production companies in APAC for geographic expansion and the addition of new services, allowing them to capitalize on emerging media and video opportunities. But with these opportunities come new challenges.
To take a leading market position in new geographies or introduce new and revenue-boosting services, it is necessary to have a high-quality network architecture capable of handling huge data streams without delay and loss. To do this, the media industry must move from simple point-to-point links for transport to larger, feature-rich, resilient networks. This creates a more complex and difficult to manage network, usually at the price of Quality of Service (QoS).
Network complexity – SLAs and QoS
New dynamic production models and dramatic increases in video traffic drastically increase network complexity. In addition, the growth of non-linear data traffic, including video files stored in the IP infrastructure and huge file transport, is turning telecom and media networks into more IT-based workflow environments. This hinders bandwidth utilization, creating a drop in media transport quality and the overall QoS.
In large-scale networks, more advanced IP/MPLS traffic engineering needs to be employed, which requires a great deal of fine-tuning to achieve the necessary QoS for video. The QoS problem is multiplied with the number of hops and ports in the network. This is particularly an issue in APAC, as the quality of IP links in some areas of the region is of fairly low quality. Due to this, a network operator must often redo engineering each time the network changes and when introducing new services. Existing services in an IP/MPLS network are affected by any new service deployed and vice versa. Further adding to this complexity is the application of protective redundant paths and provisioning services with large multicast fan-outs. Overall, this makes geographic expansion and the rollout of new services time-consuming and very costly, with a longer than normal time to market.
Given these challenges, the industry needs an IP/MPLS service architecture that allows quick provisioning, monitoring and protection of video services, while preserving network simplicity and maintaining cost efficiency for the roll out of new services and geographic expansion. However, this is not provided by the traditional IP/MPLS approach.
The traditional IP/MPLS approach
The traditional approach to transport media services over an IP/MPLS network has been to put data routers in combination with media IP adapters at the edge of the network. However, this makes media services only available at the end of the network, and as noted earlier IP links in many network infrastructures in APAC lack sufficient quality. Service providers using traditional IP/MPLS adapter solutions such as this must rely entirely on mechanisms from the underlying network for routing, protection, provisioning and fault management. In addition, the traditionally implemented data routers manage media services based on class and not per individual service. This creates major QoS limitations with the huge increase in high-priority video and media traffic.
The quick provisioning and monitoring necessary to live up to the highest SLAs is not possible with the traditional IP/MPLS core. To deliver high-quality media services and service integrity to customers without increasing network complexity, operators and service providers must steer away from these traditional methods. Such ’older’ solutions not only fail to provide the QoS demanded by today’s SLAs, but eventually lead to an increase in CAPEX and OPEX due to frequent network engineering and maintenance.
Service providers and operators need a network that allows simple troubleshooting, monitoring and overall manageability of the network. The solution is the development of a network that is fully service aware.
In the US and European markets, a service aware network architecture is already being implemented by a plethora of major operators and service providers at the benefit of easy-to-manage networks and enhanced QoS. However, this unique architecture has not yet saturated the Asia and Pacific markets. Only a few key players in APAC have taken advantage of service awareness, but the benefits should be considered equally or even more important for the broader Asia region in its entirety.
Service aware network architecture
For a media network to be truly service aware, it must be possible to protect, monitor and provision each media service individually within the network. For this to occur, media services must be managed independently of the IP core. This is achieved by detaching service management from the underlying network.
To make this happen, provisioning mechanisms such as media server switches and routers are deployed independent of core network technology. These devices form a media service network that sits on top of the IP/MPLS core.
A service aware media network has the ability to provide performance monitoring both per service end-to-end (for SLA verification) as well as per IP link (for fault location). By utilizing a media service layer that is detached from the core, it is possible to improve QoS at each hop of the network, something particularly important for the lower quality IP links associated with network topologies in APAC. This creates QoS enhanced links capable of FEC between any media switchers or routers in the network, reduces overall packet loss, and in turn increases transport quality.
Further enhancing transport quality in a service aware media network is its ability to execute performance monitoring, protection and routing per each individual service as opposed to per packet or service class. This augments the underlying infrastructure by improving the quality of the traffic between each link as it travels on the core IP network. Data is sent in an aggregated, constant stream, avoiding bursty input to the IP core. FEC, traffic shaping and synchronization can be engineered per link for the specific needs of each packet depending on individual link quality. This means overall network performance is optimized and is achieved through significantly reduced packet loss, reduced “jitter and wander,” and improved service latency. Also, as real-time measurement of packet loss and jitter is possible on all intermediate links, it is possible to measure the health of the underlying network. This capability allows SLA reporting per link, per service and per interface, leading to QoS that is suitable for all media services.
The architecture significantly reduces time to market for new media services and allows for occasional use payment models. No traffic engineering of the underlying IP/MPLS infrastructure is needed to provision or change new and existing services within the service aware media network layer, since the IP/MPLS is only set up once for connectivity between the Media Service nodes.
By detaching the service layer from the underlying IP architecture, operators and service providers can now develop a network that enables media awareness with the capabilities to protect, monitor and provision each media service.
The future of SLA’s and IP/MPLS
In the future the utilization of an IP/MPLS network will no longer be a simple shift away from the traditional. It is likely to become the new standard for the industry as a whole.
An IP infrastructure will provide broadcasters, service providers and production companies with the backbone needed to expand into new geographies and capitalize on emerging media and video opportunities such as OTT and CDN. However, for the APAC industry to be successful, it is imperative it follows the European and US markets in the adoption of a media network that is fully service aware.
As network traffic and the demand for media rich content grows, so will standards set by SLAs to ensure the highest possible quality. Service providers need to plan today for a network structure that will not require intricate maintenance and engineering. The industry must follow an approach that is capable of growing as it expands, both in terms of geographic reach and service offerings.
The time has come to look away from the traditional IP/MPLS method and instead focus on a service aware approach to transporting media across networks that will set be the new yardstick for the industry’s next market leaders.
