Content Delivery Network – Initial Approach

Good piece of information on the functionality that should be considered in a content delivery network - http://blog.streamingmedia.com/the_business_of_online_vi/2011/06/how-mobile-acceleration-works-an-inside-look-at-cotendos-newly-announced-service.html

Means of achieving the optimization in different layers:

• Network layer: Dynamic site acceleration (DSA) - a combination of improved TCP algorithms and route optimization along with more advanced DNS mapping to speed up transport of packets at the network layer (http://blog.streamingmedia.com/the_business_of_online_vi/2010/10/how-dynamic-site-acceleration-works-what-akamai-and-cotendo-offer.html)
• Content acceleration – Adaptive image compression and caching various image sizes close to the network edge; also real-time decisions with regards to device type and network condition on content serving, caching and delivery to accommodate the specific conditions of each request. I believe licensed CDN (LCDN) is one of the variant of content acceleration wherein optimization of video content takes place inside the carrier network for mobile video content owners and it uses network condition to dynamically transrate the content that is being rendered
• App acceleration – Serving the right social network content, mobile commerce, mobile ads and coupons and location specific data all require some degree of logic e.g., let a mobile ad network push to the edge ads that are close to an end user’s location and then serve them the correct ads subsequently without requiring additional content calls back to the origin server

VAS Market Size in India – KPMG Input

http://www.lightreading.in/document.asp?doc_id=215517&

 

Another report on determining Indian VAS market. Numbers arrived as part of this report is totally different from a similar report published by IBM earlier. So I think the difference is due to the components that got added as VAS. In this KPMG report, few key points to look at are:

- 3C need of a consumer, connecting, communicating, collaborating

- Different needs of urban and rural VAS consumers – entertainment v/s utilitarian (I see Maslow’s hierarchy needs playing a major role here)

- Problems with the VAS ecosystem

With many of the well known VAS vendors having trouble with their operation and business model, I wonder whether the ecosystem problems will make these vendors to rejig their operation model e.g., creating business units focusing separately on consumer needs rather than around technology platforms (like RBT), rationalizing the hardware & software setup etc.

Service for SMB

I was always thinking that enterprise services that a telecom operator would offer would have to add value around the pipe or mobile connection they are offering to an enterprise and there has to be a unified service delivery platform that allows enterprise to manage these services. Along with the ‘service realization’ the ‘consulting and blueprint’ part is quite important. Few of the activities that can be part of later could be;

• AS-IS analysis through audit of existing infrastructure and future communication needs
• Advice on

• Communication strategy that spans mobile,fixed line and IT so that communication networks are closely aligned to  business strategy and maximize value from their communications
• How new collaboration services, such as video conferencing, can boost their business’s performance
• Guidance on cloud adoption
• Management of system integrator and vendors

• Customized the enterprise SDP portal that offers service and subscriber management capabilities; and also an unified dashboard showing KPI and SLA details (including infrastructure usage/metering details)

Reference: http://www.telecoms.com/37403/vodafone-group-acquires-bluefish-communications/

Standards for Cloud Development

When I read about the standards initiative for cloud in http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=215252, I found that Open Data Center Alliance (ODCA – group of IT user companies) has defined user stories in the form of usage model and shared priorities with standards bodies, solution providers, and the industry at large. These usage models are in four areas: Secure Federation, Automation, Common Management & Policy, and Transparency and details about the same can be found at: http://www.opendatacenteralliance.org/ourwork/usagemodels/publishedusagemodelsindetail. The requirements captured in each of these areas are quite detailed and will definitely help the cloud technology vendors or system integrators to align their solutions & offerings along these models and have common taxonomy for cloud implementation discussions. I am particularly impressed with measurement part of the model which has gone even into the details of metering the cloud usage through TPC.

However I didn’t see details on the following:

• The FCAPS model for the cloud servers under common management & policy usage model
• Capability orchestration that uses service catalog

 

M2M Market Analysis

Informa’s opinion on the vertical market for telecom service providers is captured in this document. http://mail.informatm.com/files/amf_informa_plc/project_719/Enterprise_Verticals_Webinar_FINAL.pdf

Few observations:

• Using M2M in energy & utilities, health verticals seems to have real business cases and seems there is a general consensus on focus on these vertical as the first priority
• Ovum talks about an operator as SMART & LEAN operators (http://www.telecoms.com/17954/2020-vision-the-decade-ahead/). Having a similar view, this deck talks about what are the possible offering if an operator tries to focus on infrastructure efficiency or customer intimacy . I like this slide as it gives list of services and also codifies which capabilities can be leveraged by operators themselves and which are to leveraged from partners
• Along with this, there is a slide on different types of business models that should be explored – ‘sell to’, ‘sell through’ & ‘sell with’. This definitely gives a starting point for forming the business model which can be customized based on the local conditions

However this deck doesn’t talk about few technological initiatives relevant for M2M market e.g., global SIM, shared MCC etc

 

Companion TV Apps

New trend that I am noticing on synchronous companion TV app that tap into the social TV boom and to offer immersive TV experience. Rationale behind these apps is to allow viewers to deepen their engagement with the program without cluttering the main screen and use additional devices – laptops, smartphones and increasingly tablets – to enhance their home viewing experience. The app can also enable integration of social media, allowing users to post comments, share content and connect during their viewing experience. More details in: http://www.csimagazine.com/csi/New-companion-TV-apps-unveiled.php.

Few interesting aspects:

TCH MediaEcho

• Application that synchronizes secondary content (like cast, crew and production information, historical facts etc) with Blu-ray, video on demand (VoD) or broadcast programming
• For broadcast and VoD features, synchronization is achieved via Technicolor’s own audio watermarking technology, which inserts an inaudible high-frequency sound that can only be recognized by the tablet
•  Also enables e-commerce within the app, allowing fans to purchase items related to the program through the tablet

Umami

• In-house editorial team curates enhanced content on many popular television series, and the app’s Smart Search function recommends keywords and links to help consumers discover even more about their favorite shows
• Uses proprietary audio fingerprinting technology to sync continuously to live or time-shifted programming from all major broadcast and cable networks in the US.
• Provides program-related content, including show info, cast bios, and photos
• Provide one-click access to official show pages, fan sites, Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia and other content sources
• Provide access to real-time social feeds to see what cast, critics and friends are saying about a show, and to make comments of their own

Unified VOD & Ad Engine

http://www.etisoftware.com/products/videodirect/

Interesting product offer wherein product integrates ad-scheduling system, video library system, contract management, and invoicing component. With SCTE 30 & 35 supported wherein the cue tones are detected to insert the ad, this would be an useful product for local cable TV operators.

Service provider IT: Concerns

http://www.lightreading.in/document.asp?doc_id=212922

Summarizing some of the aspects important for CIO in a telecom operator’s organization:

• Basic activity to manage the ERP, OSS/BSS and other business IT applications
• Enabling generation of new revenues from services like mHealth, mCommerce etc which have heavy IT flavor
• Application store platform management – handle issues like integration with billing, content/apps for different type of handsets/OS
• Supporting 3G – policy enforcement and charging functions for data services; especially for the operator who has more than 100 million subscriber, architecture in terms of distribution of the IT elements and scaling
• Application enablement and value added service developer ecosystem platform
• Cloud – private cloud with focus on virtualization, test & measurement of resource consumption; making cloud as service for SMB segment – security and connectivity
• Key focus – keep the cost down by upgrading the system; managing social networking sites/policies around that
• Data mining & analytics – evolve from CDR based to real time data service attributes like URL etc; addressing each customer individually is very important

Video Expertise

When someone claims as ‘video expert’, what to look for? would following skills and experience fair enough?

Experience:

• Solution architecture of IPTV/MTV networks and related services both from product angle as well from service provider angle
• Service architecture of different IPTV vendors
• Challenges in OTT video delivery like policy restrictions of different countries

Skills:

• A strong understanding of end to end video delivery architecture and technology including: Video Headend, Distribution Hubs, Fiber Nodes, Set Top Box. You will have direct cable service provider experience
• Consulting experience to help assess and provide recommendations for customer video architecture networksSkill Sets / Qualifications
• Understanding of Video encoding protocols including end to end transport of video services and QAM modulation
• Understanding of Video transport architectures (e.g., digitilization, compression, multiplexing)
• Conditional Access solutions
• Capacity, resiliency and storage requirements for CATV video networks
• Ad Insertion Architectures
• 3D video content distribution

Testing Requirements

With more and more focus is on the content based services, it becomes really important to have quality checks before a content is released for the consumption. Since this validation & verification at every stage of content life cycle (starting with creation, on0boarding and delivery) has different set of needs, I am trying to understand different solutions available to handle this need. I will keep updating this post to outline such requirements and in separate posts analyze offering from different companies.