Television (TV) consumers adore interactivity and personalization. Internet Protocol television (IPTV) systems help satisfy this desire by providing different services including video-on-demand (VoD), network personal video recording (NPVR), and time shift TV (TSTV). However, these services place a heavy traffic load on the network by requiring a unicast video stream for each active customer. This paper discusses means to reduce the network traffic load by introducing storage deep in the network-thus avoiding the need for unicast traffic support over the metro or core network-and algorithms to place content intelligently on those storage devices. An algorithm for intelligent redistribution is described that endeavors to place the most appropriate content close to consumers. The paper discusses further how this new paradigm of network storage can help improve quality of experience for the IPTV consumer and can assist in the deployment of Internet video and sharing of user-generated content (UGC).

This paper presents several aspects, from technologies to business models, of content recommendation for video related solutions that range from IP television (IPTV), including linear programming television (LPTV) and videoon-demand (VoD), to online video. Video content recommendation is becoming increasingly important because of the continuously increasing amount of video content available to end users. After considering some end user requirements, an analysis is provided of the most important content recommendation technologies as described in literature and implemented by many start-ups. The paper also deals with evaluation criteria for a content recommender system related to user expectations, support of different scenarios (e.g., new content, new users), and marketing and business requirements. We describe the overall architecture into which the content recommendation functionality fits, as well as its interfaces with other network components, external databases, social networks, and applications.Finally, we discuss a dedicated network provider play, the business opportunities, and several business models for content recommendation. © 2011 Alcatel-Lucent. very exciting, the overwhelming choice in content available on broadcast TV, VoD, and the Internet is also leading to much irritation and frustration of the end user, since it is becoming increasingly hard to pick out that one movie, program, or video clip best suited to his mood, environment, and interest at that moment. It demands quite some patience, perseverance, and time from the end user to sift the programming guide, click through all channels, or browse the complete VoD catalog in order to find something of interest to watch. Because of this, people tend to stick IntroductionThe expansion of the Internet and the advent of digital broadcasting have led to an ever-increasing range of content at the fingertips of the end user. Video-on-demand (VoD) libraries are approaching 20,000 titles per aggregator with substantial further growth expected; the number of online aggregators is increasing continuously; millions of Internet video clips are accessible on television (TV); and the number of linear programming television (LPTV) channels is increasing constantly, along with content on catchup TV (recordings of LPTV). Although this sounds to what they are used to watching, and the promise of having everything you like at your fingertips is still only a promise.This dilemma not only short-circuits the end user experience, but sets the stage for dissatisfaction and the risk that an end user will turn his back on the service as well as the content provider. An NDS Group survey of more than 1,000 cable customers in the United States (U.S.) found that LPTV program recommendations are one of the top applications they desire. Keeping in mind that millions of people in the U.S. are spending 150 hours per month in front of their TV sets [19], improving the end user experience with content discovery can lead to a win-win-win situation for the end user, service prov...

Driven mainly by its adoption as a new media distribution platform for content providers and its ubiquitous availability for the end user's media production and consumption, the Internet is rapidly reshaping. In particular, the stakeholders in the content distribution market are considering exploiting content delivery networks (CDNs) Everywhere solution, telcos and multiple systems operators (MSOs) including AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast can now provide their customers with a whole new experience as they can now consume the content (hosted by the network provider) on fixed or mobile devices other than the TV set alone. As a consequence, these network providers can reach more customers with their content assets. Success with mobile TV offers also may be driven by the strong growth of video-enabled smartphones: 275 million video-enabled smartphones shipped in 2010 [14].At the same time, a variety of Internet video publishers, such as Netflix*, Hulu*, BBC iPlayer*, and also IntroductionThe Internet video world is undergoing a significant transformation as a wider set of content is offered for consumption over a wider set of devices.For video services offered by network providers, the following trends can be observed. Initially, many network providers deployed Internet Protocol television (IPTV) services in a walled garden environment. Apart from being a replacement for analog television (TV) distribution, IPTV also offers interactive and personalized services, including video on demand, network-based personal video recording, and time shift Apple TV* and Google TV*, have launched new video services. They are providing their content to their end users with little involvement of the network provider.Hybrid models also exist where a telco may offer a combination of digital TV and Internet video services, as described in [6]. In such a scenario, digital TV network providers will need to expand their offer by also offering access to Internet video. They have opportunities in that they can offer better quality of experience (QoE), multiscreen differentiators, have a customer base (and billing relationship), and can position themselves as the content aggregator of choice (simplicity to end user).The network provider (telco or MSO) can play a key role in both the content delivery and content discovery. As far as delivery is concerned, it is well known that content distribution networks (CDNs) can reduce the load on the Internet and within the network provider's network [7,15,16]. With respect to discovery, customers need help in finding content that interests them, especially as the amount of available content increases. Therefore, recommender systems are often integrated with video offerings to help the end user [1,3,9,13]. The use of recommenders for the purpose of caching has also been discussed in [10]. Since the network provider has a comprehensive view of the end user's content consumption, he is (potentially) well placed to recommend content. This paper combines both key roles of content discovery and content delivery...

Of all the services offered over a worldwide public network, digital videobased

The integration of interactive and distribution services has an impact on both the architecture of the network and the signalling protocols. A configuration where both services are offered via ATM is discussed here. For multimedia services a layered service model is described. The impact of this layered model on the signalling is explained.KEY WORDS Broadband ATM Architecture Signalling Multimedia Interactive Distribution Integration Zapping Service component so on. As a consequence, the broadband network