Monitoring Switched Digital Video Networks

Overview

Monitoring SDV Networks for Video Quality and Service Assurance

Switched Digital Video, or SDV, is a technology that enables increased efficiency of network bandwidth for service providers. Studies show that 80 percent of video subscribers watch the same 20 percent of programming channels. In the traditional video delivery model, all channel streams are delivered to the end user’s set-top box, regardless of whether they
are being watched, resulting in wasted bandwidth along the last mile of the network.

In a network leveraging SDV, only the requested content is sent to the viewer’s home, rather than hundreds of streams of unwatched channels. That increased RF bandwidth efficiency enables the network operator to provide more services, including more Video On Demand (VOD) channels, more HDTV channels, increased channel capacity and improved viewer experience. These advantages, however, come with a significant increase in network and video delivery complexity including:

- Increase in required network compute resources
- Increased communication overhead
- Real-time association and switching of video flows to the home

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