Switched Digital Video Monitoring Bulletin
Monitoring SDV Networks for Video Quality and Service Assurance
Overview 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:
In order to insure superior video quality, it is imperative that these complexities are comprehended and managed, not only during early stage design, testing and deployment, but also during normal operation of the system. This requires capabilities for testing the network and its components prior to deployment, as well as the implementation of a true, end-to-end Quality & Service Assurance solution to provide the capability to monitor, analyze, fault isolate and troubleshoot a switched digital video implementation.
IQPinPoint™ Supports SDV from the Test Lab to Network Deployment IneoQuest’s IQPinPoint™ is a quality and service assurance solution for SDV networks. IQPinPoint, is comprised of the powerful SingulusTM Lite family of network probes and the award-winning IP Video Management System (iVMS), and is the only quality and service assurance system with the purpose-built capability to provide continuous testing, monitoring, reporting and troubleshooting for providers using SDV technology—from the test lab to the last mile.
Switched digital video technology expands programming choices by saving network capacity
Quality & Service Assurance for SDV Networks
Once the SDV network has been deployed and tested, it is imperative that a true end-to-end Quality and Service Assurance solution be put into place to continue to monitor, analyze, fault isolate and troubleshoot a switched digital video implementation. Because of the complexity and dynamic nature of the network, traditional monitoring methods are not sufficient.
IQPinPoint for the SDV Network: From the Test Lab to the Field
Since there is not a standard methodology for deploying an SDV network, it is important that there exists a testing and management solution that is cost effective and flexible enough to be adaptive for each MSOs needs. IQPinPointTM is such a solution (figure-2) incorporating early SDV features specifically requested by customers providing the ability to predict, fault isolate and remote troubleshoot SDV errors—all in a dynamic fashion.
Features:
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