Wireless Mesh Networks for In-Home IPTV Distribution

IPTV is considered to be the next killer application. A key, challenging issue is in-home IPTV distribution with affordable deployment cost and sufficient flexibility, scalability, and reliability. In this article, we first survey and compare the emerging wired and wireless communication technologies for broadband home networks, including transmission over power lines, phone lines, coaxial cables or Ethernet cables, and IEEE 802.1 In, ultra wideband and millimeter wave wireless technologies. Considering these promising candidates for future broadband home networks, we propose three wireless mesh network architectures. These enable consumers to enjoy anywhere, anytime IPTV services without rewiring their homes. We compare the cost, reliability, and scalability of the three architectures. We further study their admission regions for IPTV, that is, the number of IPTV connections that can be supported simultaneously with satisfactory QoS. Analytical and simulation results with H.264 HDTV sources over wired, single hop wireless, and multi-hop wireless paths are given. These results can provide important guidelines for future broadband home network design supporting IPTV services.