Delivering High‐Definition IPTV Services over IP‐Based Networks

To provide the broadcast services with Internet Protocol (IP)‐based networks, one needs to digitise the content, fill up the packets and send them. This chapter describes the basic concepts and techniques for video compression that are commonly used in delivering high‐definition IP television (HD IPTV) services. Multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) is a mechanism to direct packets on the shortest path using 20 bit 'labels' rather than the longer IP‐based network addresses. MPLS networks help IPTV services satisfy quality of services (QoS) requirements. The chapter describes how the various protocols and the MPLS network can compensate for the lack of QoS guarantee in IP networks. To provide scalable on‐demand media streaming, many other mechanisms such as periodic broadcast protocols patching and bandwidth skimming have been proposed. Among these, the chapter explores the details of an approach that combines the forward error correction (FEC) and retransmission mechanism.