www.oasis-open.org
Microsoft Mediaroom as
a SOA for IPTV
Majd Bakar
Lead Architect
Antonio Fontan
Senior Developer
www.oasis-open.org
Agenda
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What is Microsoft Mediaroom
High level Architecture
System Interfaces
Lessons Learned
Future
What is Microsoft
Mediaroom
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Mediaroom is the brand name for
Microsoft’s IPTV solution
http://www.microsoft.com/tv
It is an end to end platform for
delivery of video over reliable IP
networks based on commodity
hardware
IPTV Solution for Telcos
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Linear, on demand, and time-shifted
content delivery over DSL networks
Integrated content protection
Rich and reliable meta-data for
content discovery
Extensible application framework
Target Advertisement
Rich data collection
End to End IPTV solution
1
2
3
4
5
6
Content
Acquisition
Content
Protection
Service
Management
Subscriber
Management
Service
Delivery
Service
Consumption
A Complete Platform
Encoders
Content
packaging Tools
Rights
Management
Mediaroom
Content
Protection
Meta-data
Billing Events
VOD
STB Client
Device
Management
Subscriber
Validation
PVR
PC Client
Linear TV
OSS/BSS
Subscriber
Management
Consumer
Devices
NPVR
Customers
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Over 2,000,000 television sets
More than 20 of the world's leading
service providers:
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AT&T, BT, Deutsche Telekom,
Reliance Communications,
Swisscom,…
http://www.microsoft.com/tv/Customers
.mspx
• Over 20 service providers
worldwide
• 14 commercially deployed
• Over 2.0M TV sets and counting…
High Level Architecture
Broadcast
Feeds
VOD
Assets
Real-Time
Encoders
OSS/BSS
Video
Server
OSS/BSS
Backend
Asset
Ingestion
Branch
Office
VOD
Server
Service
Group
Service
Group
Client
Gateway
Client
Facing
Servers
Subscribers
Service
Group
Mediaroom
Set Top
Boxes
Interfaces
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Why SOA?
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Enables a highly decoupled, modular, and
interoperable architecture
Current interfaces based on Web Services
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To Mediaroom
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Operations Support Systems
Business Support Systems
Inside the Mediaroom system
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Backend to Branch
Client/STB to server
OSS/BSS
Broadcast
Feeds
VOD
Assets
Real-Time
Encoders
OSS/BSS
Video
Server
OSS/BSS
Backend
Asset
Ingestion
Branch
Office
VOD
Server
Service
Group
Service
Group
Client
Gateway
Client
Facing
Servers
Subscribers
Service
Group
Mediaroom
Set Top
Boxes
OSS
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Interface for Telco Operations
Support Systems
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Service and Channel Management
System and Device Management
Diagnostics
Content meta-data for linear and ondemand
…
BSS
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Interface for Telco Business Support
Systems
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Principal (devices, accounts, users,
and subscriber groups) Management
Rights Management
Billing Management
Offer Management
…
OSS/BSS
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SOAP based Web Services
Transport level security
Main issues:
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Scalability in bulk processing
Interoperability problems normally related to
versioning and highly coupled APIs
Solution: Loosely coupled & Batch APIs /
Asynchronous Server processing
Client to Server Interface
Broadcast
Feeds
VOD
Assets
Real-Time
Encoders
OSS/BSS
Video
Server
OSS/BSS
Asset
Ingestion
Backend
Branch
Office
VOD
Server
Service
Group
Service
Group
Client
Gateway
Client
Facing
Servers
Subscribers
Service
Group
Mediaroom
Set Top
Boxes
Client to Server Interface
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SOAP based Web Services
Proprietary message-based security
Main issues:
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Always needed data on the client
XML processing is expensive in lowend hardware
Solution: Spreading of client requests,
lower call load, reduce serialization
needs
Backend to Branch
Interface
Broadcast
Feeds
VOD
Assets
Real-Time
Encoders
OSS/BSS
Video
Server
OSS/BSS
Asset
Ingestion
Backend
Branch
Office
VOD
Server
Service
Group
Service
Group
Client
Gateway
Client
Facing
Servers
Subscribers
Service
Group
Mediaroom
Set Top
Boxes
Backend to Branch
Interfaces
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SOAP based Web Services
Transport level security
Main issues:
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Not many real-life problems
experienced between backend and
branch
Current Status
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Great scalability numbers in
commodity hardware
Subscriber numbers increasing at a
very high rate
Mediaroom supports up to 8 TV
sets with DVR
AT&T
The Recorded TV menu, which AT&T U-Verse Total
Home DVR customers can access from any TV to
playback their recordings.
AT&T Upgrades DVR Service
Company Uses
Multiroom Viewing
To Take On Verizon
By ANDREW LAVALLEE
September 9, 2008; Page B9
AT&T Inc.'s U-verse service will let subscribers watch recorded shows
on as many as eight television sets, an upgrade intended to compete
more effectively with rivals' digital-video recorders.
The feature, often called multiroom or whole-home DVR, is already
available in San Francisco and some nearby cities to subscribers of
U-verse, which allows users to view Internet video as well as TV
programming on their sets. It will be rolled out to the rest of the Bay
Area this week and will be available nationwide by year end, said Rick
Welday, AT&T's chief marketing officer. It will be free as part of a Uverse subscription, which costs from $44 to $99 a month.
DVRs have become popular in millions of households because they
make it easy for users to skip commercials and watch TV shows on
their own schedule. They have also emerged as a way for phone,
cable and satellite companies to compete for market share.
AT&T has some ground to make up on its main rival, Verizon
Communications Inc., whose FiOS TV service has more than double
the subscribers -- 1.4 million, versus 549,000 for U-verse. AT&T said
it plans to exceed one million subscribers by year end.
While it is unclear why the average household would need to see a
show on eight TV sets, that stat gives AT&T bragging rights; FiOS's
version of the service allows for only seven connected TVs.
The one TV set with the DVR will remain the only set that can record
shows. A subscriber could record and start watching a show in his
living room, then pause it and resume watching in his bedroom. As
many as four TVs can watch recorded shows at the same time.
TiVo Inc. allows customers to transfer recordings to another set, but
each one must be equipped with a DVR, which it sells for $150 to
$600. Dish Network Corp.'s multiroom DVR capabilities are limited to
two TV sets, and DirecTV Group Inc. said its multiroom offering will
be available in upcoming months.
Lessons Learned (I)
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Web services used as RPC increased coupling
and reduced agility.
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SOAP limitations(costly serialization effort)
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Trade off between well defined interfaces and
change management/scalability
Exposing/retrieving large resources
Low end Hardware
It is critical adding better control for accessing
server resources
Lessons Learned (II)
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Modeling unknown applications is hard
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Scalability impact due to incorrect granularity
of the interface implementation
Lack of understanding of scenarios
Saying “Contract first” is not good enough
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Different ways of creating WSDL introduce
lack of consistency
OSS/BSS interfaces should be driven from
the use-case scenarios for the application
Future - Extensibility
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Better control of workflow:
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Improve asynchronous handling of requests
Prioritization of calls
Simplify access to resources to facilitate
application extensibility
Reduce the number of overall requests
between end-points
Future - Design
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Scenario Driven development
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Better tools (DSL, Domain Specific Language)
to capture scenarios and contracts
Patterns of usage of the platform are better
understood now
Emphasis on modeling
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Access profile
Layering of interfaces
Thank You & Questions