Questions & Answers
The OIPF welcomes contact from the media, industry supporters and potential new members. If the information below does not answer your questions then please contact Darren J Vogel (Marketing Director) on +447973506398 or email darren.vogel@oipf.tv
About the Forum
What do we mean by IPTV and Open Standards?
What is the mission of the Open IPTV Forum e.V.?
What is the status of the Open IPTV Forum?
What drives the success of the OIPF in defining global standards for IPTV?
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How is the OIPF getting standards for IPTV to market more effectively than other standard bodies who have been in existence for a longer time?
Is Open IPTV Forum e.V. a global organization?
What are the challenges to ensuring the OIPF remains focused on delivering timely relevant solutions given the increasing breadth of relevant service types?
Membership
Is the Open IPTV Forum e.V. open to new members?
There are many companies involved in IPTV that are not members of the Open IPTV Forum today, why is this?
Who are the Open IPTV Forum e.V. members today?
Requirements
Can Managed Network and Open Internet services co-exist and provide acceptable Quality of Service (QoS)?
Can you explain why your solution refers to managed networks and "open internet"?
How do the Open IPTV Forum specifications cater for Quality of Experience (QoE)?
The Content Provisioning Interface (CPI) is rudimentary in many IPTV solutions and some service providers are drawing on CableLabs specifications. Is this a good way forward for IPTV?
Specifications
Are converged solutions supported by IMS and do they include reuse of fixed and mobile applications?
Do Open Internet services require the use of IMS?
How do we ensure interoperability of the end to end solution?
How is DLNA important for next generation of IPTV? Should we really pin-point only a few or not?
IMS technology is used in the OIPF specification, why is that important for IPTV?
What about a gateway centric approach?
What are the scalability issues in the IPTV marketplace?
What interface does the Open IPTV Forum specify for Set Top Boxes?
What is the scope of the UNI specification?
What role does IMS play?
What use is made of Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) in the Forum's specifications?
What does OIPF specify for Content Service Protection and Why?
Deliverables
When will CE devices compliant to the Forum's specifications be marketed?
Will the certification process be made public?
Which OIPF-compliant consumer products are available today?
What are the main deliverables of the Open IPTV Forum?
Will the Forum work only with certain kinds of access networks such as wire line?
External relationships
Has there been co-operation with other organizations to perform e-2-e interoperability testing based on specifications from the other standard bodies?
How do other standards initiatives fit with OIPF?
How do we ensure compatibility with external standards?
What is the difference between ATIS IIF and Open IPTV Forum?
Which standardization bodies are working on IPTV and what's the status today?
With which standardization bodies is the Open IPTV Forum already collaborating?
Brief contrast OIPF and HbbTV
What specifications from the OIPF are referenced by HbbTV ?
Which markets do OIPF and HbbTV target?
How are OIPF and HbbTV related?
Does OIPF and HbbTV talk to each other?
About the Forum
What do we mean by IPTV and Open Standards?
There are many definitions of IPTV, but in general it stands for Internet Protocol Television, where television services are delivered using the Internet Protocol (IP) over a broadband network. Evolving IPTV Services have many potential advantages over traditional broadcast TV services because they can provide more personalization (such as building a personal TV channel by selecting programs from broadcasted TV channels), interactivity (such as interacting with applications linked with the watched program) and integration with communications services (such as chatting whilst watching TV).
What is the mission of the Open IPTV Forum e.V?
The mission of the OIPF is to support providers and suppliers of the IPTV ecosystem by driving a consistent global IPTV market for both managed and unmanaged services in ongoing iterative stages to provide a quality IPTV consumer experience.
The OIPF will deliver specifications, profiles, testing, interoperability and certification in promotion of the Forum's mission.
What is the status of the Open IPTV Forum e.V?
The Forum is a registered industry association within the EU under the German Civil Code.What drives the success of the OIPF in defining global standards for IPTV?
The OIPF has been supported by key members in the different constituencies (Network Operators, CE &Mobile /Home device providers, Public Network Infrastructure Providers, Content Providers, Technology Providers) comprising the IPTV value chain. These members are committed to seeing interoperable implementations of the OIPF specifications. In particular, the presence of almost all the world's major TV manufacturers ensures that implementations based on the Forum's specification will become a commercial reality.
How is the OIPF getting standards for IPTV to market more effectively than other standard bodies who have been in existence for a longer time?
We are not starting from the scratch; instead we are leveraging work already done in other standardization bodies. Furthermore we are focusing on specific technology choices and profiles that narrow the overall specification effort. The Forum has frequent Face to Face meetings (~ once every two month) and telephone conference in between and work is done in parallel in several task forces. Last but not least our members are highly committed to supporting and contributing to the work.
Is Open IPTV Forum e.V. a global organization?
The Open IPTV Forum is a pan-industry initiative with members worldwide, and expects to increase its global representation further. Its specifications will have world-wide applicability.
What are the challenges to ensuring the OIPF remains focused on delivering timely relevant solutions given the increasing breadth of relevant service types?
The constituency structure of the Forum enables it to meet the challenges of a growing increasing popular organization.
Membership
I s the Open IPTV Forum e.V open to new members?
Yes. The forum is fully open to participation across the communications and entertainment industries by companies that share the goals of the Forum and are willing to actively contribute to specification development. Please find the details under the membership tab on the website.
There are many companies involved in IPTV that are not members of the Open IPTV Forum today, why is this?
The Forum is open to all players involved in the IPTV market. We are constantly increasing our membership as our message expands through the IPTV business world wide and we are always pleased to welcome any company that is active in IPTV and wishes to contribute to our success. Not all companies have the resources or the man power necessary to contribute to the work of the forum. However, many OIPF members are in fact smaller companies with minimal spare resources. These companies generally see great benefits, and a direct return on investment, from participation in the forum alongside major players across the entire IPTV industry eco system.
Who are the Open IPTV Forum e.V members today?
Today the Open IPTV Forum has grown considerably, and now has over 50 members that have joined to collaborate in the effort to develop common interoperable IPTV specifications.
Members include network operators, service/content providers, consumer electronics, mobile and home device providers, public network infrastructure providers and technology providers. The membership is growing steadily over time.
The current members are listed here www.oipf.tv/members.html
The founding members of the Forum were Ericsson, France Telecom Group, Nokia Siemens Networks, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, Sony and Telecom Italia.
Requirements
Can Managed Network and Open Internet services co-exist and provide acceptable Quality of Service (QoS)?
In general we believe that access to Open Internet services in addition to Managed Network services will be of high interest to consumers. As the Open IPTV Forum specification supports both solutions, the service provider is free to choose to support only one or both - this is a key aspect of the Forum specifications. The QoS between the two may differ with the Managed network able to offer a more consistent and reliable QoS by its nature, while the Open Internet will offer best-effort QoS due to the unpredictable moment-to-moment bandwidth available.
Can you explain why y our solution refers to managed networks and "open internet"?
The possibility to access both Managed Network and Open Internet services (the term Open Internet refers to IP services provided outside of the managed IPTV network). Integration of these services via the same end user device makes the overall solution more attractive to the user, and also to service providers. While managed network services provide the QoS for an excellent end-user experience, the Open Internet approach allows for a wide range of existing and new services available over the Internet.
How do the Open IPTV Forum specifications cater for Quality of Experience (QoE)?
QoE is the overall service experience of the end customer. This is an area of IPTV which was largely ignored in early IPTV projects but which has recently been attracting an increasing amount of attention. Many objective and subjective elements contribute to overall QoE, including metrics such as the QoS of the network connection, the content coding, the design of the user interface, reaction times to user commands and of course the service pricing and its perceived "value for money". The Open IPTV Forum considers the QoS of the network connection in the Managed Network approach, and for content coding and user interface elegance and efficiency we support state of the art technologies. As IPTV QoE technologies and techniques continue to evolve and mature they will be included in future releases of the OIPF specifications, and service providers implementing solutions based on the Forum specifications will be able to make use of these technologies and techniques in their deployments.
The Content Provisioning Interface (CPI) is rudimentary in many IPTV solutions and some service providers are drawing on CableLabs specifications. Is this a good way forward for IPTV?
CPI is an area still being addressed by the OIPF specifications sub groups. Drawing on existing, appropriate standards which have been defined by traditional TV service providers offers one option in addressing this requirement and the OIPF has taken such an approach for other requirements. However at this time no intention or decision about CPI has been made.Specifications
Are converged solutions supported by IMS and do they include reuse of fixed and mobile applications?
Converged scenarios will be covered in Release 2 (and beyond) of the Open IPTV Forum specifications. Some integration of IPTV and communication services like voice and messaging is already covered in Release 1 of the OIPF specifications, and enhanced use cases will be covered in Release 2. The use of IMS, which is standardized for fixed and mobile networks, can ease service delivery over different access networks.
Do Open Internet services require the use of IMS?
Open Internet services do not require the use of IMS and this is explained in the OIPF specifications and white papers.How do we ensure interoperability of the end to end solution?
A certification program is being defined and will create a process that ensures that equipment & software from the different Open IPTV Forum member companies can interoperate.
How is DLNA important f or next generation of IPTV? Should we really pin-point only a few or not?
Home Networks are an important part of an end-to-end IPTV solution. The specifications by DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) address interoperability of mobile, PC and consumer electronic devices in seamlessly sharing digital media services across a home network. With more than 250 members ranging from manufacturers, software and application developers, hardware vendors, and retailers to content providers, DLNA is broadly supported by industry. It is thus natural for the Forum to consider DLNA technologies as candidate elements of its specification, when it comes to specifying the delivery of IPTV services over home networks.
IMS technology is used in t he OIPF specification, why is that important for IPTV?
We expect IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) based infrastructure and services to be broadly deployed by network operators. Since IPTV will be part of the multimedia services offered over these networks, it was natural for the Forum to consider IMS technologies in its specification for operator managed networks.
IMS already offers solutions for key enablers in the Forum's scope, such as the blending of communication and entertainment services, QoS delivery, a common transport control layer which enables TV & Video services over hybrid access networks and a converged platform for mobile and fixed services to interact. These functions will play a key role in enhancing the end user's personalized and interactive IPTV experience, help increase customer satisfaction through convergence of fixed and mobile services, and increase the value of products and services to users.
What about a gateway centric approach?
The OIPF specifications subdivide the end-to-end IPTV service domain into a number of functional (rather than physical) elements, including the separation of the consumer terminal function (OITF) from a number of gateway functions (WAN Gateway, CSP Gateway, IMS Gateway, Applications Gateway). The OITF is concerned with the control of the display device and is typically implemented in an STB or a device equipped with a screen (such as a TV), while the gateway entities implement client functionality external to the OITF. Although the OITF and some of the gateway entities may be implemented in the same physical device, the logical separation of functionality accommodates an OIPF-compliant approach in which an external gateway is used. The gateway centric approach is considered compatible with the OIPF specifications and covered by Open IPTV Forum specification releases.
What are the scalability issues in the IPTV marketplace?
In IPTV solutions, scalability requirements exist in many areas. Increasing subscriber numbers, an increasing volume of content (both channels and titles), an expanding applications portfolio, higher per household bandwidth, higher aggregate network demand, more complex network and service monitoring and a growing need for rapid fault diagnosis, are just a few of the obvious areas of potential concern, Many of our members have first hand experience of dealing with scalability issues in real deployments, and the need for scalability is recognized in the Open IPTV Forum's requirements and specifications.
What interface does the Open IPTV Forum specify for Set Top Boxes?
Please refer to the architecture reference document where all UNI interfaces are defined and explained, and to the relevant volumes in the released specifications for more detailed information regarding specific aspects of the solution.
What is the scope of the UNI specification?
The UNI specification will cover all the necessary layers to provide an interoperable e2e solution. Furthermore it will cover both the Managed Network and Open Internet approach. Please refer to the architecture reference document where all UNI interfaces are defined and explained.
What role does IMS play?
The initial OIPF Managed Network solution is based on IMS. IMS provides authentication and session management, resource and admission control and a common user data base not only for the IPTV solution but for voice and messaging for any multimedia services, , allowing for a variety of integrated services.
What use is made of Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) in the Forum's specifications?
The Open IPTV Forum defines a common User (to) Network Interface UNI for both Managed Network and Open Internet services, and SIP (the protocol for IMS session control) is used in the OIPF specification for the IMS based Managed Network solution. On the network side the service provider can chose which approach to use, while on the terminal/home network side the Forum has specified an IMS gateway function to support the Managed Network services. This gateway function could be part of the Set Top Box or a Gateway device like the home gateway. The software which controls the service on the end device has to support both the Managed Network and the Open Internet solutions.
What does OIPF specify for Content Service Protection and Why?
The OIPF specifications include two approaches for CSP, a Terminal Centric Approach (TCA) and a Gateway Centric Approach (GCA). The TCA provides consumer device vendors with the option to directly embed CSP technology into their devices. MARLIN has been selected for the Release 1 specifications. The GCA allows other CSP solutions to be used, including those that are in wide-spread use today. Two options are available: CI+ and DTCP-IP.
Deliverables
When will CE devices compliant to the Forum's specifications be marketed?
It is expected that devices conforming to the Forum's specifications will be marketed after the certification program is in place. It is not the intent of the Forum to define roll-out plans for any products. Each company should comment on its own product plans.
Will the certification process be made public?
The Certification Task Force is in progress, and there are many open areas of discussion focusing on the scope, methodology etc
Which OIPF-compliant consumer products are available today?
The Open IPTV Forum certification program has not yet been finalized and so no Open IPTV Forum compliant set-top boxes or residential gateways are available today. The Forum is expecting to see interoperable devices based on the Forum's specifications soon and is planning a certification and logo program to support these devices.
What are the main deliverables of the Open IPTV Forum?
The Open IPTV Forum creates interoperable specifications for providing IPTV services across both managed and unmanaged networks. When implemented in home network and network infrastructure equipment, the specifications will result in end-to-end interoperability.
To develop such specifications, the OIPF works in a phased approach, first creating requirements, then a functional architecture for the home as well as service provider networks, and finally the detailed specifications that describe how to implement the various interfaces defined by the architecture.
OIPF defines profiles in order to achieve a complete interoperability for equipments and services related to the same profile. Any implementation based on Open IPTV Forum specifications that does not follow the Profiles specification cannot claim Open IPTV Forum compliance.
For release 1, 3 profiles have been defined:
- OIP : open internet profile
- BMP : baseline managed profile
- EMP : enhanced managed profile
The Forum also provides test specifications that will enable interoperability testing for equipment built to these profiles.
OIPF Release 1, including the requirements, architecture, solution, and profile specifications, is publicly available on the OIPF web site. Work is underway on the test specifications for Release 1
The requirements and architecture for Release 2 are also available. Work is underway on the Release 2 protocol specifications.
Will the Forum work only with certain kinds of access networks such as wire line?
The Forum will define an end-to-end IPTV solution across multiple access technologies. While the Release 1 specifications focus on wire-line access, additional access methods are also possible. Release 2 work covers mobile access and the availability of IPTV services on any capable device such as a TV, a mobile phone, a PC or a PDA.
External Relationships
Has there been co-operation with other organizations to perform e-2-e interoperability testing based on specifications from the other standard bodies?
The intent of the Open IPTV Forum is to do interoperability testing based on its own test specifications. The Open IPTV Forum specifications are based in large parts on specifications and work done by other standard bodies and Fora. Where such bodies have specified their own tests, we will of course not redefine these and shall expect vendors to use relevant specifications and test facilities. However, there are a number of areas where such test specifications do not exist, and the Forum's Interoperability Working Group has started creating test specifications and initial plans for an OIPF Interoperability event.
How do other standards initiatives fit with OIPF?
The Forum does not duplicate the work done in these Fora but makes use of standards developed elsewhere and uses them to construct its end-to-end interoperable specifications.
How do we ensure compatibility with external standards?
The functional blocks of the solution are derived from existing external standards, and co-operation agreements and liaison activities are in place with external standard bodies to ensure future system compatibility.
What is the difference between ATIS IIF and Open IPTV Forum?
ATIS IIF is a regional standardization body primarily focused on the North American market while the Open IPTV Forum has a world wide scope. While ATIS IIF is also working on interoperability specifications for an e2e solution, they do not, as yet, cover the Open Internet scenario.
Which standardization bodies are working on IPTV and what's the status today?
There are many standards development organizations (SDOs) and industry Fora that address IPTV and related areas such as; ATIS IIF, Broadband Forum, CEA, DLNA, DVB, ETSI TISPAN and MCD, HGI, ITU, Marlin Developer Community, OMA, SCTE, UPnP and 3GPP. Some of them have already finalized their work or are working on specifications that are of relevance to the Open IPTV Forum. They often focus on specific parts of the overall solution (e.g. home network, content protection, browser technologies) or specific deployment scenarios (e.g. managed networks). The Open IPTV Forum combines appropriate specifications from such bodies for its overall solution. Common members between the OIPF and these bodies have allowed us to ensure that the specifications are aligned. With some of them we have already established liaison relationships and exchanged documents. Now that the Forum is a legal entity we are in the process to establish liaison relationships with the ones that are important for our work. For the detailed status of work in other standardization bodies, please contact them directly.
With which standardization bodies is the Open IPTV Forum already collaborating?
The Open IPTV Forum is already collaborating with CEA R7 WG9 on CE-HTML (CE2014) and DVB on various IPTV and MHP related issues. We have established an official liaison relationship with CEA R7 WG9 and established official liaison relationships with DVB, DLNA and ETSI (TISPAN, MCD and Broadcast), DLNA. We are in the process to establish official liaison relationships with Marlin Developer Community, HGI and ITU. Furthermore we have contacted OMA and SCTE on specific issues and to setup liaison relationships. We will continue to collaborate with other bodies in the future as needed to provide the technical solutions for service requirements defined by the Forum and to promote the Forum's specifications.
Briefly contrast OIPF and HbbTV
The Open IPTV Forum includes participants from across the communications and entertainment industries, and brings together network operators, content providers, service providers, consumer electronics manufacturers and home and network infrastructure providers. The members of the Open IPTV Forum are working together on the development of open specifications because they recognise that combining the expertise of all involved will help to streamline and accelerate deployments of IPTV technologies. Their aim is to make the next generation of IPTV a mass market service and to maximise the benefits of IPTV for consumers as well as the industry.
Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV or "HbbTV", is a major new pan-European initiative aimed at harmonising the broadcast and broadband delivery of entertainment to the end consumer through connected TVs and set-top boxes. The HbbTV specification was developed by industry leaders to effectively manage the rapidly increasing amount of available content targeted at today's end consumer.
Statements about HbbTV in this document are based on publicly available information.
What specifications from the OIPF are referenced by HbbTV?
The main building block for HbbTV is V1.1 of Volume 5 (Declarative Application Environment) from Open IPTV Forum.
Which markets do OIPF and HbbTV target?
OIPF aims to address global markets covering both managed and open internet environment. OIPF can exploit IMS-based managed network capabilities where present as well. OIPF provides three different profiles to cover different business models and market sectors
HbbTV is primarily targeted at the European retail DVB market, with either an un-managed network, or operating over a managed network provided by the broadcaster.
How are OIPF and HbbTV related?
The OIPF specifications provide important components for creation of HbbTV specifications In essence, HbbTV adopts a large amount of the technical work from OIPF and applies it to an additional market sector. There is a significant overlap between OIPF and HbbTV participants.
This commonality has significant benefits for product development, especially for CE manufacturers, two different market segments can be addressed through shared functionality, providing improved investment return for manufacturers, along with a "stepping stone implementation" towards the richer OIPF specification. Feedback from HbbTV deployment should provide technical validation of many OIPF building blocks, which benefits both activities.
Both HbbTV and OIPF use web technologies for the application format. Many HbbTV applications are expected to be trivially portable to OIPF.
Do OIPF and HbbTV talk with each other?
Yes. OIPF and HbbTV have exchanged liaison letters, each expressing the desire to cooperate with the other and to minimise fragmentation and divergence of their activities. Additional areas of potential cooperation that have been identified include marketing messages, certification, compliance and testing.