Video coding and delivery challenges for next generation IPTV

Current generation, large-scale, Internet protocol television (IPTV) systems borrow heavily from the broadcast industry, which makes a number of delivery assumptions that do not apply to IP networks. Consequently we can perceive major improvements if we better match the delivery of IPTV services with the underlying network transport. We can expect next generation IPTV systems to adapt video streams dynamically to maximise throughput, allow constant quality delivery, and degrade gracefully in congested networks. This paper outlines the challenges in optimising IPTV delivery and the contribution that BT’s research has made to overcoming some of these.