An early implementation of a DAVIC V1.0 system — use of dynamic connections for interactive multimedia services

Advances in networking technology and the provision of greater wide area bandwidths are the catalysts for the emergence of new broadband services in both the business and residential market. This is in turn producing new, more complex, business models involving service consumers, content providers, service brokers and network connectivity providers. Such business models require the underlying technology to enable sophisticated network signalling to set up, monitor and tear down connections reliably and in real time.This paper describes the evolution of a broadband call control demonstrator believed to be the first of its kind in the world to provide a practical realisation of the signalling required in such business models. It focuses on signalling and switch control and has developed into an end-to-end implementation of a Digital Audio Visual Council (DAVIC) V1.0 system.The evolution of the switch control and signalling architecture is described, showing where existing standards have been implemented to provide basic connectivity across an ATM network. Additional capabilities are built upon this platform through the adoption of emerging signalling concepts, such as session control, and application control using distributed object-oriented principles, for the access and control of a video-on-demand service.To further understand the evolutionary path for emerging consumer systems, the paper illustrates how work was undertaken to separate set-top box (STB) functionality into a set-top unit (STU) and a network interface unit (NIU), allowing easier access to future broadband network capabilities.