Lucent can leverage experience in telecom-specific applications areas including optical switching and IP switching, as well as IPTV-specific knowledge of network jitter, latency, QoS and firewalls to shield CPE

In April 2006, the telecommunications industry was rocked by the announcement that telecoms giants Lucent Technologies and Alcatel would merge, creating an entity with market capitalisation of approximately $36 billion and annual revenue of about $25 billion; to be finalised in six to 12 months.

Microsoft partnership

Both companies have significant, but different, IPTV strategic initiatives. Alcatel’s most visible IPTV efforts are in partnership with Microsoft Corporation, as they blend their software and networking expertise to provide Tier One carriers with an integrated video delivery solution built around the Microsoft TV IPTV Edition. For details on Lucent’s different approach, IPTV News Analyst spoke with Stef van Aarle, vice president of marketing and strategy, and Geeta Chaudhary, director of IP video offer management at Lucent Worldwide Services.

Unlike Alcatel, which in many ways was an incubator for IPTV software technologies in its own right, Lucent approached the market with a multi-vendor systems integration approach. In 2004, Lucent began to consider how it might integrate assets from different divisions to create an IPTV solution, leveraging expertise residing in Bell Labs and across its product units, its Network Solutions Group and Lucent Worldwide Services.

By early 2005, as the IPTV market began to accelerate, Lucent engaged with a small number of outside partners to build and test a pre-integrated solution, based on a telco-grade architecture that is open, scalable, video QoS tested, feature rich, ready for mass deployment and able to bring operators to market faster, provide flexibility and diminish risk of delays. This ‘ecosystem’ approach enabled them to offer a single point of contact for an end-to-end IPTV platform implementation and a committed integrated roadmap across a matrix of partners. This increased customer comfort levels while providing a more flexible route for Lucent.

MPEG-4 over DSL

One result was the first system to deliver MPEG-4 Part 10 (H.264) video over DSL to an undisclosed multi-national carrier. Elements included the Lucent Stinger DSL Access Concentrator, Orca Interactive’s RiGHTv middleware platform, video servers from SeaChange International, Amino 124 MPEG-4 set-top boxes and content protection from Widevine Technologies. This system employed the first MPEG-4 splicer for advertising insertion. Lucent has also invested in next-generation interoperability labs and has developed extensive test plans and operational scenarios for ongoing verification and testing of IPTV platforms, which are leveraged in consulting assignments and custom integration jobs.

It is tempting to compare Lucent with other integrator centric IPTV efforts, but Lucent is quick to note that, unlike IT-focused integrators that architect from the top-down, its approach is to build from the ‘bottom-up,’ leveraging strengths in telecom-specific applications areas like IMS (Integrated Multimedia Subsystems), optical switching, IP switching and real-time OSS/BSS software technologies, as well as IPTV-specific knowledge relating to control of network jitter, latency, QoS and the use of firewalls to shield IPTV CPE (Customer Premise Equipment) from unwanted traffic. These competencies help Lucent address three areas where carriers are struggling: security, QoS and back-office integration.

As an acknowledged provider of IMS systems (with seven announced IMS contracts, an initial IMS deployment in China and 77 ongoing trials for IMS network elements - with 16 customers globally including Verizon) Lucent believes that IMS is the right Service Delivery Platform for the next evolution of IPTV: its transformation from a standalone service to one integrated with IP voice, mobile communications and real-time messaging. Only this approach, they say, will differentiate telcos from cable. One application example is the blending of broadcast and call-waiting: to place video ‘on hold’ while screening, then taking, a telephone call. Another might be to interrupt a football game, transfer it to a PDA and resume it there.

IMS session controllers can invoke functionality across systems. Recent industry developments add weight to Lucent’s value proposition: a broad array of products already allows users to access and share TV and personal media content within the home, across the Internet and on the go, while content owners explore new distribution options - and service providers need to be ready.