[opendtv] HDTV pioneer Netravali: media nets must be geared for video
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2008 12:08:26 -0500
The interesting concept presented here is the idea that a network
optimized for video will have to move away from Internet Protocols at
its core. And that data and voice traffic would then constitute a small
load on this new video-optimized network.
Much as a network optimized for data moved away from the
circuit-switched protocols of the original telco networks, and voice
became a small load on the new data-optimized network. (Well, this
actually has not happened universally yet.)
The part I don't buy is the idea that the network core for this new
global network could be based on "Ethernet." I think there is a
confusion here between hardware implementations in Ethernet switches and
protocol layers required for global accessibility. Even if something
beyond IP might be needed, it won't be what we know today as Ethernet.
Bert
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HDTV pioneer Netravali: media nets must be geared for video
Sufia Tippu
(02/04/2008 5:35 PM EST)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206103884
BENGALURU, India - With video becoming as ubiquitous as data, the time
has come for a new media network optimized for video, says Arun
Netravali, president emeritus at Bell Laboratories and managing partner
of OmniCapital LLC.
Netravali foresees a future multimedia architecture that combines the
Internet at the network edge and Ethernet switches at its core,
significantly reducing the cost-per-bit ratio for video.
"Today, the video market is growing for entertainment, information,
training, education, monitoring and surveillance as well as social
networking," Netravali said. "Video capture, creation and editing,
storage and transmission are becoming inexpensive and easy to use.
Consumer-produced video and client-to-client video is also increasing
exponentially," he added via video link during the Confederation of
Indian Industry Comtel 2008 here last week.
As data began to outpace voice on networks in the early part of this
decade, it made little sense to keep building voice networks to carry
data. Hence, data networks were built with a voice overlay, or
voice-over-IP.
But current IP networks are unsuited for video delivery. Camouflaging
video to look like data creates a new set of problems, namely huge
bandwidth requirements, the hogging router resources and heavy software
processing.
"You need a different solution," Netravali said. "Video traffic presents
unique problems: Its files are huge, data rates are large, strong
[quality of service] is required and the traffic is mostly asymmetrical.
"The solution is to move to the third stage of network evolution where
you rebuild a network for video and then you make data and voice run
over it as overlays," Netravali said.
In this scenario, the network edge would use the Internet to transport
video into the network core since lighter traffic arrives as a thin
stream from many sources. Once it reaches the network core, bandwidth
requirements jump, creating the need for a dedicated network.
Rather than using routers that are very software intensive, Netravali
prefers cheaper Ethernet switches that are more scaleable. Moreover,
Ethernet is well suited to multicasting.
With the shift to global access to video content, core network bandwidth
also needs to rise significantly. "For instance, there are a 100 million
downloads per day of 10-kilobyte files on YouTube." Then, "scale that by
1,000 for higher quality movie length content. A shift from a
centralized YouTube architecture to decentralized access to content
anywhere on the Web leads to a dramatic explosion in core bandwidth."
Added Netravali, "There are a lot of small start-ups who are doing a lot
of research on this, but none of the solutions has yet materialized into
actual commercial production. But there is a need right now to create
new protocols in video" for the Internet.
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