Agilent N2X

Scalable IPTV Quality Testing

This paper explains why the Media Delivery Index (MDI) is uniquely suited for gauging video quality under realistic scale. The first section describes the MDI and its applications. The remainder of the paper introduces other video quality measurements which can be used to provide complementary information on video quality, although they are not suitable for characterizing networking devices in highly scaled scenarios.

Network equipment manufacturers and service providers are moving quickly to develop and deploy devices that fulfill the promise of delivering voice, video and data to customers over a converged IP infrastructure. These services, collectively referred to as Multiplay, are the pillars of a new business model for service providers attempting to mitigate the effect of ever-shrinking voice revenues. Video is the key component to service providers’ growth, as it enables them to compete with cable MSOs that already have video, data and VoIP offerings. IPTV revenues are expected to increase by 179% per year, reaching $44.3B worldwide by 2009 [Infonetics Research, IPTV Equipment and Services Market Outlook, November 10, 2005]. The existing network infrastructure supports a best effort model that is suited to many data applications, but is poorly adapted to demanding voice and video applications. Voice and video (IPTV and video-on-demand) have stringent Quality of Service (QoS) requirements, and meeting these requirements is a key success factor for service providers as they strive to build customer loyalty.