Technologies and Architectures for FutureIPTelevision Services

Abstract

This chapter introduces the current trends of evolution of IPTV from several perspectives. First, we review the transformation of the users' expectations and the consequent changes brought to the business opportunities for the different stakeholders willing to benefit from the Internet video usage. The second section of this chapter presents the main architectural overhauls of IPTV led by the converged usage of different video modalities. In particular, we discuss how IPTV and Over-The-Top (OTT) video distribution mutually feed each other to draw the future of IPTV systems, and insist on the current and foreseen collaboration between the stakeholders. The third section focuses on three main technical points in video distribution through the Internet, namely (i) the caching strategies which allow the telecommunication operators (telcos) to scale up their Internet video distribution, (ii) the envisioned solutions to steady and integrate the wireless last-hop into the whole delivery system, and (iii) we open up on the daunting technological challenges arising with Virtual Reality (VR), if VR shall be the upcoming revolution of user experience and ultimate evolution of TV.