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Gradual Introduction of Cloud based TV Functions to Legacy Networks Erwan Nédellec – Orange Labs, October 2014

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Orange in a nutshell

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236 million customers worldwide

€40.9 billion revenue, and €1.873 billion net profit (2013)

165,000 employees

– 102,000 in France

4G in 10 countries

450,000 km of submarine cables

– enough to circumnavigate the earth 10 times!

IPTV launched in France 10 years ago

– 6.5 million digital TV (IPTV / satellite ) customers in Europe

Live TV & VOD services available in OTT on SmartTV and Xbox game consoles

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Defining Cloud based TV approach for Orange

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Clouds are not always white and fluffy

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/science/gallery/2012/aug/23/meteorology-cloud-shapes-in-pictures

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Cloud TV approach for the UI embraces different concepts

Native apps Cloud based UI Browser based

Device centric approach

Cloud centric approach

The UI is rendered in the cloud and

delivered as a video stream

The data is usually downloaded

from the cloud

The UI and the data are downloaded from

the cloud

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Virtual STB also corresponds to different concepts

Virtual Set-Top Box [vur-choo-uhl] [set] [top] [boks] noun 1. A basic Set-Top-Box where most of the service execution environment - e.g. the web browser – is running in a cloud infrastructure 2. A device which is not a Set-Top Box, but which acts as a Set-Top Box plugged on a TV set

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Cloud computing is also an opportunity for the TV ecosystem

Source: http://www.nist.gov/itl/cloud/upload/NIST_SP-500-291_Version-2_2013_June18_FINAL.pdf

Visual Model of the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) definition of Cloud Computing

Broad network access

Measured service On-demand self-service

Rapid elasticity

Resource pooling

Software as a Service (Saas)

Platform as a Service (Paas)

Infrastructure as a Service (Iaas)

Community Hybrid Private Public

Essential Characteristics

Service Models

Deployment Models

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What can we learn from our Cloud based gaming service offer?

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Orange launched its cloud gaming offer for TV in October 2011

Rely on the G-cluster product

Around 200 games

Games can be tested for free during 20 minutes

Different Business models

– Transactional: 24H, 48H, 1 week

– Subscribed:

– Basic: 50+ games, 5€/month

– Premium: 150+ games, 15€/month

– Electronic sell-through

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A Cloud gaming solution can make sense for STB

Native games induces high-end STB

– Aggressive GPU, CPU

– An additional costs for every STB, while that extra feature may not be used by everybody

At least for low-end STB, cloud gaming is a good trade-off

– But the main issue is latency

The latency is the amount of time between the stroke of a button on the gamepad (or the move of the stick) and the update of the UI

– Perception threshold: 120-150 ms

– Annoying for the user (in gaming context): >350 ms

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Residential Gateway Game

Servers

STB

IR: 130 ms

Wired: 30 ms RF: 45-55 ms BT: 55-65 ms

Ethernet: negligible Wi-Fi: 50 ms

Ethernet: negligible Wi-Fi: 50 ms

Fiber: 2-3 ms ADSL: 20-30 ms

Fiber: 2-3 ms ADSL: 20-30 ms

50-70 ms

HDMI: negligible

20-80 ms

Best case: 125 ms versus

Worst case: 500 ms

20-60 ms

TV

Remote Control: • Not relevant

for all games

Game Pad: • Latency between sticks and

buttons may be different • We selected RF

Home Network: • So far, our STB in the

field are not in Wi-Fi

Game Servers: • Video encoding

tuning is key (a good frame rate is mandatory)

STB: • A low latency buffering policy is mandatory

TV: • Monitors are often better than TV in term of latency • “Gaming mode” must be turned on

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Our experience with a STB-less approach

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Orange services have been launched on connected CE devices for several years

Infotainment services are available on

– LG (March 2010 in France, August 2011 in Poland)

– Samsung (November 2011)

Our live TV channels are available on

– XBOX 360 (April 2012)

– Samsung Smart TV (February 2013)

– LG Smart TV (July 2013)

– XBox One (November 2013)

Our VOD service is available on

– XBOX 360 (April 2013),

– Samsung Smart TV (July 2013)

The strategy is to target second screens at this stage

– The STB is still the preferred device in the living room

Smart TV Orange portal in 2010

Orange VOD on XBOX 360

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Our experience is positive in many ways

Innovative devices

Good relationship with the partners

Constructive exchanges

Co-marketing opportunities

But we have also identified several topics that we must improve together

WebTV linear channels on SmartTV

WebTV linear channels on XBOX 360

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Our biggest fear is regression

We have faced regression with all our partners

Examples (not the complete list):

– Regression with persistent PlayReady license

– Regression due to heuristic changes in Smooth Streaming player

– Regression in rendering Live streams in Smooth Streaming

– Regression in dealing with the same origin policy for XHR requests

– Etc…

Regressions are unfortunately unavoidable, but:

– It is more complex to identify regressions for a CE manufacturer with 100+ partners, due to the distance from Korea or US, than for a telco with its end-to-end controlled solution in its premises

– So, regressions are identified too late (after a firmware upgrade in some cases), and the probability of facing regressions is higher on CE devices than on a STB

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And when a regression occurs, the following questions come up straight away

1

2

3

Are we the only partner impacted ?

Is the firmware already rolled-out ?

Was it the latest firmware for that device ?

Yes

Yes

Yes

+

+

Very bad news

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Firmware management is the second hot topic

As we do not control the device, we have no control on

– the features included in the firmware

– when the firmware will be rolled out

– which kind of firmware will be rolled out (mandatory or optional update)

Firmwares do not always behave the same way (differences between mid-range and high-end models within the same line-up)

We lack visibility on the scope of the firmware

– In almost all cases, there is no release note available for partners

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And last, but not least, the support is more complex

Today, we have representative configurations of households in our premises (STB + gateway)

– This is a really useful means of reproducing customers issues

When we rely on Smart TV, this is not possible

– Between 2 and 4 different platforms by manufacturer each year

– In some cases, there are several different firmware releases in the field for a same device

It is very hard for hotlines and technicians to help our customers

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What the Cloud Computing could bring to the TV ecosystem?

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Cloud computing is a revolution, like when we switched from water wall to water tap

Source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/05/13/moving-cloud

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Cloud computing brings lot of opportunities…

Elasticity

– Can adapt to workload changes by provisioning and deprovisioning resources in an autonomic manner

A better Time-To-Market

– Prototype easily in production environment with very little investment

– Very helpful with a DevOps approach

– A more flexible solution to address different market size

– Cf. Orange footprint in different countries

Can (potentially) save money

– More OPEX oriented with a pay-as-you-go billing model

– But you must monitor the usage of cloud services and track costs

– And not forget to release resources…

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But lot of challenges as well…

Migrating existing applications to the Cloud induce lot of impacts

– Must migrate stateful components to stateless

– More data centric than component centric

– Applications must be designed for failures

And the challenges are not technical only

– Impacts of organizational change

– Do not underestimate skills shortage

– Service Level Agreement

– Security

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So, do not underestimate the migration path

The safest way for migrating an existing IPTV platforms to the cloud is

– To avoid a big bang approach

– To analyze your data first (consistency, durability, read/write cycle, security, repository…)

– And only then the impacts on your components

– To set up tools and to automate as much as you can (Deployments, Configuration, Error recovery, Elasticity, …)

And do not forget

– “Release early, release often“

– “If at first you don't succeed, try again”

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Thank you