paytv operators and the internet of things

7/18/2019 PayTV Operators and the Internet of Things

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PayTV Operators and the Internet of

ThingsTrends and Opportunities

Susan Crouse Director of Product Management

White Paper | June 2015



© Alticast 2015

Contents

Introduction 3

The Internet of Things 3

Smart Homes 4

Pay TV Operator Participation 6

Centralized Gateway 6

Information Sharing Example: Health Care 8

Business-to-Business (B2B) IoT 8

The Evolving Model 8

The Role of Alticast in Addressing the IoT Market 9

Summary 10

Resources 11

Contact us today 12



© Alticast 2015 3

Introduction

As operators seek to expand their business beyond content delivery, theemerging Internet of Things (IoT) offers excellent opportunites to leverage

existing bandwidth, connectivity, and hardware presence in the home.

With their widespread presence in many homes, ownership of the fastest

internet pipes, and multi-media expertise, operators have an exciting

opportunity to firmly establish their presence in the modern household by

integrating the Internet of Things into their product offerings.

The Internet of Things

The IoT is a networking environment in which highly automated objects

interact with one another, while easing and enhancing the everyday life of

consumers. The IoT has already gained significant footholds in areas

such as home security systems and smart appliances, and promises to

extend far beyond the home front through retail interfaces and data-

sharing connections with health care professionals and other providers.

Enterprises in the shipping and large equipment businesses would claim

the idea that network-connected devices will be able to communicate with

each is hardly a new concept. Associated technology has been in use for

over 20 years in areas such as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) for

package and truck tracking. The difference now is that the IoT is

becoming more ubiquitous and pervasive for the average consumer.

Historically, the first applications marketed as IoT applications in the

home most frequently involved home security. Following along with a

similar purpose were lighting controls, and more recently furnace controls,

such as thermostats that reset themselves according to occupants' usage

patterns.

A device that participates in the IoT differs from its conventional

counterparts in a number of ways:

• The device is connected to a network.

• The device is composed of both hardware and software

components.

• The device can be controlled over its network connection.



© Alticast 2015 4

• The device is capable of interacting with other devices as well as

with humans.

Smart Homes

Buyers of new homes increasingly find that builders either include or offer

an option to buy various IoT connected devices. They may be for

controlling the furnace, or garage, or a security system of cameras in the

home. For each of these services there is a network interface for

communication.

In the home, devices enabled with network access can be controlled from

a computer console or remote device such as a cell phone, instead of

requiring direct interaction at the device itself. While some new

applications are designed with only a one-to-one connection in mind, for

example using the phone to close your garage door, IoT extends theconcept so devices can ‘talk’ to each other, potentially coordinating

activities, or sharing data. For example, household devices could

schedule their usage to minimize energy use during high-peak times.

This could, for instance, ensure plenty of hot water for all the demands in

a household by means of a water heater that can trigger the dishwasher

or the washing machine at particular times of day, even taking into

consideration the occupants' arrival home so they are done and ready.

This progression from individually controlling each device (set the water

heater temperature) to issuing generalized instructions (follow these

guidelines for hot water usage) is a pattern that applies to several groupsof related devices in the household. Like the hot water example, the

HVAC system has evolved from "set the thermostat" to "manage climate

control according to these guidelines, even when I'm not at home."

Security systems, similarly, have progressed from "validate my security

code when I enter" to "monitor indoors and out, 24/7, with video and

sensors, making allowances for the movement of my pets, and alert me

wherever I am if anything suspicious occurs."

The logical destination of this evolution is a centralized gateway that

monitors all of the IoT traffic in the home, allowing centralized control for

the homeowner, who can lay down general rules to follow and setthresholds so trivial activities can be handled by direct device-to-device

interactions, without personal involvement.

Object-to-object communication can extend beyond the boundaries of the

home. For example, imagine a packaged food that could provide

feedback to the food manufacturer and manufacturer of the oven that the

instructions did not work. Alternatively, the oven could track this with



© Alticast 2015 5

feedback so that next time it cooks the item, it adjusts the time or

temperature accordingly until it zeroes in on perfection.

Some sensors, such as CO2 alarms, are traditionally data collectors.

When empowered with smart technology and an IoT connection, a sensorcan both collect data and, when encountering a problem, generate an

alert through a network to a cell phone. Mobile things, such as fitness

wearables or cars, can also be included in the IoT.

One central aspect of IoT is that object-to-object networks are often

connected through the cloud, so that the sensors collect the data, send

that data through a gateway to the cloud, and the data can be dispersed

to other connected devices or to a data collection point. A great deal of

data is being created, collected and possibly used for multiple

constituents. Much of this data collection and dissemination goes

unnoticed by homeowners who use IoT for controlling devices, but thereare opportunities for other interested parties to collate data for larger

projects. For example, consider the case in which an operator could

report back that a certain brand and model of clothes dryer has a higher

incidence than others of fire. This could improve products, trigger recalls

and potentially even save lives.

General (anonymous) data from a neighborhood could be collected to

predict crime in large neighborhood areas that might affect how police

staffing is managed. As another example, scientists might notice a higher

than usual rate of CO2 alarms and wonder if there is some larger gas

leak from an unknown source. Cities are already improving traffic flow byusing sensor data to monitor traffic conditions, and in turn automate the

lights to reduce congestion.

These ideas exemplify the opportunity of the Internet of Things to affect

things outside the household by using big data generated from IoT data

collection.

An FTC report states that as of 2015, a remarkable number of connected

devices exist, on the order of 25 billion, and estimates that the number

will double in the next five years. That’s a lot of sensors and a lot of

opportunities for big data to find innovative ways to improve our lifestyle.

So whether the IoT provides a pop-up on your TV that your dryer is done

and pauses the TV so you can go get the dry clothes, or whether it makes

us a driverless society, or whether you can have a doctor’s appointment

from your home, it’s easy to predict that this technology has only

scratched the surface of possibilities.



© Alticast 2015 6

Pay TV Operator Participation

A few operators have already been selling security and other systems tosubscribers as IoT solutions. Once such services become widely

established, consumers will come to regard them as essential to the

working of the household. The operator has a number of advantages

already in place with regard to introducing, establishing, and providing

these services. Cable operators provide broadband service to a majority

of their customers, and the 'smart pipe' to the house may be the most

important thing an operator provides going forward.

Centralized Gateway

The fact that the operator has a box in the household that is already

connected to the smart pipe means that a central gateway is already in

place. As operators provide more and more video and data gateways for

consumers, these boxes will be even more robust for IoT management.

The central gateway offers a ready solution to the problem of an

individual gateway for every service in the house. A smart home that

begins with three individual gateways for three services may eventually

grow to a closet full of gateways, with all the accompanying control

complications and unnecessary energy usage, and the inability for those

systems to interact. The need for a centralized point of control will

manifest in short order. If there is a central gateway it also provides for abetter management of the collection of data from devices and the

optimization of the network for data transfer to the cloud.

In addition to the obvious convenience factor, a centralized gateway

offers efficiencies for the operator with regard to adding and testing new

devices. With the essential control of the household network, operators

are already set up to add services quickly and efficiently. The smart pipe,

by its nature, embodies important IoT principles such as security, privacy,

QoS, and reliability both in terms of uptime and in terms of playing nicely

with a variety of device types.

The television can act as a dashboard for IoT services. Instead of having

an application for every IoT service, they can be aggregated and

controlled from the remote on the couch or the cellphone from home or

away. In addition, the television can act as a ‘thing’ itself, so when a

trigger comes in, say the doorbell rings, the television can not only display

the video of the person at the door, it can also pause the programming,



© Alticast 2015 7

allowing viewers to decide how to respond and then resume as they see

fit.

The operator already has a financial relationship with the household and

can create B2B relationships with the various entities that want to provideadditional services. The billing infrastructure is in place, so new services

can be aggregated into the existing billing structure, alleviating the

consumer from being billed by a number of IoT providers. The operator

can provide add-on services whether they are energy, security, or health

related, and can provide billing settlement to the various providers. This

creates a single point of billing, reduction in hardware controllers, and a

single point of interface for the consumer.

The operator can also use its consumer dashboard as a place for

consumable and hardware purchases that expand IoT services. Whether

selling light bulbs or sensors, having an easy way add those devicesthrough the same dashboard provides another way operators can expand

services and revenue. The portal also lets operators advertise new

services.

Security is an area of tremendous concern and therefore an area of great

opportunity in which PayTV operators can leverage their wealth of past

experience in Internet security, firewalls, and digital rights management.

One of the most important roles that the operator can play is to serve as a

single point of security for the data that is passed not only around the

household and between devices, but up to the cloud to enable

communication with cellphones when the user is out of the home. The

householder should be able to establish central privacy policy to be

observed by all devices, including those not explicitly purchased, but

embedded within other packages.

Creating a single point of security for all the data and devices controlled in

a household can simplify and mollify the concerns of the consumer. No

one wants the cameras they install to be available for just anyone to see,

and certainly no on wants the public to be able to disable their home

security system or open their garage door. Security of IoT networks, data

and devices will be a high priority feature of any system sold on the

market. When services are aggregated by the operator, intrusion points

are consolidated to a single point of protection, reducing the number of

places vulnerable to possible intrusions.



© Alticast 2015 8

Information Sharing Example: Health Care

There is a ground swell of opportunity in the medical care industry, in

particular with the trend of ‘aging in place’ to assist in the care of the

elderly. With IoT technolgy, doctors may begin to monitor patients to

ensure that they understand and are following the doctor’s instructions for

care without visiting the office. Interactive in-home post-surgical care

could provide a huge cost savings to hospitals that often must cope with

avoidable post-surgical emergency room visits. A connected visit could

improve the aftercare in the home and reduce returns to the hospital.

Operators have another opportunity to broaden offerings in this domain.

The operator can assist those who are unable to travel out of their homes

by supplying important connections to the outside world such as medical

alert services as well as more mundane shopping capabilities. In addition,

the operator can set up care and communication channels to family and

friends who provide care for house-bound individuals.

Security is key in opening up health care services in the home through

IoT networks. There are many new IoT enabled products coming on line

that can do diagnostics and provide feedback directly to the doctor’s

office. In this area security is tantamount to individual privacy. Providing

encrypted security that is verified and protected through accounts will be

necessary so that consumers feel the data transmitted is completely

secured and shared only through authorization by them to specific entities.

Business-to-Business (B2B) IoT

Operators are also involved in a variety of business level media delivery

arrangements for hospitality and universities. These are other areas

where they can consider enhancing services, whether it is through IoT

anywhere anytime, or more directly related opportunities for using their

media prowess for things like conferencing study sessions on campus by

connecting a group of students with mentors through video.

The Evolving Model

In an emerging field such as IoT connectivity, there are competing

'standards' for communication, including ZigBee®, Z-Wave and others.

Various devices coming on the market often choose only one, so

gateways that want to aggregate services from a variety of sources will

have to understand which standards are essential to integrate. This



© Alticast 2015 9

important goal for PayTV operators for providing a system that can

support the most dominant standards, thus allowing devices that utilize

different standards to intercommunicate, reinforces the importance of a

unified system and gateway.

When it comes to implementing centralized gateways to accommodate

IoT, the operator community will need to identify connectivity standards

that can be realistically supported. Candidates include the AllSeen

Alliance based on Qualcomm’s AllJoyn code, and the Open Interconnect

Consortium (OIC), which includes Cisco and Samsung. CableLabs

recently demonstrated an initiative related to RDK to create a simplified

API that will allow for mulitple standards to exist in the home network.

In order to quickly and efficiently accommodate newly-available IoT-ready

devices, and thus monetize the emerging IoT infrastructure, operators

must pursue new partnerships with device vendors similar to the historicalrelationships already in place with content providers.

As innovative technologies evolve, some technologies emerge as 'best of

breed'. Operators will have an opportunity to provide best-of-breed

solutions to their consumers by aggregating applications. Packages of

related functionalities could be offered to consumers in a kiosk-like

fashion, while not to limiting consumers to only one solution in a given

functional category.

When consumers integrate devices into their household, some will want

to build more advanced control. There is an opportunity to provide simple

‘if this than that’ (FTTT) tools to allow users to make their own programs

for their devices. A number of companies are already creating such tools,

so the consumer can easily create ‘programs’ for the things they want to

control, while other consumers will want smart learning with little or no

programming. While this all seems fairly logical it will take time to perfect

just the right system to offer to consumers that provides choices, flexibility,

tools and security while enhancing their life.

The Role of Alticast in Addressing the IoT Market

Alticast is working with operators to help them expand their businessesinto the emerging IoT arena. The presence of existing infrastructure

presents a relatively fast path from the pipe and STBs already in

consumers' homes to a consolidated gateway. Alticast provides myriad

areas of expertise that enable operators to deliver the IoT to the

consumer. Alticast facilitates the development of IoT solutions through

integration of the sensors, the STB/Gateway and the cloud, while

providing a secure environment that is essential for complete IoT delivery.



© Alticast 2015 10

Summary

Operators are prime candidates for the central delivery of IoT services,whether provided directly by the operators or by relationships they have

created then pass on to their consumers. They can be a single point of

communication for the consumer for troubleshooting problems, they are

the central billing contact, they can aggregate the services and hardware,

and they can insure the security of the data, as well provide a conduit to

share data as the consumer permits. The operator can set up the right

relationship with the consumer and other big data users to provide

anonymous data sets to different entities for research or other purposes

that might provide energy savings or safety improvements.

The burgeoning IoT world will grow dramatically over the coming years. As standards and best-of-breed solutions are identified, operators will be

in a good position to offer a library of choices for the consumer in a one-

stop-shop. It may take a bit of time to get the stars to all align for this idea

to play out to fruition, but the reasoning seems fairly solid that operators

will be a central player in IoT home solutions.



© Alticast 2015 11

Resources

For those who would like to learn more about the Internet of Things (IoT),

here are some good starting points:

• Internet of things: Privacy & Security in a Connected World, FTC

Staff Report , Jan 2015.

https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/reports/federal-trade-

commission-staff-report-november-2013-workshop-entitled-internet-

things-privacy/150127iotrpt.pdf

• Cable in the Internet of Things (http://www.cablelabs.com/cable-in-

the-internet-of-things/), by Clarke Stevens, Principal Architect,

CableLabs

• The Internet of Things World Forum, https://www.iotwf.com, October

2014.

• IoT: A New Business Model , John Carlucci at INTX 2015,

https://intx15.ncta.com/videos/the-internet-of-things-alticast/



© Alticast 2015 12

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