Aspects of Entertainment Distribution in an Intelligent Home Environment

ASPECT S OF ENTE RTAINM ENT DISTRI BUTI ON IN AN INTE LLI GENT HOME EN VIRONM EN T Radu ARSI NTE (* ) (*) Technical Un iversi ty C luj-Napo ca, Tel: +40- 26 4-5 95 699 , Str. Bariti u 26 -28 , Radu .Arsinte@com.utcluj.ro Abstract: The pap er p res ents a n im p lem entatio n an d tes ts of a si m p le h om e entert ainme n t distributio n arc hitect ure (ser ver + m u ltiple cli ents) im p lem ented u sing t wo conve ntional cabling archit ecture s: CATV c oaxial c able and conventio n al Eth ernet . This architec ture is cr eated tak ing into account the “ Hom e gateway” co ncept pre sent in m ost attem pts to solve the p roble m o f the “Inte lligent hom e”. A short pres entation of the exper im ental is given wit h a n investi ga tio n of the m ain perform an ces obtai ne d us i ng this architec ture. The experim ents rev ealed that this sim ple so lutio n m a k es possible to have ente rtainm ent and data se rvi ces wi th perform ances cl ose to traditio nal da ta ser vic es in a cos t-effectiv e architec ture. Key w ords: Hom e netw o rk, Streaming, Ethernet, Home Ga tew a y I. IN-HOM E TV AND DATA DISTRIBU TION A do me stic n etw ork is a part o a large r architec ture. A s an exam p le, in f igu r e 1 a ty pical cable netw ork is presented . Brief ly , the req uirem ents f or a dom estic netw ork are t he f ollow ing: - sim ple an d af f ordable; - f ully com p atible wi th the exi stin g anal og TV equipme nt; - hav e the possibilit y to be e xpand ed to Digi tal tech no log y wit ho ut re-cablin g o r ot her ma jor mo di f icatio ns; - capabilit ies to a dd data servic es (In ternet access, IP- tele phony ) creati ng a so called “triple-play ” archit ectu re - capabilit y to be ada ptable to f utu re di git al TV tech no log ies (DVB-C, OpenCable , I PTV) The basic arch itec ture f or a entertai nm ent h o m e n et w o rk i s described in f igure 1 . The m ain elem ent is the “Ho me Gat eway ” ([2 ]) as a bridge b etwe en the “global data com muni ty ” an d th e “loc al da ta com mun ity ” i nsid e the ho us e. There are f our major trend s that are d ef inin g con sum er requireme nts on the hom e netw ork. Broad ba nd We h ave reach ed th e s tag e wh ere a maj ority o f ho use ho ld s und er stan d that havin g a b roadband con nect ion is as mu ch an essent ial part of thei r lives as plum b ing and elect ricity . N o t a l l wil l utili ze its f ull capability , but broadband ubiqui t y op e n s up possibilit ies fo r b usin ess, gov ernm ent , schoo ls, health care, securit y provide rs to of f er services to con sum er s. W e b 2. 0 an d the long tai l enh ance capabiliti es in the b roadba n d n e t w or k f or Phone connections (ADSL) Cable connection (TV) Wireless connections Different services (TV, radio, satelit) Home g ateway Data term. (PC) A/V terminals A/V terminals Data term.(PC) „Outside World” „In-house World” F igure 1. In -ho me da ta and entertainment service distribution [2] 19 soci al netw orki ng, comm unica tio n and inf ormat ion sha ring am ong users. Ind ivi du als are of fered a wide ch oic e and busine sses are able to reach a l arge base o f custo mers based on new di stributi on possibilit ies. Comp lexi ty Mul tiple devi ces wish to share the b roadband con nect ion . Gam es conso les, PC’s, tel ephon es and I PTV set-tops wan t a broadband connec tio n, a nd the con sum er nee ds to b e able t o share th at con nect ion between all device s, simu ltan eou sly . They need a way to sim ply turn on the device and obtain access to netwo rk b ased services. Data can cross a wid e variet y of p hy sical medi a, from r adi o to power lin e, f r om twi sted pair to coax ial and optical f iber. The cust o m er w a n ts i t just to work, with out hav ing to understa nd all the co m ple x i t ie s in how to ge t it to wo rk. Convergen ce The m ost hy ped conve rgence servi ce i s f ixed m obile con vergen ce (F MC), where the same s ervic e wil l wo rk in the mo bile netwo rk an d the broadband netw ork. Init iall y vo ice service s are the most importan t FM C services, all owi ng the use o f y our m obile phon e in th e ho me netw ork. But there are oth er conv erged services that are equall y importa nt to the con sum er, inclu di ng the conve rgence of hom e netw orks an d broadband netwo rks, i. e. m aking th e ho me net wo rk a part o f the Inte rnet. Here the key issue, in addit ion to sim plicit y , is securit y . An d of cou rse there is the conv ergenc e of dig ital me dia and devi ces, wh ere the main issue is ho w to mov e me dia f rom one dev ice to anoth er, sharin g it w ith others an d wh ile in the case of p rotect ed mat erial, still protecti ng the int erests o f the co nt ent own er s. P erson alization There is a need to hav e p ersonal ized in teract ion w ith service s and con ten t across t ermin als a nd places. U sers w ant the choic e of services f r om mul tiple service p rovid ers com b ini ng and blend ing them at will to create new valu e. Parents want to limi t th eir chil dren’s access to some services. To accom plish this, new enablers need to be creat ed in the broadband netw ork, exten din g fro m singl e s i g n- o n t o pr e se n c e based ser vic es, to user prof ili ng . The p ersonal int egrit y of the user al so n eeds t o be m aintai ned . A practical wired home access alternat ive in many cou ntrie s is th e CATV netw ork, whic h was ini tia lly design ed to b roadc ast only analog TV signal s f rom the servi ce -pr o vi de r head end to subscribers. The incorporati on of f iber lines has evo lve d the CATV to b roadban d HFC p lant s, whil e enh ance men ts in mo dul ati on and use of unused spe ct ru m h a v e enabled the t ransm ission of te lephon y and bid irecti ona l broadband dig ital sig nals ov er th e leg acy CATV ne two rk. Most cable p rovi ders are of ferin g to day TV and data service s (Int ernet +VoIP) u sing a rathe r co mplex techn olo gy presented in [2]. This architect ure h as m any adv ant ages ( a reliable tech nol og y , relat ive lo w prices, a com p rehen sive set of services). But the re are som e disad van tag es: - nece ssity to u se on ly “cable approved “ equipm ent in hom e netw ork archit ectu re - dif f icult y to add no n-stan dard dev ices i n t he sy stem Ref erence [ 1] de scribes a ty p ical view of cable netw ork archit ectu re and adm ini strati on. This techno logy is know n as CableH om e. CableH om e specif icati ons are inten ded to p rovid e I n te rn e t Protoc ol ( IP) - based archite cture fo r manag ed ho me- net work ed serv ices o n t he c able ne two r k throug h a DOCSIS cable mod em . The CableHo me archit ectu re (f igu re 3) acco mm odates any phy sical and lin k lay er ho me netw ork tech no log y that supports the transport of IP p a c k et s. Th i s l ay e r 1 and 2 inde penden t archit ectu re enables cable operators to provid e services to a wide rang e of hom e ne two rkin g Home G ateway (Entertainment server + special peripherals) Console (PC + special peripherals or specia l STB) Console (PC + special peripherals or special ST B) Conventional TV equipment Ethernet Coaxial Switch RF distr . F igure 3. Test system architec ture (ve rsion 1) F igure 2. Lo gical Reference Archite cture of the CableHom e system [1][3 ] 20 env ironm ents. The CableHom e architec ture pr ovi des a def ined set of requirem ents that support pr acti call y the whol e range of serv ices that can b e del ive red over cable. In order to ensu re wide ado ption and ease of use of this sp ecif icati on , CableH om e tech nic al specif icati ons are alig ned with well - kno wn indu stry stand ards, as wel l as other CableL abs projects. CableH ome allo ws the use of the exist ing cable operators' sy stem in f r astruct ure, but also provid es a acceptable transi tio n path f or th e de ploy ment of CableH om e ove r older sy s tem s. The CableHo me architec ture p rovid es support f or ex isti ng and f utu re IP-based s ervic es int o the hom e. This architec ture seems t o hav e a p romi sing f uture, b ut also b ein g very new , i t wil l take fe w y ears unti l com patible equipme nt could b e af f ordable f or hom es. This is the main reason that leads us to inve stig ate dif fe rent options. One of such optio ns, inv estig ated in our research, is d escribed in th e f ollow ing paragraph. II. HOM E NETWORK AR CHITECTURE (EXPERIM ENTAL SYSTEM ) Our goa l w as to verif y if th e Ho me ne two rk co ncept i s usef ul a nd f easible at a com p lex ity af fo rdable f or a n orm al hom e. General Architectural Concepts We have b uil d two version s of th e ex perimen tal sy stem wit h a sim ila r archit ectu re. Fi rst sy stem (described in f igu re 3) uses a conve nti ona l cablin g sy stem with tw o sets o f da ta p ath s: coaxial f or analog dist ributio n and Ethern et f or dat a link s. Normal, low cost , com p onen ts were used so this architec ture loo k s si m i la r wi t h a norm al netw ork, regardi ng dat a part. Th e A/V part is si mi lar to norm al Cable TV co nn ecti ons. The second sy stem (f igu re 4) is bases on the Mul til et con nect ion de scribed in [ 4]. This techn olo gy m akes possible to com b ine the proprieties o f R F sign al d istribut ion an d d ata dist ributio n of th e coaxi al cable. The techn olo gy has som e lim itatio ns (de scribed also in [4 ]) but f or an intel lig ent hom e, wit h lim ite d req uirem ents fo r d ata conn ecti ons, the disa dvan tages are a cceptable. The main adv ant age is the f act tha t the cabling is sim ple, or an existi ng cabling coul d be u se d to add dat a capabili ties to the hom e. So , it seems to b e a ve ry cost -ef f ective tech nolog y . III. HOM E ENTE RTAINM ENT CON TENT GENERATION System conf igura tion To b uil d the pr oto ty p e of the entertai nm ent server we u se d a conven tio nal PC, with f ew mu lti me dia capabiliti es. It is not nece ssary to hav e a very ef f ecti ve architect ure s inc e th e ro le o f the server is only to gen er ate the cont ent. The visual izat ion is perfo r med at the con sole . The basi c (sim plif ied) archi tect ure i s described in f igure 5. Sof tw are tools Fo r mul tim edia streamin g, our pr evi ous experience in thi s f ield, described in [5] , w as ext remel y usef ul. The main to ol used both in server and client was th e well - kno wn VL C Media Play er. This p rogram is devel oped in Video L AN pr ojec t. The VideoL AN p ro je ct ta rg et s m ul ti m ed ia stream ing of MPEG -1, M PEG-2, MPEG-4 an d D ivX f iles, DVD s, digi tal satel lit e chann els, digit al terrestrial tel evi sion chan nel s and liv e vid eos on a hig h-bandw idth IPv4 or IPv6 net work in unica st or mu lticast un der the m ain OSes. Satellite board Tuner board Mode m board Satellite dish TV antenna + cable TV Phone line PC barebon e + CPU Cable Mode m board Network card To Multilet or In-Home Ethernet F igure 5. Block schematic of the entertainment server Home Gateway (Entertainment server + special peripherals) Console (PC + special peripherals or special STB) Console (PC + special peripherals or special STB) Conventional TV equipmen t Coaxial Multilet bridge F igure 4. Test system architec ture (ve rsion 2) 21 Video L AN also f eatu res a mu lti ple platf orm mu lti med ia play er, VL C, wh ich can b e used to read the stream f rom the net work or display vid eo rea d lo cally on th e co mput er un der all GNU/L inux im plemen tation s, all BSD versi on s, Wi n d ow s, Mac OS X, BeOS, Solaris, QNX, Fam ili ar L inu x. Fo r som e peripherals, wit h bui lt-in support f or stream ing (e.g. Sky S tar 2D DVB-S board) th is su pport was al so u sed. Fo r this purpose it is possible to use also L inux based sof tware a rchit ectu res, lik e the sy stem described in [8] . IV. ENTERTAINM ENT CONSOLE Embed ded system (STB –Set Top Box) Set-Top boxes f or Ethern et are not q uit e com mo n tod ay com p ared w ith th e u biquito us STB fo r D VB-T or DVB-S. Con sequent ly , the price f or such STBs is rel ativ ely h igh . We hav e teste d a DVB-S STB wi th Ethernet conn ecti vit y , havin g as a su pport a L inu x o perating sy stem. This STB call ed AB IP Box 2 00 has the f oll owi ng charact eristi cs: • Based on 300 MHz Pow erPC processor • Applicat ion and Expansio n. L INUX O/S enables applicati ons and expansi on s. • Max . Two Chan nels Recordi ng and One Pr e re co rd ed Fi le Pla y back. Si mu ltan eous Double Descramblin g wit h Via ccess CA M. • Wat chi ng 1 Viaccess channe l while recordin g ano the r Viaccess ch ann el w ith o nly 1 Viaccess • CAM . Play back on prerecorded pr ogram s with out Viaccess C AM . • Variable HDD Size is Applicable f or produ ctio n up to 25 0GB o r above • Enh anced Rec ordin g Plan by tim er setti ng / EPG • Enh anced Play back to skip comm er cial s/ edit prerecorded f iles by PC • USB 1.1 Supported f or P C con nect ion / enhanc ed program uti lit y /Prerecorded f iles u pload s to PC • Ethe rnet Po rt Supported The per f orman ces ar e p romi sing , but the f irmware inc lud ed in the standard deli very , ma kes p ossible only to stream dat a f rom the D VB part to Ethernet . It seems p ossible (accordi ng to the In ternet sources) to mod ify the fi rm wa re an d be able t o accept inc om ing mul tim edia streams f or visu ali zati on. We did n’t e xplore t his f acilit y . Open system ( PC based) Fo r experim ents it is mo re af f ordable to use a norm al PC as a visu ali zatio n consol e. Again , V L C med ia p lay er (the clie nt part) coul d perf orm th is t ask. It is possi ble to create an ent ire m ult im edi a cen ter based on Win do ws techno logies, as described in [ 6], o r u s e L in ux supp ort like in [8]. An im portant issue is to optim ize th e data streams and the ma nag eme nt of the inco mi ng streams. Consi derati on s on th is ma tter are giv en i n [7]. Tested per f ormanc e (as presented in [4 ]) is excelle nt f or one stream (on e ch ann el) an d sat isf actory f or tw o st reams. If we launc h si mu lta neo usly mo r e than three play backs the lim itatio ns are visible. It is not sure tha t th e lim itat ion s are a charact eristi c of th e operatin g sy stem’s net work ing perfo r man ce or rela ted wi th VL C Me dia Play er charact eristi cs, but we d idn ’t f ind sp ecif ic works explorin g thi s di rectio n. V. CONC LUSIONS This research m ake possible t o e valu ate the potent ial of a ded icat ed archite cture in mul tim edia (entertain ment) inf orm atio n creati on and distribut ion with in a norm al hom e. The research proved that this kind of conf igurat ion is f easible and af f ordable, with lim ite d f eatu res (two or th ree stream s sim ult aneo usly ). The maxim um do wnl oad sp eed f or the f irst versio n ( in Hom e Ethernet ) seems to be at the lim it of a norm al 1 00 Mb Ethernet . The second architect ure (Etherne t ove r Mult ilet ) has lim ited p erf orm ance on data s trea mi n g , d ue to the lim ited p erf orm ance of th e data link deliv ered b y the basic Mult ile t archite cture. An importa nt f act that must be tak en also int o accoun t is the lack of the f ull duplex mod e, du e to th e fu ndam enta l pr oprietie s of Mult ilet . This m akes im possible the simul tan eou s hig h-speed transf er of inf orm atio n in both directio ns. The m ain adv antage of thi s versio n is the fac t th at the buildi ng cabling is mini ma l avo idi ng rewiring each apartmen t, when we need t o ad d a n ew service . The sp eed of the co nn ecti on in v ersion 2 is en ou gh fo r mo st dome stic mul tim edia and dat a transm ission a pp l i ca t io ns . Fo r the f uture applicati ons, invo lvi ng hi gh -sp eed Int ernet access, event ual ly IPTV, will b e nece ssary to use ve rs i on 1, o r to f ind add iti ona l solut ion s b ased on the same con cept (enha nced Mu lti let). A m ain ad van tag e of th is archite cture (usin g Hom e Gat eway conce pts) is the f act that it is p ossible to con se rv e f or a longe r period th e int ernal structu re (and investm ents) of the net work , and app ly the mo dif icat ion s (hardwa re, driv er s) o n ly in the Hom e Gate way , if it is necessary to adapt the n et wo rk to tech nic al progress o f fe red by th e ne w I T te chno logie s. VI. ACK N OWLEDGEMENTS This research is incl ud ed in a CEEX research gra n t f un de d by The Roman ian Natio nal Agen cy f or Research and Techn ology . This research was also possible usin g an ev a l ua ti o n sy s t em (star archi tectu r e) don ated by Mac ab AB (Sweden ). REFERENCES [1] Th eod ore B . Zahari adi s - Ho me Networking Technolog ies and Stan d ard s , A rtech House , I n c, 2003 [2] V. Lawrence , N. Zerv os, T. Zahar i di s, A . Meli ones - Digi tal Ga teway s fo r Multi medi a Home Networks , Tele commun ication Systems 23:3,4, 335 –3 49, 20 03 [3] Theofa nis Orphanoudak is a nd ot h - Hardwa re A rchi tectures for the Effi cie nt Imp l ementati on of M ult i - Ser vi ce Broa db a nd A cc e s s a nd Multi medi a Home Net works , Tele commu nication Systems, 23 : 3,4, 351 –3 67 , 2003 [4] Rad u A rsi nte - Study of a Hy bri d - A nalo g T V and E thernet- Home D ata Li n k U si n g a C oax ial Cabl e, A cta Technica Na po censis – Electr on ics and Telec ommu nications , No.2, 200 7, pp .1-5 [5] Radu Ar si n te, Eu gen Lupu - S trea mi ng Multi medi a I nformati on Usi ng the Fe atures of the D VB-S Card , Scie ntific Bu llet in o f the "Politehnica" Un iver sity Timi ş oara , Transa cti on o n Elect ronics and Telec omu nications , Tom 51(6 5), F asc. 1-2, pp.181-184, 2006 [6] Mi chael Mil ler - Creating a Digital Ho me En tert ainmen t S yste m wit h Wind ows® Med ia Center , Que Pu bl is hing, 20 06 [7] Edgar de n Boef, Wi m F .J. Verhaegh, J an Ko rst - Smoothi n g Str eams in an I n-Home Digi tal Network : Opti miz atio n of B us and Buffer U sag e, T el ecommunica ti on Sy stems , 23 : 3,4, 2 73– 29 5, 2003 [8] Patri ck Be cke r, Pat ri ck Cernko , and o th ., T he Multimed ia-Box: Design a nd Development o f a Mu ltimedia Ho me Entertainment System for Lin ux , Uni ver si tät de s Saarl andes, Saar brück en, 2002 22