Digital Video - DVB - Cisco Systems

Digital Video - DVB Solution Diagram - Click to Enlarge

Improve Performance and Reliability

Digital cable consumers expect reliable, high-quality entertainment, information, and communications experiences. The diverse portfolio of Cisco Cable Solution products and systems, including digital headends, deliver the performance and reliability that are essential to successful analog and digital cable operations.

End-to-End Digital Headend Solutions

A digital headend consists of multiple building blocks. Cisco has a dedicated solution for all elements, based on flexibility and open standards.

Organized round the IP router, digital headends perform multiple functions:

• Acquisition: Services are acquired, preprocessed, and distributed in an IP format.

• Encoding: Encoding can be from analog or digital to MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding (AVC), both high definition and standard definition.

• Processing: Multiple processing steps include component remultiplexing, processing Program Specific Information (PSI) and Specific Information (SI), transrating and statistical remultiplexing, monitoring the individual service, ad insertion, and scrambling.

• Monitoring: A network operation center monitors and manages the individual services.

• Quadrature amplitude modulation: High-density quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) products used for data, voice, and video support both linear and nonlinear content.

Essential digital video solution components include:

Next Generation Receiver/Decoder

The Cisco D9854 is a state-of-the art receiver and decoder that can acquire multiple signals (both standard definition and high definition), descramble them, and monitor them at the reception site.

MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding Encoding

Cisco next-generation MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding (AVC) high-definition and standard-definition encoders provide bandwidth maximization technology to support advanced services and accelerate your ability to launch new or expanded customer-driven services such as high definition and video on demand.

MPEG-2 Encoding

From the simplest encoding application to the most complex, the Cisco MPEG-2 encoder series continues to offer the flexibility to harmonize features, performance, and cost without sacrificing video quality.

Video Processing with Cisco Digital Content Manager

Complex, converged-services networks need powerful, flexible, compact multiplexing technology in digital headends. Cisco Digital Content Manager (DCM) is a dense multiplexer and video-processing platform that can help you launch and manage your digital services, now and in the future, while giving you freedom and flexibility for your operational needs.

Video Management

The ROSA management system provides a single point of control and remote operations capability that supports Cisco products and third-party products. Enhanced with digital service management, it lets you establish and maintain full control of the headend.

Session-Based Quadrature Amplitude Modulation

Cisco offers a family of edge quadrature amplitude modulation (E-QAM) products that support modulating broadcast TV. The Cisco XDQA-24 and RF Gateway 1 QAMs are all deployable into a flexible architecture. These QAM products support IP multicast (Internet Group Management Protocol, Version 3) and interoperability with standard IP switches and switch routers.

Major benefits of the Cisco's digital video delivery system include:

• Unified end-to-end system simplifying the integration of broadcast linear TV, video on demand, Switched Digital Video, and other services

• Service and transport flexibility, with the ability to deliver MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 services, and a future migration path to IP video services for the new generation of set-tops

• Full control over how a service looks and how it can dynamically change over time

• Flexibility to change services and channel line-ups easily

• Full redundancy, including different back-up scenarios

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Digital Video - DVB

Introduction