Cisco VGE reinvents IPTV

Talk about reinventing the wheel.

Cisco has virtually reinvented IPTV. It is dropping key elements of the IPTV experience (VoD, network DVR, fast channel change, and packet re-transmission) down to the network layer. These elements will now set on Cisco routers and servers in the network. Cisco is calling this vision Visual Quality Experience (VGE).

One of the current problems with existing IPTV in most instances is that the bit ratio is too numerous for error correction to handle on its own. (Bit ratio is the number of packet errors naturally occurring in a piece of DSL copper wire.) When this results in an I-Frame (which provides reference points for other frames) an IPTV system cannot render the next 12 or so frames correctly.

In layman terms, this means that the DSL copper wire just wonʼt cut it anymore. When a system moves to high definition there is just too much data. HD moves around 5 times more data across the network. The result is that the screen becomes pixillated (when the system canʼt render frames accurately) around once every thirty minutes or so.

It will take some recoding to use this new capability (and other new Cisco capabilities) at the set top level. However, it should be available in simple standard protocol calls once a network operator chooses to install it.

Cisco has also announced other features relating to troubleshooting and proactive operator alerts to go with this VQE system.