NAB 2010:Complete Coverage from B&C
Las Vegas -- Satellite giant Intelsat
is revamping its companion fiber network to address the growing
popularity of fiber transport for both live backhauls and nonlinear,
file-based video delivery.
Intelsat has maintained a fiber network
between key points of presence in North America for years and has
gradually expanded connectivity to hubs in Europe and the Asia Pacific
region. But with its new "IntelsatONE" terrestrial network it is
converting the network from ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode)
transmission technology to an IP/MPLS (Internet Protocol/MultiProtocol
Label Switching) architecture, using Cisco routers and terminal
equipment.
The MPLS architecture means Intelsat no longer has to
fix capacity at a static data rate for certain services and will
eventually let customers "self-provision" how much bandwidth they need
for individual applications. The fiber links will be able to support
multiple applications over a single circuit including high-quality HD,
3D, SD, streaming video, store-and-forward, confidence return links,
data and voice.
"We see [MPLS) as a good approach to providing a
path to the future," said Tim Jackson, Intelsat's vice president of
media product management. "It's much more efficient for us for fiber
bandwidth utilization, as we don't have to dedicate bandwidth for
services that are not used all the time. We can get greater efficiencies
through prioritizing traffic, as it allows us to more dynamically
allocate bandwidth. If you have 3D or HD, or a file of a motion picture,
it's easy to dynamically assign it more capacity."
Intelsat
initially got into the global fiber business at the request of large
customers like the BBC and NHK, and fiber still represents less than 10%
of Intelsat's traffic in the media and telecommunications space. But
Jackson said the move to IP/MPLS, in which customers will feed video
into the network through a Gigabit Ethernet connection, will let
Intelsat better address the shift in the television business toward
nonlinear delivery as customers address new digital platforms like
video-on-demand.
"We think where a good chunk of the growth is, is
that everyone is looking at nonlinear content and moving files around
more cost-effectively," he said. "We can do that at various service
levels. We see this as a model like FedEx for overnight shipping, where
the customer can choose how urgent the delivery is."
NAB 2010: Complete Coverage from B&C
Satellite giant Intelsat is revamping its companion fiber network to address the growing popularity of fiber transport for both live backhauls and nonlinear, file-based video delivery.
Intelsat has maintained a fiber network between key points of presence in North America for years and has gradually expanded connectivity to hubs in Europe and the Asia Pacific region. But with its new "IntelsatONE" terrestrial network it is converting the network from ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) transmission technology to an IP/MPLS (Internet Protocol/MultiProtocol Label Switching) architecture, using Cisco routers and terminal equipment.
The MPLS architecture means Intelsat no longer has to fix capacity at a static data rate for certain services and will eventually let customers "self-provision" how much bandwidth they need for individual applications. The fiber links will be able to support multiple applications over a single circuit including high-quality HD, 3D, SD, streaming video, store-and-forward, confidence return links, data and voice.
"We see [MPLS) as a good approach to providing a path to the future," said Tim Jackson, Intelsat's vice president of media product management. "It's much more efficient for us for fiber bandwidth utilization, as we don't have to dedicate bandwidth for services that are not used all the time. We can get greater efficiencies through prioritizing traffic, as it allows us to more dynamically allocate bandwidth. If you have 3D or HD, or a file of a motion picture, it's easy to dynamically assign it more capacity."
Intelsat initially got into the global fiber business at the request of large customers like the BBC and NHK, and fiber still represents less than 10% of Intelsat's traffic in the media and telecommunications space. But Jackson said the move to IP/MPLS, in which customers will feed video into the network through a Gigabit Ethernet connection, will let Intelsat better address the shift in the television business toward nonlinear delivery as customers address new digital platforms like video-on-demand.
"We think where a good chunk of the growth is, is that everyone is looking at nonlinear content and moving files around more cost-effectively," he said. "We can do that at various service levels. We see this as a model like FedEx for overnight shipping, where the customer can choose how urgent the delivery is."
