ATIS's IPTV Interoperability Forum (IIF) Releases Three New IPTV Standards

Standards-development organization, the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS), on Tuesday announced the release of three new IPTV standards, which were recently completed by its IPTV Interoperability Forum (IIF), and which it says standardize multiple areas of the IPTV ecosystem. The organization says that the new standards cover a test plan for validating objective quality models in the context of IPTV services; IPTV software download sequence and remote management security considerations and requirements to ensure interoperability between service provider IPTV multicast applications; and network provider domains, home networks and the IPTV terminal device. "These standards will enable interoperability between disparate elements of the vast IPTV ecosystem," ATIS president and CEO, Susan Miller, said in a prepared statement. "Successfully realizing remote device management and multicast network interoperability--while simultaneously ensuring high QoS levels across and between services--is essential to IPTV's continued growth and adoption."

The new standards--which are available through the ATIS Document Center (https://www.atis.org/docstore)--are:

• "Test Plan for Evaluation of Quality Models for IPTV Services" (ATIS-0800025), which, according to ATIS, "describes a comprehensive test plan for validating objective perceptual quality models in the context of IPTV services. The plan defines the procedure for evaluating quality models criteria, performance, evaluation and documentation," the organization says, and "using a single standardized test for various services, allows diverse algorithms to be consistently tested and enables easier cross-comparison." ATIS bills the standard as "intended to benefit Quality of Experience (QoE)-model standards development and alternatively evaluate QoE-model test processes."
• "Remote Management of Devices in the Consumer Domain for IPTV Services" (ATIS-0800009.v002), which ATIS says "expands ATIS-0800009 to include additional details on security considerations and clarifies the software download sequence and protocols."
• "Multicast Network Service Specification" (ATIS-0800019), which ATIS says "provides a baseline set of requirements to ensure interoperability between service provider IPTV multicast applications and the network provider domain, the home network, and the IPTV Terminal Function (ITF)," and "describes an IP multicast service that the network provider can use as a basis for a linear/broadcast TV service."