Wi-Fi 802.11n Based Access
Network for IPTV Service
Delivery in Pakistan
Fahad Ahmed
Student of Master of Telecommunications Engineering
University of Melbourne
Jawad-ul-Hassan Siddiqui
Student of M.Engg Communication Systems & Networks
Mehran University of Engineering & Technology

Traditional CATV
Standard Composite TV signal has a bandwidth of 6 MHz

Vestigial side band Amplitude modulation is used for video
signals and FM is used for Audio.
Various channels are broadcasted together having different

carrier frequencies( using different carrier frequencies for
Composite TV signal of each TV channel) by using FDM.
There can be only 135 channels broadcasted in a traditional

CATV system due to bandwidth limitation i.e 54Mhz to 890 Mhz
enforced by PTA.

What is IPTV ?
IPTV is a new form of Cable TV and

provides more features then Cable TV
In IPTV a real time TV broadcast is

encoded by using MPEG2 or H.264
Codec, the encoded real time video
streams encapsulated into IP packets
and multicast over the IP network
having end to end QoS control.

Customers Expectations
Subscribers want noise free, clear high quality picture quality TV

channel broadcast. They also want access to more TV channels.
Subscriber want to watch the contents of their own choice ,

when ever they want.
Subscriber want more personalized viewing and interactivity in

their daily life viewing.
Subscriber want to view the contents whenever they are free or

want to watch recorded real time video streams.
Advertisers want to increase their advertisement viewers and

want to target the viewers who seriously think about their
product.

Subscribers want noise free, clear high
quality picture quality TV channel
broadcast.
IPTV provides noise free, high quality

picture. In IPTV, the Live TV video
contents are received from the TV
channel broadcasters via satellites or
other terrestrials links, video contents
are then encoded and compressed by
the codec like H.264 or MPEG2, the
encoded video contents are distributed
via IP-multicast delivery.

Subscriber want to watch the contents of
their own choice , when ever they want.
IPTV provides Video on demand ,VoD

provides solution to this requirement, VoD
allow users to search their desired multimedia
contents from online videos/movies libraries,
when a user makes a selection, the video
streaming server start delivering the
multimedia contents to the user over a point
to point unicast connection. VoD also
provides VCR like functionalities known as
trick mode.

Subscriber want more personalized
viewing and interactivity in their daily life
viewing.
IPTV provides interactive TV viewing allowing viewers

to interact with the multimedia contents, because its
an IP based content it is very easy to provide along
with video contents and provides a two way
communication path which enable user to send their
data also. Interactive TV has various features like
Electronic Service/Program Guide, Personalized
viewing, different viewing angles, users can
participate in online polling, multimedia content
searching system allow user to search for contents
based on actors, title, release dates, director etc

Subscriber want to view the contents
whenever they are free or want to watch
recorded real time video streams.
IPTV provides the solution in two ways i.e

personal video recording allow user to record
multiple broadcast (IP-Multicast) streams on
their PVR therefore user can access recorded
content whenever they want. Other method
is Network based PVR, the real-time TV
broadcast is recorded on a server at the
service provider network therefore the
subscriber can access the contents whenever
he/she wants from that server.

Advertisers want to increase their advertisement
viewers and want to target the viewers who
seriously think about their product.
IPTV provides an interactive solution in

the form of addressable advertisement,
in this feature the advertisers search
the profiles of the viewers and selects
the profiles which are best match for
their campaign/advertisement and
sends an interactive advertisement to
the particular viewers.

Smartness of IPTV
Since it is an IP based data cast it is easy to be

provided over broadband internet connection
Special end to end QoS(quality of service) provide

defense against network jitter, packet loss and long
transmission delay faced by the multimedia content
in internet.
IP multicasts of real time video streams, in which few

requested streams are delivered to the subscribers
(who request the streams) enable service providers
to provide cable TV like environment and increases
the number of choices for the users to choose from
thousands of TV channels and also make it possible
to provide HDTV.

Smartness of IPTV
Whereas in old cable TV or in digital cable TV

all of the channels are broadcasted therefore
they consumes large bandwidth and a user is
tuned to a particular channel whereas all
other channels which are not being watched
by the user are also being broadcasted and
consuming the remaining bandwidth, this
bandwidth consumption creates a problem in
providing large number of channels and in
providing HDTV channels on a old analog
cable tv or on a digital cable TV.

Smartness of IPTV
In IPTV different services like Voice, Data and

video services are IP-based therefore they
are easy to converge and provides new way
of interactivity and converged
communications.
An user can enjoy features like on screen

caller ID, on screen call handling, video
calling, chatting, voice mail and e-mail
handling, information sharing etc and
parallely he/she can watch video.

Attraction Of IPTV
Less bandwidth consumption of IPTV

and be a IP-Data encourages the Telco
to provide IPTV in bundle with Internet
Access and Voice services (e.g VoIP)
over broadband connection.

Hindrances in IPTV Service Delivery
All ready laid networks are designed for data
traffic, so the routine problems are quite
evident like loss of packets due to
circumstances like congestion delay, link
failure etc.
These problems are not a major point of
concern in data networks because we mostly
have retransmission facility at our disposal in
case of packet loss or delay.

Hindrances in IPTV Service Delivery
But IP based video data is greatly affected by such problems

and requires a good quality of service mechanism, therefore it
requires sufficient amount of bandwidth for video services to
prevent bursty delivery of video data to the IPTV client
equipment which is expecting constant data in correct
sequence.
The theoretical maximum downlink data rate of ADSL2 is 12

MBits/sec, if we consider ideally the data rate available to every
customer averagely 10 Mbits/sec, therefore it is still difficult to
deliver HDTV( High Definition TV channel require at least 6.5 to
8 Mbit/sec if they are using H.264) along with the multiple e.g 4
or 5 streams of SDTV(Standard Definition TV channel require at
least 1.5 to 3 Mbits/sec if they are using H.264) and other
services like VoD, High Speed Internet.

IPTV in Pakistan
In Pakistan only one Telco which is providing the facility
of IPTV over their PSTN copper lines by using ADSL+
technology.
Unfortunately in Pakistan, the condition of most buried
PSTN copper lines to the customers are in worst
possible condition due to improper shielding of wires,
copper wires buried in areas having water logging
and salinity, unmanaged planning and distribution, all
these factors cause failure and increases the noise
and causes an unreliable service delivery to the
customer due to increase in packet loss.

IPTV in Pakistan
Therefore the data required for good quality of

service is greatly influenced by the factors discussed
in the previous slide.
Also an another issue is that data rate available to

the subscriber vary according to the distance from
the DSLAM (digital access line multiplexer) therefore
some may get higher data rate who are closer to the
DSLAM and some may get lower data rate who are
far from the DSLAM.

What is the REMEDY
There can be many solution for this
problem such as use of FTTH( Fiber to
the house) as an access technology,
which provides a high bandwidth but
mostly immune to the factors discussed
previously and moreover this
technology requires new infrastructure
which is again expensive.

Proposed Solution
Another solution to this problem is “Wi-Fi

Technology” for access networks.
Service provider can use fiber to node and

after that use Wi-Fi 802.11n as a last mile
access network. Wi-Fi alliance has announced
a new standard for Wi-Fi i.e 802.11n which
provides 4 to 5 times higher data rate as
compare to 802.11 a/b/g/e.

Advantages of Wi-Fi 802.11n
The renewed standard uses 52 subcarriers where as its

predecessors uses 48.
It has a FEC( forward error correction ) of 5/6 whereas the old

one has 3/4.
It has 400 nsec guard interval between transmission whereas

802.11 a/b/g has 800 n/sec.
It has it has a channel bandwidth of 40 MHz where as 802.11

a/b/g has 20 Mhz.

Advantages of Wi-Fi 802.11n
Wi-Fi 802.11n is greatly optimized for audio and

video traffic, it has feature known as WMM (Wi-Fi
multimedia) which provides QoS functionality by
prioritizing the video and audio traffic.
The higher throughput, QoS and reliable service

delivery made this technology to be used as an
access network for IPTV.

This is the future
IPTV service provider can provide all the

features VoD, interactive TV, High speed
internet Access, VOIP and multiple SDTV and
HDTV channel streams to their customers.
Using Wi-Fi 802.11n technology provides the
solution to the problem faced in copper
networks of Pakistan.
Wi-Fi provides an easy way to provide

multiple connections to a same home if they
are using more than one set-top boxes.

This is the future
Higher data rates of WiFi 802.11n enable

service provider to send several IP multicasts
of SDTV and HDTV streams (which can be
viewed on several TV or recorded
simultaneously on PVR) along with multiple
streams of high definition VoD( Video on
Demand), High speed Internet Access and
multiple VoIP services on a single connection
to a subscriber.

This is the future
Wi-Fi 802.11n WMM QoS provides solution to

the problems like jitter, packet loss and
transmission delay faced by the audio and
video streams.
Wi-Fi 802.11n also provides mobile

convergence facility.

This is the future
Wi-Fi 802.11n provides Mobile phone

convergence, therefore a Wi-Fi compatible
mobile phone or other handheld devices can
use Wi-Fi access network for making VOIP
calls, receiving IPTV services on Mobile Phone
and use it for high speed internet surfing.
Service provider also attract lots of mobile
phone subscriber through Wi-Fi Mobile
Convergence(WMC) feature

Conclusion
Using Wi-Fi 802.11n as an access network for IPTV
service delivery in Pakistan provide solution for the
problems faced in copper based access network and
high bandwidth availability with Wi-Fi
MultiMedia(WMM) QoS provide high quality of
service delivery to the subscriber along with all the
features of IPTV and bundle services like Internet
and VoIP.
Wi-Fi 802.11n has MIMO antenna technology which
provide robustness in Wireless environment
attenuation factors and multipath problems.

Conclusion
Its high time for the service providers to think along
these lines and use the latest and probably the most
feasible technology, to provide better IPTV service.
Wi-Fi 802.11n also helps service provider to deliver their
service in rural areas of Pakistan because several
rural areas of Pakistan don’t have PSTN, in rural
areas usually the homes are spread over larger areas
therefore usage of Wi-Fi technology is a good
solution for providing internet, VOIP and IPTV service
in rural areas

References
[1] IEC Online Education Web Pro Forum: IPTV

http://www.iec.org/online/tutorials/iptv/index.html

[2] IPTV Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPTV

[3] An Introduction to IPTV

http://arstechnica.com/guides/other/iptv.ars/1

[4] IPTV & Triple Play

http://www.rogertowne.com/IPTV&TriplePlay.htm

[5] Digital Broadcast TV

http://www.iptvxl.com/applications-services/digital-broadcast-tv/

[6] Video on Demand

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_on_demand


References
[7] Interactive TV

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactive_television

[8] Personal Video Recorder

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_video_recorder

[9] Pay-Per view

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay-per-view

[10] Addressable Advertisement

http://www.iptvxl.com/applications-services/addressable-

advertising
[11] White Paper: IPTV

http://www.intellon.com/pdfs/IPTV_White_Paper.pdf


References
[12] White Paper: Delivering converged entertainment and

communication services with IPTV and VoIP Multimedia for regional
carriers
http://www.nortel.com/solutions/iptv/collateral/nn121420.pdf

[13] IPTV Architecture

http://www.iec.org/online/tutorials/iptv/topic02.html

[14] IPTV Architecture & Technologies

http://www.networkdictionary.com/networking/IPTV.php

[15] Video on Demand

http://www.iptvxl.com/advantages/vod/

[16] A Guide to IPTV: The Technologies, the Challenges and How to

Test IPTV
http://www.tek.com/Measurement/App_Notes/25_20277/eng/25W_20

277_0.pdf?wt=520&rgn=ww&from=303271X314253&link=/Measurem
ent/App_Notes/25_20277/eng/25W_20277_0.pdf