Video
TelcoBridges offers a suite of products intended for solution developers that wish to build solutions targeted at the growing market for mobile video over 3G networks. In particular, TelcoBridges has developed the TB-Video system blade, a high-performance 3G-324M implementation that off-loads the video application server to dedicated computer hardware and that is easy to integrate through simplified API calls.
The building blocks provided by TelcoBridges enable solution developers to create high-performance systems supporting the following applications:
- On-demand video clip playback to mobile subscribers
- Live TV broadcasting to mobile subscribers
- Video mail
- Video ringback tones
- 3G-324M to SIP Interworking
- Or any other application requiring video streaming or recording on mobile networks...
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Typical 3G-324M video application
Figure: Schematic of a typical 3G-324M video application
In the diagram above, the TB-Video system blade, TB StreamServer and the application sever are part of enhanced services solution for the 3G mobile network. These three parts act as one to form a system delivering applications such as on-demand video clip playback, video mail, video ringback tones, or live mobile TV broadcasting.
The TB-Video system blade handles the T1/E1/J1 interface to the mobile switch as well as the H.223 protocol, while the application software and TelcoBridges’ H.245 protocol stack run on the server hardware, and the TB StreamServer instance handles the playback and recording of video clips. TB-Video blades, TB StreamServer instances and the application server communicate using TCP/IP over a switched Gigabit Ethernet LAN.
Scalability
Any number of TB-Video system blades and TB StreamServer instances can be used to build a highly-scalable system:
- Supporting more subscribers is as simple as adding additional system blades
- Offering more content is as simple as adding additional TB StreamServer instances
- A single TB StreamServer instance equipped with a 300GB hard drive can store in excess of 10,000 hours of video content
- TB StreamServer supports up to 2000 simultaneous video/audio streaming channels per server – whether the files are being played back or recorded, or even played back while being recorded
- A single TB StreamServer instance can serve multiple TB-Video system blades– more than 16 blades per TB StreamServer instance
- The number of TB StreamServer instances per system is unlimited
- Each TB-Video system blade supports up to 120 full/half-duplex channels per blade
- Any number of TB-Video system blades are supported per system – The system has essentially unlimited scalability
Supported file formats
The file format supported by TB-Video as 3G-324M solution is defined by the 3GPP and uses the extension “.3gp”. A “.3gp” file may contain any combination of supported audio coding (typically AMR or G.723.1 in WCDMA networks) with any supported video coding (typically H.263, H.264 or MPEG-4 video coding). TelcoBridges’ products also support the higher quality H.264 video codec defined by ITU-T. This new video codec provides higher quality video than both H.263 and MPEG-4 video codecs. The 3GPP has recently included the H.264 video codec in a new version of the 3G-324M recommendation. TB StreamServer supports all of these options.
TB StreamServer supports the playback of a .3gp file while it is being recorded. This feature is important for mobile TV applications where a live
television broadcast feed can be fed to the TB StreamServer and recorded on disk while the same file is being streamed to mobile subscribers. In this way, a mobile subscriber can watch the same television programming as a conventional TV viewer with only a few seconds of delay.
Connectivity and signaling
3G-324M mobile video applications require a clear channel 64 Kbps connection between enabled terminals. This is possible on 3G mobile networks where handsets and 3G infrastructure devices, such as the CS-MGW, support the establishment of 64 Kbps clear channel bearers between nodes. A signaling protocol is required to set up the 64 Kbps channels between the mobile switch and the 3G-324M system. The signaling interface to the mobile switch is based on SS7 signaling. A TB8, TB16 or TB640 system blade can be integrated to the system to provide this signaling interface. A single system blade running the SS7 protocol stack can provide the signaling for multiple TB-Video system blades – from one to over one thousand in all.
Application call flow
TelcoBridges’ 3G-324M building blocks are controlled by an application server.
Both the TB-Video system blade and TB StreamServer are controlled by the application server through Toolpack, a message-based API provided by TelcoBridges. The API provides complete and thorough access to the blade resources and the TDM signaling stacks. The API specific to the 3G-324M features simplifies the integration of the complex ITU-T standards specific to the 3G-324M recommendation by providing a high-level interface to 3G-324M functionality.
