Optical network services for ultra high definition digital media distribution

D. Simeonidou, D. K. Hunter, M. Ghandour, R. Nejabati
2008 2008 5th International Conference on Broadband Communications, Networks and Systems  
Motivation Recent technological developments in the fields of High Definition (HD) video capture and projection devices, high-speed data networks and storage hardware, and advanced digital image compression algorithms, are making HD digital broadcasting, HD on demand video streaming and "Digital Cinema" (D-Cinema or DC) feasible [1] . Large cinema chains worldwide have already opened theatres with digital projection systems, and a substantial growth in the number of digitally enabled screens is
more » ... expected in the next few years. Much of the effort in deploying this new technology is driven by Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI) [2], a joint venture of several studios, aiming to establish uniform specifications for digital cinema. The existing DCI framework does not specify the distribution strategies to be used for content delivery from production sites to theatres, which is left to technological development and to the market: the adopted transmission media could be high-speed transmission (fixed, wireless, satellite) or magnetic storage. In Europe, some research projects [3] [4] are already are evaluating the use of satellite and WiMAX [5] as possible data distribution technologies. This paper will discuss the advantages and the technical challenges involved in deploying dynamic optical networks to support emerging super and ultra HD media applications. The rapidly growing requirement for data-intensive digital media transport over large distances [6] [7], including point-to-multipoint and multipoint-to-multipoint, has made it clear that this type of traffic cannot be supported by traditional data networking architectures and techniques. At best, these can provide only partial, low quality solutions that will not scale to meet the demands of new high resolution digital media formats (i.e. 4K and 8K DC formats). The data transport requirements for such data-intensive high quality digital media preclude the use of common L3 (layer 3 -i.e. IP or Internet Protocol) techniques for digital media. These requirements define a range of parameters including quality, data volume and scale. Consequently alternative techniques are being investigated.
doi:10.1109/broadnets.2008.4769062 dblp:conf/broadnets/SimeonidouHGN08 fatcat:vazqehfecjf2zjxdgrqzkip4yy