Real-world IPTV network measurements

Internet Protocol Television or IPTV is defined as an alternate method of distributing television content over IP by a telecom carrier or an Internet service provider (ISP) and it is increasingly gaining market share in modern communication networks. IPTV poses specific requirements on the network infrastructure and at the same time it requires that several network performance characteristics are maintained under defined levels in order for the end user to have an assured viewing experience. In this paper, our main motivation is to investigate how a real life network performs in terms of distributing this inelastic and high-bandwidth type of service utilizing traffic measurements. Furthermore, our goal is to verify and analyze whether the studied network is suited for multicast IPTV traffic.