The virtual Set-Top Box: On the shift of IPTV service execution, service & UI composition into the cloud

This paper introduces the concept of the so-called virtual Set-Top Box (vSTB). The idea of the vSTB represents a novel and fundamental change in the creation and delivery of media services as IP Television (IPTV), by shifting most of the service execution environment - e.g. the Web browser - to a Cloud infrastructure. This paper describes the overall approach of this idea, addresses and identifies the technical challenges, which emerged in a corresponding project in the Telekom Innovation Laboratories, and provides a wide theoretical basis for further research on Cloud service execution environments.