Imagine communications open vs proprietary: Choosing the right path to all-IP operations

Open vs Proprietary: Choosing the Right Path to All-IP Operations Standard off-the-shelf IT equipment provides a faster, smoother and less-expensive transition to IP than custom-built routing and switching gear

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Open vs Proprietary: Choosing the Right Path to All-IP Operations

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Open vs Proprietary: Choosing the Right Path to All-IP Operations Standard off-the-shelf IT equipment provides a faster, smoother and less-expensive transition to IP than custom-built routing and switching gear

Abstract The economic and performance advantages of IT technologies over traditional baseband infrastructure equipment for routing video signals are too compelling to ignore. The writing is on the wall. The broadcast and media industry is transitioning to IP. That means that media professionals must choose between an open or proprietary path to an all-IP plant. This document, a how-to manual for avoiding expensive detours and business-crippling dead ends, details the many advantages of using industry standard, Commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) Ethernet equipment for your eventual transition to IP.

Introduction The media industry is rapidly approaching a tipping point. The agility and cost/performance benefits of IT technologies are becoming too compelling for media companies to continue to invest exclusively in baseband infrastructure equipment. The evidence in favor of media professionals transitioning more and more of their operations to IP is mounting.

In addition to the efficiency and performance advantages of IP over SDI, transitioning to IP delivers multiple business-transforming benefits, including built-in redundancy, improved security and the ability to dramatically accelerate the introduction of new services. Most importantly, converting operations to IP is a prerequisite to shedding agility-robbing dependencies on specialized hardware by moving workflows to virtualized environments, including private and public clouds.

The how-to-manual for transitioning to IP

Open vs Proprietary: Choosing the Right Path to All-IP Operations

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Transitioning video processing operations to a software-defined environment can be transformational. It enables media companies to upgrade to the latest codecs, resolutions, protocols and formats without replacing hardware. New services and new channel launches can be implemented in minutes, rather than months — and without the financial risks that prevented media companies from exploring new opportunities in the past. Media professionals can easily reproduce instantiations of predefine workflows, dramatically simplifying operational complexity and improving overall productivity.

Hybrid Path Few, if any media companies are in a position to reach this all-IP destination overnight. The baseband-to-IP transition is a journey and, like all journeys, the first steps are the most important. Media companies must select IP-based equipment that will not introduce operational disruptions, suffer from performance or compatibility shortcomings or lead to vendor lock-in or proprietary dead ends.

Media companies can follow one of two primary IP transition paths: open or proprietary. An open approach leverages the vibrant and competitive multi-billion dollar Ethernet market. A proprietary approach requires the injection of custom-built equipment into the existing infrastructure. The remainder of this document contrasts the two approaches, as well as assists media professionals through the various stages of their IP journeys.

Proprietary vs Open Weighing the pros and cons of using industry standard equipment versus specialized equipment to solve a technology problem is an age-old exercise. The decision often comes down to assessing if the customized equipment offers advantages that outweigh the cost and compatibility benefits of COTS gear. This deliberation is usually only necessary in the early stages of a technology introduction, before standards have fully congealed and economies of scale begin to kick in. Typically, as technology and standards mature, the benefits of deploying open and standards-compliant equipment nullify, or at least thoroughly marginalize, any advantages of deploying proprietary solutions.

Open

Proprietary

Supports consolidation of separate media and IT networks

Yes

No

Supports industry standards and protocols

Yes

No

Allows media companies to leverage COTS IT equipment

Yes

No

Potentially reduces operational complexity

Yes

No

Allows media companies to avoid vendor lock-in

Yes

No

Stepping stone toward virtualized environment

Yes

No

Leverages Moore’s Law

Yes

No

Maximizes media company’s purchasing power

Yes

No

Reduces asset duplication

Yes

No

AIMS: Driving IP Innovation with Industry Standards Authentic industry standards are forged through collaboration among competitive solution suppliers and media companies and overseen by an impartial organization dedicated to furthering the advancement of the entire industry. They provide an open and interoperable alternative to proprietary approaches that hinder innovation and block media companies from exploiting the economic and performance benefits of an open and large marketplace.

The Alliance for IP Media Standards (AIMS) is a trade association founded to advance the adoption of industry standards for the transmission of video, audio and ancillary information over an IP infrastructure, as well as products based on those standards, through education and awareness. AIMS works with leading industry standards organizations to facilitate the industry’s transition from SDI to IP through interoperable solutions that enable the rapid evolution to open, agile and versatile production environments.

Proprietary vs Open Only standards-compliant IP-based equipment will not introduce operational disruptions, suffer from performance or compatibility shortcomings or lead to vendor lock-in or proprietary dead ends.

Open vs Proprietary: Choosing the Right Path to All-IP Operations

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The Ethernet market is more than two decades old. Ethernet was introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 1983. Those standards are still the basis for the equipment that makes up today’s multi-billion dollar Ethernet market. Though compatible with earlier equipment, modern Ethernet switches are many times faster and less expensive, on a cost-perport basis. The Ethernet market’s size and competitive dynamics create exceptional purchasing power, allowing enterprises and datacenters around the world to leverage economies of scale to build out highbandwidth data and communications networks. Ethernet switches, as well as the processors that power them, fall under the jurisdiction of Moore’s Law, the technology principle that dictates a doubling of performance every 18 months.

Given the maturity of the Ethernet market, media professionals should think carefully before pursuing an IP transition strategy based on a proprietary approach. Technology experts and decision makers should consider the following disadvantages of using customized equipment:

Vendor Lock-in

Dozens of competitors participate in today’s Ethernet market place, with at least four companies controlling sizeable shares of the overall market. This hypercompetitive environment keeps costs low. Common protocols and standards enable media companies to support multiple vendors in their networks and to swap out one supplier’s equipment for another. Relative interchangeability provides additional protection against cost inflation and gives buyers a mechanism for jettisoning equipment that no longer meets their technology or performance standards.

All of these favorable free market forces disappear when proprietary equipment is brought into the network. Media companies no longer can control costs through competitive bidding. The ability to change technology directions by displacing underperforming equipment is also compromised. Ripping out custom-built equipment almost always means starting from scratch, rebuilding or reconfiguring adjacent equipment and operations to work with replacement kit. A propriety path to IP requires media companies to surrender the technological direction of their operations to a single equipment supplier.

Added Complexity

The addition of non-standard equipment introduces an added layer of complexity for engineering, support and operator training. Routing or switching equipment that veers from industry standards brings with it unique protocols and unique implementations of existing protocols. In addition to compatibly issues, these rogue protocols and procedures could expose the network to security breaches or negatively impact performance.

Custom-built equipment also disrupts existing maintenance and operational schedules. New equipment requires new troubleshooting and diagnostic tools. Feature upgrades require added integration and testing against adjacent equipment. Proprietary IP gear also guarantees that your IT organization will need to support and manage a new platform, eliminating the cost- and complexity-saving option of leveraging already installed Ethernet switches from Cisco, Juniper, Brocade or a variety of established suppliers.

A propriety path to IP requires media companies to surrender the technological direction of their operations to a single equipment supplier.

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Expensive The adoption of proprietary IP equipment prevents media companies from taking advantage of the cost and performance benefits of COTS hardware. A specialty switch is unable to tap into the economies of scale advantages that greatly reduce the cost of standard IT equipment. The lack of a large ecosystem also severely limits the leverage that media companies can use to negotiate favorable purchase agreements and service contracts.

On the operational side, specialized equipment often means asset duplication. The introduction of new IP equipment requires businesses that already operate multi-vendor networks to add a new supplier. That means expending additional resources to manage and maintain the specialized gear.

No Clear Path to Virtualization One of the more severe limitations of a propriety IP transition strategy is the lack of a clear path toward software-defined networking. Eliminating hardware dependencies and abstracting functionality into a pure software environment introduces unprecedented gains in flexibility and agility.

For starters, a virtualized environment is easily scaled or reconfigured to support peak loads. No longer will media companies need to purchase processing power that is reserved for a single task or sits idle for long stretches at a time.

By tying signaling routing, and other processes to specialized equipment, media companies will miss out on the portability and elasticity benefits of virtualized environments, including public and private clouds. Media companies that are dependent on specialized hardware will eventually lose ground to competitors that have evolved to fully virtualized environments.

Your path. Your pace.

IP solutions that evolve with you.

Blocks Network Unification Most media companies currently maintain multiple networks, one for baseband and SDI workflows and another for traditional enterprise IT operations, such as email and other business processes. As more and more video production and distribution processes transition to IP, it only makes sense for media companies to converge all processes into a single network, governed by a single management system.

By building out a proprietary IP switching and routing infrastructure, media companies eliminate almost all possibilities of converging operations into a single network. Instead, these media companies will continue to suffer the cost and flexibility penalties that come with supporting multiple networks.

Open vs Proprietary: Choosing the Right Path to All-IP Operations

Baseband and IP Coexistence Few, if any, media companies will transition to an all-IP plant overnight. A wholesale replacement of baseband infrastructure with IP gear is too costly and disruptive to figure into the plans of most media companies. The IP adoption journey, in the vast majority of cases, will be measured and gradual, requiring media companies to support a hybrid SDI-IP environment for the foreseeable future. See the sidebar: The Open Path to IP. The key objective of any transition strategy is to introduce IP technology into the baseband environment as transparently as possible — without disrupting existing operations and procedures. Media professionals must be shielded from the underlying complexity of IP. Engineers and others must be able to direct and control video signals across a hybrid infrastructure using the same tools and procedures they used in baseband-only environments.

The method equipment suppliers apply to deliver a disruption-free hybrid environment heavily shapes their IP transition strategy. A model that attempts to shield the complexity of IP within network elements often requires the introduction of proprietary equipment. A higherlayer approach, by contrast, bridges the SDI-IP realms through a management and control system, enabling the deployment of standard COTS equipment.

Network Element Approach

The logic behind this model is to hide the complexity and unfamiliarity of IP from media professionals by introducing an IP network element that mimics the behavior of traditional baseband routers. The major shortcoming of this approach, of course, is that it requires the creation of a unique, non-standard network component.

For reasons already mentioned, eschewing industry standard equipment for specialty gear disqualifies media companies from leveraging the cost, performance and agility advantages of common IT technology platforms.

Building a new IP switching or routing element is not a trivial task. Several multi-billion-dollar companies have spent decades designing and perfecting IP equipment.

They have also invested huge sums to make their equipment compatible with related industry standards, such as Software Defined Networks (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV), two technology advancements that will figure prominently in the broadcast industry’s future.

It would likely take an IP neophyte decades to catch up with the price, performance and sophistication of today’s IT equipment – only to fall even further behind this field of fast-moving and well-financed competitors.

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The Open Path to IP Moving to an all-IP plant is no overnight operation.

At the heart of any viable IP transition strategy is a hybrid environment that simultaneously supports a mix of baseband and IP workflows, while allowing media companies to transition to full-IP operations at their own pace and without disruption or retraining.

An open route to all-IP operations requires a hybrid environment containing four major components: an orchestration layer, baseband routing equipment, IP switching or routing equipment, and IP on- and off-ramps, which serve as gateways between the baseband and IP realms.

The orchestration layer, which separates control and transport planes through the support of Software Defined Networking (SDN) protocols and standards, oversees both baseband and IP workflows. IP complexity is shielded from operators by a management system that supports interfaces, panels and other control surfaces familiar to baseband operators. A management system common to both baseband and IP realms allows for the disruption-free and measured insertion of COTS Ethernet equipment into the facility.

The addition of IP equipment gradually transforms the plant infrastructure into a collection of IP and baseband islands, which are interconnected through IP-enabled on- and off-ramps. As the IP archipelago expands, the need for basebandto-IP cutovers diminishes, enabling the eventual removal of baseband routing and the migration of baseband-to-IP on-ramps and off-ramps to the edges of the network.

A finely tuned IP transition will be guided by budget and business case thresholds, rather than an arbitrary timeframe. Media companies, for example, should be propelled along the IP transition path as baseband investments are fully amortized and as more and more ingest sources and distribution targets move to the IP realm.

Top Five Baseband-to-IP Transition Best Practices 1. Don’t partner with a vendor that forces you down a proprietary path 2. Adopt a transition strategy that accommodates your pace 3. Select a hybrid environment that combines the best attributes of baseband and IP 4. Don’t set an arbitrary deadline for reaching your all-IP destination 5. Select an equipment supplier without an agenda—one that is equally committed to baseband and IP realms

Open vs Proprietary: Choosing the Right Path to All-IP Operations

Moving to IP at the element level is not without short-term appeal for some media companies. In the long term, though, this approach will eventually lead to a technology dead end that will require media companies to engage a forklift to find a suitable detour.

Orchestration Layer Approach An alternative baseband-IP hybrid model is one that shields media professionals from the complexity and unfamiliarity of IP by transparently integrating control of IT-based equipment into familiar management tools. An approach that decouples management and services from the underlying transport infrastructure enables media companies to operate a mixed baseband and IP environment as if it were a pure baseband network equipped with familiar surface control equipment and control panels. The routing of video signals across either baseband or IP equipment is done at the orchestration level, shielding media professionals from the underlying intricacies of IP routing and switching.

This best-of-both-worlds approach allows media companies to tap into the flexibility and cost efficiencies of IP without sacrificing the familiarity and reliability of baseband. Media companies move their operations toward all-IP without disruption or retraining of personnel. Best of all, this approach enables media companies to leverage standard COTS equipment – and all of the performance, compatibility, cost and flexibility advantages that come with a massive and well-established ecosystem.

Media companies are moving toward converging all video and business processes into a single IT network. By adopting an IP transition strategy that uses open, industry standard equipment, media companies will pave the way for a smooth and orderly network convergence.

IT and Broadcast Convergence A backdrop to the transition of video signals to an IP medium is the eventual unification of separate networks within most media companies.

Broadcast and media entities have historically maintained separate network infrastructures, dedicated to discrete applications. Traditional information technology functions, including email and other business processes, are hosted on an IT network. Some broadcast operations still reside on a separate, broadband-based network. In some cases, media companies maintain a third network for FTP and other file transfer applications.

The boundaries between these networks have been blurring for the past several years. More and more file-based video operations, for example, are moving to standard computing platforms. The gradual migration of video signals to the IP realm portends the eventual collapsing of all of the business’ work processes into a single network.

The economics of network convergence are too compelling for business leaders to ignore. For starters, media companies can essentially cut operational overhead in half by consolidating two, or even three, networks into one, which would be governed by a single management system and update and maintenance schedule.

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In the long term, a proprietary approach will eventually lead to a technology dead end that will require media companies to engage a forklift to find a suitable detour.

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But it’s not just cost savings that are driving this convergence. Workflows across the business are becoming tightly integrated. The process that started a few years ago of combining discrete video production, processing and distribution functions into integrated workflows is expanding to include additional business processes. It only makes sense to integrate analytics, billing and other software-based functions into traditional video production and distribution workflows. A converged network makes that transformation possible.

A proprietary-based IP transition does not make allowances for this eventual network unification. The presence of specialized IP gear almost assures the continued maintenance of separate networks well into the future, putting media companies in an untenable competitive position.

Broadcast Facility IP Network(s)

IT Network

File Transfer Network

Hybrid SDI and Streaming Network

Summary The industry is moving away from hardware dependency. The continued reliance on specialized, single-function equipment blocks media companies from realizing the cost, performance and agility advantages of executing software-defined workflows on COTS equipment. A major catalyst of the baseband-to-IP transition is the need for media companies to adopt better, more efficient ways of doing business to remain competitive and preserve their place in the rapidly evolving broadcast and media ecosystem. A propriety approach to IP is counter-intuitive. It drags into the future the productivity-constraining baggage of the past.

If previous technology evolutions are any indication, media companies will be operating in hybrid baseband-IP environments for the next decade or longer. It’s imperative, then, that they start down an open and standardsbased path on day one. Otherwise, media companies will be tied for years to proprietary solutions that place them in a precarious competitive situation.

Similar to analog-to-digital or even SD-to-HD, the basebandto-IP transition will be a lengthy one. Existing engineers and other media professionals will have ample time to navigate the gradual, but inevitable, convergence of currently discrete baseband and IT networks.

Adopting a standards-based approach will ensure that the baseband-to-IP transition proceeds smoothly.

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