Addressing the REAL Challenges of Quality Management

Increased attention to voice quality in IP networks is directing focus on the evolving standards needed by quality initiatives. The use of quality monitoring and advanced real-time algorithms requires a standardized architecture in which quality metrics can be exchanged between endpoints and communicated to a quality monitoring agent for more comprehensive analysis. Many architectural and technological options are currently available to implement this functionality. For core carrier networks, standard quality architecture is necessary before deploying any large-scale, next-generation quality assurance system.

You might ask, what are the challenges we as an industry are facing in regards to quality management?

We experience sort of a chicken and the egg challenge as we discuss and share this IP quality management issue with vendors and service providers. Most, especially the service providers, agree that in addition to network probes and monitors, end point monitoring and management is necessary; however, we often find that operators say that equipment providers don't support such features, and conversely vendors mention that service providers don’t require such features. It is a shame for the industry because this capability, in standards based technology, does indeed exist. At TI, it is one of our goals to make the market and industry players aware of this.

Let’s talk about solutions. One of our more recent initiatives in TI's Communications Instruments and Voice group has been the promotion and development of an IP based proactive quality management, called Piqua. The premise behind this quality initiative is that any and all IP based devices both affect, and are affected by, the IP network it is connected to, due to the distributed and non-deterministic nature of IP networks. As such, Piqua is about the promotion of each IP endpoint to be enabled to provide service quality management metrics (such as VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) applications) as well as features for troubleshooting, diagnostics and even proactive impairment mitigation.

A significant goal around this IP services topic is to ultimately get to a state where IP devices are truly interoperable, manageable and easily configurable. This would allow for a network architecture and related eco-system such that new innovations and products can be quickly and easily deployed to be at an environment of a true converged, global IP network.

Many of the capabilities of a quality architecture that could be overlaid onto IP networks already exist today. Being based on open standards enhances the scalability of overlaid quality architecture, which is a critical feature for rapidly expanding IP networks. Moreover, quality architecture must be able to rapidly respond to ongoing conditions. Interrogating endpoints in real time to determine the root cause of a fault or degraded service could initiate corrective action to mitigate the degraded conditions immediately. Mid-level points in the network would collect and manage the quality data generated at the endpoints. Of course, the deployment of such an architecture must be cost-effective, and its impact on the performance of endpoints negligible.

TI provides solutions for the full range of embedded VoIP vertical markets and maintains a majority market share in each. The key reasons behind this success include the combination of TI’s innovative history of semiconductor technology along with continued process technology improvements in DSP and IP technology that is leveraged and customized for each VoIP vertical market. In addition, TI’s robust, field proven VoIP software, which combined with field proven hardware offer a complete set of optimized VoIP embedded solutions to end equipment vendors. To learn more about TI’s PIQUA offering, please visit ti.com/piqua.

Submitted by Debbie Greenstreet, TI

Triple-play Support: The View from the Home Network

Summary information from Day 2: CONNECTIONS™ May 2007, hosted in Santa Clara, CA

This panel addresses the role of residential gateways, advanced CPE, and service provisioning and networking maintenance tools in reducing support costs for the service provider and enhancing the bottom line.

Duncan Bees, Deputy Chairman of the HGI Quality of Service Working Group, PMC-Sierra, Inc. Wayne Davis, Technical Advisory Board, Peak8 Solutions
Richard Nesin, Vice President, Marketing, CopperGate Communications
Tushar Saxena, Director, Home Networking Technologies, Verizon Communications
Michael Stich, Director, Service Provider Strategic Marketing, Texas Instruments
Ofer Vilenski, CEO, Jungo Software Technologies
Moderator: Kurt Scherf, Vice President, Principal Analyst, Parks Associates


Panelists discussed the required features of an end-to-end broadband and in-home network ecosystem as managed by a service provider. Kurt Scherf introduced the topic by indicating Parks Associates’ research predicts service providers will manage upwards of 30% of the home networks, via smart residential gateways, deployed by year-end 2010. Scherf further indicated that if the industry is to provide sufficient support for advanced services, it must build solutions to address the following issues:

• CPE installation and configuration;
• Service provisioning;
• Diagnostics and monitoring;
• Remote support;
• Telephone support; and
• On-site support.

The panelists represented a diverse spectrum of companies involved in the end-to-end management of broadband and home network services. Wayne Davis, representing Peak8 Solutions, indicated that they are focused on solutions for both the customer as well as the help-desk agent. Rich Nesin at CopperGate discussed QoS monitoring that is made possible through home networking chipsets. Michael Stich at Texas Instruments discussed the company’s DSP-based monitoring and measurement solutions, notably PIQUA™. Ofer Vilenski from Jungo discussed the role of residential gateway software in monitoring, management, and easing service provisioning. Duncan Bees from PMC-Sierra discussed the Home Gateway Initiative (HGi) and its goal of helping service providers deploy more standardized management and provisioning solutions. Tushar Saxena from Verizon said that the service provider’s biggest challenges today are installing broadband and home networking services and platforms with minimal expense; ensuring interoperability between different customer premise equipment; and making troubleshooting more efficient.

Clearly, service providers face growing challenges as they take on the responsibility for deploying a growing number of converged services. Ofer Vilenski mentioned that customer support costs in the first year of a subscriber’s service to a triple-play service can often exceed the dollars spent on the home networking equipment. The panelists believe that there is no firm business model for monetizing support at present, fearing that a fee-based business model may alienate customers today. Instead, enhanced customer support could actually be a good differentiator for service providers to set themselves apart from their competitors.

Making High-Definition Home Networks Easy: A Special Session Hosted by Pulse~LINK

Summary information from Day 2: CONNECTIONS™ May 2007, hosted in Santa Clara, CA.

Making High-Definition Home Networks Easy: A Special Session Hosted by Pulse~LINK

Can networking HD devices actually restore simplicity for the consumer? What are the value propositions with enabling whole-home entertainment networks? A panel representing content and service providers, CE companies, and others describe HANA’s latest progress in simplifying and enhancing the HD experience for consumers.

Zephra Freeman, Home Networking Business Development Manager, Digital Interface Business, Texas Instruments, Inc.
John J. Kang, Sr. Director of Business Development, Samsung Electronics Co.
Sheau Ng, Vice President, Consumer and Broadcast Technology, NBC Universal
Paul Pantera, Sr Software Engineer, 4HomeMedia, Inc.
William (Bill) Rose, President, WJR Consulting Inc.
Bruce Watkins, Co-Founder, President/COO, Pulse~LINK, Inc.
Moderator: Harry Wang, Senior Analyst, Parks Associates

Pulse~LINK sponsored this session to discuss HANA's approach in helping consumers better enjoy HD entertainment in their homes. The session featured six panelists representing CE manufacturers, content owners, 1394 chipset makers, networking silicon manufacturers, middleware developers, and integration service providers.

Harry Wang started the session by describing consumers' frustration over the setup and delivery of networked multimedia entertainment in the home and turned to the panelists for clarification on HANA's solutions. The panelists answered questions specific to their components of HANA's specifications, how the solution works, and the benefits for consumers as well as service providers and CE manufacturers. Bill Rose from WJR Consulting emphasized the benefits to consumers of one remote control for all TVs in the home. Paul Pantera from 4HomeMedia explained how his company's solution enables the same on-screen menu for every TV in the household and that OCAP standards from the cable industry will make the UI more easily developed as the HANA framework also supports OCAP standards. John Kang from Samsung showed a remote control model from his company and said that HANA helps simplify consumer use cases with one remote/one UI concept, thus encouraging sales of networked CE nodes. Zephra Freeman from TI explained the benefits of using 1394 as a reliable in-home connectivity solution with superior throughput and a proven content protection scheme, DTCP, recognized by almost all industries, including cable. Bruce Watkins added a chipset maker's perspective, that quality-of-service features of the company's UWB chipset provide guaranteed bandwidth for video streaming in the home and the chipset design is flexible enough to be compatible with either coax or Ethernet infrastructure. Sheau Ng from NBC Universal elaborated that the content industry wants and is ready to support a solution with that is simple to use but has robust security features, all of which HANA has demonstrated.

All panelists agreed that HANA is a fast-track approach with a narrower scope than Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA). Rose commented that HANA stands to solve the most immediate needs of consumers in their living room and this focused approach will earn support from consumers. Watkins pointed out that all six companies on the panel also have seats with DLNA but they see special value in HANA's approach in tackling the critical aspect of living room entertainment. Freeman added that many components of HANA are proven technologies and they do not intend to re-invent the wheel for potential adopters. Rose provided updates on recent HANA developments – that the promoting member companies and working groups are working diligently to test technology and interoperability and that final standards will be ready for adoption in late 2007.

Opening Keynote — The Digital Lifestyle: Under Construction

Summary information from Day 2: CONNECTIONS™ May 2007, hosted in Santa Clara, CA.

Opening Keynote — The Digital Lifestyle: Under Construction
Presented by: Greg Jones, General Manager, DSP Systems Strategic Marketing, Texas Instruments

Beyond the four walls of the digital home is a huge opportunity for delivering content anywhere, anytime – the ultimate Digital Lifestyle. Explore how consumers, service providers, and technology enablers will work together to deliver the vision of the emerging digital lifestyle that is being fueled by new advances in digital signal processing.

Texas Instruments’ portfolio of digital signal processing (DSP) and analog technology solutions represents a broad spectrum of digital lifestyle categories, including communications, digital entertainment, networking, and telemetry applications. Greg Jones, who serves as the general manager for DSP Systems Strategic Marketing, highlighted the importance of the DSP in building a wider array of needed consumer solutions, noting that DSP enables many of the services important to the digital lifestyle, including DSL.

Jones sees a larger role for DSPs in the future across a wide array of emerging consumer applications. Digital entertainment is obviously going to be a significant area as digital signal processing will be necessary in managing bandwidth use and encoding and decoding the many different video codecs and formats. Jones said that there may be upwards of 30-40 different codecs to manage.

In addition, Jones brought up examples beyond entertainment where signal processing will play a role in improving learning and communications (instant translations during phone calls) and transportation (the nearly automated automobile). He also mentioned digital healthcare applications as an opportunity for TI to expand its role. Finally, he discussed how DSP technologies will help service providers offer a higher quality of services by measuring and monitoring traffic and applications with PIQUA solutions.

Interesting Technology Developments Throughout History

I had an interesting conversation today with an industry contact who reminded me that he's been waiting for the inflection point for his company's solution to occur for about ten years now! It's a reminder that even the most-promising of technologies can take years - and even decades - to reach their full potential. Look at Wi-Fi as an example. Although it seems that wireless networking came out of nowhere to infiltrate every coffee shop, development of the actual 802.11b standard took years, and not many folks gave it much thought as a consumer-facing solution (it was viewed more as an enterprise or vertical market fit inititially). For even longer developments, look at the home controls industry. We love to bring up the early home controls initiatives, characterized (literally) by basement-sized computers. After 50 years of experimentation, home and lifestyle management looks to be on the rise.

Last night's History Channel program Modern Marvels is another case in point on how technology developments can sometimes take surprising turns as they mature over the years. The "70's Technology" showcase on Modern Marvels featured everything from Mr. Coffee, the Microwave, the Pontiac Trans-Am, and the Concord. In addition, there were a couple of TI people interviewed about the use of DSP technologies in calculators and the “Speak and Spell” toy. They also referred to how the early work in LEDs for calculators eventually found its way into the TI DLP solution for high-definition televisions! I actually had a Speak and Spell as a kid – it was a cool educational toy!

At our recent CONNECTIONS conference, we were reminded that the DSP actually has its roots even further removed from bell-bottom pants and bad disco music! The original implementation was for submarine detection! So, yes, there are always a few surprises in this space.

Greg Jones from TI was a keynote speaker at this year's CONNECTIONS conference. Jones serves as the General Manager for DSP Systems Strategic Marketing, and he highlighted the importance of the DSP in building a wider array of needed consumer solutions, noting that DSL services as completely enabled by DSPs.

Jones sees a larger role for DSPs in the future across a wide array of emerging consumer applications. Digital entertainment, he noted, is obviously going to be a key area, as digital signal processing will be a needed ingredient for managing bandwidth use and encoding and decoding for the many different video codecs and formats that require processing. Jones said that there may be 30-40 different codecs to manage.

Beyond entertainment, Jones brought up interesting examples of where signal processing will play a role in improving learning and communications (instant translations during phone calls) and transportation (the nearly-automated automobile). He also mentioned digital healthcare applications as an opportunity for TI to expand its role. Finally, he discussed how DSP technologies will help service providers offer a higher-quality of services by measuring and monitoring traffic and applications with PIQUA solutions.

Originally posted by Kurt Scherf, Vice President, Parks Associates at http://parksassociates.blogspot.com