In today's TV network environment customers are used to a high network quality and churn is a real challenge for the IPTV service provider. Looking at traditional TV services such as terrestrial or non-terrestrial TV, today's user expect a perfect quality in both changing channels and picture quality, nothing less.

To become successful as IPTV operator you need the right tools to ensure operation of the network. This is why we have created WatchiTV for you.

WatchiTV is a complete application suite consisting of portable IPTV analysis in WatchiTV Portable, WatchiTV for the handheld CSA platform, WatchiTV Distributed and WatchiNET for advanced packet capture and traffic generation.

> WatchiTV Introduction

WatchiTV contains several measuring items, including STB Simulator, STB Booting Monitor, ATUR test and MPEG measurement. In this chapter, we make a brief introduction of each of the functions.

WatchiTV Movie

STB Simulator: The user is able to give commands in order to simulate STB via this interface, such as making HTTP requests to the Middleware first and displaying returned web information. You may choose to send IGMP or RTSP commands or play movie data instantly in order to simulate scenarios. The user doesn’t have to bring heavy equipments, like STB or TV to a specific location any longer. By means of WatchiTV, you can solve problems and manipulate all presented testing status within the IPTV system. In particular under a live conditions without power supply, STB Simulator is perfect for this. Moreover, WatchiTV displays a simultaneously double window enabling you to follow all traffic that relates to the desired Internet connection and IPTV system. The total flow in the ATUR can be presented with a combined chart. Within the chart, different colors differentiate distributed flow rate to further ascertain the setup of DSLAM bandwidth allocation in the Internet and IPTV system.

STB Boot Monitor: During the test of IPTV systems, STB plays a very significant role as a key component. It takes care of the communication between end-user and all of the connected systems. Therefore, the STB needs a fundamental set up. Depending on the setup, STB communicates with relevant system and acquire messages when the system is under power-off status. However, when something is wrong with the setup or the system source, that may results in various problems, the STB Boot Monitor interface can provide the solution. When end users re-activate the STB, this interface must be initiated simultaneously. Then end users can follow the STB activation procedure step by step to monitor every segment. In the case of system failure, the system will submit a description of the error in real time, such as IP setup error in the Boot Server or Mount Path setup error. This function enables the engineer to reduce the number of errors through a very efficient approach.

Control Signal Analyzer: The IPTV system has bilateral interaction function through extensive use of a large number of protocols. Hence, real-time analysis of the network protocols is very easy to perform in order to solve problems. When you change a TV channel, either the channel remains the same or maybe responds too slow. When you fast forward a movie, it doesn’t respond to this command. Whether such problems are a result from network or application layer this has to be examined. In addition, the IPTV system often uses movie encryption system to prevent movie from unauthorized access. The Control Signal Analyzer interface enables the users to monitor the encryption system instantly in order to see whether the decryption key is delivered properly to subscribers or not, and troubleshoot this process.

ATUR Physical Layer Test: Most IPTV systems are established based on ADSL structure. When subscribers encounter problems which may be caused due to malfunction of the copper wire, the engineer can check the ADSL setup values through this interface to further analyze the responded message, such as upload and download values, and so forth. Also, relevant information like upload noise margin and bit per tone can be reviewed to clarify relevant problems.

MPEG Measurement: Subscribers’ impression on IPTV services lies in the quality of the video signal. First priority is to ensure the signal transmitted to the end user. Previously IPTV system operators did not have any apparatus to check their system. Therefore, the only way they had to check the system was from manually observe the systems and TV monitors. The engineer had to examine all problems in front of the TV by looking continuously which inevitably has a great lack of scientific basis and efficiency. But now the video signal from the network can be detected automatically via the WatchiTV MPEG interface. Moreover, all problems will be recorded and saved in the system database which can be used for further analysis and troubleshooting.