Chorus trialling a direct broadcasting service over its fibre network

Forums › New Zealand Broadband › Chorus trialling a direct broadcasting service over its fibre network

1 | 2 | 3 | 4

1647 posts

Uber Geek

#1984150 27-Mar-2018 11:14

tdgeek:

cyril7:

Hi, tdgeek, you have the logic reversed. If there are say 60 streams, which means 60 linear programs in motion, this is pushed out to all ends of the network, well the OLT's I presume, and the last leg pushes a currently selected stream to your STB/device. So all programs are pushed on the network, but only once, not 300,000x

Cyril

Hi Cyril

Thanks. I get that Sky isn't sending 300,000 streams, but when 300,000 are watching The Bachelor :-) there must be 300,000 streams to all our homes? Not from Sky but where do those 300,000 streams send from?

There isn't. Think of how a standard Sky broadcast works. There's only one satellite sending out one stream, but 300,000 satellite dishes receiving the same stream. It's the same thing but it happens over fibre.

tdgeek

29746 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1984151 27-Mar-2018 11:15

cisconz:

tdgeek:

Ok, so Sky sends one transmission of a linear show. I assume this one transmission goes to one location inside the LFC's network? From there, if there are 300,000 watchers, we now have 300,000 streams using bandwidth. So while Sky does not need gazillions of bandwidth, at some point the fibre network still does.

Not really, Chrous's Network includes nodes, so in a highly simplified example you might have 30 subscribers on a node, and then 20 nodes in the trial (600 Subs).

Because each part of the network only requires 1 stream, the incoming transmission will be sent to each of the 20 nodes once, then the nodes will rebroadcast it to each of the 30 subs for that node.

So the Core as such in this small example, is only sending it 20 times, down 20 independent links, servicing 600 Subscribers.

Because none of the bandwidth is cumulative, the overhead is quite small (In terms of pipe size).

Ok, so the fibre network as a whole is being used only for one stream each to the 20 nodes, which is not much, and from the node to us 30 users? Understood now, and thanks.

If they used ONT 2, then does my fibre cable feed both ONT ports? In which case I have my own unique Internet plan on ONT 1 and my TV feed on ONT 2, but all through the same fibre optic cable?

SirHumphreyAppleby

2844 posts

Uber Geek

#1984154 27-Mar-2018 11:23

tdgeek:

If they used ONT 2, then does my fibre cable feed both ONT ports? In which case I have my own unique Internet plan on ONT 1 and my TV feed on ONT 2, but all through the same fibre optic cable?

Yes, all over the same cable. You can have four Internet connections on one cable too, if you lilke. Eight over a single connection (there is a backup fibre in there as well) if you get a second ONT.

This trial comes at a bad time, I just had a second HDHomeRun (4 tuner model) shipped over the weekend. On the other hand, if I am going to have to use a set top box to get the Freeview channels, then I'm not interested. The current tvheadend + HDHomeRun solution works perfectly.

DarthKermit

5346 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1984160 27-Mar-2018 11:36

Forgive my ignorance, but doesn't the output of the ONT need to go thru a router before being distributed to Ethernet enabled devices?

Doesn't this mean you'd need a second router in your comms cupboard to achieve this?

DarkShadow

1647 posts

Uber Geek

#1984167 27-Mar-2018 11:42

DarthKermit:

Forgive my ignorance, but doesn't the output of the ONT need to go thru a router before being distributed to Ethernet enabled devices?

Doesn't this mean you'd need a second router in your comms cupboard to achieve this?

No, you can plug any Ethernet device straight into the ONT. For example, if you live by yourself and only have a desktop for example, you technically don't actually need to buy a router, you can just plug the desktop directly into the ONT and it'll work perfectly fine. (Probably not a the best idea though, since you'll be directly exposing your computer to the internet, you'll want a good firewall on your computer if you do this.)

cisconz

cisconz
1341 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1984168 27-Mar-2018 11:44

DarthKermit:

Forgive my ignorance, but doesn't the output of the ONT need to go thru a router before being distributed to Ethernet enabled devices?

Doesn't this mean you'd need a second router in your comms cupboard to achieve this?

Depends on what chorus allow - it is an ethernet port, so either it could be TV connected directly, or Multiple TV's vs a switch.

Multicast normally doesn't go through routers (Unless specifically allowed), so I doubt Chorus would be requiring one.

Hmmmm

BarTender

3606 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1984171 27-Mar-2018 11:49

cyril7:

BarTender:

........ Also doesn't indicate how unicast traffic would work as Sky couldn't multicast everything as there isn't enough capacity on the fibre so they would multicast the common channels and unicast the unique ones.......

Yes this is the big question from my point of view, even though its on a seperate GEM and delivered to a seperate UNI its impacting on the same GPON.

As an aside, does anyone have any figures on real 4K streaming rates, looking around the net I dont find much in the way of real info, but undestand 25-30Mb/s, anyone?

At a decent quality bitrate on H264/5 the finger in the air is around 25Mbit/s

I know Netflix have been doing some very impressive stuff with re-compressing all their content using better quality codecs saving 10-20% for the same frame rate so my pessimistic guesstimate would be a 4K stream would be 30Mbit.

So considering todays GPON is 2.5GBit and Chorus or anyone else I guess wouldn't give the broadcast company more than say 500MBit at the optimistic top end since otherwise you would be saturating the connection and there are SLAs that Chorus signed up to with UFB BS2a services.

That would end up to be say 8x4K's (240Mbit) and that would leave 32xHD @ 8Mbit(?) or so Multicast channels left over.

Granted Sky have a LOT of rubbish SD channels so taking a guess of 500Mbit it could all fit in, depending on the mix of 4K/HD/SD channels were there and the compression ratio used.

But you also need to think that it needs to have the "killer feature" which would be why you would choose UFB over Satellite. To me improvement of picture quality could be it, as most of the content is becoming more available via other means.

Wise

Send money globally for less with Wise - one free transfer up to NZ$900 (affiliate link).

rugrat

3106 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#1984173 27-Mar-2018 11:52

If the ONT is no where near the TV can wifi be used or does it need to be wired directly to TV?

Netflix does UHD over wifi fine, using 5 gig hertz frequency.

acjh58

43 posts

Geek

#1984214 27-Mar-2018 11:57

Sounddude:

Since its secondary port, you have to have an fibre connection with an ISP. Basically sky is piggy backing on your ISP (technically you) paying for the fibre

Well..... All you need is the fibre connection, not the ISP. If Chorus has a way of provisioning the connection without a request from an ISP for internet service (which I can imagine would not be too difficult), then why not? I assume that Enable, Northpower etc will be able to do the same as they were all building to the same service specification. Won't work on RBI fibre though.

Alan

cisconz

cisconz
1341 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1984263 27-Mar-2018 13:32

acjh58:

Won't work on RBI fibre though.

RBI has fibre?

Hmmmm

afe66

3181 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#1984286 27-Mar-2018 13:56

This will be interesting if it enables something new to happen.

Just rebroadcast sky would seem a waste.

If it enables 4k sport for next football work cup or F1 or true HD or UHD video I would be interested.

Alternatively maybe new provider ?Amazon could use it as broadcast medium with delay of setting up infrastructure.

Must be open to multiple providers equally though.

acjh58

43 posts

Geek

#1984291 27-Mar-2018 14:16

cisconz:

acjh58:

Won't work on RBI fibre though.

RBI has fibre?

Sure has. ISP's seem to struggle to get their heads around how to provide it - maybe in the 'too hard' bin? Chorus has maps of where it is available.

Alan

Behodar

10504 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1984307 27-Mar-2018 14:48

acjh58: Chorus has maps of where it is available.

I'm getting a bit off-topic here, but do you know where they are? My old bookmark doesn't work anymore and I can't find where they've moved to.

acjh58

43 posts

Geek

#1984309 27-Mar-2018 14:55

Behodar:

acjh58: Chorus has maps of where it is available.

I'm getting a bit off-topic here, but do you know where they are? My old bookmark doesn't work anymore and I can't find where they've moved to.

Good question - I'll have a look tonight

Alan

tdgeek

29746 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1984310 27-Mar-2018 14:55

Behodar:

acjh58: Chorus has maps of where it is available.

I'm getting a bit off-topic here, but do you know where they are? My old bookmark doesn't work anymore and I can't find where they've moved to.

https://www.chorus.co.nz/tools-support/broadband-tools/broadband-map

1 | 2 | 3 | 4