Real-time Gigabit HDTV Transmissions Show Value of Next-Gen Internets

Recent Internet HDTV demonstrations prove that next-generation Internets, such as Internet2, can enable an entirely new class of applications.

Posted March 11, 2002:
In October 2001, NTT Japan announced the world's first successful transmission of 1.5 gigabit/second UNCOMPRESSED High-Definition TV signals over an Internet link between two sites 20 kilometers apart. Soon after, American researchers working independently used home-grown technology to demonstrate the same capability over longer distances, first between Seattle and Denver, and then from Seattle to Washington, D.C.

The first public demonstration of the U.S. project was at the "SuperComputing 2001" (SC01) conference held in Denver last November. In January 2002, the same system was used to stream real-time uncompressed HDTV across the country to a meeting of researchers in a Washington D.C. hotel via the Internet2 national backbone. HDTV content was originated at the University of Washington's "ResearchChannel" facilities in Seattle.

HDTV comes in many quality levels. Consumer-grade HDTV is compressed to less than 20 Mbps, whereas "studio quality" HDTV feeds require over 200 Mbps. Fully uncompressed HDTV signals of the highest quality require 1.5 Gbps --more than 25,000 times faster than a typical computer modem. One motivation for trying to send uncompressed HDTV signals is to avoid the latency (delay) that occurs whenever real-time data streams are compressed. Reducing latency is critical for interactive applications, such as video conferencing.

Technologies for the U.S. demonstrations were jointly developed by Tektronix, USC Information Sciences Institute, and the University of Washington (UW). These efforts were undertaken as part of the Tektronix-led Universal Network Access System (UNAS) project and USC/ISI's Next-Generation Internet Multimedia Applications and Architecture project, both sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency Information Technology Office's (DARPA/ITO) Next-Generation Internet (NGI) program. This uncompressed HDTV transmission effort builds on the work of UW Computing & Communications engineers who developed technology for the world's first real-time Internet transmission of (slightly compressed) HDTV in 1999.

Leading up to the Denver and Washington D.C. demonstrations, the key enabling technologies were tested and refined using the high-performance networks of the Pacific Northwest Gigapop (PNWGP) and Mid-Atlantic Crossroads (MAX), as well as the Internet2 Abilene backbone network. For the SC01 event in Denver, the digital video content was sent from UW's laboratories in Seattle, Washington, to the receiver at the SuperComputing 2001 exhibition hall in Denver via a fiber circuit provided by Level 3.

The ResearchChannel provided the streaming HD content via Pacific Northwest Gigapop's ultra-high performance network facilities in Seattle, and a custom high-performance multimedia server developed by UW engineers. Level 3 provided a fiber circuit to Denver for the SC01 demonstration, whereas the national Internet2 network and the MAX Gigapop in Washington, DC, provided connectivity for the January event. The Tektronix technology allowed video processed as data packets to be sent, received and compiled into play-out streams. Tektronix technology was used to compare packets at the input and output to determine if packets were lost or reordered during the transmission.

HDTV signals in SMPTE-292M format were chosen to represent the many types of demanding broadband content that will be sent over IP-enabled wide area optical networks. While the data rate of the transported video payload and encapsulation was greater than 1.5 Gb/s, the current UNAS architecture can support rates up to 2.5 Gb/s. The protocol for transmitting the video information over IP was defined by engineers from ISI, Tektronix, and UW, using the IETF standard Real-Time Protocol (RTP) specification as a foundation.

This demonstration and the experiments leading up to it have been instrumental in understanding and overcoming the barriers to use of next-generation Internet technology for very demanding applications such as this. Insights were gained both in application design and network system design, but the key result was proving that Internet technology can be successfully used for applications which many have felt required dedicated fiber-optic connections, or use of inefficient ATM networks.

For more information contact:
David Richardson
Manager, Network Engineering and Special Projects
University of Washington and ResearchChannel
206-543-2876
drr@u.washington.edu

Tektronix, Inc. is a test, measurement, and monitoring company providing measurement solutions to the telecommunications, computer, and semiconductor industries worldwide. With more than 50 years of experience, Tektronix enables its customers to design, build, deploy, and manage next-generation global communications networks and Internet technologies. Headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon, Tektronix has operations in 25 countries worldwide. www.tektronix.com.

Information Sciences Institute at University of Southern California (USC) School of Engineering was established in 1972 and is widely regarded as one of the birthplaces of the Internet. USC/ISI has more than 325 staff, including faculty and postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, and staff who work on two campuses in Marina del Rey, Los Angeles, California, and Arlington, Virginia. They carry on basic and applied research on all aspects of computing, including chip design, software design, artificial intelligence, natural language and networking. USC/ISI's designs and programs are found in numerous devices and applications worldwide. www.isi.edu/

University of Washington is one of the world's top research universities. Perennially among the top three American institutions in peer-reviewed research activities and related competitive contracts and grants, and with numerous top-ranked programs, UW is a university which truly embodies the ideals of "Learning @ the Leading Edge" and economic development through research and active technology transfer programs. See UW's Internet HDTV website www.washington.edu/hdtv

About ResearchChannel
ResearchChannel links a growing global audience to the revolutionary developments, insights and discoveries of leading research and academic institutions through online, on-air and on-demand video distribution formats. Founded as a way to share breakthrough research with the public, the ResearchChannel consortium includes world-renowned universities and research institutions. Video programming ranging from technology and science innovations to fascinating arts and humanities topics is shared in its original form and without interruption.

Level 3 is a global communications and information services company offering a wide selection of services including IP services, broadband transport, collocation services, and the industry's first Softswitch-based services. www.Level3.com.

Pacific Northwest Gigapop (PNWGP) is the Northwest's Next Generation Internet, Internet2/Abilene applications cooperative, testbed, and point of presence. PNWGP connects together high-performance international and federal research networks with universities, research organizations, and leading-edge R&D and new-media enterprises throughout Washington, Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Canada, Australia and the Pacific rim. "Pacific Wave" is a ultra high performance exchange/peering service of the PNWGP. www.pnw-gigapop.net.

DARPA/ITO UNAS Project fosters the development of new rapidly-deployable, reconfigurable broadband interfaces for network-edge applications. UNAS is envisioned as a configurable network element that resides at the Internetís edge and adapts to the network's myriad protocols, hastening the deployment of new applications and services. UNAS technology will provide Internet "on-ramp" capability for applications ranging from distributed computing to telemedicine. www.darpa.mil/ito.