Interactive Multimedia Association
CONVERGENCE FORUM
White Paper

by Philip Corman, Digital Equipment Corporation
Chairman, IMA Convergence Forum
October, 1993

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NOTE -- all graphic illustrations had to be omitted from this copy of the
original White Paper to allow easier electronic distribution.
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1.0 Overview

The Interactive Multimedia Association (IMA) convened an initiative called
The Convergence Forum on June 2-3, 1993 in Boulder, Colorado. The goal of
the meeting was to bring together leaders from the cable television,
telecommunications, computer, broadcasting, publishing, and consumer
electronics industries

* outline their strategies for approaching and participating 
  in the convergence of technologies and markets; 
* detect obstacles to the growth of new media products and
  services;
* and identify business, technical, and regulatory issues; and
  other matters best resolved by cross-industry collaboration.

Each participating company gave a presentation detailing their perspective,
strategies and opinions regarding the convergence of industries to deliver
end-to-end interactive media services. An end-to-end solution includes all
of the business and technology components that are necessary to create and
develop content and services, distribute those services, and enable users
to interact with those services on a variety of end-user devices.

Developed after the first meeting of the IMA Convergence Forum, this white
paper is intended to serve as a starting point for relevant discussion and
to identify specific objectives for participants in ongoing IMA
Convergence Forum meetings. It will present a framework and model that
highlights three areas identified by the Convergence Forum participants
for cross-industry resolution: (1) a full-service network protocol, (2) an
interconnection interface standard for digital device connection to
service networks, and (3) a service-independent mechanism for content
providers to interface with multiple video services.

This white paper represents an aggregation of those ideas, as well as the
synthesis of those ideas into a framework and a business and technical
architecture. This framework is intended to provide a basis for discussion
and refinement, and to focus on issues which--if worked in a
cross-industry forum--could establish guidelines for standards which
could, in turn, drive the adoption of interactive media services more
rapidly.

Participants in the forum agreed that the availability and quality of
content, both passive and interactive, would be the controlling factor in
the success of any end-to-end system or service.

Further, at the strategic level most of the respective industries are
approaching these services from a common framework and model. While the
cable television and telecommunications industries are planning to deliver
end-to-end solutions, the other industries have carved out specific niches
or components of an overall end-to-end solution. The resulting production
of many incompatible devices (e.g., settop units) will give rise to
considerable innovation and numerous technological breakthroughs, but will
also cause substantial confusion for those wishing to utilize those
devices.

It is clear that such a nascent market (i.e., interactive media services)
will demonstrate rapid innovation and technology breakthroughs. It is
equally clear that it will be fruitful to attempt to standardize in some
carefully selected areas at this time. It is the intention of this paper
to focus on those areas in which there is broad cross-industry support for
standardization efforts. A good example of this is the race to develop and
dominate the so-called digital set-top unit. It seems pointless to attempt
to develop a cross-industry standard for the features and capabilities
inside the set-top because it is uncertain at this time what functions and
capabilities must be included and at what cost. It is just not clear what
services people will use and what prices they are willing to pay for those
services. Rather, it makes a lot of sense to standardize on the
interconnection and interfacing of settops to the service networks. By
standardizing the interfaces, the content and information providers will
have a clear direction of how to develop and roll out services that
provide them with some insulation from the rapid technological changes in
the unit. An analogy might be the NTSC standard, which dictated the
"interface" but not the functions, quality, etc. of the television
internals.

The model and framework presented in this paper is intended to show the
major components required for a complete end-to-end solution. The model is
intended to present an open architecture that balances the need for
competition within components of the overall solutions with the need to
provide for:

* common media-based network protocols (media includes all data types
ranging from video, audio, voice, images, graphics, text, MIDI, etc.);

* distributed servers and multiple client types (different set-tops, PCs,
PDAs, etc.);

* standard interconnections for digital media platforms, including digital
set-top units, desktop computers, and personal digital assistants; as well
as media servers, media warehouses, content gateways, service provider
gateways, network management, and business management;

* guidelines and direction to existing and emerging content and information
providers for managing the business risk and costs of developing,
delivering, and billing for services in an environment of rapid change
technologically and in a business sense, since it remains unclear which
services and delivery methods will be valued by the consumers of these
interactive media services;

* access control, security, licensing and intellectual property, as well as
business transaction management.

2.0 End-to-End Video Services Model

Figure 1 (omitted!) partitions an end-to-end solution into three major
categories: (1) content creation, (2) distribution and (3) users. Each
category is tiered into three layers: physical, operating and services

Content deals with those companies involved in the creation, development
and production of digital video services, both passive and interactive.
Requirements include capturing, editing, and producing content.
Distribution identifies all of the components necessary to transport
services from the content provider to the user--or consumer--ofthat
service in their living room, business place, etc. Requirements include
video servers, network interconnect, business transaction management,
access control and security, support for two-way interactive access, etc.
User includes all issues and areas for the consumer, including set-top
units, decompression, user menus, interactivity, user profiles, etc.

Each category can be broken into three layers. The physical layer
identifies the software, silicon, hardware, and network components
required in the flow of multimedia services that must be in place before
the service can exist. The operating layer represents the collection of
applications, activities and processes that must be in place to provide a
video service. These include billing and subscriber management,
transaction management, network management and control. The services layer
represents value-added services, such as movies-on-demand, and interactive
services, such as home shopping, travel, news, games, distance learning,
and the like. The purpose of this layering is to highlight all of the
components, so that both technical and business interfaces can be
identified. For example, it is clear that an interface is needed between
different set-top units and multiple video servers. Likewise, it may be
desirable to understand the interfaces and compatibility issues between
the set-top units in the physical layer and the user interfaces in the
operating layer (i.e., how are user interfaces rendered
 on multiple set-top units.)

Figure 1 represents a first pass at the critical components. This framework
will be presented to and refined by the participants of the next
Convergence Forum.

                  (figure 1 omitted!)

3.0 Cross-Industry Business and Technology Reference Model

This section synthesizes a reference model and identifies three areas
targeted by the members of the Convergence Forum for initial
cross-industry attention.

The reference model (Figure 1) can be broken down into three areas: 

* content providers; 
* wide area transport of two-way interactive media services;
* video service providers

                 (figure 2 omitted!)

3.1 Content Provider Issues

Content providers can be tiered in a pyramid into classes (Figure 2 --
omitted!). First, there are a relatively small number of very large
content providers, such as Paramount, Sony/Columbia, Disney, Tribune Co.,
etc. The content and information providers in this tier have the internal
organization and processes in place, and have long established
distribution channels. To a large extent, they will determine their own
distribution strategy. The second tier consists of a larger number of more
regionally-based content providers. These content providers will have the
abilities to create develop, -but may need the existence of stable
standards and tools before committing to large scale distribution of
content to video services. The third tier consists of a large number of
very small content developers who will be seeking widespread distribution
of their content. The first tier will determine how content is created and
distributed to video services. However, the second and third tiers will
need clear direction and navigation through the maze of multiple service
providers, each with different distribution mechanisms and differing
set-top units. 

For the content and information providers, overriding issues include:

* how to develop passive and interactive content that can be
  delivered to multiple video services providers;
* how to protect content, intellectual property, unauthorized
  access and usage in a networked environment;
* how to track usage and bill for access;
* how to manage risk in a rapidly changing networked digital
  media services world;
* stable multimedia format standards for editing, producing, 
  and publishing content;
* how to distribute that content over networks to multiple
  service providers in both on-demand and bulk transfer modes.

In order to address these issues, the Convergence Forum agreed on the need
to focus on the interface (labeled #1 in Figure 2) connection to the
network.

                    (figure 3 omitted!)

3.2 Network Protocol Issues

The second major component of the model is represented as a wholesaler or
wide-area transport, which includes the connection of multiple
geographically-disbursed content providers who deliver content to multiple
geographically-disbursed service providers. In the model, represented in
Figure 2, the wholesaler can provide transport, global network management,
global content directories, access control and secure transport, and video
warehouses of content. This distribution model provides for media services
and media library and storage subsystems, for which distributed servers
are clearly necessary. Server libraries (warehouses) must be able to
physically reside at video services providers, wholesale (or wide-area)
transport providers, and content/information providers. Hence, the model
facilitates this distributed set of cooperating servers.

The opportunity identified by the Convergence Forum is for a media network
protocol, (labeled #2 on Figure 2). This protocol includes:

* secure two-way transport of text, graphics, data, images,
  audio, voice, and video; 
* access control and security; 
* tracking and usage information; database and library management
  and control;
* messaging protocols for content access and distribution in both
  a bulk transport and an on-demand transactional modes;
* messaging protocols for interaction between content and digital
  media devices such as set-top units;
* server-to-server, server-to-warehouse, and server-to-client
  device communications;
* unified network monitoring, maintenance, and control protocols
  for resource management, gateway management, intrusion
  detection and management, storage unit management, etc.;

as well as other areas identified by subsequent discussion by the
Convergence Forum members.

                    (figure 4 omitted!)

3.3 Video Service Provider Issues

The final component of the model identifies the video service providers. It
is clear that each service provider plans different infrastructures and
different service offerings. The Convergence Forum members agreed that
there will be considerable innovation; there will also be significant
differentiation in services, packaging, and technology. This will result
in a proliferation of different set-top units and user interfaces. The
third area labeled #3 in Figure 2) identifies an opportunity to define the
interface specifications for any digital media client (e.g. set-top unit)
to connect to a service provider's network thus enabling the
differentiation while providing a standard way to connect such devices to
networks. This interface can be used by providers of devices, similar to
the way peripheral vendors build products to ISA or EISA buses on PCs
today. Product competition is then based on price and performance, rather
than proprietary interfaces. 

The major opportunities for standardization in this area include:

* standard interconnection for digital media clients to video
  service providers including set-top units, computers, personal
  digital assistants, etc.; 
* virtual device interface;
* guaranteed and reliable services and inquiry of capabilities;
* standard messaging protocol for initiation, downloading, user
  interaction, maintenance, remote diagnostics, etc.

                      (figure 5 omitted!)

4.0 Next Steps

At the next Convergence Forum meeting, participants are expected to refine
the model and framework and identify those areas where standards for
protocols, interfaces and interconnections may be specified. Work will
also begin to establish specific goals, objectives, time frames, and
adoption processes. By identifying areas for cross-industry collaboration
in the three specific areas identified above, it is felt that
cross-industry participation in these three areas will facilitate a more
rapid deployment of interactive media services for all industries and
companies involved.

Respectfully submitted,

Phillip Corman
Chairman, IMA Convergence Forum

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