“Long Tail” Effect
Posted by Michael from Seattle, WA, US on February 28, 2007
What effect could the “long tail” concept for content have on mobile TV? How might the trend direct (or redirect) carriers’ technology deployment as they consider unicast vs. broadcast delivery methods?
Mobile TV offered via cellular network utilize a streaming technology over point-to-point connections (PTP) called Unicast. With unicast, data packets are transmitted from a single source to a single destination, e.g. a content server to a mobile terminal. The cellular operators can easily expand their unicast capacity and capitalize on their network investments. The current introductions of HSPA will more than double the capacity for unicast Mobile TV in cellular networks with limited investments and smooth upgrades.
Large-scale market deployment with mass Mobile TV services will require new network capabilities of point-to-multipoint (PTM) - commonly referred to as Broadcast - as well as support in the mobile terminal. With broadcast, data packets are simultaneously transmitted from a single source to multiple destinations. With the introduction of MBMS, the peak load situations can be handled by allowing a large number of users to watch the same TV show, by sharing the same radio bearer in the same area and same time.
By using a combination of Unicast and Broadcast it is possible to optimize the usage of the network capacity and investments. Broadcast bearers can be used for the most popular programs and an unlimited number of additional programs and on-demand content - "long tail "/ niche content , will continue to be delivered efficiently over Unicast. In the combined Unicast and broadcast scenario, the end user will not notice if content is delivered over Unicast or broadcast. The end user will only have one user interface (TV client) in one terminal to access all content. The combination of Unicast and broadcast will hence be the best way to meet personalization and mass market.
