By Paul Steinberg, Mark Shaughnessy, Lloyd Johnson, Philip Fleming, Motorola, Inc.
The ability to offer compelling wireless video services over a wide area has been a long awaited goal for consumers and operators alike. Finally, 4G wireless technologies such as WiMAX and Long Term Evolution (LTE) offer adequate performance characteristics to support IP based video services to a large number of consumers simultaneously with a quality that most will find attractive. However, there are a number of economic and technical factors that the operator will need to consider when it comes to actually implementing video services in a wireless network. In this paper we begin by summarizing the history of broadband wireless technologies and their shortcomings relative to the desired consumer experience and operator economics. Next we review the key attributes and performance implications of 4G broadband wireless technologies and relate those to the capabilities necessary for a service provider to deliver a viable mobile video service offering. The paper then describes an overall network architecture and essential elements to deliver an end-to-end video solution. The mobile wireless environment enables the operator to tailor the offered content, services, and advertising, dependent on user location and context. Operators that offer both wireless and wireline access networks have the opportunity to integrate them under a common IPTV video headend which provides not only consistent consumer experience and content access, but also the ability to provide mobility between these networks. Video streams in progress can be moved among wired and wireless devices, and content can be made available to any device, anywhere. We conclude with a brief look at some anticipated future trends and applications of mobile video.