Partner und Internationale Organisationen
(Englisch)
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ITALTEL (I), Acorn Computers - OnLine Media (UK), Autor Tecnologias Multimedia (P), CSELT (I), Deutsche Telekom (D), GPT (UK), IDEA (B), INESC (P), McCann Erickson Italiana (I), NTUA Institute of Communications and Computer Systems (GR), Nyherji (IC), ORCKIT (Israel), Portugal Telecom - CET (P), Post and Telecom Iceland - PTI (IC), Siemens AG (D), Siemens ATEA (B), Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems - SNI (D), Siemens Switzerland (CH), Sirti (I), Swiss Telecom PTT (CH), Telecom Italia (I), University of Iceland (IC), University of Paderborn/Bonn (D), University of Stuttgart/IND (D), Videotime (I)
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Abstract
(Englisch)
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Overall project: The major global objective of AMUSE has been to carry out experiments in the provision of interactive and distributive multimedia services, including fast access to Internet, to real residential users. These services have been demonstrated over an end-to-end ATM infrastructure with various access network technologies in 11 field trials which have been carried out in 7 different locations: Basel, Milan, Mons, Munich, Aveiro/Lisbon and Reykjavik. The project lasted from Sep 95 until Sep 98.
Swiss field trials: Two Swiss field trials were performed in Basel with mainly residential users. The phase 1 trial has been operated over three months from Oct 96 till Jan 97 and included extensive technical experiments. 10 user terminals comprising an STB (set-top box) linked to the user's TV set were connected via an HFC (hybrid fibre co-ax) access network. C.f. 1996 report for details.
In order to gain experience with different access network technologies, ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber line) was chosen for the phase 2 trial, operating on the twisted copper pair telephone subscriber loop lines, providing usable bit rates up to 8 Mbit/s downstream and 640 kbit/s upstream. Phase 2 was further characterised by a more web-oriented approach with respect to the services, together with a new service-providing infrastructure in the server platform and the user equipment.
Phase 2: The Phase 2 trial in Basel was operated from end March until mid July 1998. 15 user terminals were connected, including 12 residential users (households), a terminal at the regional engineering school of north-western Switzerland in Muttenz nearby Basel, and two terminals for test and demonstration purposes situated in the Swiss National Host.
Two types of PC based user equipment with different display devices were provided: 10 multimedia PCs with high resolution 17' monitor, and 5 MMI (multi-media integration) boxes using the users' TV set as a display. Both were ideally suited in the web-oriented service concept that had been adopted for Phase 2 with Internet / PC based applications prevailing (see below). STBs (set-top boxes) were not used in the second trial, taking into account findings from Phase 1, where the video services had attracted by far less interest than the Internet / WWW access, and the performance of the STB / browser was judged unsatisfactory for Web browsing.
An attractive range of services was made available to all users, regardless of the type of terminal equipment, comprising among others:
· fast Internet / WWW access
· E-mail with full integration of HTML editing
· Music on demand (MoD, with a large selection of titles)
· Video-on-Demand (MPEG-1 coded), comprising a selection of movies as well as recordings of regular TV series / magazines
· Games, including Active World, an interactive 3D virtual reality environment
The SW architecture implemented for the trial is based on platform independent server and client systems. The multi-media service providing platform was installed in the Swiss National Host, which provides excellent possibilities to show the Swiss island to the public. The platform comprised a web and a video server running on two different machines, which were connected to an ATM switch and via a local network to external services.
The web application server, operated on a Sun Ultra 1, provided all Internet / PC based applications and services. The video server was implemented on a Sun Enterprise 2 with 90 GB external disk storage running Oracle OVS 3.0. MPEG-2 was not possible to be provided for VoD, although planned, due to incompatibilities between OVS 3 and the MPEG-2 decoder PC boards available at the time of the trial.
For all services the servers were accessed via an ATM switch over 155 Mb/s STM-1 interfaces. On the 'input' side both servers were connected to a LAN switch / router network providing links to outside world networks, i.e. the Internet and the X.25 PSDN. The MPEG-1 on-line encoding system used in Phase 1 for NoD recording has been reused in the second trial to record weekly or bi-weekly magazines and series.
The front-end of the access network transmission system was installed in the local exchange at Wallstrasse, which is located in the city area, close to the Swiss National Host, serving approximately 10'000 POTS and 1'000 ISDN subscribers. The trial users were selected among a number of POTS subscribers connected with twisted pair drops shorter than 2 km. The ONU (optical network unit) of the XpressLink D ADSL system was connected to the switch in the Swiss National Host via an optical STM-1 link. An ADSL NT (Network Termination) with integrated POTS splitter terminates the subscriber line at the user's premises.
Service related experiments have been performed similar to Phase 1 by means of logged usage data and by user interviews and questionnaires. The technical experiments were restricted to measuring the transmission performance of the twisted pair subscriber loops.
The second AMUSE trial in Basel has been implemented by the two Swiss AMUSE partners, Siemens Switzerland and Swisscom (c.f. also corresponding report by Siemens). Swisscom has made available the access network infrastructure (subscriber lines and local exchange), provided the web server and the server LAN, and was responsible for the trial operation and hosting, as well as for the in-house installation, the selection of users and for all direct customer contacts. It has also contributed to service creation and to content provisioning, and was responsible for performing the service related experiments.
Summary conclusions:
· The set of services offered is decisive for usage. Fast Internet access is the most attractive service, followed by music on demand (in Phase 2). VoD is accepted as an enhancement to the service palette, but highly depending on quality and attractiveness of contents (competing with up to 60 TV channels on cable and more on satellite).
· Fast response of all system components is important - PC-based user terminals are best suited. PC monitor is mostly preferred to TV screen as display, but individually depending on user's habits.
· Careful installation at users premises required.
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