The enabling network for VOD [ video on demand ]

There are many emerging technologies, allowing an increase in the bandwidth of access network, but their deployment has been minimal due to their high cost for no additional operator revenue. So for the majority of residential customers their link to the Information Superhighway continues to consist of a single twisted copper pair telephone line. This paper argues that: the development of the residential access network will be driven by customer demand for new revenue generating broadband services; only those technologies capable of delivering new video or multimedia services will be deployed on a wide scale; and high speed passive optical networks (PON) will provide the basis for the long term evolution of the access network. The development of ADSL will allow the transmission of digitally encoded video signals over standard unconditioned copper pairs, allowing the provision of video services over existing telephone lines. This eliminates the need for the deployment of new cables and the associated high civil works costs, hence allowing the timely and cost effective introduction of VOD services