ONO Carries Broadcast TV Content Over Next Generation Digital Video Transport Network Using IP Multicast.

BUDAPEST, Hungary & MADRID, Spain -- Spanish Cable Operator Cuts Operational Expenditure Using Cisco 10720 Router and Catalyst(R) 6500 Series Switch Platforms

Cisco Systems(R) (Nasdaq:CSCO) today announced that ONO is delivering broadcast-quality television content using a next-generation digital video transport network based on the Dynamic Packet Transport/Resilient Packet Ring (DPT/RPR), Gigabit Ethernet and IP Multicast capabilities of Cisco 10720 Router and Catalyst(R) 6500 Series Switch platforms. The technology is helping ONO make significant operational savings compared to its former method of video distribution, which involved analogue signal transport over a Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) network.

ONO offers telephony, television and Internet services to customers -- in 22 regions across Spain. The company decided in 2004 to move to IP transport for the distribution of its 155 TV and five audio channels because of the savings it can make by dispensing with analogue regional headends, and because the IP-based video transport solution provides easier management and flexibility on the deployment of services along with simpler and more cost-effective contribution of local radio and TV channels into the central headend. This flexibility will allow ONO to use the same infrastructure during 2005 to perform the distribution of video on demand content between head ends.

"The reliability of the Cisco IP core, Cisco IP multicast, Quality of Service and DPT/RPR technologies and Catalyst 6500 products were important factors in our decision to adopt this model for video content delivery," said Eduardo Belda, CTO, ONO. "Cisco Ethernet and IP technologies form the basis of the resilient foundation layer for ONO's video distribution, providing the required flexibility to add services such as video on demand, seamlessly over the same infrastructure deployed to broadcast TV."

All new ONO customers now receive a digital TV service delivered to the home over the hybrid fiber-coaxial network from a regional headend (RHE). The service is supported by an IP layer over a national optical backbone which interconnects the RHEs without the need for expensive regional analogue headends. The company still has a number of existing customers for its analogue service, and is in the process of migrating the capacity currently used by the SDH transport network for other applications.

"One of the strengths of this solution is that it is flexible enough to be well suited for video distribution," commented Paolo Campoli, director of technology solutions for Cisco Systems in Europe, Middle East and Africa. "Video or music content can be injected from regional headends to the national headend, or can be multicasted centrally out to the rest of the network. Moreover, DPT saves ONO money because it allows a better optimization of the fiber-optical infrastructure than SDH, while helping provide the same level of protection. The use of Cisco network management systems reduces management difficulties and costs, significantly lowering overheads."

ONO's video over IP infrastructure includes Cisco 10720 routers equipped with Gigabit Ethernet modules and OC-48c/STM-16c DPT/RPR line cards, together with Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series switches with Gigabit Interfaces.

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