NETWORK REQUIREMENTS

Ed. 07

March 2021
Index
Abstract..............................................................................................................................1
1. Introduction........................................................................................................................2
Corporate network.........................................................................................................2
Internet access..............................................................................................................2
Guests network..............................................................................................................3
2. Network design requirements............................................................................................6
Mandatory requirements................................................................................................6
Optional recommendations...........................................................................................8
3. Extra network requirements...............................................................................................9
Wi-Fi guest access........................................................................................................9
Casting content to the TV through the Hotel’s Wi-Fi...................................................10
Several IPTV VLANs...................................................................................................12
External DHCP server.................................................................................................13
4. Example of network design for ES...................................................................................13
Network design............................................................................................................13
Switch characteristics..................................................................................................14
Network IP assignment convention.............................................................................14
5. Equipment recommendations..........................................................................................15
Recommended switches.............................................................................................15
Recommendations for the APs....................................................................................15

Abstract
This document intended audience are distributors who need help in determining what are
the customer's network requirements to deliver our services independently of the network
equipment.
This document is divided into five sections. The first section contains an introduction to our
system architecture in order to provide to the reader with a general idea of our usual
network layout, how it is integrated with the customer's network and the elements that we
incorporate. In the second section, the mandatory and optional network requirements to
deliver our services are explained. In the next section, we give extra network requirements
to give Wi-Fi access to the guests or for projects with special characteristics. In the fourth
section, we provide an example of an ethernet network configuration that integrates with
our system. And finally, the recommendations for selecting the switches and the access
points are given.
When writing this document, the author supposed that the audience has a certain level of
knowledge about networking. Specially about topics like DHCP, IGMP, LAGs, VLAN,
WLAN, NAT, etc.

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1. Introduction
Figure 1 shows a typical customer's network architecture that provides our services. The
customer's network refers to the whole local area network our customer owns. The
customer's network can be divided (physically or virtually using VLANs) into two networks:
the corporate network and the guests network. The corporate network is the network used
for the customer's staff and systems. On the other hand, the guests network is the network
used for delivering services to the IPTV client devices and their users.
As we can see in Figure 1, our server has three interfaces (ethernet links). An interface is
connected to the guests network, other interface is connected to the corporate network,
and the other one is connected to the Internet. The corporate network can be easily
protected with a firewall if desired.

Figure 1: Typical customer's network architecture.

Corporate network
The corporate network usually has the PMS, the PCs in the front desk to manage the
guests movements (check-in, check-out, change of room, etc.) and rights, and the network
infrastructure. Payment kiosks may be placed in the corporate network if required.

Internet access
The Internet access can be provided through the corporate network or through a dedicated
Internet gateway connected to our server (ES server). With a dedicated gateway, the
guests Internet access service can be delivered without affecting the corporate network
resources. Furthermore, a dedicated Internet access is highly recommended if the server
will receive updates for an ES content pack, due to the high Internet traffic volume.

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Guests network
As we can see on the right of Figure 1, the guests network consists of the headends,
which provide the satellital, cable and terrestrial digital TV signal, the IPTV fixed device
(Set-Top Box or TV built-in Set-Top Box) located in the guests' rooms, and the network
infrastructure.

Figure 2: Guests network where Ethernet interface is used.

Three different types of sources can provide traffic to the IPTV fixed devices:
• TV broadcast from the headends. This traffic can be received through:
◦ Coaxial cable.
◦ Ehernet or Wi-Fi. IPTV headends are needed to transform the satellital, cable
and terrestrial digital TV signal to MPEG-2 transport streams over multicast.
• Unicast and multicast* traffic from the ES server.
• Unicast and multicast* traffic from an external source.
*Multicast traffic can be optional depending on project requirements. The type of traffic
used for each functionality is described in the next section.
IPTV fixed device can have, depending on the model, three interfaces to receive the traffic:
• Coax: TV broadcast traffic can be received through this interface. The rest of traffic

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 has to be received through the ethernet or Wi-Fi interfaces.
• Ethernet: unicast and multicast data from all the sources can be received through
this interface.
• Wi-Fi: unicast and multicast data can be received through this interface. Mirroring
functionality will be disabled if the Wi-Fi interface is used.
All the IPTV fixed devices allow connection through ethernet.
The IPTV fixed devices that allow to connect to the network through Wi-Fi and their
wireless characteristics, antenna and encryption capabilities are show in Annex A.
An hybrid STB is needed in case of using the coax cable. All TV built-in Set-Top Boxes
support coax cable connection.
Examples of guests networks where different interfaces are used to provide data to the
IPTV fixed devices are shown in Figures 2-4.

Figure 3: Guests network where Ethernet and coax interfaces are used.
Different scenarios with different network requirements are going to be distinguished (see
Table 1) according to the interface/s that IPTV fixed devices use to receive the data and if
multicast traffic is required or not (in the next section, table 2, the functionalities that
require multicast are enumerated).

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Figure 4: Guests network where Wi-Fi and coax interfaces are used.
Interfaces Multicast
Scenario 1 (Figures 2 and 3) Ethernet or ethernet/coax Yes
Scenario 2 (Figure 4) Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi/coax Yes
Scenario 3 (Figure 4) Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi/coax No
Table 1: Scenarios according to the used IPTV fixed devices' interfaces and if multicast
traffic is used.
In addition, Wi-Fi access for the guests (with mobile devices) can be provided by the IPTV
fixed devices or by an external Access Points (APs). If Wi-Fi access is provided, the
guests will be able to access our services from their mobile devices (ZAFIRO MOBILE is
required). ZAFIRO MOBILE gives the guests access to ES contents such as movies, TV
channels and music.

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2. Network design requirements
This section describes the mandatory and optional network requirements in order to
provide our services for all the scenarios described in Table 1. We also include some
advises in order to implement some of these requirements. In case of giving Wi-Fi access
to the guests, where several VLANs or external DHCP server is needed, see the next
section where extra requirements are described.

Mandatory requirements
The requirements are divided according to the scenarios (Table 1). General requirements
must be applied to all the scenarios.
General requirements and recommendations (all the scenarios):
• The server must have access to the PMS if the integration with the PMS is included
in the project.
• The server must have access to the Internet if it is required by the components in
the project.
• The server must have access to the guests network through at least a Gigabit port.
• The guests network must have a dedicated VLAN for the IPTV-VoD traffic. We will
call it IPTV-VoD VLAN network. The headends (if included), the server and all the
IPTV fixed devices must belong to this VLAN.
• Our system only gives service to a single IPTV-VoD VLAN, and it's not
recommended to have several IPTV-VoD VLANs unless it is indispensable because
of project characteristics. In the case of using several separate VLANs, please
consult “Extra network requirements” section.
• Our server must be the only DHCP server for the guests network. If for project
requirements our server can not be the DHCP server, please consult “Extra network
requirements” section.
◦ This means no other network device should be working as a DHCP server inside
the IPTV-VoD VLAN or other guests' VLANs in case we provide DHCP services
to these networks.
◦ Please, note that other DHCP servers are allowed in the corporate network or
other guests' VLANs if we do not provide DHCP services to these networks.
Additional IPTV-VoD VLAN requirements and recommendations when multicast traffic is
used (scenarios 1 and 2):
• Multicast must be supported with IGMP version 2 or higher.
• Layer 2 network elements (such as switches) must forward multicast traffic that has
been requested by a IPTV fixed device through IGMP, and filter out the rest of
multicast traffic.
◦ IGMP snooping may be used to ensure that IPTV multicast streams only get to

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 the IPTV fixed devices that requested them.
• Only one of the IPTV-VoD VLAN network elements can be the IGMP Querier.
• If the headends are not in the IPTV-VoD VLAN (no recommended since it
complicates the network configuration), access to the headends and its multicast
traffic from the IPTV-VoD VLAN must be given.
• A single tuner headend must be connected to 100 Megabit or higher ethernet ports,
but a multiple tuner headend must be connected to 1 Gigabit or higher ethernet
ports.
Additional requirements and recommendations for IPTV fixed devices connected to the
IPTV-VoD VLAN through its ethernet interface (scenario 1):
• The network setting up time for the IPTV fixed devices must be lower than 10
seconds.
◦ In order to implement this, Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP) should be
activated for all ethernet ports and all end ports connected to the IPTV fixed
devices should be configured with PortFast or as Edge ports.
• IPTV fixed devices must be connected to the network through 100 Megabit or
higher ports.
Additional requirements and recommendations for IPTV fixed devices connected to the
IPTV-VoD VLAN through its Wi-Fi access (scenario 2 and 3):
• In order to select the correct APs that meet the ES requirements, it is necessary to
take into account the following characteristics:
◦ APs should only provide Wi-Fi access to the IPTV fixed devices.
◦ The number of devices connect to the same AP must be selected taking into
account the bandwidth used by ES as well as the bandwidth available. In Table
2 we can see for each ES functionality the type of traffic, the network usage and
the frequency of use. The access to media (multicast TV and unicast VoD) has
the biggest impact in terms of bandwidth. So the worst case scenario will be the
case in which all the guests connected to an AP are watching different TV
channels (scenario 3). In the case of using the coax cable for the TV (scenario
4), as the ZAFIRO CHANNELS functionality is not provided through Wi-Fi, the
worst case scenario will be when all the guests connected to the AP are
requesting hls traffic (for example watching movies).
• For scenario 2, it is also necessary to take into account the following
recommendations:
◦ APs must not filter multicast traffic.
◦ APs should support multicast traffic to reduce the used bandwidth.
* See the “Equipment recommendations” section for more information about selecting the
APs.
• Floor switches must be connected to the central switch through 1 Gigabit or higher
links.

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Functionality Type Network usage Frequency
ZAFIRO TV Unicast firmware 20 MB, 240 MB Occasionally: during
(firmware) download installation and
upgrades
ZAFIRO GUEST Unicast VoD To be chosen by the First time the guest
(welcome video) customer (4 – 6 Mbps) starts the TV
ZAFIRO CHANNELS Multicast IPTV SD: 1 - 6 Mbps Each time a guest
* Only scenario 3 HD: 6 - 12 Mbps watchs a multicast TV
applies channel
ZAFIRO CHANNELS/ Unicast IPTV SD: 1 - 6 Mbps Each time a guest
OTT INTERNET HD: 6 - 12 Mbps watchs a HLS TV
GATEWAY channel
ZAFIRO ONDEMAND Unicast VoD SD: 4 Mbps As the guest demands
(movies) HD: 6 Mbps
ZAFIRO TV (videos) Unicast VoD To be chosen by the As the guest demands
customer (4 – 6 Mbps)
ZAFIRO ONDEMAND Unicast VoD To be chosen by the As the guest demands
(library) customer (4 – 6 Mbps)
ZAFIRO CHANNELS Multicast IPTV To be chosen by the As the guest demands
(Corporate TV customer (4 – 6 Mbps)
channels)
ZAFIRO ONDEMAND Unicast MP3 music To be defined by the As the guest demands
(music) customer (less than 1
Mbps)
ZAFIRO TV PREMIUM Multicast music Downloads periods Always except when
(background music) from 3 to 5 MB other functionality with
sound is used
ZAFIRO DIGITAL Multicast VoD To be chosen by the As the guest demands
SIGNAGE (in-room) customer (4 – 6 Mbps)
Table 2: ES functionalities and network usage for a network without packets loss.

Optional recommendations
These requirements are not mandatory, but it is recommended to achieve them:
• The IPTV-VoD VLAN network should give support to the double amount of IP
addresses that IPTV fixed devices included in the project.
◦ If the network plan allows it, the assignment of a network with a 16 bit mask for
IPTV is recommended.
• A dedicated Internet gateway should be provided for the server.

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 • Optionally, bonding can be configured in any server as per the project requirements.
In that case, LAG and LACP must be configured in the ports that are connected to
the server.

3. Extra network requirements

Extra network requirements for providing Wi-Fi access to the guests, for casting content to
the TV through the Hotel’s Wi-Fi, needing several VLANs for IPTV and needing an external
DHCP server and are given in this section.
Wi-Fi guest access
Wi-Fi access to the guests from mobile devices can be provided through the IPTV fixed
devices or with an extra wireless network provider.
When Wi-Fi access is provided through the IPTV fixed devices, there are two types of
configurations that can be selected for each IPTV fixed device:
• Wi-Fi traffic through the IPTV-VoD VLAN: additional configuration is not needed in
this case. An example of use are when the IPTV fixed devices are in hotspot mode
and each guest connects to the Wi-Fi provided for his/her IPTV fixed device.
• Wi-Fi traffic through other VLAN/s: IPTV fixed device ethernet port requires other
VLAN, apart from the IPTV-VoD VLAN, for the traffic coming from the Wi-Fi in order
to isolate this traffic from the IPTV-VoD VLAN traffic. This feature is not available for
all the devices. An example of this use is when the IPTV fixed devices are in
roaming mode and all the guests access to the same WLAN.
app.srv.entertainment-solutions.eu
hls.srv.entertainment-solutions.eu
movieshls.srv.entertainment-solutions.eu
trailershls.srv.entertainment-solutions.eu
libraryhls.srv.entertainment-solutions.eu
estbfw.srv.entertainment-solutions.eu
Table 3: ES domain names.
If required, the extra VLAN needs to meet the following requirements:
• Unicast and broadcast traffic must be supported.
• The server and the IPTV fixed devices with Wi-Fi access must belong to this VLAN.
• The IPTV-VoD VLAN must be configured as untagged and the Wi-Fi VLAN as
tagged in the IPTV fixed device's ethernet port.
• Our server should be the only DHCP server for the Wi-Fi VLAN. In case that the
DHCP needs to be implemented in other server as well as the DNS, we must have
an access to the Internet with the same public IP as the Wi-Fi users or the domain
names in Table 3 must be redirected to our server.

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In the case of using an external wireless network to provide Wi-Fi access to the
guests, the bandwidth requirements of ZAFIRO MOBILE must be taken into account (if
this feature wants to be given to the guests). The ZAFIRO MOBILE networking usages are
the same as defined in Table 2, but using unicast for all the communications. Then, the
worst case scenario will be the case that all the guests for the same AP are watching TV,
although it depends on the customer's media. If casting services want to be provided see
next secion.
Furthermore, the guest Wi-Fi connections must have access to our server and the domain
names in Table 3 must be redirected to our server.

Casting content to the TV through the Hotel’s Wi-Fi

Please refer to “Zafiro Cast Network Requirements” document.

Several IPTV VLANs

Several IPTV VLANs may be required for example in cases in which there are a lot of
IPTV fixed devices or the IPTV fixed devices are located in different buildings.
These requirements are mandatory in the case of several IPTV VLANs are required:
• Each VLAN must have a defined subnet and gateway.
• IP helper address must be implemented since we would configure the IPTV server
with DHCP pools for every VLAN.
• A route to and from the server VLAN and the other IPTV-VoD VLANs (IPTV fixed
devices, headends, …) must be provided.
• Management of multicast packets through the IPTV-VoD VLANs must be
supported.
◦ In order to achieve this, several approaches can be taken: IGMP routing
(PIM-DM), IGMP proxy or Multicast VLAN (Sub-VLAN).

External DHCP server

In the case that our server is not the DHCP server for the IPTV-VoD VLAN the following
requirements must be met:
• If our server is not the DNS server, the domain names at Table 3 (first row) must be
redirected to our server, otherwise this information must be manually introduced for
every IPTV fixed device in the installation and when the IPTV fixed device is
flashed.
• NAT is not supported.
• An IP range for the IPTV fixed devices must be assigned and our server will be able
to register the IPs.
◦ We highly recommend that the DHCP server assigns always the same IP
address.

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4. Example of network design for ES
In this section, an example of how to configure the guests network with ethernet
technology is provided (scenario 1). This example is a very simple case in which the
network has one physical location and thus, only one VLAN is needed to provide the IPTV
and VoD services (IPTV-VoD VLAN). For this example we provide the network design, the
switch characteristics and the network IP assignment convention.

Network design
Figure 2 shows the example of guests network provided in this manual. The guests
network consists of one central switch and several floor switches (for example one per
floor). The server is connected to the central switch through two Gigabit ethernet ports with
LAG configuration and LACP protocol, but it can be also connected to only one Gigabit
ethernet port without LAG configuration in the switch. The floor switches are connected to
the central switch through Gigabit ethernet links. Optionally, the floor switches can be
connected to the central switch through two Gigabits ports with LAG configuration. The
headends can be connected to the central or one of the floor switches, the port speed
depends on the required bandwidth. The IPTV fixed devices are connected to the floor
switches.
The server is connected to a dedicated Internet gateway to provide the Internet access,
and it is also connected to the corporate and guests networks. Two VLANs are set in the
guests network: the IPTV-VoD VLAN and the guests Internet access VLAN.
IGMP snooping must be activated in all the switches for the IPTV-VoD VLAN and the
switches must filter out unwanted multicast traffic on the IPTV-VoD VLAN. Furthermore,
one of the switches has to be configured as IGMP querier in order to support IGMP
snooping. The rest of the switches must have the IGMP querier deactivated.

Switch characteristics
In Table 4 are shown the main characteristics that must have the central and floor switches
in order to work for the given example and to provide our services.
Central switch Floor switch
PortFast or Edge ports ✔ ✔
Gigabit ethernet ports or At least 1 port per server and Link ports. Rest of ports 100
higher per connected floor switch Megabits or higher
IGMP snooping (IGMP v2 or
✔ ✔
higher) and filtering
Rapid Spanning Tree Optional Optional
Protocol (RSTP)
LAG and LACP Optional Optional
Table 4: Characteristics for the switches to support ES requirements.

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Network IP assignment convention
Below it is shown the recommended IP address list convention. Note that it is not a
requirement to use this convention but it is recommended, since using it eases
management and problem solving tasks.
● IPTV-VoD VLAN:
○ IP Network: 10.1.0.0/16
○ Default gateway: 10.1.1.1
○ Network elements:
■ Dynamically assigned DHCP pool: 10.1.0.1 ~ 10.1.0.254
■ Installed IPTV fixed device's pool: 10.1.2.1 ~ 10.1.254.254
■ Reserved range for managed elements: 10.1.1.1 ~ 10.1.1.254
● Server IP address: 10.1.1.1
● IPTV gateways: 10.1.1.20 ~ 10.1.1.80
● Central switch: 10.1.1.100
● Floor) switches: 10.1.1.101 ~ 10.1.1.199
○ Multicast addresses range: 239/8
● Guests Internet access VLAN:
○ IP Network: 172.16.0.0/16
○ Default gateway: 172.16.0.1
○ Network elements:
■ Server IP address: 172.16.0.1
● Internet gateway network:
○ IP Network: 192.168.0.0/24
○ Default gateway: 192.168.0.1
○ Network elements:
■ Server IP address: 192.168.0.2
■ Server's Dell Remote Access Card (DRAC) IP address: 192.168.0.120

5. Equipment recommendations

The recommended switches and the recommendations for the APs to accomplish our
network requirements are provided in this section, although other devices could be used.

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Recommended switches
We recommend the following switches from different manufacturers:
● Central Switches (Core/Access switches):
○ Dell Powerconnect N1500 series
○ HP Aruba 2530 series (1 GbE ports)
○ Cisco Catalyst 2960X series
● Floor Switches (Edge switches):
○ Dell Powerconnect N1100 series
○ HP Aruba 2530 series
○ Cisco Catalyst 2960-Plus series
Note that these recommended switches are not valid when several IPTV-VoD VLANs are
needed.
In addition, note that central switch equipment can also be used as floor switches. In this
situation, the network will have more resources, but the solution will be more expensive.

Recommendations for the APs

We are going to give the recommendations to select the APs for the scenarios 2 and 3.
Note that the information given en “Network design requirements” must be also taken into
account.
• The number and characteristics of APs must be selected as per project specific
needs:
◦ Number and location of IPTV fixed devices.
◦ Wi-Fi performance (based on distance, walls, etc.). A site survey must be
performed to guarantee an adequate coverage for all IPTV fixed devices.
• 5GHz band is highly recommended. 2.4GHz should be used only for demo
purposes or projects with a small number of IPTV fixed devices since there are
problems of interferences in this band.
• Dual band APs are recommended.

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ANNEX A
The STBs and TV built-in Set-Top Boxes that allow to connect to the network through Wi-
Fi and its wireless characteristics, antenna and encryption capabilities are shown in Table
5. If other TV built-in Set-Top Boxes model wants to be used, check the TVs datasheet.
ESTB-Qp 2.4 / 51 GHz WiFi 802.11 b/g/n with Supports up to 128-bit encryption
built-in antenna (WEP, WPA and WPA2).
ESTB-Qpd 2.4 GHz WiFi 802.11 b/g/n with Supports up to 128-bit encryption
built-in antenna (WEP, WPA and WPA2).
LG and Samsung TV built- 2.4 / 51, 2 GHz WiFi 802.11 b/g/n Supports up to 128-bit encryption
in Set-Top Boxes (all the with built-in antenna (WEP, WPA and WPA2).
models provided for ES)

Philips TV built-in Set-Top 2.4 GHz WiFi 802.11 b/g/n with Supports up to 128-bit encryption
Boxes (all the models built-in antenna (WEP, WPA and WPA2).
provided for ES)
Table 5: Wi-Fi characteristics for the STBs and TV built-in Set-Top Boxes that support Wi-
Fi client.
1
5GHz band available for Zafiro version 3.6 or higher.
2
Some models of LG TV built-in Set-Top Boxes do not support DFS, so not all wireless
channels for the 5GHz band will be available. The available channels depends on the
country legislation.

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