OSS is one of the key components of the IPTV system. It includes the System Management, Subscriber Management, Media Server Management, Program Management, Channel Management, Accounting Management, Transaction Management, Statistics Management and Data Base Management. Considering the daily operations needs, The OSS also includes the POS (Point of Service) Account Management to work with the central OSS and register new subscribers.

We will introduce the individual components of the OSS in more details as follows:


System Management is divided into five parts --- Administrator Management, Branch Office Management, Operator Management, STB Installation and Installer Management. In each sub-system, the operator can add, modify, and delete user information.
Convenient distribution of the operator management can efficiently manage a large deployment and coordinate among different operating offices.

Subscriber Management
When a subscriber goes to a neighboring operating office to apply for the service, the authorized operator will enter the POS (Point of Service) sub-system to create an account. The operator will enter the subscriber’s name, address, service area, etc. and assign an account number, password, subscriber type, subscription package, set-top-box type and an installation group.
After the account is set up, the record will be submitted to the OSS for approval. An OSS system administrator will then enter the Subscriber/Auditing menu to review the account information and the service log before he approves or rejects the application. The subscriber will also be put in an appropriate adult group or children group.
After the approval, team member of the installation group will install the set-top-box for the subscriber or let the subscriber install it by himself. Then the account status is updated to Operating. This whole operation flow is clean and the various authorization level will ensure the account is set up correctly. Also, in the Subscriber – User Group sub-menu, subscribers will be divided into Children, Young Adult, or Adult groups for better program control. In the Subscriber – Batch Grouping sub-menu, the administrator can process the grouping in batch mode.
In Subscriber – Searching sub-menu, the administrator can search for unapproved subscribers, overdue subscribers or to search a specific subscriber or a group of subscribers. It is convenient to management all the subscribers.

Media Servers are managed under various Service Areas, for example, East District or West District. When the deployment covering area expands, new media servers will be added to cover new service areas. The menu allows an administrator to search for servers based on service areas. Each server has its own service area, IP address, port number, service type, and status. An administrator can add, modify, and delete a media server.

Program management is to manage the programs for VOD service. It sets the program level, program category, poster template and program publish stages. Program Level is to set the level of the programs for adults, normal viewing or some specific subscription. The menu allows the operator to increase new levels or to modify the current levels.
Program Category is to categorize the contents so that the EPG can easily locate the contents for subscribers, for example, music, movie, sports, games, adult movies. Each category can be sub-divided into drama, horror, action, cartoons, health, etc.
Poster Template is to manage poster (a picture and a brief description what the content is about). An administrator can add, modify or delete the template. Program Publish is to set stages for publishing the content. The content must be first uploaded to a media server via FTP, then the content is entered into the system with its name, category, director of the content, major actors/actresses, length of the content, fare model (charge by the view or by the month, etc). If there is an associated xml file that describes the content, it can be uploaded or created. Then the administrator needs to select the media server that the content is to be associated with. The program’s IP address and name need to be set up correctly. The last action is to unlock the program to make it available for VOD. For convenience, the Batch Pricing function allows the administrator to select multiple programs and set them to the same fare model. Recommend tab also allows the administrator to recommend a hot movie, a good movie or a new movie to the subscribers.

Channel Management is to manage the live (multicast) channels. It includes categorizing channels, categorizing channel programs, and program publishing. Channel Category allows the administrator to add or modify a channel based on the characteristics of the channel, for example, news, sports, entertainment, education, finance, life, movie, cartoons, etc.
Channel Program allows the administrator to input the channel number and channel name, channel logo, category, multicast address.
A channel can also play a list of pre-recorded program files. The program list will show the start time and file names. All the channel program related information can be uploaded with an xml file to process in a batch or to modify them one by one

Accounting management is flexible. It supports packages of channels, pay by time or prepay with charge cards. It also supports statistics and inquiry of the payment information. To manage live channels, it supports the following:
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• Monthly payment package
• Charge Card
• Stat of Monthly payment
• Stat of Ordered program
• Stat of charge
• Ordered service
• Charge record

Live channels can be charged in various ways. For example, a sports package can include several sports channels; an entertainment package can include multiple entertainment channels or movie channels. A subscriber can choose multiple packages. The menu allows the administrator to set up packages of channels and allow the administrator to adjust packages.
Monthly payment package means that the subscriber pays by the month. The administrator can preset several packages and each package includes different number of channels.
Charge card allows the administrator to pre-charge the card and sets up the password, creation time, value, etc.
Statistics of Monthly payment can be reviewed by service area and operating offices.
Statistics of Ordered Programs lets the administrator to inquire the viewing statistics, fees within certain time periods.
Statistics of charge allows the administrator to inquire the status of the charge cards of certain service areas or operating offices.
Ordered service allows the administrator to inquire the ordered contents based on subscriber, time period or charge by viewing.
Charge Record allows the administrator to inquire the charge history of certain subscribers or of all the subscribers over a certain period of time.

Transaction management includes VOD transaction log, management log, operations log and backup log.
VOD log lets the administrator to inquire log of certain subscriber or program name or filename or viewing time, the viewing STB’s IP address.
Management log shows all the operations history, including all types of operations, transactions, users, time, and IP addresses.
Operator log shows operator transactions, usually charging, creation of accounts, modifications of password, etc. It records operators’ ID, operating time, IP addresses, etc.
Backup log allows the administrator to back up the above logs.

Statistics management includes three kinds of statistics:

• Subscriber statistics shows the number of new subscribers from certain operating offices and the detail records.
• Published programs shows the number of VOD programs during a certain period of time.
• Hot programs shows the statistics of hot VOD programs, or the top 100 programs.
  

Database backup allows the administrator to back up all the records.

POS Management processes the account application, payment, inquiry and subscriber management. It includes the following 7 functions:
 Create an Account
 Charge
 Unapproved Accounts
 Unopened Accounts
 All Accounts
 Charge Stat.
 Modify Password