Crypto concepts used in IPSEC

IPSEC is very complicated and very extensible system for network security. IPSEC uses symmetric cyphers in encryption and HMAC for data authentication. Internet key exchange is basically an authenticated Diffie-hellman exchange. There are several ways of authentication, one way of authentication is digital signatures, another involves HMAcing a shared secret, third involves public key encryption to authenticate a peer.

IPSEC standard key exchange, IKE has an option for perfect forward secrecy. It adds extra overhead while doing Diffie-Hellman exchange in each rekey interval. Denial of service attacks are possible to force the computer to do unnecessary work while trying to achieve security, which leads to shutting down the computer. DOS can be launched against cryptographic systems, when the attacker cause the system to do more work in response to the attack than is necessary to launch the attack. Thankfully, IPSEC and IKE are constructed with partial defenses against denial of service attacks, but merely increase the cost and complexity to launch them.

Killed the presentation

I recently found that I am good at planing things and I wanted to try my skill on the course presentation. I wasn't good presenter before, but with my new plan I have become one. I wrote few steps how to prepare for a presentation. It really worked for me. After I followed the below steps when  I am get ready for the presentation, I was well organized and very confident about the presentation.

Presentation plan:

• Prepare the presentation
• Write down the exact points that you are going to say in a paper
• Practice the presentation several times
• check timing
• Try to remember the important slides
• Keep the flow of the presentation in mind
• Be normal and calm in presenting
• Keep the point paper when you present

IPTV Customer has to be managed

When I was at IPTV industry I worked closely with customer account management software called Geneva. It is an product of IBM cognos version 7. account management was really important in billing the customer. We have enrolled a single customer which used PSTN, broadband and IPTV in to one account. so he had different products namely PSTN, internet and IPTV in the same account. We define price plans for each IPTV channel package we are creating in the system. In the stage of customer creation we add the specific package to the customer with the price plan. We add the IPTV as the parent product and then add other services like TSTV, VOD and SVOD as child products with relevant price plans. In this way we have control over the product price plans and it is important as in marketing aspects. Billing is according to the base package, VOD subscription and channel subscription of the user. when we create a product in the GENEVA, a work order passed to the workforce management software to initiate the work order. So the product creation in the GENEVA is the starting point in IPTV provisioning. Account information is important in product creation, if it is an existing customer information like  telephone number and billing address are in the system. If it is new customer all the information has to enter accurately and first we have to begin with PSTN connection, then broadband connection and finally IPTV provisioning.

IPTV is not normal TV

Most of the telecommunication companies all over the world moving towards convergence in their network with triple play voice, video and data(broad band internet). IPTV which stands for Internet protocol TV is a technology that multicast TV channels and VOD on broadband networks.  bandwidth of the network plays a main role in the IPTV business. Other aspect of IPTV is the video encoding and compression mechanism used in video delivery. I have closely worked with UT starcom IPTV system which is called as UT Starcom's rolling stream IPTV system(http://www.utstar.com/). IPTV aand Satellite TV is two different technologies which are competing to the same market segment.

Let me explain the IPTV architecture first. First let's talk about  how live channels are transmitted over broad band networks. The trick play function on live channels, gives you the control over what you are watching. it gives you the pausing function where you can pause the live stream and go back in time. Time shifting is the term that is used in IPTV for going back in time to watch something already been telecast. Live channels get transmitted via satellite and fibers to the IPTV head end from television stations.

My new NIKON D3100

I brought a new NIKON D3100 las week. This DSLR camera is know as entry level DSLR camera and this really suits to an armature photographer. Camera is lighter in weight and has a good grip to hold the camera one hand. This camera has 14.2 Megapixels that gives additional 2 MP than its predecessor D3000. And also it has 1080 p HD movie recording facility improved over D5000. D3100 gives in camera retouching options that we can finish a quality picture in camera it self. I like that NIKON now give you good quality pictures and HD video recording too. D3100 has a help guide to beginner in photography and which helps me a lot to get to know with the camera. I took some snaps around and I noticed that the color of the pictures were great . D3100 live view lever is positioned in a great place in the rear of the camera, and it gives easy access to the video recording. I am planing to shoot some videos in London,ON area with D3100 and make a short documentary about it. Let's see how well it goes. I have found that the USB cable is not coming with the camera and it was little bit disappointed. But I could get my first photos in to my computer because I had a SD card reader in my laptop.I am still discovering my camera and it is quite a beauty.