Method for transmitting services information in different types of broadcasting networks and unit for processing said information

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9807432-B2
Application number	US-201615146248-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 4, 2016
Priority date	Sep 13, 2006
Publication date	Oct 31, 2017
Grant date	Oct 31, 2017

Abstract

A method for transmitting services information in a broadcasting network by at least one managing center towards a plurality of receivers connected on one hand to a digital data streams broadcasting network of DVB type and on the other hand to a digital data streams broadcasting network of IP type, said streams comprising content data of the services and additional information data on said services structured in tables adapted to the transmission protocol specific to each type of network. The method comprises the steps of exploring the streams broadcasted by the network of type DVB and the streams broadcasted by the network of type IP and extracting services information from these streams, completing an information table, situated at the highest level in the hierarchy of the services information tables, included in the service information DVB-SI transmitted by the DVB network by services information related to the IP network, and transmitting the completed information table in the streams broadcasted by the DVB network towards the receivers having two switchable receiving modules, connected respectively to a DVB and an IP services broadcasting network. The receivers are able to activate the reception of digital data of a service, equivalent to the service currently received, with a second receiving module when the receiving conditions by the first receiving module are degraded.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A managing center comprising:
memory storing computer-readable instructions; and
a processor configured to execute the instructions such that the processor is configured to,
transmit digital data streams via a first network and a second network towards at least one processing unit, the digital data streams including content data of services and additional information data on said services structured in tables adapted to a transmission protocol specific to the first network and the second network,
explore the digital data streams of the first and second networks and extract services information from the streams of the first and second networks,
obtain a modified information table by inserting the services information extracted from the streams of the second network into a first information table of the streams of the first network, said first information table being situated at a highest level in a hierarchy of services information tables of the first network, said services information including at least one descriptor corresponding to a service, transmit towards the at least one processing unit the modified information table in the streams via the first network, said modified information table being configured to reduce analysis and processing tasks executed by the at least one processing unit during determination of availability of a service on the second network corresponding to a currently received service of the first network.

2. The managing center according to claim 1 , wherein the first network is of a digital video broadcasting (DVB) type and the second network is of an internet protocol (IP) type.

3. The managing center according to claim 2 , wherein the at least one descriptor inserted into the first information table includes at least an identifier and an IP address corresponding to a service of the second network.

4. The managing center according to claim 1 , wherein the modified information table includes a network information table (NIT) defined according to the European telecommunications standards institute (ETSI) EN 300 468 standard.

5. The managing center according to claim 1 , wherein the modified information table includes a bouquet association table (BAT) or a services description table (SDT) defined according to the European telecommunications standards institute (ETSI) EN 300 468 standard.

6. The managing center according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to execute the instructions such that the processor is configured to modify the first information table by further adding a reference of an internet protocol (IP) services provider.

7. The managing center according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to execute the instructions such that the processor is configured to transmit, towards the at least one processing unit in the streams via the first network, the modified information table as several sub-tables each attributed to an internet protocol (IP) services provider.

8. The managing center according to claim 1 , wherein the modified information table includes services information extracted from a Service Discovery & Selection (SD&S) structure received from the second network.

9. The managing center according to claim 1 , wherein the obtained information table includes services information extracted from files or databases received from the second network.

10. A processing unit comprising:
a first receiver module configured to receive digital data streams from a first network and a second receiver module configured to receive digital data streams from a second network;
memory storing computer-readable instructions;
a processor configured to execute the instructions such that the processor is configured to,
activate reception of digital data of a service equivalent to a service currently received with the second receiver module when receiving conditions by the first receiver module are degraded, and
determine the equivalent service from a first services information table stored in a non-volatile memory, the first services information table being situated at a highest level in a hierarchy of services information tables of the first network, the first services information table containing descriptors of services of the second network that correspond to services of the first network.

11. The processing unit according to claim 10 , wherein the first receiver module is configured to receive digital data streams from the first network of a digital video broadcasting (DVB) type and the second receiver module is configured to receive digital data streams from the second network of an internet protocol (IP) type.

12. The processing unit according to claim 11 , wherein the descriptors contained in the first services information table includes identifiers of services of the DVB type and IP addresses corresponding to the services of the DVB type.

13. The processing unit according to claim 10 , wherein the equivalent service is determined based on a network information table (NIT) defined according to the standards European telecommunications standards institute (ETSI) EN 300 468.

14. The processing unit according to claim 10 , wherein the equivalent service is determined by a bouquet association table (BAT) or by a service description table (SDT) defined according to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) EN 300 468 standard.

15. The processing unit according to claim 10 , wherein the processor is configured to execute the instructions such that the processor is configured to activate the reception of the digital data by the second receiver module automatically when the receiving conditions by the first receiver module are degraded.

16. The processing unit according to claim 10 , wherein the processor is configured to execute the instructions such that the processor is configured to activate the reception of the digital data by the second receiver module manually when the receiving conditions by the first receiver module are degraded.

17. A method of operating a managing center comprising:
transmitting, by the managing center, digital data streams via a first network and a second network towards at least one processing unit, the digital data streams including content data of services and additional information data on said services structured in tables adapted to a transmission protocol specific to the first network and the second network;
exploring the digital data streams of the first and second networks and extracting services information from the streams of the first and second networks;
obtain a modified information table by inserting the services information extracted from the streams of the second network into a first information table of the streams of the first network, said first information table being situated at a highest level in a hierarchy of services information tables of the first network, said services information including at least one descriptor corresponding to a service,
transmitting towards the at least one processing unit the modified information table in the streams via the first network, said modified information table being configured to reduce analysis and processing tasks executed by the at least one processing unit during determination of availability of a service on the second network corresponding to a currently received service of the first network.

18. The method according to claim 17 , wherein the first network is of a digital video broadcasting (DVB) type and the second network is of an internet protocol (IP) type.

Assignees

• Nagravision Sa

Inventors

• Burckard Antoine

Classifications

• H04N21/64315

  DVB-H · CPC title

• H04H20/26

  Arrangements for switching distribution systems · CPC title

• H04N21/2362 Primary

  Generation or processing of Service Information [SI] · CPC title

• H04N21/4622

  Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet (web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859) · CPC title

• H04N21/64322

  IP · CPC title