KR100766089B1 - Tuning method of application - Google Patents

Abstract

A method for tuning an application is provided to retry a tuning operation predetermined times in spite of the failure of the tuning operation according to a tuning request of an application, thereby effectively processing the tuning request. A tuning request of an application is delivered to a native device by using a Java API(Application Program Interface) in a middle ware(S310). A tuning operation is performed according to the delivered tuning request(S320). The tuning operation is retried predetermined times even though the failure of the tuning operation occurs(S340). The result of the tuning operation is delivered to the middle ware so that the result is notified to the application(S350). The application is a monitor application. The java API is one of a javax.tv.service.selection package and an org.davic.net.tuning package.

Description

Tuning method of application

1 is a view showing the components of the service according to the open cable method.

2 is a view showing the configuration of an open cable type OCAP.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a tuning method of an application according to the present invention;

* Description of the main parts of the drawings *

210: monitor application 220: EPG

250: cable network interface 260: execution engine

The present invention relates to a tuning method of an open cable type application, and more particularly, an open cable type application that can effectively respond to a tuning request of an application by retrying a predetermined number of times even if the tuning fails according to the tuning request of the application. It is related to the tuning method of.

The open cable approach enables the sharing of application software and content using a common middleware platform called the Open Cable Application Platform (OCAP). OCAP is an American cable broadcasting standard that is the basis for creating applications for two-way services of cable broadcasting. It provides web-based services to cable broadcasting, which enables viewers to support more advanced interactive services.

In addition to OCAP, the standard standards of middleware include MHP (Multimedia Home Platform), DASE (DTV Application Environment), ATVEF (Advanced Television Enhancement Form), and the reason for adopting and applying such middleware can be to develop various interactive applications. This is because it is possible to develop a comprehensive multimedia terminal that combines broadcasting and communication by providing various services that were available only on PCs.

An application is an application program that is executed based on a Java virtual machine (JVM) in a digital broadcasting receiver, and is transmitted from a broadcasting station. The application is generally downloaded and loaded at the request of a user.

The OCAP standard stipulates that Java application program interfaces (hereinafter referred to as "Java APIs") are provided on native devices for various types of data broadcasting services broadcasted by broadcasting stations. The Java API is a collection of classes that can be used in a program. It is a package of related classes or interfaces.

1 illustrates components of a service according to an open cable scheme. The service consists of a video stream, an audio stream, a data stream and an application. For example, a TV channel such as CNN or BBC corresponds to one service. A service can have one or more audio or video streams, and every application is associated with a service. Therefore, selecting another service terminates the current application.

2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of an OCAP according to an open cable method. First, OCAP can be divided into an application layer and a middleware layer. The OCAP application layer consists of a monitor application 210, an electronic program guide (EPG) 220, other applications 230, and a native application wrapper 240 for handling native applications. The middleware layer includes a cable network interface 250, an execution engine 260, a native application 270, an OS 280, and a hardware 290 connected to a cable broadcasting network. The execution engine 260 of the middleware layer is one of the most important components of the OCAP, which is an important part of the middleware such as a Java virtual machine for running an OCAP application, modules for parsing service information, resources, and an application manager. It is included.

The monitor application 210 of the OCAP application layer is an unbound application that is not service-dependent, and thus gives the broadcaster more authority than the other middleware standards because the receiver has the highest priority and control over the receiver. Granted. The monitor application is an application that is transmitted in a download manner by a broadcaster to be downloaded to a receiver and stored in a memory space which is not erased even when the power of the receiver is cut off and operates from the boot of the receiver.

The monitor application includes various functions such as resource coordination, application registration, application acceptance, error handling, application upgrade, user input event processing, system reboot, execution engine function, electronic program guide (EPG) function, and emergency alert system (EAS) function. It can have control functions of other applications and thus have control over the receiver.

Such a monitor application may require tuning to a frequency different from that currently tuned in order to run an EPG application, to provide a viewer with a service other than the one currently being viewed, or to obtain service information data. Can be.

In response to the tuning request of the monitor application, the native device (eg, the DTV) performs a one-time tuning and immediately informs the monitor application of the success or failure of the tuning. Thus, even when the native device is not connected to the cable network broadcast network or in an inevitable situation where the tuning request may fail, such as when a tuner resource is in use, the tuning attempt of the native device is limited to one time. Therefore, even when the native device is in a normal situation and tuning is performed, the native device cannot notify the application of the tuning success unless it has already notified the application of the failure.

The present invention is to solve the above problems, when the tuning fails according to the tuning request of the application according to the open cable method, after retrying a predetermined number of times to notify the application to the result code can effectively respond to the tuning request It is to provide a tuning method of an open cable type application.

In order to achieve the above object, a tuning method of an open cable type application according to the present invention includes: transmitting a tuning request of an application to a native device using a Java API of middleware; Performing tuning according to the transmitted tuning request; If the tuning fails, retrying tuning a predetermined number of times; And notifying the application of the result of the tuning to the middleware.

Preferably, the application is a monitor application.

Also preferably, the Java API is a javax.tv.service.selection package or an org.davic.net.tuning package.

Preferably, the Java API transmits the tuning request to the JNI of the native device so that the native device performs tuning.

Also preferably, the result of the tuning is delivered to the middleware as an event.

Hereinafter, with reference to the drawings as follows.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a tuning method of an application according to the present invention. First, the application transmits a tuning request of the application to the native device using the Java API of the middleware (S310). The application here includes a monitor application. The monitor application is the highest priority application in the receiver to execute an EPG application irrespective of a user's request, to provide a viewer with a service different from the service currently being viewed, or to obtain service information data. To do this, you may request tuning at a frequency different from the currently tuned frequency. In addition, to perform the function of the EAS module may require tuning to a different frequency. However, the present invention is equally applicable to other applications tuned to provide other services at the request of a user.

The Java API of the middleware used to perform tuning may be either the javax.tv.service.selection package or the org.davic.net.tuning package. The javax.tv.service.selection package is used to select and tune the appropriate packet from the data stream of the transport stream currently being serviced to provide viewers with a service other than the one currently being viewed.

Also, the org.davic.net.tuning package is used to tune to a different frequency to obtain service information from a transport stream other than the transport stream currently being serviced.

The tuning request of the application is transmitted to the native device using the tuning package of the middleware as described above. The native device may be a DTV or a set-top box connected to a cable TV broadcasting network to receive basic service information and to change channels or set it to a desired format. Applications based on Java Xlets will use the Java API described above to access these devices.

The native device receiving the tuning request from the application performs tuning according to the tuning request (S320). The tuning package of the middleware's Java API forwards the tuning request to the native device's Java Native Interface (JNI). JNI is an application interface designed to access native code that can only run on a platform from a program written in Java. It is implemented in a language such as C or C ++.

If the tuning is successful in the native device (S330), the application is notified immediately. However, when tuning fails in the native device (S330), tuning is attempted a predetermined number of times (S340). Therefore, even if there is an unavoidable situation in which the tuning of the native device may fail, such as when the native device is not connected to the network broadcasting network or the tuner resource is being used, a certain number of tuning opportunities are secured. It can respond.

After retrying the predetermined number of times, the result is transmitted to the middleware to notify the application (S350). At this time, the result code is delivered to the upper layer as an event and notified to the application.

According to the present invention, there is provided an open cable type application tuning method that can effectively respond to a tuning request of an application by retrying tuning a predetermined number of times even if the tuning fails according to the tuning request of the application.

Although the above has been illustrated and described with respect to preferred embodiments of the present invention, the present invention is not limited to the above-described specific embodiments, and those skilled in the art without departing from the gist of the present invention. Anyone can make various modifications, as well as such modifications or variations are within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims (5)

Transmitting a tuning request of an application to a native device using a Java API of the middleware; Performing tuning according to the transmitted tuning request; If the tuning fails, retrying tuning a predetermined number of times; And And transmitting the result of the tuning to the middleware to notify the application. The method of claim 1, wherein the application is a monitor application. The method of claim 1, wherein the Java API is one of a javax.tv.service.selection package and an org.davic.net.tuning package. The method of claim 1, wherein the Java API transmits the tuning request to the JNI of the native device so that the native device performs tuning. The method of claim 1, wherein the result of the tuning is delivered to the middleware as an event.

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