KR20050019588A - Apparatus and method for upgrading software of Set Top Box - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: An apparatus and method for upgrading software of a set-top-box are provided to store hardware information in the set-top-box in advance and easily extract and upgrade desired software using the hardware information. CONSTITUTION: An apparatus for upgrading software of a set-top-box includes a front end(210), a POD(Point Of Deployment)(220), a software extraction unit(230), a flash memory(240), and a central processing unit(250). The front end tunes and demodulates a predetermined broadcasting program transmitted through a cable. The POD descrambles the output signal of the front end and, when software upgrade information is input from the front end, compares the upgrade information with predetermined hardware information to determine whether the information corresponds to the set-top-box. When the information corresponds to the set-top-box, the POD extracts tuning information from the upgrade information. The software extraction unit extracts software to be upgraded from the descrambled signal. The flash memory stores hardware information about the set-top-box and operating software of the set-top-box. The central processing unit reads and provides the hardware information stored in the flash memory while communicating with the POD, controls the tuning channel of the front end according to the tuning information extracted by the POD, stores the software extracted by the software extraction unit in the flash memory, and controls the operation of the set-top-box according to the software.

Description

Apparatus and method for upgrading software of Set Top Box}

The present invention assigns a manufacturer ID (Identification) and a hardware version (Hardware Version) ID to a set top box of an open cable method, and uses the assigned hardware version ID to provide software corresponding to the set top box. The present invention relates to a software upgrade apparatus and method of a set-top box that can be easily upgraded.

As digitalization of broadcasting media including terrestrial broadcasting and cable broadcasting proceeds rapidly, the set-top box not only receives terrestrial broadcasting signals but also broadcasts through the in-band band of cable frequency bands from the headend providing cable broadcasting programs. A program is received and bi-directionally communicated with the headend through an out-of-band (OBB) band.

The set top box is divided into a simple receiver, a pay broadcast receiver, and an interactive two-way receiver. The simple receiver is used in a satellite broadcasting business type in which anyone can watch a broadcast program when joining as a free channel or a member, and is generally referred to as a free-to-air receiver. The pay broadcast receiver performs a conditional access system (CAS) function that allows a specific broadcaster to watch only a specific broadcast program according to its own sales strategy. The interactive two-way receiver is a next-generation receiver that will be introduced in the future, a set-top box capable of a variety of multimedia services, such as the Internet integrated broadcast and communication is expected to be gradually replaced by an interactive receiver.

Currently, broadcast programs used in cable broadcasting use various formats for encoding and modulation, and producers of set-top boxes and providers of broadcast programs continue to develop broadcast program standards for mutually compliant systems.

As part of this effort, an open cable method has been proposed as a common standard for digital broadcasting programs. The open cable system is a set of interface standards for limiting set-top boxes and other digital devices of digital cable televisions manufactured by CableLab Laboratories, Inc. (CableLabs: Cable Television Laboratories, Inc.). It is known to provide flexibility.

Meanwhile, with the expansion of the cable broadcasting market, mergers between small cable broadcasters are frequently occurring. Each of them uses a unique scramble method, which makes it difficult to integrate both systems and unify the same scramble method. Therefore, MSO (Multi System Operator) using different scramble methods is appearing.

In this case, the set-top box supporting the open cable method includes a mounting unit for mounting a POD (Point of Deployment) module to be adapted to the MSO, and a POD module corresponding to the mounting unit when watching a predetermined cable broadcasting program. Equipped with a so that you can watch the corresponding cable broadcast program. Recently, a plurality of POD modules are installed in a set-top box, and a corresponding POD module is automatically selected and operated according to a scrambling method of a received cable broadcasting program, so that the cable broadcasting program provided by the MSO can be viewed.

After making and selling such open-cable set-top boxes, there is a case of developing and upgrading new software that can improve the performance of the set-top box.

In this case, in order to upgrade the software of the set-top box, the user of the set-top box had to visit the after-sales service center and upgrade the software, or after-sales service personnel had to visit the installation location of the set-top box to upgrade the software. There was a problem that wasted time.

An object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method for upgrading a software of a set-top box that can simply upgrade the software of the set-top box.

Another object of the present invention is to provide software for upgrading with a broadcast program via a cable without the user visiting the after-sales service center or after-sales service personnel visit the installation location of the set-top box, the set-top among the providing software It is to provide a software upgrade apparatus and method of a set-top box to the box to extract and upgrade the software corresponding to the box.

According to the software upgrade apparatus and method of the set-top box of the present invention having the above object, it is possible to store the hardware information of the set-top box in advance, and to upgrade whether or not the same information as the hardware information is received through the cable from the headend. Determine whether to provide software. When it is determined that the software to be upgraded is provided, the broadcast program of the channel providing the software is received, and the software is extracted and upgraded.

Therefore, the software upgrade apparatus of the set-top box of the present invention includes a front end for tuning and demodulating a predetermined broadcast program transmitted through a cable, descrambles an output signal of the front end, and inputs upgrade information of software from the front end. If it is, the POD (Point Of Deployment) extracts the tuning information in the upgrade information and determines whether it corresponds to itself by comparing the upgrade information with preset hardware information, and the POD descrambling A software extracting unit for extracting software to be upgraded from a signal, a flash memory storing hardware information of the set-top box and operating software of the set-top box, and reading hardware information stored in the flash memory while communicating with the POD; Offering, POD And controlling the tuning channel of the front end according to the extracted tuning information, updating and storing the extracted software in the flash memory, and controlling the operation of the set-top box according to the software. .

The software extracting unit may include: a demultiplexer for separating software to be upgraded from the output signal of the POD and broadcast program data; a carousel parser for carousel-parsing the software separated from the demultiplexer; And a buffer for storing the software decoded by the decoder and providing the decoded software to the CPU and the memory.

In the software upgrade method of the set-top box of the present invention, a broadcast program is provided with a POD (Point Of Deployment) received from a central processing unit by hardware information pre-stored in a flash memory at the initial power-on, and received from a head end via a cable. The POD determines whether upgrade information on the software of the set-top box is received by using the provided hardware information within the POD, and if the upgrade information on the software of the set-top box is received, the upgrade is determined. Extracting the tuning information providing the software from the information, the central processing unit controls to receive the broadcast program of the corresponding channel provided through the cable according to the extracted tuning information, extracts the software to upgrade, and extracts the extracted software into the flash memory On Characterized in that the new storage.

The hardware information includes a manufacturer ID for identifying the producers of the set-top box and a hardware version ID for identifying the hardware of the set-top box, and determining whether the upgrade information is received includes receiving upgrade information and the hardware. It is characterized by determining whether or not the manufacturer ID and the hardware version ID in the information is the same, wherein the hardware version ID, hardware major version ID (Hardware major Version ID), hardware minor version ID (Hardware minor Version ID), flash memory And the most significant byte of the ID (MSB of Flash memory ID) and the least significant byte of the flash memory ID (LSB of Flash memory ID).

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described in detail the software upgrade apparatus and method of the set-top box of the present invention.

1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a set-top box according to the upgrade apparatus of the present invention. Here, reference numeral 100 denotes a headend for providing a predetermined broadcast program, and reference numeral 200 denotes a set top for receiving a predetermined broadcast program provided by the headend 100 and viewing the image through a video display device such as a television receiver. It's a box.

The head end 100 and the set-top box 200 are connected to each other through a cable 300 for transmitting a predetermined broadcast program.

The set top box 200, the front end 210 for tuning and demodulating a predetermined broadcast program transmitted through the cable 300, and prevents unauthorized copying while descrambles the output signal of the front end 210 (Copy Protection), Common Download, and Conditional Access, and if the upgrade information of the software is input from the front end 210, the set-top box 200 is the upgrade information corresponding to itself POD (Point Of Deployment) 220 for extracting the tuning information in the upgrade information if it is determined to determine whether or not, and the software extraction unit 230 for extracting the software to be upgraded from the output signal of the POD 220 ), A flash memory 240 in which hardware information about the set-top box 200 and operating software of the set-top box 200 are stored, and the POD 220 communicate with each other. Read and provide hardware information stored in the flash memory 240, control the tuning channel of the front end 210 according to the tuning information extracted by the POD 220, and extract the software extracted by the software extractor 230. Is upgraded and stored in the flash memory 240 and upgraded, and the central processing unit 250 controls the operation of the set-top box 200 according to the software.

The software extracting unit 230 performs carousel parsing on the demultiplexer 231 separating the software to be upgraded from the output signal of the POD 220 and the broadcast program data, and the software separated from the demultiplexer 230. A carousel parser 233, a decoder 235 for decoding the output signal of the carousel parser 233, software decoded by the decoder 235, and stored in the memory 240 and the central processing unit 250. A buffer 237 is provided to

In the upgrade apparatus of the present invention configured as described above, the POD 220 of the set-top box 200 is initially turned on at the step 402, as shown in FIG. The processing unit 250 is notified of the start of operation, and according to the notification of the start of operation, the central processing unit 250 notifies the POD 220 of the start of operation in step 404.

In the next step 406, the POD 220 requests hardware information about the set-top box 200 from the central processing unit 250, and according to the request, the central processing unit 250 in step 408 flash memory ( The hardware information stored at 240 is read and provided to the POD 220.

Here, the hardware information read from the flash memory 240 and provided to the POD 220 by the CPU 250 may include, for example, a manufacturer ID (vendor_id) of the set-top box 200, as shown in FIG. 3. , Hardware version ID (hardware_version_id), the hardware version ID as shown in Figure 4 hardware major version ID (Hardware major Version ID) consisting of one byte each, hardware minor version ID (Hardware minor Version ID) And the most significant byte (MSB of Flash memory ID) of the flash memory 240 ID and the least significant byte (LSB of Flash memory ID) of the flash memory 250 ID.

Here, the reason for including the most significant byte and the least significant byte of the flash memory 240 ID in the hardware version ID is to operate the hardware version ID so that the user can arbitrarily download the software produced for the more expensive model. This is for the case of storing in the memory 250.

In this manner, when the headend 100 provides a predetermined broadcast program through the cable 300 in the state where the POD 220 acquires the hardware information, the broadcast program provided by the headend 100 is provided at the front end of the set top box 200 ( 210 is tuned, demodulated and extracted. The extracted broadcast program is descrambled by the POD 220 and extracted by the demultiplexer 231 and output to the video / audio processor. The video / audio processor processes the video and audio of the broadcast program extracted by the demultiplexer 231. To allow the user to watch.

When upgrading the software of the set-top box 200 in this state, the producer of the broadcast program may provide tuning information that provides the software to be upgraded, that is, channel information, a manufacturer ID (vendor_id) and a hardware version ID corresponding to the software. (hardware_version_id) is transmitted through the cable 300 together with the predetermined broadcast program, and the front end 210 of the set-top box 200 receives and demodulates it and inputs it to the POD 220.

The POD 220 determines whether information to be upgraded from the front end 210 is input in step 410 of FIG. 2, and when the information to be upgraded is input, the upgrade corresponding to the set-top box 200 itself. Determine whether or not the information.

That is, the POD 220 determines whether the tuning information, the manufacturer ID vendor_id and the hardware version ID hardware_version_id are input from the front end 210, and if so, the manufacturer ID vendor_id and hardware version ID. (hardware_version_id) determines whether or not the same as the manufacturer ID (vendor_id) and the hardware version ID (hardware_version_id) in the hardware information received from the central processing unit 250 in step 406.

As a result of the determination of steps 410 and 412, the same manufacturer ID vendor_id and hardware version ID hardware_version_id as the manufacturer ID vendor_id and hardware version ID hardware_version_id in the hardware information received from the CPU 250 are determined. When input, the POD 220 provides the central processing unit 250 with tuning information input from the front end 210 in step 414.

Then, the central processing unit 250 notifies that the tuning information has been input to the POD 220 in step 416, and controls the front end 210 according to the received tuning information in step 418 to the tuning information. In response to the control, the front end 418 receives the broadcast program of the corresponding channel, and controls the software in the received broadcast program in step 420 according to the control. The flash memory 240 stores and upgrades the control according to the control.

That is, under the control of the central processing unit 250, the front end 210 tunes and demodulates a broadcast program of a channel that provides software to be upgraded, and provides the POD 220 to the POD 220. 220 descrambles and inputs it to the software extracting unit 230. Then, the demultiplexer 231 of the software extractor 230 extracts the software included in the broadcast program input from the POD 220, and the extracted software is parsed by the carousel parser 233 and the decoder 235. After decoding it is stored in the buffer 237. In this state, the CPU 250 checks the software stored in the buffer 237 and controls the flash memory 240 to store and upgrade the software stored in the buffer 237 in the flash memory 240. .

On the other hand, while the present invention has been shown and described with respect to specific preferred embodiments, various modifications and changes of the present invention without departing from the spirit or field of the invention provided by the claims below It can be easily understood by those skilled in the art. For example, as described above, the software is upgraded with respect to the set-top box, and the present invention is not limited thereto. For example, a digital television receiver for receiving and watching a broadcast program transmitted through the cable 300 may be used. It can also be applied to a variety of devices.

As described above, the present invention stores hardware information including a manufacturer ID and a hardware version ID of the set-top box in a set-top box in advance, and uses the stored hardware information to transmit the upgrade information through a cable. It is very easy to upgrade by simply extracting and upgrading the corresponding software from among the software, and it does not waste any time or manpower.

1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a set-top box according to the upgrade device of the present invention.

2 is a signal flow diagram showing an upgrade method of the present invention.

3 is a view showing the set-top box information provided by the central processing unit to the POD in accordance with the present invention as an example.

4 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a hardware version ID among set-top box information provided by a central processing unit to a POD according to the present invention.

Explanation of symbols on the main parts of the drawings

100: head end 200: set-top box

210: front end 220: POD

230: software extraction unit 231: demultiplexer

233: carousel parser 235: decoder

237: buffer 240: central processing unit

250: flash memory 300: cable

Claims (5)

A front end for tuning and demodulating a predetermined broadcast program transmitted through a cable; The output signal of the front end is descrambled, and when upgrade information of the software is input from the front end, the upgrade information is compared with preset hardware information to determine whether or not it corresponds to the upgrade. POD (Point Of Deployment) for extracting the tuning information in the information; A software extracting unit extracting software to be upgraded from the signal descrambled by the POD; A flash memory storing hardware information about the set-top box and operating software of the set-top box; And Read and provide hardware information stored in the flash memory while communicating with the POD, control the tuning channel of the front end according to the tuning information extracted by the POD, and update and store the software extracted by the software extractor in the flash memory. And a software upgrade device of the set-top box, comprising a central processing unit controlling the operation of the set-top box according to the software. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the software extracting unit; A demultiplexer for separating software and broadcast program data to be upgraded from an output signal of the POD; A carousel parser for carousel parsing the software separated from the demultiplexer; A decoder for decoding software parsed by the carousel parser; And And a buffer for storing the software decoded by the decoder and providing the decoded software to the CPU and the memory. A tenth step of receiving a point of deployment (POD) from the central processing unit, the hardware information previously stored in the flash memory at the initial power-on; A 20th step in which the POD determines whether upgrade information on the software of the set-top box is received using the hardware information provided in the tenth step in the broadcast program received from the headend through a cable; A thirtieth step of extracting tuning information for providing software from the upgrade information when it is determined that upgrade information on the software of the set-top box is received in the twentieth step; A 40th step of extracting software to be upgraded by the CPU to receive a broadcast program of a corresponding channel provided through the cable according to the tuning information extracted at the 30th step; And The software upgrade method of the set-top box comprising a 50th process of updating and storing the software extracted in the 40th process in the flash memory. The method of claim 3, wherein The hardware information of the tenth step is; The manufacturer ID for identifying the creator of the set-top box, and the hardware version ID for identifying the hardware of the set-top box, Determining whether the upgrade information of the twentieth step is received; The software upgrade method of the set-top box characterized in that it is determined whether the upgrade information received and the manufacturer ID and hardware version ID in the hardware information is the same. 5. The system of claim 4, wherein the hardware version ID; The hardware major version ID, the hardware minor version ID, the most significant byte of the flash memory ID (MSB of Flash memory ID), and the least significant byte of the flash memory ID (LSB of Flash memory ID) Software upgrade method of a set-top box comprising the.