CN101340552B - Integrated Business Navigation System - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention discloses an integrated service navigation system, which includes: a navigation client device, which is used to provide an operation interface of a unified navigation portal interface for users to access services and contents of Internet TV, and the user can obtain through the unified navigation portal interface Electronic program guide for Internet TV services, catalog and download of on-demand programs, two-way interactive services and value-added services with service navigation devices; portal navigation devices are used to obtain Internet TV business and content metadata, and The content metadata generates a unified navigation portal interface; the service navigation device is used to provide the service and content metadata of IPTV to the portal navigation device. The integrated service navigation system can realize EPG, ECG and IPG service navigation at the same time. It not only realizes the navigation of basic IPTV services, but also realizes the navigation of value-added services, and provides a unified entrance for users to use IPTV services and value-added service data.

Description

Integrated Business Navigation System

technical field

The invention relates to the communication field, in particular to an integrated service navigation system.

Background technique

With the continuous development of broadband services, Internet Protocol TV (hereinafter referred to as IPTV) has gradually developed into the main form of future broadband services. It is a brand-new technology that utilizes various broadband networks and integrates Internet, multimedia, communication and other technologies to provide home users with various interactive services including digital TV. Users can enjoy IPTV services in two ways at home: one is a computer, and the other is a network set-top box combined with an ordinary TV. In addition to basic services such as live broadcast, on-demand and time-shifted TV, IPTV services also include many value-added services such as information services, instant messaging services, games, distance learning, e-commerce and Internet telephony.

In the existing navigation architecture, IPTV system providers provide an Electronic Program Guide (Electronic Program Guide, hereinafter referred to as EPG) to realize service navigation when developing IPTV services. In addition, some IPTV system providers also provide, for example, a two-way interactive program guide (Interactive Program Guide, hereinafter referred to as: IPG) and an electronic content service guide (Electronic Content Guide, hereinafter referred to as: ECG). In the standard proposed by the International Telecommunication Union (International Telecommunication Union, hereinafter referred to as: ITU), EPG is defined as a service navigation interface especially applied to programs. In some traditional broadcasting services, EPG is defined as an on-screen guide for displaying a pre-arranged live TV interface, allowing viewers to navigate, select and discover programs by time, title, channel and category. This definition excludes catalog and download services for on-demand programs (these are sometimes referred to as ECGs) and services in which the user interacts two-way with a server or headend (these are sometimes referred to as IPGs). EPG usually provides a channel list and a list of on-demand programs, and IPG mainly implements Web-based interactive application navigation; for other value-added services, a page navigation mechanism needs to be provided separately.

It can be seen that the navigation architecture in the prior art has the following defects: first, the architecture can only realize a kind of business navigation mode in EPG, ECG or IPG, but cannot carry out integrated business navigation to it; secondly, the navigation The system architecture can only be aimed at live broadcast and on-demand services, and cannot realize the navigation of value-added services.

Contents of the invention

The purpose of the present invention is to provide an integrated service navigation system, which realizes the navigation of IPTV basic services and value-added services by providing electronic program guides, two-way interactive service guides, and electronic content guides.

To achieve the above object, the present invention provides an integrated service navigation system, comprising:

The navigation client device is used to provide an operation interface of a unified navigation portal interface for users to access the services and contents of the Internet TV, through which the user can obtain the electronic program guide of the Internet TV service and the program on demand. Catalog and download, two-way interactive service with service navigation device and value-added service;

The portal navigation device is used to obtain the business and content metadata of the Internet TV, and generate a unified navigation portal interface according to the business and content metadata of the Internet TV;

The service navigation device is used to provide the service and content metadata of IPTV to the portal navigation device.

As can be seen from the above technical solutions, the technical solutions provided by the present invention have the following beneficial effects:

The navigation client device provides users with a unified operation interface for accessing IPTV services, which is convenient for users to access various IPTV services; the portal navigation device simultaneously realizes EPG, ECG and IPG integrated service navigation through a unified navigation portal interface, which realizes basic The navigation of IPTV services also realizes the navigation of value-added services.

The technical solutions of the present invention will be described in further detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and embodiments.

Description of drawings

Fig. 1 is a structural block diagram of the first embodiment of the service navigation device of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a structural block diagram of the second embodiment of the service navigation device of the present invention.

Detailed ways

Fig. 1 is a structural block diagram of the first embodiment of the service navigation device of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1 , the business navigation device includes: a navigation client device 1 , a portal navigation device 2 and a business navigation device 3 .

Specifically, the service navigation device 3 can provide IPTV service and content metadata to the portal navigation device 2, the service and content metadata include Web-based service data, communication service data, and audio-visual service data, etc., such as program Information, including: channel number, channel name, title, film name, director, introduction, genre, keywords, etc.; business information, including: business name, business number, location description, program address first, etc.; business and program arrangements, including : time, date, category information, etc.; purchase information such as price, etc. The portal navigation device 2 can generate a unified navigation portal interface according to the IPTV service and content metadata by acquiring the IPTV service and content metadata, and the navigation portal interface can provide a unified entrance for users to access and use the IPTV service and content metadata , on this page, there are not only the entrance of the live broadcast service, but also the entrance of the on-demand service, etc., which can realize the business navigation mode of EPG, and can also realize the business navigation mode of IPG and ECG; the navigation client device 1 can provide the user The operation interface of the unified navigation portal interface for accessing IPTV business and content metadata. Users can obtain various navigation pages of IPTV through the unified navigation portal interface. Through this navigation page, users can obtain electronic program guides and on-demand programs for IPTV services catalog and download, two-way interactive services and value-added services with the service navigation device.

The navigation client device in the integrated service navigation system provides users with a unified operation interface for accessing IPTV services, which is convenient for users to access various IPTV live broadcast and on-demand services; the portal navigation device realizes integrated services by providing EPG, ECG and IPG Navigation, not only realizes the navigation of basic IPTV services, but also realizes the navigation of value-added services.

Fig. 2 is a structural block diagram of the second embodiment of the service navigation device of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2 , the business navigation device includes: a navigation client device 1 , a portal navigation device 2 and a business navigation device 3 .

Further, the integrated service navigation system also includes: a first interface device 4, which is used to provide a unified interactive interface for the portal navigation device 2 and the navigation client device 1; The navigation device 2 provides a unified interactive interface. Through the first interface device 4, the navigation client device 1 can transmit the IPTV service request sent by the user to the portal navigation device 2, and after the authentication is passed, the portal navigation device 2 can also feed back the IPTV service request through the first interface device 4 Response information; the portal navigation device 2 can forward the IPTV service request to the service navigation device 3 through the second interface device 5, and the service navigation device 3 can also push the IPTV service data to the portal navigation device 2 through the second interface device 5 and the sending is completed Authentication authentication IPTV service request response information.

The first interface device and the second interface device are both unified interface devices, so that the interactive relationship between the navigation client device and the portal navigation device, and between the portal navigation device and the service navigation device is clear, and the transmission of data information and the interface are facilitated. Maintenance of the device.

The navigation client device 1 may specifically be a browser, a navigation application program or a navigation middleware. The form of the navigation client device 1 is flexible and diverse, and it is convenient for users to access IPTV services in different ways. It should be noted that, for a navigation page using joint control, the navigation client device may also be a syndication engine.

Further, the integrated service navigation system further includes: a service management device 6 , a content operation device 7 , a media delivery device 8 , and an application server device 9 . The business management device 6 can conduct unified management of business and content metadata, as well as user and business authentication and authentication information; the content operation device 7 can provide the business navigation device 3 with content-type business data and value-added service elements in the business and content metadata. Data; the media delivery device 8 can provide the service navigation device 3 with the storage location information of the multimedia service data in the service and content metadata; the application server device 9 can provide the service navigation device 3 with an application server corresponding to the service and content metadata. The application server device 9 may include an application server based on video and audio services, an application server based on communication services and an application server based on Web services. The application server device 9 may represent different meanings and functional entities according to different applications. Video and audio-based services include IPTV live channels/programs, on-demand programs, time-shifted programs, etc.; communication-based services include videophones, IP phones, and the application server device 9 at this time refers to telephone switches and/or softswitch entities; Web-based services include message applications, information services, games, e-commerce, distance learning, etc. For Web applications, the application server device 9 is a Web server; Information servers, game servers and other related application servers and application systems.

Further, the service navigation device 3 includes: a metadata database module 31 , an authentication and authentication agent module 32 , a data synchronization module 33 and a channel module 34 . The metadata database module 31 can store business and content metadata, and the business and content metadata include program and channel information data, content service data, storage location information of multimedia service data, and value-added service metadata; authentication and authentication agent module 32 The legal identity of the user can be authenticated and authenticated according to the user's registration information, and the authentication and authentication process can also be performed on whether the service is authorized or not based on the order and use information of the service. If the authentication and authentication pass, the portal navigation device 2 will Navigation client device 1 feeds back authentication authentication success information, otherwise, feeds back authentication authentication failure information to navigation client device 1 through portal navigation device 2; When business management device 6, content operation device 7, media delivery device 8 have data update When upgrading existing data or adding new business and content metadata, the data synchronization module 33 can update the business and content metadata stored in the metadata database module 31; the channel module 34 can connect the business management device 6 The service and content metadata and user response information that do not require authentication and authentication in the content operation device 7 and media delivery device 8 are directly pushed to the portal navigation device 2, and the user request information that does not require authentication and authentication can also be sent to the business management device 6, content operation device 7 and media delivery device 8.

Specifically, the metadata database module 31 stores business and content metadata. The channels/programs provided by the content provider are usually changed. When the storage location of the channel list and program list or the program is changed, the service and content metadata stored in the metadata database module 31 should be updated in time. Therefore, the metadata database module 31 is also connected with the data synchronization module 33, and the data synchronization module 33 stores the metadata stored in the metadata database module 31 according to the update situation of the business and content metadata by the business management device 6, the content operation device 7, and the media delivery device 8. Regularly refresh the business and content metadata in order to be consistent with the latest or newly provided business and content metadata. The authentication agent module 32 processes the user's identity authentication information and service authentication information. When the user sends service request information, the authentication agent module 32 forwards the request to the service management device 6, and the service management device 6 can call the background operation support system to verify the legitimacy of the user's identity, and pass the verification result through the authentication. The authorization agent module 32 feeds back to the user. Similarly, the same is true for the authentication process of the legitimacy of service authorization. Assuming that users need to use IPTV services and content metadata, first authenticate the legality of user identities, so as to prevent illegal users from using IPTV services and content metadata; Whether you have the right to use the service and content metadata of the IPTV. When the user is in arrears or blacklisted, the service should be stopped. The channel module 34 can directly push the business and content metadata that do not require authentication and authentication of users and services to the portal navigation device 2 for users to use, which facilitates users to use IPTV services that do not require authentication and authentication.

Further, the portal navigation device 2 includes: a navigation portal module 21 and an information collection module 22 . The navigation portal module 21 can acquire business and content metadata, and generate a unified navigation portal interface; the information collection module 22 is used to perform statistical processing on the time, business and content metadata, and the number of visits of the user's access to the navigation portal interface, and The statistical results are sent to the service management device 6 . Wherein, the navigation portal module 21 may further include: a navigation page generation unit 211 , a user self-service unit 212 and a value-added service navigation page generation unit 213 . The navigation page generation unit 211 generates a navigation page of IPTV basic services and programs that can be used by the user according to the obtained business and content metadata; the value-added service navigation page generation unit 213 generates a value-added service that can be used by the user according to the obtained business and content metadata. Business navigation page; user self-service unit 212 can provide users with a self-service page that can be accessed by the navigation client device 1 on the business navigation device 3 .

Specifically, the portal navigation device 2 can acquire various IPTV business and content metadata, and complete the navigation portal and page generation function of business data according to the acquired business and content metadata. The generated page format is based on hypertext Link Mark-up Language/Extensible Mark-up Language (Hyper TextMark-up Language/eXtensible Mark-up Language, hereinafter referred to as: HTML/XML), and use Hyper Text Transport Protocol (Hyper Text Transportation Protocol, hereinafter referred to as: HTTP) to send them to Business Navigator Client 1.

The navigation portal module 21 is the display interface and unified entrance of various IPTV channels/programs and various IPTV services. The navigation page generation unit 211 first generates a number of page templates according to the service information ordered by the user and the service package mode set by the operator and the obtained IPTV service metadata, each page template corresponds to a service package, and saves these pages template. Then, generate specific navigation pages (based on HTML/XML) for the terminal user according to the order relationship of the user, and push these navigation pages to the user through the navigation client terminal device 1 . In the process of generating the navigation page, such as syndication controlling technology (syndication controlling) or syndication controller (syndication controller) can be used to adjust and manage the metadata from the metadata database, and the syndication engine can be used to present the navigation page to the user. The user self-service unit 212 can respond to the user's self-service request, and provide the user with a self-service page. The user can access the self-service page by navigating the client device 1 to perform self-service. These self-services can be search of program list and channel list, Changes to user passwords, self-ordering or cancellation of certain services, special content locked by parents, and fee inquiries for prepaid users, etc. The value-added service navigation page generating unit 213 can obtain IPTV value-added service metadata, and generate a unified value-added service navigation page, through which users can order, access and use value-added service services.

The information collection module 22 can perform statistical processing on the time when the user uses the IPTV service, the number of visits to the service, and other service purchase and use information, and sends the statistical result information to the service management device 6 through the service navigation device 3. In this embodiment , the channel module 34 in the business navigation device 3 may be used to transmit statistical result information. Through the unified management of the service management device 6, the promotion and use of IPTV services can be regulated and mastered, so as to facilitate the increase of IPTV services with long usage time, high frequency and wide subscription range.

It should be noted that, in a digital video broadcasting (Digital Video Broadcasting, hereinafter referred to as: DVB) system, a service discovery and selection technology is generally adopted. However, the integrated service navigation system in the present invention can not only realize this requirement, but also has an alternative mechanism to realize service discovery and selection technology. Specifically: service providers and content providers provide service lists and channel/program lists through content operation devices and media delivery devices, and these lists are received or discovered by application server devices, so its role is similar to service information in traditional broadcast services Providers and business finders.

To sum up, the portal navigation device in the integrated service navigation system can not only provide EPG to realize service navigation, but also provide IPG and ECG service navigation, and can also provide value-added service navigation portal for value-added services, so that users can use various IPTV The basic business and content metadata and value-added business metadata provide a unified entry, so it is convenient for users to access the navigation page. The navigation forms of the navigation client device of the IPTV are flexible and diverse, and can meet different demands of users.

Finally, it should be noted that the above embodiments are only used to illustrate the technical solutions of the present invention and not to limit them. Although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the preferred embodiments, those of ordinary skill in the art should understand that: it still Modifications or equivalent replacements can be made to the technical solutions of the present invention, and these modifications or equivalent replacements cannot make the modified technical solutions deviate from the spirit and scope of the technical solutions of the present invention.

Claims (6)

1. a synthetic service navigation system is characterized in that, comprising:

The navigation client terminal device, being used to provide can be for the operation interface of the unified navigation portal interface of the business of customer access network TV and content, the user can obtain by described unified navigation portal interface electronic program guides, the request program of network TV business catalogue and download, and professional guider carry out two-way interactive business and value-added service;

The door guider is used to obtain the business and the content metadata of Web TV, and generates unified navigation portal interface according to the business and the content metadata of described Web TV;

Described professional guider is used for providing to described door guider the business and the content metadata of Web TV.

2. synthetic service navigation system according to claim 1 is characterized in that, also comprises:

First interface device is used to described door guider and described navigation client terminal device that unified interactive interface is provided;

Second interface arrangement is used to described professional guider and described door guider that unified interactive interface is provided.

3. synthetic service navigation system according to claim 1 is characterized in that, also comprises:

The service management device is used for the authentication information of described business and content metadata and user and business is carried out unified management;

The content operation device is used for providing to described professional guider the content class service metadata and the value-added service metadata of described business and content metadata;

The media-delivery device is used for providing to described professional guider the stored position information of the multimedia service data of described business and content metadata;

The application service apparatus is used to described professional guider to provide and described business and content corresponding application server.

4. synthetic service navigation system according to claim 3 is characterized in that, described professional guider comprises:

The metadatabase module is used to store described business and content metadata;

The authentication proxy module, be used for authenticating and authentication according to user's log-on message legal identity to the user, according to the order of business and use information whether business is authorized etc. and to carry out authentication and handle, if authentication success, then feed back the authentication successful information to described navigation client terminal device by described door guider, otherwise, feed back the authentication failure information to described navigation client terminal device by described door guider;

Data simultaneous module is used for upgrading business and the content metadata that described metadatabase module is stored when there are Data Update in described service management device, content operation device and media-delivery device;

Channel module, be used for not needing the business of authentication and content metadata and user response information directly to be pushed to the door guider in service management device, content operation device and media-delivery device, send the user request information that does not need authentication to service management device, content operation device and media-delivery device.

5. synthetic service navigation system according to claim 3 is characterized in that, described door guider comprises:

Navigation door module is used to obtain described business and content metadata, and generates unified navigation portal interface;

The information gathering module is used for the time to the described navigation portal interface of user capture, and business and content metadata and access times are carried out statistical disposition, and statistics is sent to described service management device by described professional guider.

6. synthetic service navigation system according to claim 5 is characterized in that, described navigation door module comprises:

Navigation page is looked unfamiliar into the unit, is used for generating the Web TV basic service that can be used by the user and the navigation page of program according to the business obtained and content metadata;

The value-added service navigation page is looked unfamiliar into the unit, is used for generating the value-added service navigation page that can be used by the user according to the business obtained and content metadata;

The user is from service unit, be used to the user provide can by described navigation client terminal device access service guider from service page.

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