Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04H—BROADCAST COMMUNICATION
  • H04H60/00—Arrangements for broadcast applications with a direct linking to broadcast information or broadcast space-time; Broadcast-related systems
  • H04H60/25—Arrangements for updating broadcast information or broadcast-related information
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04H—BROADCAST COMMUNICATION
  • H04H20/00—Arrangements for broadcast or for distribution combined with broadcast
  • H04H20/16—Arrangements for broadcast or for distribution of identical information repeatedly
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
  • H04N21/20—Servers specifically adapted for the distribution of content, e.g. VOD servers; Operations thereof
  • H04N21/23—Processing of content or additional data; Elementary server operations; Server middleware
  • H04N21/235—Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
  • H04N21/20—Servers specifically adapted for the distribution of content, e.g. VOD servers; Operations thereof
  • H04N21/25—Management operations performed by the server for facilitating the content distribution or administrating data related to end-users or client devices, e.g. end-user or client device authentication, learning user preferences for recommending movies
  • H04N21/258—Client or end-user data management, e.g. managing client capabilities, user preferences or demographics, processing of multiple end-users preferences to derive collaborative data
  • H04N21/25808—Management of client data
  • H04N21/25841—Management of client data involving the geographical location of the client
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
  • H04N21/20—Servers specifically adapted for the distribution of content, e.g. VOD servers; Operations thereof
  • H04N21/25—Management operations performed by the server for facilitating the content distribution or administrating data related to end-users or client devices, e.g. end-user or client device authentication, learning user preferences for recommending movies
  • H04N21/262—Content or additional data distribution scheduling, e.g. sending additional data at off-peak times, updating software modules, calculating the carousel transmission frequency, delaying a video stream transmission, generating play-lists
  • H04N21/26283—Content or additional data distribution scheduling, e.g. sending additional data at off-peak times, updating software modules, calculating the carousel transmission frequency, delaying a video stream transmission, generating play-lists for associating distribution time parameters to content, e.g. to generate electronic program guide data
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
  • H04N21/40—Client devices specifically adapted for the reception of or interaction with content, e.g. set-top-box [STB]; Operations thereof
  • H04N21/41—Structure of client; Structure of client peripherals
  • H04N21/414—Specialised client platforms, e.g. receiver in car or embedded in a mobile appliance
  • H04N21/41407—Specialised client platforms, e.g. receiver in car or embedded in a mobile appliance embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
  • H04N21/40—Client devices specifically adapted for the reception of or interaction with content, e.g. set-top-box [STB]; Operations thereof
  • H04N21/43—Processing of content or additional data, e.g. demultiplexing additional data from a digital video stream; Elementary client operations, e.g. monitoring of home network or synchronising decoder's clock; Client middleware
  • H04N21/434—Disassembling of a multiplex stream, e.g. demultiplexing audio and video streams, extraction of additional data from a video stream; Remultiplexing of multiplex streams; Extraction or processing of SI; Disassembling of packetised elementary stream
  • H04N21/4348—Demultiplexing of additional data and video streams
  • H04N21/4349—Demultiplexing of additional data and video streams by extracting from data carousels, e.g. extraction of software modules from a DVB carousel
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
  • H04N21/40—Client devices specifically adapted for the reception of or interaction with content, e.g. set-top-box [STB]; Operations thereof
  • H04N21/43—Processing of content or additional data, e.g. demultiplexing additional data from a digital video stream; Elementary client operations, e.g. monitoring of home network or synchronising decoder's clock; Client middleware
  • H04N21/435—Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
  • H04N21/40—Client devices specifically adapted for the reception of or interaction with content, e.g. set-top-box [STB]; Operations thereof
  • H04N21/43—Processing of content or additional data, e.g. demultiplexing additional data from a digital video stream; Elementary client operations, e.g. monitoring of home network or synchronising decoder's clock; Client middleware
  • H04N21/443—OS processes, e.g. booting an STB, implementing a Java virtual machine in an STB or power management in an STB
  • H04N21/4432—Powering on the client, e.g. bootstrap loading using setup parameters being stored locally or received from the server
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
  • H04N21/60—Network structure or processes for video distribution between server and client or between remote clients; Control signalling between clients, server and network components; Transmission of management data between server and client, e.g. sending from server to client commands for recording incoming content stream; Communication details between server and client 
  • H04N21/63—Control signaling related to video distribution between client, server and network components; Network processes for video distribution between server and clients or between remote clients, e.g. transmitting basic layer and enhancement layers over different transmission paths, setting up a peer-to-peer communication via Internet between remote STB's; Communication protocols; Addressing
  • H04N21/64—Addressing
  • H04N21/6405—Multicasting
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
  • H04N21/80—Generation or processing of content or additional data by content creator independently of the distribution process; Content per se
  • H04N21/83—Generation or processing of protective or descriptive data associated with content; Content structuring
  • H04N21/84—Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors

Definitions

• the present invention relates to the field of radio broadcasting of a digital data stream according to a standard of DVB-H type (Digital Video Broadcast, Handheld) or similar.
• the stream is received by mobile devices, such as, for example, a mobile phone, PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), a portable digital television receiver, a laptop.
• mobile devices such as, for example, a mobile phone, PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), a portable digital television receiver, a laptop.
• Digital data includes a number of services such as for example pay television, audio content, games, software or information such as weather forecasts, stock market information or the like.
• the invention focuses on a method of processing information updates to a plurality of mobile equipment or receivers.
• bursts also called “burst" or "time slices”.
• Each burst is often a service that can be defined as one or more digital streams forming a subset of the global digital stream. This subset shares a common identifier allowing a receiver to reconstruct the content corresponding to the selected service.
• a known problem of DVB-H mobile equipment is the limited capacity of the batteries. Indeed, the mechanisms of demodulation and decoding of the broadband stream and high data rate (up to 10 Mbit / s per channel) cause a great energy consumption of the electronic circuits concerned.
• the solution adopted to reduce consumption is the transmission of the stream in bursts. Mobile receiving equipment is then only periodically receive bursts and in standby mode during interruptions. This particular mode of DVB-H thus makes it possible to reduce the consumption of mobile equipment by a factor of ten or more.
• An electronic service guide designated by ESG contains information about the services available describing the contents at the editorial level, their programming and their conditions of access (prices, subscriptions, commercial offers, etc.). It is usually broadcast jointly with network services.
• the ESG guide can also be downloaded from a remote server.
• service configuration information is relatively stable, but the content information and the broadcast schedule (date, time) are variable and can be modified at any time depending on the circumstances.
• the ESG guide data is cyclically broadcast in a stream, like any service. In general, they are completely renewed periodically. Between scheduled renewals, updates or full generations of these data can be made as a result of last-minute changes. The frequency as well as the amount of data that needs to be renewed is difficult to predict.
• the receipt and processing of ESG data by the receiver being and to be transparent to the user is done in the background when the user consumes a service or a program of his choice.
• receivers systematically or arbitrarily receive bursts of the ESG guide data stream and extract new or changed data from those stored in the receiver.
• the DVB-H tuner of the receiver must be activated to receive not only the bursts of the selected service but also the bursts containing the data of the ESG guide in order to have up-to-date information on the services.
• the systematic reception of these bursts is totally useless and the arbitrary reception inefficient. Synchronization of ESG data with effective dissemination services has become a major problem, either because of excessive energy consumption, or because of uncertainty about the consistency of the data stored in the receiver with the services available.
• the document WO2005045603 describes a terminal for receiving broadcast services.
• the terminal includes a controller configured to exploit the data forming an electronic ESG service guide and store service access information. This information is used to create a list of services available to the user.
• a user interface presents at least a portion of the list containing selectable individual services or groups of which each service is selectable.
• the ESG program guide is generated and updated periodically and may include information about the last modification (date, time, validity period, next update etc.).
• the device receives unexpected update data through an alert service to update the ESG guide.
• the user interface allows for permanent maintenance of the ESG guide or alternatively to prevent the receipt of an update of the ESG guide when it is unimportant at any given time in order to conserve battery power. This solution is only applicable if all the following conditions are satisfied, namely:
• An Alert service is available on the broadcast network
• the updated data must be very limited in volume and have no link with future updates. In other words, the stopping of the broadcasting of these modified data must not have an impact on future data because of the non-reception of this data by certain receivers of the network.
• WO2004 / 056096 discloses a method of transmitting an electronic ESG service guide by transmitting advertisements describing multimedia sessions such as video streams.
• the sessions are organized in a directory divided into two parts, namely a complete session directory and a session update directory.
• a second type of announcement describes the sessions in the update directory.
• a session may be considered in this document as a DVB-H service described by the ESG program electronic guide broadcast on a particular channel.
• the modified ESG guide data forming the differential between the current guide and the updated guide are broadcast on another channel.
• the receiver is then permanently enabled only on the ESG Guide Update Channel when the complete ESG Guide has been previously loaded. This updating method makes it possible to process a reduced data volume compared to the volume of the data of the complete ESG guide.
• the object of the present invention is to optimize the reception of update data and the processing of the modified information at the receiver in order to minimize its activation time and consequently save battery power.
• This object is achieved by a method of processing information updates by a mobile receiver connected to a mobile network cyclically broadcasting a set of main and / or secondary services in the form of bursts in a digital data stream, said network providing an electronic program guide in the form of bursts of an additional service broadcast periodically or in a server connected to the network for downloading to the receiver, said electronic program guide being intended to be stored in a memory of the receiver, the method is characterized in that it comprises the following steps:
• the role of the message is therefore limited to signaling a change or update of the stored ESG Guide data to a current state or version of the ESG Guide.
• the update data itself is not included in the message which only indicates to which address, channel, service, or server, etc., the receiver must connect to load the update data of the ESG guide. This connection is further dependent on the results of the comparison of the data of the state of the ESG guide stored in the receiver with the data of the signaling message. This conditional activation of the receiver saves battery power in a mobile configuration in DVB-H mode.
• it is necessary that the receiver is permanently activated on the channel broadcasting the complete session guide or preferably on that of updates or announcements updating the ESG guide. .
• the present invention also relates to a method of broadcasting information updates to a plurality of mobile receivers connected to a mobile network cyclically broadcasting a set of main and / or secondary services in the form of bursts in a stream.
• digital data network said network providing an electronic program guide in the form of bursts of an additional service broadcast periodically or in a server connected to the network for downloading to the receiver, said electronic program guide being intended to be stored in a memory of the receiver
• the method is characterized in that it comprises a step of insertion in the digital data stream, of at least one signaling message comprising data describing the state of the current electronic program guide, said data being able to activate a receiver to receive and / or tune download data from the guide in order to update the guide stored in the receiver in case of differences between the data of the state of the current guide of the signaling message and the state of the guide stored in the receiver.
• the solution is to report the status of the service information data, corresponding to the electronic program guide ESG, being broadcast by means of messages that can be received regardless of the service selected by the receiver.
• the message contained in each of said services is identical at a given moment.
• the signaling message can be inserted in two ways depending on the configuration of the network, namely:
• the receiver retrieves the signaling message from the stream and compares the state of the stored ESG guide with that of the current ESG guide indicated in the message. If there is a difference between these data, the receiver determines the type of data that has changed and enables the reception of the ESG guide data to update the stored ESG guide data. Otherwise, the receiver will not be activated to receive the stream carrying the ESG guide data.
• Broadcasting messages to enable reception of the ESG data stream only when the receiver detects a change results in decreased receiver power consumption. Indeed, the latter is proportional to the number of services received and therefore the number of bursts and their frequency over time.
• Methods for processing and distributing updates can also be applied to downloading the ESG guide, not to save energy but to avoid making unnecessary connections to the server. They are therefore advantageous on the one hand for the receiver whose communication costs are reduced and on the other hand for the server which will not be overloaded unnecessarily.
• the message signaling activates the download of ESG guide update data or the complete guide to update the ESG guide stored in the receiver.
• FIG. 1 illustrates a diagram of a DVB-H stream where services, including the ESG guide, are transmitted as bursts.
• the signaling messages are inserted in the services likely to be received by the receiver.
• FIG. 2 illustrates a diagram of a DVB-H stream where main services, including the ESG guide, are transmitted in the form of bursts.
• the signaling messages are transmitted in a salvo gathering secondary services of the alert type, dynamic zapping, etc. associated with the main services.
• the signaling message (M) is broadcast in a stream so that the activated receiver systematically receives it, such as for example a flow of rights administration messages or EMM service in the context of pay-TV.
• the signaling message may be inserted into a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) packet of a group of receivers identified by a specific existing multicast group address or a group determined by the broadcaster operator.
• UDP User Datagram Protocol
• an update of the ESG guide can be targeted to one or more sets of predetermined receivers according to their geographical position for example.
• the signaling messages are distinguished according to their information content defining a level of service information update (ESG guide), namely:
• the receiver will perform the update only on the information relating to this service (a branch of the logical structure relating to functional semantics).
• a signaling message contains either one of the types of information as described above, or more generally, a combination of these types of information in order to allow an update of the largest possible number of receiver configurations.
• the dissemination principle of the ESG guide and the update mechanism itself remain unchanged from those specified in the DVB-H standard.
• the services (1, 2, 3, 4) can be broadcast in a transport stream (FT) according to two modes:
• the services are grouped in the same set of bursts (1, 2, 3, 4) broadcast in a given period as shown in Figure 1.
• the ESG guide is a special service (bursts 4 in the figure 1) to which the receiver synchronizes with a main service (bursts 1 or 2 or 3) when an update of the ESG guide becomes necessary.
• the ESG service is adjacent, on the time axis (t), to the main service being received, as in the case of service 3. In this case, the reception time is lengthened by the duration of the service. the ESG salvo at each cycle of the main 3 service.
• the method according to the invention makes it possible, on the one hand, to avoid permanent synchronization with ESG service bursts and, on the other hand, to optimize the activation time of the ESG service. receiver. Indeed, the reception of the data of the ESG guide will only be effective if the results of the analysis of the signaling message (M) imply the updating of the data stored in the receiver.
• Secondary services (a, b) grouped in a burst (S) are broadcast in parallel mode and associated with a main service (1, 2, 3).
• the advantage of the parallel mode is to allow a burst organization including several services whose amount of information each remains low.
• the overlap (reception safety margin) is thus limited.
• these bursts (S) of secondary services (a, b) are systematically received at the same time as those of the main services (1, 2, 3).
• the signaling message (M) is broadcast once instead of being inserted in all main services (1, 2, 3).
• the receiver With the signaling (M) messages, the receiver will only handle the ESG stream or fragments that are broadcast in parallel if a complete or partial renewal of the stored ESG data is required.
• This mode combined with the method of the invention is particularly advantageous because the energy consumption of the receiver is minimal on the one hand thanks to the mode of parallel broadcasting of services and on the other hand thanks to an optimal processing of bursts.
• the period or frequency of broadcast of the signaling message (M) may be configurable according to the requirement on the accuracy of the information in the ESG guide and the frequency of updating the data. According to a configuration, a signaling message (M) is broadcast continuously at the same rate as the bursts (S) of the secondary services (a, b) of FIG. 2 or of the main services (1, 2, 3) of FIG. 1. It is therefore possible to update the ESG data at any time after the receiver is switched on, regardless of the main service (zapping) selected.
• the messages (M) are broadcast either for a predetermined period, or periodically in bursts or in a group of predetermined bursts, or at a periodic rate more moderate than the bursts of the service or services.
• the receiver can not be updated immediately after switching on or change of service, but it will have to wait for the reception of bursts containing a signaling message (M) capable of activating either the reception of a stream or an ESG service, download from a server.
• each burst of a broadcast service contains at most one message (M) signaling.
• This message (M) changes during an entire renewal of ESG data or during a partial or updated renewal to reflect as accurately as possible the ESG guide data disseminated. It should be noted that the signaling message (M) contains the most recent state of the modified data compared to the reference version of the ESG guide. A signaling message (M) is broadcast at the same time as the corresponding ESG data.
• the signaling message (M) includes data defining a degree of detail or granularity which will depend essentially on the number of elements modified. , their version and their level in the hierarchy.
• the update is performed, based on the data stored in the receiver and those being broadcast, at one or more levels such as that of an ESG data fragment, a structure grouping the ESG data. in the stream (container), a File Delivery over Unidirectional Transport (FLUTE) session, or the entire ESG guide.
• data is organized according to a hierarchical structure defined by the DVB standard as part of DVB-H. It should be remembered that the ESG supports the following levels:
• - Container a set of fragments considered as a file within a FLUTE session
• - Session FLUTE a partition of the ESG broadcast on a dedicated multicast port.
• This prioritization with appropriate update signaling minimizes the size of the data and updates the ESG guide in parts, from the 'fragment' level to the FLUTE Session level.
• the processing of ESG fragments is performed by providing fragment management information to identify fragments already received by the receiver, updated fragments and new fragments.
• the signaling message (M) will then contain identifiers of the containers and / or fragments that have changed according to the desired granularity or level of detail of the updating of the ESG guide.
• This method therefore enables receivers to always have up-to-date ESG data while avoiding the receipt, analysis and systematic processing of the ESG service stream. The energy necessary for the permanent reception of the ESG stream is thus saved in almost all.
• the method can also be applied to any type of non-television application data such as catalogs, news, announcements, software, etc. and this whatever their mode of diffusion (parallel or continuous).

Landscapes

• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Signal Processing (AREA)
• Multimedia (AREA)
• Databases & Information Systems (AREA)
• General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Software Systems (AREA)
• Computer Graphics (AREA)
• Two-Way Televisions, Distribution Of Moving Picture Or The Like (AREA)
• Circuits Of Receivers In General (AREA)

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Applications Claiming Priority (3)

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ID=37116143

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• 2006
  • 2006-05-15 EP EP06290802A patent/EP1858181A1/de not_active Withdrawn
• 2007
  • 2007-05-14 WO PCT/EP2007/054614 patent/WO2007131978A1/fr active Application Filing
  • 2007-05-14 EP EP07729066A patent/EP2022197A1/de not_active Ceased

Non-Patent Citations (2)

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