KR100723629B1 - Authorization method for using set-top box - Google Patents

Abstract

A method for authenticating entitlement to use a set-top box is provided to perform efficient entitlement authentication by using a smart card in order to use the set-top box. An ATR(Answer-To-Reset) value is acquired from a smart card when a set-top box is turned on(S44). When the ATR value is effective(S45), devices of the set-top box are initialized(S47). A digital broadcasting signal is received according to operations of the initialized devices. A channel change request signal is received while the digital broadcasting signal is received. An ATR value is acquired from the smart card according to the channel change request signal. When the ATR value is effective, a signal received through a current channel is decoded.

Description

{Authorization Method for Using Set-top Box}

1 is an explanatory view showing an embodiment of a digital satellite broadcast receiving apparatus.

2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a receiver restriction device that performs an authentication function for a broadcast reception right.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of an embodiment showing an authentication process regarding a broadcasting viewing right using a smart card.

4 is a flowchart of an embodiment of a method for initializing a set-top box using a smart card.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a reset process of a smart card. FIG.

6 is an explanatory diagram showing an embodiment of a configuration of an ATR value of a smart card;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an initialization process of a set-top box. FIG.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart of an embodiment showing an authentication process regarding a broadcasting viewing right using a smart card.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart of an embodiment for explaining a function authentication authority authentication method using a smart card. FIG.

Description of the Related Art

110: tuner unit 120: receiver control unit

130: video / audio restoration unit 200: display device

140:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to a digital broadcasting receiver, and more particularly, to a method of authenticating a user authority using a smart card when a broadcasting viewing and other additional functions using a digital broadcasting receiver are used.

A digital broadcast receiving apparatus is a signal receiving apparatus that processes a signal transmitted in a digital form and provides the processed signal to an output apparatus in the form of a multimedia signal. An example of a digital broadcast receiving apparatus is a set-top box. The set-top box extends predetermined processing, that is, compressed data, to the compressed data including the video / audio form broadcast contents received from the outside via the antenna, and decodes the encoded data, Converts the content into a standard television signal and provides it to the display device.

In the field of digital broadcasting, there is an increasing trend of providing new services and contents. In response to this tendency, the set-top box receiving the new services is also developing a form suitable for providing new services and contents.

As such, as the various contents are provided in numerous channels, the right to access the contents or the qualification may become a problem. For example, a set-top box having a function of authenticating a broadcast reception right has been provided in order to request an information fee for broadcasting contents to a user as a broadcasting company that provides pay-TV broadcasting using satellite communication has appeared.

On the other hand, various contents are also provided through the free broadcasting service. However, these various contents include not only healthy contents but also abusive contents such as sexually or violently moving images. Since these contents are transmitted through various digital broadcasting channels indefinitely, there is a problem that the youth and children are also exposed to such non-educational contents.

According to the related art, a set-top box provided with a lock function for each channel using a password has been provided as a means for preventing youths from being exposed to such non-educational contents. However, when using this method, there is a risk that the password is exposed, and the number of channels to be provided is very large. Therefore, all the channels are searched, and only the non-educational channel is selected to perform the channel locking function There was a problem that was difficult to make. Also, as the number of channels increases, there is no way to effectively limit the channel to transmit non-educational contents.

On the other hand, when performing various functions provided by the set-top box or changing the functions, authorization authentication may be required. However, according to the related art, there has been a problem in that it is impossible to restrict the non-educational contents or to perform authorization for performing various functions.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for enabling user rights authentication more efficiently in booting of a set-top box, channel change, and other additional services as well as viewing rights of a pay-TV broadcast. On the other hand, there is another purpose of preventing a teen or the like from being exposed to harmful programs or additional services through a set-top box.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of authenticating a set-top box usage right applied to a set-top box having a function of communicating with a smart card, Comprising the steps of: initializing devices of the settop box when the ATR value is valid; receiving a digital broadcast according to an operation of the initialized devices; Receiving a request signal; obtaining an ATR value from the smart card according to the channel change request; and decoding the signal received through the channel if the ATR value is valid.

The above-mentioned objects, features and advantages will become more apparent from the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of a digital satellite broadcast receiving apparatus. The set-top box will now be described as an example of a digital satellite broadcast receiving apparatus. The set top box 100 includes a tuner unit 110 for performing frequency modulation on a high frequency signal RF input from the outside through an antenna to generate an encrypted data stream having an intermediate frequency, A receiver limiter 120 for analyzing the output encrypted data stream to generate a MPEG signal for broadcasting contents in a predetermined video / audio form, a video / audio decoder (for decoding the broadcast content from the MPEG signal for broadcasting contents) 130 and a controller 140 for controlling the respective parts of the set-top box 100.

2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a receiver restriction device that performs an authentication function for a broadcast reception right. 2, the receiver restriction device (CAS) includes a key search unit 121 for searching for a key code capable of interpreting an encrypted data stream output from the tuner unit 110, And a descrambler 125 for descrambling the encrypted data stream using a key code input from the descrambler 121 to generate an MPEG signal for unencrypted broadcast content.

The key searching unit 121 generates a key code for interpreting the encrypted data stream output from the tuner unit 110. The smart card reader unit 123 and the smart card interface 124).

At this time, the smart card 122 has built-in information such as user rights and its own processor, and generates a key code for descrambling the encrypted data stream in accordance with the authentication signal input through the smart card interface unit 124 do.

The smart card reader 123 receives a clock signal and a control signal of the controller 140 through the smart card interface 124 and transmits a driving power to the smart card in conjunction with the clock signal and the control signal . The smart card reader unit 123 transmits a control signal such as a reset signal of the controller 140 and a data signal generated from the smart card 122 to the smart card interface unit 124, And transmits the key code generated by the smart card 122 to the descrambler 125. [

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an authentication process of a broadcasting viewing right using a smart card. As shown in FIG. 3, the tuner transmits The demultiplexer obtains an Entitlement Control Message (ECM) and an Entitlement Management Message (TS) packet extracted from the TS packet input from the tuner (S31) (EMM) information to the smart card (S32). Here, the EMM has information on the broadcasting viewing right, and the ECM is for obtaining a key capable of descrambling the scrambled signal.

The smart card acquires a control word that can descramble the received packet using the information input from the demultiplexer (S33). The descrambler descrambles the received scrambled packets according to the control word (S34), and inputs the descrambled packets to the decoder to perform decoding (S35).

4 is a flowchart showing an embodiment of a method for initializing a set-top box using a smart card. Generally, when the set top box is powered on (S41), the controller 140 checks whether a smart card is inserted in the receiver restriction device 120 (S42). If the smart card is not inserted, a message indicating that the smart card is not inserted is displayed (S43).

On the other hand, when the smart card is inserted, the smart card is reset to acquire the type of smart card and interface information for communication with the smart card. That is, the set-top box performs a reset on the smart card to obtain an answer-to-reset (ATR) value from the smart card (S44) and checks whether the obtained ATR value is appropriate (S45). At this time, the ATR value acquired from the smart card and the value stored in the set-top box are compared with each other and it can be judged as appropriate. If it is determined that the ATR value obtained from the smart card is not appropriate, the smart card having no usage right is displayed (S46). If the ATR value is appropriate, CPU, and the like are initialized (S47).

5 is a timing chart showing an exemplary resetting process of the smart card. As shown in FIG. 5, the smart card is reset when the hardware conditions of GRN, VCC, VPP, RST, and CLK are satisfied. In response to the reset, the ATR value is output through I / O within a predetermined time (typically 40000 clocks).

In FIG. 5, t1 is the time until the answer signal of the smart card is obtained, t2 is the interval in which the I / O value is ignored in XXX, and t3 is the interval in which the level of the RST is maintained. Here, the value XXX means an undefined value.

On the other hand, the output value (answer) of the IR (Internal Reset) and the output value (answer) of the AL (Asynchronous Reset) correspond to the ATR value. fi is the input clock frequency.

6 is an explanatory view showing an embodiment of a configuration of an ATR value of a smart card. The smart card outputs an answer signal as shown in FIG. 6 while performing a reset process. 6, the communication protocol between the smart card and the set-top box is determined according to the value of each byte, and the information of the smart card itself such as the manufacturer of the smart card or the hardware specification Can be obtained.

Table 1 shows a configuration example of ATR values for six smart cards.

Smart card No. ATR value One 0x3B, 0xFF, 0x00, 0x00, 0x40, 0x32, 0x54, 0x43, 0x32, 0x2D, 0x42, 0x4F, 0x4F, 0x54, 0x56, 0x32, 0x2E, 0x31, 0x01, 2 0x3B, 0xFF, 0x00, 0x00, 0x40, 0x32, 0x54, 0x43, 0x32, 0x2D, 0x42, 0x4F, 0x4F, 0x54, 0x56, 0x32, 0x2E, 0x36, 0x01, 0x02, 3 0x3B, 0xEC, 0x00, 0x00, 0x40, 0x32, 0x54, 0x49, 0x54, 0x41, 0x4E, 0x43, 0x41, 0x52, 0x44, 0x01, 0x02, 0x08} 4 0x3B, 0xEC, 0x00, 0x00, 0x40, 0x38, 0x4F, 0x50, 0x4F, 0x53, 0x43, 0x41, 0x52, 0x44, 0x00, 0x0A, 0x01, 5 {0x3B, 0x16, 0x18, 0x03, 0x11, 0x02, 0x01, 0x02, 0x02} 6 0x4B, 0x6B, 0x74, 0x20, 0x42, 0x4C, 0x31, 0x34, 0x90, 0x00}

7 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary embodiment of a boot process of a set-top box. Referring to FIG. 7, the set-top box is booted through the following process.

First, when power is applied (S71), a universal asynchronous receiver / transmitter (UART) is initialized (S72), and initialization is performed in the order of memory, decoder and tuner (S73 to S75) The OSD (On Screen Display), which is a driver used to display a message to the user separately from the CAS and video screen, is sequentially initialized (S76 to S77). Also, a software block (USIF) The software process (TASK) for managing the hardware devices is initialized (S78 to S79), thereby booting the set-top box is completed.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an authentication process regarding a broadcasting viewing right using a smart card. As shown in FIG. 8, when the set-top box receives a channel change request command (S81), it obtains program information on the channel to which the change command is input (S82). Then, it is determined whether the channel to be changed is a free channel or a pay channel according to the acquired channel information (S83).

If the channel to be changed is a free broadcast, it is checked whether or not the broadcast viewing right exists (S84). To this end, it is checked whether a smart card for broadcasting viewing authorization is inserted into the set-top box. The set-top box performs a reset on the smart card to obtain an answer-to-reset (ATR) value from the smart card, and checks whether the obtained ATR value is appropriate. At this time, the ATR value acquired from the smart card and the value stored in the set-top box are compared with each other and it can be judged as appropriate.

When the viewing right regarding the free broadcasting is authenticated as described above, the received broadcasting signal is decoded and displayed through a display device through a predetermined signal processing process. On the other hand, if the viewing right regarding the free broadcasting is not authenticated, a message indicating that a proper smart card is not inserted is displayed through the display device.

On the other hand, if the channel to be changed is a pay-TV, it is checked whether or not a smart card for authenticating a specific pay-TV broadcasting viewing right is inserted in the set-top box. At this time, the ECM and EMM information are transmitted to the smart card, and the control word is received from the smart card, so that it can be determined that the viewing right is related to the specific pay broadcast (S85). When the viewing right of the pay broadcast is authenticated, the received broadcasting signal is descrambled (S86), the decoding is performed on the received broadcasting signal, Display. On the other hand, if the viewing right regarding the pay-TV broadcast is not authenticated, a message is displayed through the display device informing that the appropriate smart card is not inserted.

Meanwhile, when the authentication of the pay-TV viewing right is completed, the broadcasting viewing right authentication is performed as described above (S84).

As described above, when the viewing right for the free channels and the pay channel is authenticated, a dedicated smart card for authenticating the free channel viewing authority is used, or a single smart card for performing the fee and free channel viewing authorization is used . In the case of a set-top box having a multi-slot, a slot for authenticating a viewing right for a free channel and a smart card for authenticating a viewing right for a pay channel may be separately used.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a function authentication authority authentication method using a smart card. As shown in FIG. 9, when the user inputs a command to perform a specific function from the set-top box, the set-top box inspects the smart card to perform authentication for the specific function.

As an example of a function requiring authentication, there is a channel scan function. In order to view a broadcast using a set-top box, broadcast information must be acquired from a received signal. Such a function is called a channel scan function. If the channel scan can not be performed, it is not possible to view the broadcast through the set-top box, nor to know what broadcast is currently being received. A smart card can be used to authenticate this channel scan function.

In order to perform the standby function of the set-top box, the authentication through the smart card can be performed. The set-top box can perform the standby (on / off) function by using the power button. In the standby-off mode, the set-top box does not actually shut down and the power consumption is minimized It is in standby mode. Therefore, when transitioning from the standby-off mode to the standby-on mode, the process of booting the set-top box is not performed. Accordingly, when a command for transitioning from the standby-off mode to the standby-on mode is input, it is possible to determine whether to execute the command according to the smart card authentication result.

On the other hand, it is also possible to authenticate the smart card by changing the password to restrict the provision of additional services such as the password change authorization for the set-top box operation, the password change for the channel lock function, and the game.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. The present invention is not limited to the drawings.

The present invention has an effect of efficiently performing various rights authentication using a smart card in the use of a set-top box. Accordingly, it is possible to prevent damage caused by a program or an unnecessary supplementary function that is not performed by a youth or the like.

Claims (4)

A set-top box usage right authentication method applied to a set-top box having a function of communicating with a smart card, Acquiring an ATR value from a smart card according to power-on of the set-top box; Initializing devices of the settop box when the ATR value is valid; Receiving digital broadcasting according to the operation of the initialized devices; Receiving a channel change request signal during reception of the digital broadcast; Obtaining an ATR value from the smart card according to the channel change request; And If the ATR value is valid, decoding the signal received on the channel Lt; / RTI > delete delete delete

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