KR100890628B1 - Real-time si monitoring system and method for ip tv - Google Patents

Abstract

A real-time service information monitoring system for an internet protocol broadcast which easily selects a terminal end by using EPG information and a method thereof are provided to reduce the burden of a terminal by monitoring single document by changing SI information. A plurality of documents is transmitted to an SD&S server(210) through IP network. A channel much broadcast stream is transmitted to a media server(220) through the IP network. The terminal(230) selectively receives the specific document among documents which are transmitted in order to receive EPG information for the necessary channel. It connects with the special channel and the whole broadcast service information is searched.

Description

Real-Time SI Monitoring System And Method for IP TV}

The present invention relates to a real-time service information monitoring system and method for Internet protocol broadcasting (IP TV), and in particular, when providing a digital broadcasting (DTV) service over IP together with video / video information as EPG (Electronic Program Guide) The present invention relates to a real-time service information monitoring system and method that can notify a user efficiently when information is changed in real time.

The digital broadcasting service broadcasts a digital stream consisting of SD (Standard Definition) / HD (High Definition) class high quality video and additional services such as channels and EPGs according to the matching guidelines of the broadcasting company, and receives the data through a dedicated set-top box. It is provided in the form shown to. At present, commercial services are provided in Korea through satellite, terrestrial, cable, and broadband networks (IP based Internet).

Traditional digital broadcasting service provides service information such as AV, supplementary service, PSI (Program Specific Information) / Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) in real time through AV (Audio Video) content server, application server, and Service Information (SI) server. Is composed of one MPEG-2 TS (Moving Picture Experts Group, TS: TeleSync), encoded, and then converted into a modulation scheme suitable for a transmission medium. Here, modulation methods include terrestrial-VSB, satellite-Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK), cable-quadrant amplitude modulation (QAM), and broadband network-IP Multicast.

When the viewer turns on the data broadcasting receiver and selects a specific channel, the tuner (a network interface in the case of a broadband network) receives and demodulates a broadcast signal of a frequency band mapped to the channel to generate an MPEG-2 TS stream. The generated stream is separated into AV and supplementary services using PSI / PSIP information, AV information is decoded through software or digital broadcasting video decoder and audio decoder, and the supplementary information is analyzed through data broadcasting middleware and HTML (HyperText) Markup Language) or Java application, and then executed by the HTML browser or Java virtual machine, depending on the user's choice.

Since the basic concept is that broadcasting is a service flowing in one direction, the service provider adopts a method in which all information is included in one stream and transmitted by the service provider in a predetermined frequency band.

Unlike traditional broadcasting media, services are provided on an open IP network or a premium network that guarantees QoS (Quality of Services). Therefore, IP addresses are used instead of bidirectionality and frequency. In addition, applications and EPG information use traditional methods like video, but due to the characteristics of the IP network, bandwidth and video bandwidth are allocated to the video and audio, and other information is HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol). ) Or through a separate channel. The standardization of this method is DVB-IPI (Service Discovery and Selection) technology of Digital Video Broadcasting Service-Intrernet Protocol Infrastructure (DVB-IPI). In this technology, MPEG-2 TS streams consisting of real video and audio are transmitted to the assigned addresses, and channel information, EPG information, and operator information of the broadcast streams provided are XML (eXtensible Markup Language). Are collected and sent to the SD & S channel (address). Basically, it is multicasting over DVBTP (DVBSD & S Transport Protocol) signaling system over User Datagram Protocol (UDP), and information can be downloaded in a unicast manner via HTTP.

Based on schema defined by DVB-IPI, XML document is composed of SPD (Service Provider Description) and BD (Broadcast Description) document, and it is called Broadcasting Contents Guide (BCG) and separates EPG information into SD & S channel. Contains items for sending to. Each is an independent document, divided into UDP sizes, and is periodically sent out. The receiving end receives the SPD.XML document first, parses it, receives the EPG documents of BD.XML and BCG through the information, and collects the information. After showing through the EPG browser to the video and audio of the selected service accesses the incoming address to get the stream. Since the DVBSTP has version information in the header, it is sequentially assigned, and when the receiver monitors whether a version after the currently received DVBSTP comes in, it can be seen that a new version of information is being transmitted.

1 is a schematic diagram of a system for providing SD & S services of a related art.

Referring to FIG. 1, the SD & S service providing system according to the related art includes a DVB-S transmitter 110, a broadcast server (TV-Server) 120, an SD & S server 130, an IP network 140, and an IPTV terminal 150. It is composed of Here, the IP network 140 includes routers 141 and 142 and a gateway 143.

The service provider transmits the digital broadcast stream provided by the service provider to the assigned multicast addresses.

The DVB-S transmitter 110 transmits the DVB-S satellite broadcast stream to the broadcast server 120.

The broadcast server 120 receives the DVB-S satellite broadcast stream from the DVB-S transmitter 110 and multicasts it to an IP 231.1.2.12 address.

The SD & S server 130 transmits service provider information and channel information to the IPTV terminal 150 using HTTP or a multicast signaling system. In addition, the SD & S server 130 generates an SPD.XML document including the service provider information, and also collects the channel list and the information for each channel provided by the service provider to create a BD.XML document. Here, the SPD.XML document is sent to a fixed address assigned for SD & S. In the BD.XML document, each channel information (channel name, channel number, etc.) defines the multicast address where the digital broadcast stream corresponding to the channel is transmitted.

The IP network 140 connects the information transmitted / received between the broadcast server (TV-Server) 120, the SD & S server 130, and the IPTV terminal 150.

The IPTV terminal 150 accesses the SD & S server 130 with an HTTP or SD & S address and brings channel information to the user.

When the user selects the ARD channel which is the broadcast server 120, the IPTV terminal 150 accesses the broadcast server 120 at the IP 231.1.2.12 address and brings a broadcast stream.

SD & S 'version control system is very simple. The new version of the document is displayed only with the header of the DVBSTP, but if the number of outgoing documents is large, it puts a heavy burden on the receiving end. For example, in the case of SPD.XML or BD.XML, the number of documents is limited to one, so you can get the DVBSTP packets constituting each and look at the version, but in the case of documents for EPG information, it exists for each channel. desirable. The reason is that it can be a whole channel. The weekly EPG information can be divided into reasonable sizes for each channel, but if it comes in a single EPG.XML, the size of the document will be considerable. When the scheduling information of some of the channels is changed, it takes a lot of time to generate and parse the entire document again, which is burdensome for users and terminals. Therefore, it is necessary to divide the EPG information for each channel and transmit it as an independent document so that only the changed channel information can be easily selected and received at the receiving end.

In addition, the related technology XML-based SD & S transmits the document to the assigned address by type and can detect the change by versioning the header of the DVBSTP. Can not give.

The present invention is to solve the above problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a user efficiently when the EPG information is changed in real time with the video / video information as additional information when providing a digital broadcasting service over IP To provide a real-time service information monitoring system and method.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a real-time service information monitoring system and method for easily selecting and receiving only EPG information required by a terminal.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a real-time service information monitoring system and method that can reduce the burden on the terminal by monitoring only a single document for changing the SI information by making it easy to receive only the EPG information required by the terminal. There is.

Real-time service information monitoring system of the present invention for achieving the above object, SD & S server for transmitting a plurality of documents through the IP network; A media server for transmitting a broadcast stream for each channel through the IP network; And selectively receiving a specific document among transmitted documents in order to receive EPG information for a required channel, accessing a specific channel to retrieve all broadcast service information, and accessing to a channel where a desired channel is transmitted and transmitting the broadcast stream. Terminal for receiving; characterized in that it comprises a.

The real-time service information monitoring method of the present invention comprises the steps of: transmitting a plurality of documents and a broadcast stream for each channel; Receiving the sent documents and storing information on the received documents; Receiving and playing the transmitted broadcast stream; Transmitting the changed document when the information of the specific document is changed and transmitting the reflected document by reflecting the change of the document; And receiving and analyzing the changed document and reflecting the analyzed document changes in the stored information.

The present invention having the configuration as described above can efficiently notify the user when the EPG information is changed in real time together with the image / video information as additional information when providing a digital broadcasting service over IP. In addition, the present invention can be easily selected and received only the EPG information required by the terminal, to monitor only a single document to change the SI information, thereby reducing the burden on the terminal.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described in detail a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

The present invention includes the scheduling information for each channel by accommodating SPD.XML and BD.XML defined by SD & S of the related art as it is and defining SI.XML for EPG information only. In the present invention, the SI.XML is generated by generating the number of channels included in the BD.XML and displaying the channel information in the header. The present invention further defines Monitor.XML for monitoring the change of each document to include changes of SPD.XML, BD.XML, and SI.XML for each channel. After generating Monitor.XML, the terminal analyzes the registered change and selects and receives only the changed document. This process reduces the burden on the terminal by letting a single thread or process find out the change of the entire document without having to monitor the change of information by launching each thread or process as many as the number of documents.

2 is a block diagram of a real-time service information monitoring system for internet protocol broadcasting according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2, the real-time service information monitoring system according to the present invention includes an SD & S server 210, a media server 220, an IPTV terminal 230, and an IP network 240.

The SD & S server 210 transmits the service provider information and the EPG information to the IPTV terminal 230 through the IP network 240 in the HTTP and multicast signaling system. The SD & S server 210 includes an SD & S master module 211 and first to N-th SI transmission modules 212-1 to 212-N (where N is a natural number of two or more).

The SD & S master module 211 recognizes the SI change from the first to Nth SI sending modules 212-1 to 212-N and reflects the change in Monitor.XML to the IPTV terminal 230 through the IP network 240. Send it out. The SD & S master module 211 also transmits service provider information SPD and channel information BD. In addition, the SD & S master module 211 collects SD & S for each channel from the first to Nth SI transmission modules 212-1 to 212-N to generate an entire document and then access the IPTV terminal 230 via HTTP. Send the entire document.

The SD & S server 210 transmits scheduling information for each channel as an independent document through the first to Nth SI transmission modules 212-1 to 212-N. For example, the first SI sending module 212-1 sends the scheduling information for channel 1 to the SI.XML document for channel 1, and the second SI sending module 212-2 sends the SI.XML document for channel 2. The scheduling information for channel 2 is transmitted, and the N-th SI sending module 212-N transmits scheduling information for channel N as an SI.XML document for channel N.

The media server 220 includes first to Nth broadcast transmission modules 221-1 to 221-N, and the first to Nth broadcast transmission modules 221-1 to 221-N for each channel. Multicast video and audio streams to assigned addresses. For example, the first broadcast transmission module 221-1 multicasts the video and audio stream for channel 1 to the assigned address, and the second broadcast transmission module 221-2 allocates the video and audio stream for channel 2. The N-th broadcast transmission module 221 -N multicasts the video and audio stream for channel N to the assigned address.

The IPTV terminal 230 accesses the SD & S channel through the IP network 240 or accesses the HTTP to retrieve the entire service information, accesses the desired channel to the address where the desired channel is transmitted, and receives and broadcasts the broadcast stream to the user.

3 is a diagram illustrating a DVBSTP structure used in a real-time service information monitoring system according to the present invention.

DVBSTP shown in FIG. 3 is a protocol for transmitting SD & S documents from the SD & S server 210 to the IPTV network 240 using UDP packets.

Such DVBSTP is Ver, Rerv, Enc, C, total segment size, Payload ID, Segment ID, Segment version, Section number, Last section number, Compr, P, Priv hdr len, (Conditional) Service Provider ID, (Optional) It consists of fields such as Private Header Data, Payload, (Optional) CRC (continued), and (Optional) CRC.

The IPTV terminal 230 may select and receive the required DVBSTP by comparing each field of the header of the DVBSTP packet sent from the SD & S server 210.

IPTV terminal 230 may monitor the change of each document with the Ver field of the received DVBSTP packet.

Document types are classified through Payload ID. In the present invention, documents for SI and monitor are additionally defined and used in addition to SD & S documents of related technologies.

Most SD & S documents are composed of one section, and if they contain EPG information or plot information such as SI, they can be composed of several sections because they contain several days of information. The Section Number and Last Section Number tell you the total number of sections that make up each document.

The SD & S server 210 distinguishes and transmits SI.XML documents for each channel including the channel number in the Private Header Data in case of the SI document.

The IPTV terminal 230 selectively receives and analyzes the SI.XML document and stores it in a database for EPG information for a necessary channel.

4 is a diagram illustrating a payload ID structure in a header of a DVBSTP used in a real-time service information monitoring system according to the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 4, in the related art, SD & S classifies documents by using Payload ID in the header of DVBSTP, but Payload ID is set from 0x00 to 0x05. On the other hand, in the present invention, Payload IDs of 0x06 and 0x07 are additionally used to distinguish the SI document from the Monitor document.

Payload ID 0x06 is used to distinguish a document including service information such as schedule information for each channel and a plot or a rating of a program. That is, the SD & S server 210 periodically transmits SI documents for each channel, and the IPTV terminal 230 collects these documents to construct information for the EPG.

Payload ID 0x07 is used to classify documents for monitoring each document. That is, in order to detect the change of documents sent by the SD & S server 210, the sending server describes the change of each document and sends it, and the IPTV terminal 230 periodically receives the document and checks the version to recognize whether there is a change. do.

5 is a diagram showing the structure of an SI.XML document used in the real-time service information monitoring system according to the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 5, according to the SD & S document standard, the top tag of the SI.XML document is defined to be a Service Discovery tag, and the SI Discovery tag and the Service Information tag are defined in the lower tags of the Service Discovery tag, which is the top tag. Here, the SI Discovery tag follows the Service Discovery tag and the Service Information tag follows the SI Discovery tag.

SI Discovery tag is a standard tag that contains EPG information for each channel.

The service information tag is a tag defining attributes representing the channel. The service information tag includes a service ID tag assigned as an identifier, a service name tag representing a service, and an event list tag including scheduling information.

Event List tags are followed by Event ^* tags.

Event ^* tags represent broadcast programs broadcasted on a channel according to a schedule, and include a start time tag, a duration tag, a title tag, and a brief introduction tag. Here, since several Event tags exist over time, several Event tags are defined in the SI.XML document.

6 is a diagram showing the structure of a Monitor.XML document used in the real-time service information monitoring system according to the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 6, the top tag of the Monitor.XML document is defined to be a Service Discovery tag, and the Monitor Discovery tag and the Modified Information tag are defined in lower tags of the Service Discovery tag, which is the top tag. Here, the Monitor Discovery tag follows the Service Discovery tag, and the Modified Information tag follows the Monitor Discovery tag.

The Monitor Discovery tag means that the received document is Monitor Discovery.

The Modified Information tag is used to include information when each document changes in the sending party.

In the Modified Information tag, the ID of the document used as the ID of the changed document is used. In addition, the version of the document is displayed in the Modified Information tag so that it can be compared with the version of each document received from the IPTV terminal 230. In addition, when the SI.XML document is changed, Payload ID is not distinguished. Therefore, the corresponding channel number is included in the modified information tag to solve this problem. In other words, the Modified Information tag includes a Payload ID tag, a Version tag, and a Channel Number tag.

Looking at the configuration and operation characteristics of the real-time service information monitoring system according to the present invention as described above.

First, since the document for SI and Monitor is based on DVBSTP, it has version information in the header. The IPTV terminal 230 can know the total number of channels through the BD.XML at boot time and can find out the address where the SI.XML document for each channel comes in. First of all, the total number of channels can be known, and all the SI.XML for each channel are received and combined with the BD.XML information to generate and retain the entire EPG information. When the user runs the EPG browser to select the desired service and the stream of the selected service changes EPG information (generally terrestrial wave, EPG information is newly transmitted every three hours, and due to the cancellation of sports events during rainy weather, etc.). In case of sudden change of EPG information, SD & S server 210 regenerates SI.XML of the channel and checks the change.

When reflected in the Monitor.XML and sent, the IPTV terminal 230 periodically receives the Monitor.XML and checks the version. When the version of Monitor.XML is changed, it analyzes the contents and selects the changed SI.XML and selects the new EPG information (generally managed in simple database form) by using the changed information.

Since the number of channels is generally about 100 or so, there is always a possibility of changing the schedule depending on the circumstances of each channel. It's inefficient to run individual processes to monitor them all, so it's effective to monitor only Monitor.XML. Each document's delivery cycle is required, especially since Monitor.XML is small enough to fit into the UPD (64KB) size, so sending it often doesn't waste a lot of bandwidth. Therefore, it is possible to define and send arbitrarily within a few seconds. Currently, terrestrial, satellite, and cable have their own table transmission cycles, but there is no such standard on the IPTV side, and SPD.XML, BD.XML, SI.XML, and Monitor.XML documents according to their importance. You can define and send a cycle for.

7 is a flowchart illustrating a method for monitoring real-time service information for internet protocol broadcasting according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 7, the SD & S server 210 transmits the SPD.XML document, the BD.XML document, and the SI.XML document for each channel through the IP network 240 (S101), and the media server 220 transmits the channel. When the broadcast stream is transmitted through the IP network 240 (S102), the IPTV terminal 230 accesses the SD & S channel (S103), and the SPD.XML document, BD.XML document, and Receives an SI.XML document and stores information about the documents (S104). The IPTV terminal 230 examines the Monitor.XML document and recognizes the changed matters of the received SPD.XML document, the BD.XML document, and the SI.XML document (S105).

At this time, when the user selects a channel in the browser, the IPTV terminal 230 accesses the broadcast stream transmission address through the IP network 240 (S106), and receives and plays the transmitted broadcast stream (S107).

The SD & S server 210 sends out the changed SPD.XML document, BD.XML document, and SI.XML document through the IP network 240 when the information of the specific SI.XML document is changed, and at the same time the The transmission reflects the changes (S108).

When the changes are transmitted, the IPTV terminal 230 receives and analyzes the Monitor.XML document reflecting the changes of the documents through the IP network 240 (S109), receives the analyzed documents, and analyzes the changed items. Reflect them in the stored information (S110).

Although the technical spirit of the present invention has been described in detail according to the above-described preferred embodiment, it should be noted that the above-described embodiment is for the purpose of description and not of limitation. In addition, those skilled in the art will understand that various embodiments are possible within the scope of the technical idea of the present invention.

1 is a schematic diagram of a system for providing SD & S services of a related art.

2 is a block diagram of a real-time service information monitoring system for Internet protocol broadcasting according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a diagram illustrating a DVBSTP structure used in a real-time service information monitoring system according to the present invention.

4 is a diagram illustrating a payload ID structure in a header of a DVBSTP used in a real-time service information monitoring system according to the present invention.

5 is a diagram showing the structure of an SI.XML document used in the real-time service information monitoring system according to the present invention.

6 is a diagram showing the structure of a Monitor.XML document used in a real-time service information monitoring system according to the present invention.

7 is a flowchart illustrating a method for monitoring real-time service information for internet protocol broadcasting according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Claims (10)

An SD & S server for sending a plurality of documents through an IP network; A media server for transmitting a broadcast stream for each channel through the IP network; And In order to receive EPG information for the required channel, selectively receive a specific document among the transmitted documents, access the specific channel to retrieve the entire broadcast service information, and access the address where the desired channel is transmitted to the broadcast stream. Real time service information monitoring system comprising a. The method of claim 1, wherein the SD & S server, SD & S master module for recognizing SI change and reflecting it in Monitor.XML document, sending service provider information and channel information, and generating and sending the entire document by collecting SD & S for each channel; And Real-time service information monitoring system comprising a; a plurality of transmission modules for transmitting the scheduling information for each channel in a separate document. The method of claim 1, wherein the media server, Real-time service information monitoring system comprising a; a plurality of broadcast transmission modules for multicasting the video, audio stream for each channel to the assigned address. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the plurality of documents sent by the SD & S server is an SI.XML document, and the SI.XML document is: Service Discovery tag at the top; An SI Discovery tag following the Service Discovery tag and including EPG information for each channel; A Service Information tag that follows the SI Discovery tag and defines attributes representing a channel; A Service ID tag included in the Service Information tag and assigned as an identifier; A name included in the service information tag and representing a service; An Event List tag included in the Service Information tag and including scheduling information; Event List comes to the tag, the tag Event ^* representing the program that aired on the channel according to schedule; A start time tag included in the Event ^* tag; A duration tag included in the Event ^* tag; A Title tag included in the Event ^* tag; And Real-time service information monitoring system comprising a ;; brief introduction information (Text) tag included in the Event ^* tag. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the plurality of documents sent by the SD & S server is a Monitor.XML document, the Monitor.XML document, Service Discovery tag at the top; A Monitor Discovery tag that follows the Service Discovery tag and means that the received document is Monitor Discovery; A Modified Information tag that follows the Monitor Discovery tag and is used to include information when each document is changed at a transmitting end; A Payload ID tag included in the Modified Information tag and using a Payload ID value of the document as an ID representing a modified document; A Version tag included in the Modified Information tag and indicating a version of the document; And And a Channel Number tag included in the Modified Information tag. The method of claim 1, The SD & S server uses 0x00 to 0x05 of Payload IDs in the header of DVBSTP used to transmit SD & S documents, and uses 0x06 and 0x07 of the Payload IDs to distinguish SI documents from Monitor documents. Real time service information monitoring system. Transmitting a plurality of documents and a broadcast stream for each channel; Receiving the sent documents and storing information on the received documents; Receiving and playing the transmitted broadcast stream; Transmitting the changed document when the information of the specific document is changed and transmitting the reflected document by reflecting the change of the document; And And receiving and analyzing the changed document and reflecting the analyzed document change in the stored information. The method of claim 7, wherein storing the information, Receiving the sent SPD.XML document, the BD.XML document, and the SI.XML document and storing information about the received documents; And Inspecting the Monitor.XML document and recognizing changes of the received SPD.XML document, BD.XML document, and SI.XML document; and real-time service information monitoring method. The method of claim 7, wherein the receiving and playing the broadcast stream, If the user selects a channel in a browser, accessing a broadcast stream transmission address; real-time service information monitoring method comprising a. The method of claim 7, wherein the reflected information reflecting step, And receiving and analyzing the Monitor.XML document reflecting the changes of the documents.

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