KR101286325B1 - Apparatus for transmitting notice and control method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a known transmission device and a control method thereof. According to an embodiment of the present invention, a control method of a notification transmission device includes: registering notification contents and notification target information corresponding to a customer terminal to display the notification contents according to an operator's notification registration command; Generating a notification data packet including all registered notification contents and notification target information; And collectively transmitting the generated notification data packet to a customer terminal.

Description

Notification device and its control method {APPARATUS FOR TRANSMITTING NOTICE AND CONTROL METHOD THEREOF}

The present invention relates to an apparatus for transmitting a notification and a control method thereof, and more particularly, to an apparatus for transmitting a notification and a method for controlling the same, which communicate specific information to set-top box users by communicating with the set-top box.

In recent years, television broadcasting is changing from an analog wireless communication method to an internet-based digital communication method such as an IPTV (Internet Protocol Television).

Each household has a device for receiving broadcasts based on the Internet, that is, a set-top box, and a broadcast provider establishes a predetermined server to communicate with the set-top box provided in each household. Through the communication between the server and each set-top box, you can watch the broadcast at home.

As such, there are various advantages of the broadcast service based on the Internet communication, which cannot be achieved in the analog type broadcast, and the representative one among them is the transmission of notification contents for each target.

In other words, in the analog-based broadcasting, it is not easy to transmit a notification by selecting only a specific viewer, but in a broadcast based on the Internet, it is very easy to transmit a predetermined notification content only to a specific viewer.

However, referring to the conventional transmission process, when a server (broadcast service providing server) continuously transmits target target list information through a multicast channel, each set-top box receiving the data analyzes the received data. It is determined whether the terminal is a target of notification, and if the target of the notification is applicable, the server requests a notification content in a unicast method, and accordingly, the server forms a separate channel for each set-top box in a unicast method. I have sent the content.

This conventional notification content transmission method has a problem in that a load caused by processing of individual processes is greatly generated when the set-top box to which the notification target is requested from the server at one time, and multiple set-top boxes request the same content and the server There is a problem that unnecessary traffic is generated by responding.

In the conventional notification content transmission method, all the notification content transmitted to all subscribers, that is, all set-top boxes, is fine even if the multicast method is used. However, when the notification content is selectively transmitted only to a specific set-top box as described above, Problems will arise.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and its object is to use the multicast scheme used for the entire announcement even for some announcements targeting a specific customer (set-top box), while minimizing the network load. The present invention provides a transmission apparatus and a control method thereof.

In order to achieve the above object, a notification transmission device according to the present invention is composed of four parts: a database unit, a notification registration unit, a notification data packet generator, and a notification data packet transmitter. The database unit is a part for storing the notice content, and the notice registration part is a part for registering the notice content and the notification target information corresponding to the customer terminal to display the notice content according to the operator's notice registration command in the database part. The notification data packet generator is a part for generating a notification data packet including both the notification contents registered in the database unit and the notification target information, and the notification data packet sending unit generates the same notification data packet generated by the notification data packet generator for each customer terminal. This is the part to send in batches.

In addition, in order to achieve the above object, a control method of a notification transmission device according to the present invention comprises three steps. The first step is to register the notification content and the notification target information corresponding to the customer terminal to display such notification content according to the operator's notification registration command, and the second step includes both the previously registered notification content and notification target information. A step of generating a notification data packet, and the last step is a step of collectively transmitting the generated same notification data packet to the customer terminal.

As described above, according to the present invention, by using the multicast method used for the entire notification at the time of some notification targeting a specific customer (set-top box), the 1: 1 connection between the set-top box and the server by the unicast method is performed. This can alleviate network and server overloads seen in channel formation.

In addition, when selecting a target based on the set-top box address, the total size of the known data can be drastically reduced by not including the common address repeatedly through the grouping process.

Furthermore, in the past, only the address of each set-top box could be set as a target of targeting, but in the present invention, the target of targeting is flexible according to the type of the customer, such as the content file name played on the set-top box, or the type of product each customer subscribes to watch on IPTV. It is also possible to set this up, so beyond the simple announcements, there is an advantage that can be efficient events, promotions.

1 is a view showing an example of a connection configuration of a notification transmission device and a customer terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention,
2 is a functional block diagram of a notification transmission device of FIG.
3 and a control flowchart of a notification transmission device according to an embodiment of the present invention,
4 is a signal and control flow diagram between a notification transmission device and a customer terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

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

A schematic configuration of the entire system including the notice transmission device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. 1.

Here, the customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N perform a function of receiving a broadcast streaming signal through internet communication and outputting it to a connected display device. The customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N in the present embodiment may be configured in a form combined with a display device. The customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N may output terrestrial broadcasting in real time, or may receive and play other predetermined video content by a streaming method.

The announcement transmitting device 100 may be connected to each of the customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N in a 1: N manner, and at this time, the announcement transmitting device 100 and the customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N communicate with each other by a multicast method. can do.

The notice transmitting apparatus 100 transmits some notices or all notices to the customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N, and some notices refer to cases where the notice contents are different for each of the customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N. This is the case where the notification contents are the same for all the customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N. The announcement transmitting apparatus 100 may be integrated with a broadcast content providing server that transmits a broadcast in a streaming manner.

The notification transmitted by the notification transmission device 100 to the customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N may include predetermined advertisement contents as well as notices delivered from the viewpoint of a broadcast service provider.

Specific functional blocks of the notification transmission device 100 are as shown in FIG. 2.

As shown in the figure, the notification transmission apparatus 100 is configured to include a database unit 140, a notification registration unit 110, a notification data packet generation unit 120, a notification data packet transmission unit 130.

In this case, the database unit 140 may not only have information about each of the customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N (for example, a hardware address such as a network address and a Mac address of the customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N), but also a customer terminal ( Information about the owners of the personal computers 200_1 to 200_N and content information viewed through the customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N may be stored.

The notification registration unit 110 registers the notification contents and the notification target information corresponding to the set-top box to the customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N, that is, the set top box, according to the operator's notification registration command. To perform.

The operator is a person who operates the notification transmission device 100, and the operator may input and store the notification content for each customer or for all customers. At this time, there are various ways of setting a known object.

If you want to send notifications only to some customers, the operator can enter a list of conditions corresponding to the target.

For example, if the operator wants to transmit the notification contents only to the customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N having a specific MAC address, the operator may input the MAC addresses in a list form. Here, inputting in an enumerated manner does not only mean manually inputting a MAC address, but also includes inputting by selecting the customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N through a menu.

That is, the notification target information registered by the notification registration unit 110 in the database unit 140 according to an operator's input may correspond to a target information list including information of at least one customer terminal 200_1 to 200_N. In more detail, it may correspond to a target address list including addresses of at least one customer terminal 200_1 to 200_N.

In this case, the addresses of the customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N may correspond to network addresses, such as IP addresses, or may correspond to hardware addresses, such as Mac addresses, as described above.

Alternatively, the notification target information registered by the notification registration unit 110 in the database unit 140 may correspond to at least one of a reproduction content file name and subscriber information for use in identifying the notification target in the customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N. .

In this case, the use of the customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N for the purpose of checking the notification target means that the user terminal 200_1 to 200_N confirms whether the terminal is a target terminal to receive and process the notification data packet using the reproduction content file name or subscriber information stored in the notification data packet. do.

For example, when the customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N store the playback record of the broadcast, if any of the stored content file names match the playback content file name included in the notification data packet, the customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N themselves. It can be determined that this corresponds to the known target.

As another example, when information about a plan, etc. subscribed to a customer's IPTV reception is stored in the customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N, the customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N may store the customer plan information stored in the notification data packet. If it is matched with the plan information of the customer terminal (200_1 ~ 200_N) can determine that it corresponds to the announcement target.

The notification data packet generation unit 120 performs a function of generating a notification data packet including both the notification content registered in the database unit 140 and the notification target information.

Here, the notification data packet generator 120 may generate a notification data packet by detecting a predetermined transmission event signal. The transmission event signal may be a signal generated when the notification content is registered in the database unit 140. Alternatively, the signal may be generated as a preset time arrives. That is, the notification data packet generation unit 120 may generate the notification data packet as soon as the notification contents are registered in the database unit 140, but may also generate the notification data packet at predetermined time intervals.

In generating the notification data packet, the notification data packet generator 120 also performs a function of grouping the notification target into a predetermined group.

In other words, the notification data packet generation unit 120 groups the ones having a common address range for the addresses of each of the customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N included in the target address list, and excludes the common address and the common address for each group. It is possible to generate a known data packet including each distinct address set in a distinct field.

For example, if the target address list contains all MAC addresses in the range of 1111: 2222: 3300 ~ 1111: 2222: 33FF, the common MAC address among the MAC addresses is 1111: 2222: 33. The generation unit 120 allows the common address "1111: 2222: 33" to be included in the first address field of the notification data packet, and 00 to FF (ie, 00,01,02, ...) corresponding to the remaining addresses. FF) can be included in the second address field of the announce data packet in the form of a string.

The notification data packet transmitter 130 performs a function of collectively transmitting the notification data packet generated by the notification data packet generator 120 to each of the customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N.

Here, the batch transmission to each of the customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N means that the notification data packets are not transmitted to each of the customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N by one-to-one communication, but are transmitted at the same time as in the multicast method. do. That is, the same notification data packet is transmitted to all the customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N.

Hereinafter, referring to FIG. 3, when the notification target information registered in the database unit 140 corresponds to a target address list including addresses of at least one customer terminal 200_1 to 200_N, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. The control process of the notification transmission device 100 will be described.

According to the operator's notification registration command (step S1), the notification transmission device 100 stores a target address list corresponding to the notification contents and the list of MAC addresses of the customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N (step S3).

For example, the target address list may include 1111.2222.3300, 1111.2222.3311, 1111.2222.3321, 5555.6666.7700, 5555.6666.7731, and 5555.6666.7741 as a list expression.

When the preset time has been reached (step S5), the notification transmitting device 100 groups those having a common address range in the target address list (step S7).

That is, the notification transmission device 100 analyzes each MAC address stored in the target address list and groups those having a common part. Using the target address list of the above example, the notification transmission device 100 may use “1111.2222. 3300, 1111.2222.3311, 1111.2222.3321 "may be classified as a first group, and" 5555.6666.7700, 5555.6666.7731, 5555.6666.7741 "may be classified as a second group.

Subsequently, the notice transmission device 100 generates a notice data packet including a common address and a distinguished address collection for each group in fields distinguished from each other (step S9).

For example, the second address field includes "1111.2222.33" corresponding to a common address for the first group in the first address field and "00,11,21" corresponding to a distinct address set except for the common address. Generate the first notification data packet, and add "5555.6666.77" corresponding to the common address for the second group to the first address field, and "00,31,41" corresponding to the distinguished address collection excluding the common address. The second notification data packet included in the second address field may be generated.

A brief example of the target information structure among these known data packets is shown in FIG. 5. 5 briefly illustrates a form in which target information is included in a known data packet, and an example of a more detailed structure of a known data packet is illustrated in FIG. 6 (a).

Referring to FIG. 6 (a), the notification header section includes notification additional information (all / individual flag, notification period, color, location, etc.) except for the notification contents, and the notification data section includes the actual notification contents. .

The targeting header part may include target type, target group information, and target list count information, wherein the target type flag defines targeting in relation to a specific content name, a product name, and a region name (for example, targeting people who watched a specific content). Or enumerated forms that target targeting (e.g., targeting a specific group of MAC addresses) with respect to MAC addresses or subscriber numbers, and so on. In addition, the total length information of the group data immediately following the group data length flag may be stored.

In addition, data having representativeness of the target group may be stored in the group data flag, which may be stored according to the target type. For example, in the case of a single type, the name of the corresponding information such as a content name may be stored, and in the case of an enumerated type, part of the information (in the case of a MAC address, part of the corresponding MAC address) may be stored.

The total list count information of the targeting data unit is stored in the targeting list count flag, which is '0' in the case of a single type.

If there are 50 targets in total and the MAC address is between 1111: 2222: 3300 and 1111: 2222: 33FF, the "1111: 2222: 33" part of the MAC address is the same and the string is 12 bytes in total, so the contents of the targeting header part Becomes as shown in Fig. 6 (b).

Meanwhile, in the targeting DATA unit of FIG. 6 (a), when the target corresponds to an enumeration type (MAC address, subscriber's unique number, etc.), the remaining information of the individual target set-top box (that is, the individual information not previously included in the group DATA field) ), With a separator between each piece of information.

For example, if targeting is set based on the MAC address of a set-top box of 48 bits (8 bytes), grouping using 40 bits in front of the MAC address allows 256 targets to be announced at once (ie, using the remaining 8 bits). If you group by using 36bits in front of MAC address, you can target 4,096 units at a time. If you group by 32bits in front of MAC address, you can target 65,536 units at one time.

The notification transmitting apparatus 100 transmits the generated first notification data packet and the second notification data packet to the customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N (step S11). At this time, the first notification data packet and the second notification data packet may be sequentially transmitted to the customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N at predetermined time intervals.

If the group is assumed to be transmitted continuously for 2 minutes for the same group by 36bits, the same announcement can be transmitted to 30 groups in total, 122,880 units (4096 * 30) in one hour.

Both the first notification data packet and the second notification data packet transmitted by the notification transmission device 100 are transmitted to each of the customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N, and the first notification data packet and the second notification data packet are received. Each customer terminal 200_1 to 200_N uses the information stored in the first address field and the second address field included in each notification data packet, and if it is determined that the client terminal corresponds to the target terminal, the notification contents included in the notification data packet. Extract and display the function.

That is, each of the customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N first checks the group information of the first address field and then checks detailed terminal information of the second address field. The customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N irrelevant to the group information do not check the detailed terminal information and ignore the corresponding notice, and the customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N included in the group information check the detailed terminal information and attach themselves to the detailed terminal information. Only when this is the case, the notice will be processed.

As described above, when the common address parts are bundled and transmitted, there is an advantage that the transmission traffic can be drastically reduced than when all the target addresses are included.

Hereinafter, when the notification target information registered in the database unit 140 with reference to FIG. 4 corresponds to a reproduction content file name for use in identifying the notification target in the customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N, an embodiment of the present invention will be described. The following describes a signal flow and a control process between the notice transmitting apparatus 100 and the customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N.

First, according to the operator's notification registration command (step S31), the notification transmitting device 100 stores the notification content and the reproduced content file name (step S33).

The reproduction content file name is assumed to be "True.mpg".

When the preset time has been reached (step S35), the notification transmission device 100 generates a notification data packet including a notification content and a reproduction content file name (step S37), and transmits the notification data packet to the customer terminal in a multicast manner. 200_1 to 200_N) (step S39).

On the other hand, after receiving and playing back the content (step S41), the customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N can store the content playing record, in particular, can store the played content file name (step S43).

When the playback content file name is stored as described above, the customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N store the playback content file name included in the notification data packet received from the notification transmission device 100 corresponding to the content file name that has been previously played. S45) (i.e., when the content of "True.mpg" has been pre-played), the notification content contained in the notification data packet is output (step S47).

As such, even if not based on the addresses of the customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N, the customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N to output the notice content may be specified according to whether the predetermined content has been played. As described above, the method according to the present embodiment may be a more efficient means for advertising to a customer who viewed a specific content.

Furthermore, the determination of the target object is made by the customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N instead of the notification transmission device 100 (that is, the stored content is stored / managed by each of the customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N). It is possible to reduce the load on the item transmission apparatus 100 and the network.

When all the determinations are processed by the notification transmission device 100 as in the conventional method, the notification transmission device 100 extracts a list of the customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N that have played a specific content, and extracts the extracted customer terminals 200_1 to For example, after the network address is confirmed, a notification data packet including the verified network address should be generated. However, according to the configuration of the present embodiment, the network addresses of the customer terminals 200_1 to 200_N may be added to the notification data packet. Since there is no need to include it, the size of the known data packet is reduced and the processing load of the notice transmitting apparatus 100 can be substantially reduced.

On the other hand, the present invention is not limited to the above-described specific embodiments, but may be modified and modified in various ways without departing from the spirit of the present invention. It is to be understood that such variations and modifications are intended to be included in the scope of the appended claims.

100: notification transmission device 200_1 ~ 200_N: customer terminal
110: notification registration unit 120: notification data packet generation unit
130: notice data packet sending unit 140: database unit

Claims (8)

(a) registering a notification content and notification target information corresponding to a customer terminal to display the notification content according to an operator's notification registration command;
(b) generating a notification data packet including both pre-registered contents and notification target information;
(c) transmitting the generated identical announcement data packet to a plurality of customer terminals in a multicast manner,
And the notification target information is at least one of a network address and a hardware address for determining that a plurality of customer terminals of the customer terminals correspond to a notification target. The method of claim 1,
The notification target information registered in the step (a) is a control method of the notification transmission device, characterized in that corresponding to the target information list including the information of the at least one customer terminal. The method of claim 2,
The step (b)
(b1) grouping ones having a common address range with respect to addresses of respective client terminals included in the known target information;
and (b2) generating a well-known data packet for each group including a common address and a collection of distinct addresses except for the common address in fields distinguished from each other. delete A database unit;
A notification register for registering notification contents and notification target information corresponding to a customer terminal to display the notification contents according to an operator's notification registration command;
A notification data packet generator for generating a notification data packet including both a notification content and notification target information registered in the database unit;
A notification data packet transmitter for transmitting the same notification data packet generated by the notification data packet generator to a plurality of customer terminals in a multicast manner;
And the notification target information is at least one of a network address and a hardware address for determining that a plurality of client terminals of the customer terminals correspond to the notification target. The method of claim 5,
The notification target information registered by the notification registration unit in the database unit corresponds to a target information list including information of at least one customer terminal. The method according to claim 6,
The well-known data packet generation unit groups the ones having a common address range for the addresses of the respective customer terminals included in the well- targeted target information , and distinguishes each distinct collection of addresses except for the common address and the common address for each group. Announcement transmission apparatus, characterized in that for generating a notification data packet included in. delete

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