KR102309786B1 - Set-Top Box for Measuring Program Outage and Method for Operating Same - Google Patents

Abstract

Disclosed are an IPTV set-top box for measuring a program outage and an operating method thereof.
According to the present embodiment, a main object is to provide a set-top box capable of measuring a program outage without performance degradation in an IPTV system without using a separate measuring instrument and an operating method thereof.

Description

IPTV set-top box for measuring program outage and its operating method {Set-Top Box for Measuring Program Outage and Method for Operating Same}

The present embodiment relates to a set-top box for measuring a program outage in an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) system and an operating method thereof.

The content described in this section merely provides background information for the present embodiment and does not constitute the prior art.

The IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) system provides complex services such as real-time broadcasting, VOD service, and e-commerce content through a user's display device based on the Internet network.

In the IPTV system, it is an important technical task to determine to what level the IP network satisfies the QoS (Quality of Service) and QoE (Quality of Experience) of users who are accustomed to watching HD and UHD quality TV through the existing broadcast network. Therefore, quality control of the video provided by the IPTV system is very important.

One of the quality indicators that can be used to measure the image quality may be a program outage. The program outage is a situation in which there is no broadcast signal, and occurs because a broadcast stream is not temporarily transmitted to a set-top box (STB). When a program outage occurs, a black screen appears on the screen of the display device connected to the set-top box, or an image stopped in the previous screen appears.

It is important to measure the program outage because it has a greater effect on the user's quality of experience (QoE) than the screen tearing or mosaic phenomenon caused by the loss of the transport stream (TS).

As a method of measuring the program outage, there is a method of using a measuring instrument. In this case, it is expensive because measuring instruments must be installed separately for all subscribers. Therefore, in order to efficiently monitor the video quality of all subscribers, it is necessary to measure the program outage directly in the IPTV set-top box.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention have a main purpose to provide a set-top box capable of measuring a program outage without performance degradation in an IPTV system without using a separate measuring instrument and an operating method thereof.

According to the embodiment of the present invention, as a channel selection command is input by the user, it is checked whether a channel join message (IGMP Join) is transmitted, and a transport stream (TS) is received from the content providing device according to the success of channel joining. When it is confirmed that the transport stream has been received by the channel participation confirmation unit that checks and the channel participation confirmation unit, the TS measurement unit that checks the size of the transport stream to check whether it is less than or equal to a preset threshold, and the TS measurement unit sets the size of the transport stream to a preset threshold When it is confirmed as follows, the channel withdrawal confirmation unit that checks whether the reception of the transport stream is normally terminated, and the channel withdrawal confirmation unit confirms that the reception of the transport stream is abnormally terminated. Provided is an IPTV set-top box including a program outage measuring unit for measuring program outage by monitoring channel participation success.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, in an operating method for an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) set-top box to measure a program outage, when a channel selection command is input by a user, the channel It is confirmed that the transport stream has been received in the channel participation confirmation process and the channel participation confirmation process to check whether the participation message (IGMP Join) has been transmitted, and whether a Transport Stream (TS) is received from the content providing device according to the success of the channel participation. In the TS measurement process of measuring the size of the transport stream and checking whether it is less than a preset threshold, if the size of the transport stream is confirmed to be less than or equal to the preset threshold in the TS measurement process, it is checked whether the reception of the transport stream is normally terminated or not. When it is confirmed that the reception of the transport stream is abnormally terminated during the process and the channel withdrawal confirmation process, the program out measures the program outage by monitoring the success of channel participation according to the retransmission of the channel join message (IGMP Join) It provides a method of operating an IPTV set-top box including a tee measurement process.

As described above, according to the embodiments of the present invention, there is an effect of providing a set-top box capable of measuring a program outage without performance degradation in an IPTV system without using a separate measuring instrument and an operating method thereof.

According to the embodiment of the present invention, since the loss of program outage can be directly measured in the set-top box without a measuring device for measuring the quality of IPTV service as a separate device other than the set-top box, the cost for installing the instrument has the effect of reducing

According to an embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to prevent unnecessary service subscriber's home visit and set-top box replacement by accurately measuring the occurrence of program outage caused by a network problem.

1 is a block diagram showing an IPTV system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a flowchart illustrating a normal IGMP operation of an IPTV system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
3 is a flowchart illustrating an abnormal IGMP operation of an IPTV system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
4 is a block diagram of an IPTV set-top box according to an embodiment of the present invention.
5 is a flowchart illustrating a method of operating an IPTV set-top box according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, some embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to exemplary drawings.

'… Terms such as 'unit' and 'module' mean a unit that processes at least one function or operation, which may be implemented as hardware or software or a combination of hardware and software.

1 is a block diagram showing an IPTV system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, an IPTV system will be briefly described with reference to FIG. 1 .

The Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) system includes a content providing device 100 , an IPTV set-top box 130 , and a display device 140 . In the Internet network (IP network), the broadcast stream provided from the content providing device 100 is provided from the content providing device 100 via the router device 120 and the router device 120 that delivers the broadcast stream to the gateway device (not shown). Other communication devices including a gateway device (not shown) for transmitting the broadcast stream to the IPTV set-top box 130 are included.

The content providing apparatus 100 provides a real-time video service based on an IP network. Specifically, the content providing apparatus 100 transmits the requested broadcast stream according to the broadcast stream request for each broadcast channel received from the router device 120 interlocked through the IP network in a unicast method or a multicast method. provided as According to an embodiment, the form of a broadcast stream may correspond to a transport stream (TS) according to MPEG-2. Hereinafter, a case in which a multicast method is used will be representatively described in order to clarify the description of the present embodiment.

The content providing apparatus 100 compresses (encodes) the uncompressed broadcast image, converts it into a transport stream packet, and transmits it to the IPTV set-top box 130 through the IP network. The content providing apparatus 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention may encode a video image using a codec based on the MPEG-2 standard (ISO/IEC 13818) and H.246.

The IPTV set-top box 130 demultiplexes and decodes the received transport stream packet and outputs a broadcast image to the display device 140 .

The IPTV set-top box 130 according to an embodiment of the present invention receives a transport stream of a broadcast channel selected by a user using a multicast method and Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP). A detailed description thereof will be described later with reference to other drawings.

When the IPTV set-top box 130 fails to receive the transport stream from the selected broadcasting channel due to an error on the network, a program outage occurs. Here, the program outage refers to a phenomenon that appears due to the absence of a broadcast signal, such as a black image appearing on the screen of the display device or the image stopping on the previous screen.

Program outage is distinguished from the case where part of the transport stream is lost. When a part of the transport stream is lost, a screen break or mosaic phenomenon occurs, but the program output has a greater effect on QoE because the video is not played for a certain period of time. Therefore, it is essential to measure the program outage in order to manage the video quality of the IPTV system.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to directly measure the program outage in the IPTV set-top box 130 without the need to connect a separate measuring device (meter) to the IPTV set-top box 130 . In this embodiment, since there is no need to install separate equipment in the home of the service subscriber, there is an effect of efficiently measuring the program outage and managing the image quality.

The IPTV set-top box 130 according to the embodiment of the present invention uses the Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP, hereinafter referred to as 'IGMP') operating state to measure the program outage. Specifically, the IPTV set-top box 130 determines the normal IGMP operation state and the abnormal IGMP operation state and uses the determination result. Here, the abnormal IGMP operation state refers to a state in which the IPTV set-top box 130 cannot receive the transport stream due to a network problem even though the IPTV set-top box 130 can normally receive the transport stream.

Hereinafter, the IGMP operation will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3 .

2 is a flowchart illustrating a normal IGMP operation of an IPTV system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

First, (a) the channel participation process will be described. The IPTV set-top box 130 transmits a channel join message (IMGP Join) for the selected channel to the router device 120 according to the user's channel selection command (S210). By delivering a channel join message (IGMP Join), a member joins a multicast group corresponding to the selected channel and receives a transport stream from the content providing apparatus 100 (S220). For convenience of description, participation in a multicast group corresponding to the selected channel is referred to as successful channel participation.

The user's channel selection command may refer to a signal input to the IPTV set-top box 130 when a new IPTV broadcast is viewed or a broadcast channel to be viewed is changed.

After successful channel participation, the router device 120 periodically (for example, every minute) to monitor whether the IPTV set-top box 130 maintains the membership of the multicast group using a general query message (IGMP General Query). is transmitted to the IPTV set-top box 130 (S230). Upon receiving the IGMP General Query, the IPTV set-top box 130 transmits the channel join message (IGMP Join) to the router device 130 and reports that it is a member of the multicast group corresponding to the selected channel (S240). .

Finally, (c) the channel withdrawal process will be described. When the user changes the channel to a channel different from the channel the user was watching, the IPTV set-top box 130 transmits a channel leave message (IGMP Leave) for the channel being viewed to the router device 120 (S250). Upon receiving the IGMP Leave message, the router device 120 transmits an IGMP Specific Query including the corresponding multicast address to the IPTV set-top box 130 (S260). If the router device 120 does not receive the channel join message (IGMP Join) during the Maximum Response Time (S270), the corresponding multicast address is deleted from the multicast group list, and the IPTV set-top box 130 is no longer It does not receive the transport stream of the existing channel.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, steps S260 and S270 may be omitted, and in this case, the router device 120 may perform a fast leave function. That is, the router device 120 may immediately stop the transport stream of the existing channel by receiving the channel leave message (IGMP Leave) from the IPTV set-top box 130 without steps S260 and S270 .

3 is a flowchart illustrating an abnormal IGMP operation of an IPTV system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As in the above-described process S210 , the IPTV set-top box 130 transmits a channel join message (IGMP Join) to the router device 120 . However, unlike FIG. 2 , in FIG. 3 , a transport stream is not received due to a network problem despite successful channel participation, that is, participation in a multicast group corresponding to the selected channel ( S320 ). Step S320 is a case in which the entire transport stream is not delivered to the IPTV set-top box 130 instead of a part of the transport stream packet being lost. If this state continues for a certain period of time, a buffer outrun occurs, which causes a program outage.

In such an abnormal IGMP operation state, the IPTV set-top box 130 retrys channel participation by transmitting a channel joining message (IGMP Join) for the corresponding channel several times (S330).

Hereinafter, an IPTV set-top box 130 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 4 .

4 is a block diagram of an IPTV set-top box according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The IPTV set-top box 130 according to the embodiment of the present invention includes a channel participation confirmation unit 410 , a TS measurement unit 420 , a channel withdrawal confirmation unit 430 , and a program output measurement unit 440 . 4 shows that each component exists as a separate module, this division is merely a classification in terms of function, and may be implemented by one processor including all of the respective functions. In addition, although not shown in FIG. 4, those of ordinary skill in the art of the present invention are required to perform the original function of the IPTV set-top box in addition to the components for measuring the program outage shown in FIG. It will be appreciated that more may be included.

The channel participation check unit 410 checks whether a channel join message (IGMP Join) is transmitted to the router device 120 as a channel selection command is input by the user, and a transport stream from the content providing device 100 according to the channel participation success. Check that this is received.

A case in which a transport stream cannot be received due to a failure to participate in a channel is a case in which a delay occurs during channel switching, which is different from a case in which a program outage occurs. When the delay of channel switching occurs, the IPTV set-top box 130 transmits a channel join message (IGMP Join) again.

If the channel participation is successful, the IPTV set-top box 130 receives a transport stream from the content providing device 100 .

When it is confirmed that the transport stream has been received by the channel participation confirmation unit 410, the TS measuring unit 420 measures the size of the transport stream and checks whether it is less than or equal to a preset threshold (S540). Here, the preset threshold refers to a data size sufficient to determine that the IPTV set-top box 130 has not received the transport stream. For example, the threshold may be set to a size that can be approximated to 0 bytes. The threshold may be set differently according to the required quality of service. If it is 0 bytes as a result of measuring the size of the received transport stream, it may be determined that the transport stream has not been received regardless of the threshold setting.

When a program outage occurs, the size of the transport stream is 0 bytes, but it cannot be determined that the program outage has occurred just because the size of the transport stream is 0 bytes. This is because there are cases in which it cannot be considered that the reception of the transport stream is normally terminated, such as when the user changes to VOD viewing while watching IPTV, exits to a menu, or turns off the power of the set-top box. Here, that the reception of the transport stream is normally terminated means that the IPTV set-top box 130 transmits a channel leave message (IGMP Leave) to the router device 120 to terminate the reception of the transport stream for the corresponding channel. Therefore, in order to measure the program outage, it is necessary to check whether the channel is withdrawn in addition to measuring the size of the transport stream.

When the size of the transport stream is determined by the TS measuring unit 420 to be less than or equal to a preset threshold, the channel withdrawal confirmation unit 430 checks whether the reception of the transport stream is normally terminated.

Specifically, the channel leave confirmation unit 430 checks whether a channel leave message (IGMP Leave) is transmitted as a channel change command is input by the user, and when it is confirmed that the channel leave message (IGMP Leave) is not transmitted, It can be confirmed that the reception of the transport stream is abnormally terminated.

When it is confirmed that the reception of the transport stream is abnormally terminated by the channel withdrawal confirmation unit 430, the program outage measuring unit 440 monitors whether or not the channel participation is successful according to the retransmission of the channel participation message (IGMP Join) to monitor the program outage. measure

Specifically, the program outage measuring unit 440 may determine that the program outage has occurred when it is confirmed that the channel participation by retransmission of the channel participation message (IGMP Join) has failed. On the other hand, if it is confirmed that channel participation by retransmission of the channel join message (IGMP Join) is successful, it can be determined that the program outage has been resolved.

If it is determined that the program outage is resolved, the program outage measuring unit 440 may measure a time interval from the time when the program outage occurs to the time when the program outage is resolved. In this way, it is possible to check the time that the program outage is maintained.

The program outage measuring unit 440 may measure the occurrence and duration of the program outage, generate image quality information, and transmit it to a network management device (not shown). The image quality information of this embodiment can be utilized as an important quality indicator in managing the perceived quality of the customer. For example, the IPTV service provider can improve service quality by collecting information about each customer program outage (no broadcast signal) case and analyzing the cause of the network problem based on this using this embodiment.

Hereinafter, an operation method of the IPTV set-top box 130 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 5 .

5 is a flowchart illustrating a method of operating an IPTV set-top box according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The IPTV set-top box 130 transmits a channel join message (IGMP Join) to the router device 120 as a channel selection command is input by the user (S510).

The channel participation confirmation unit 410 of the IPTV set-top box 130 checks whether a channel participation message (IGMP Join) is transmitted and whether a transport stream is received from the content providing device 100 according to the success of channel participation (S520).

As described above, the case in which the transport stream cannot be received due to the failure of channel participation is a case in which a delay occurs during channel switching, which is different from the case in which a program outage occurs. Therefore, even if a channel participation failure is detected, it cannot be determined that a program outage has occurred, and an additional determination process is required.

The IPTV set-top box 130 re-transmits a channel join message (IGMP Join) when a delay in channel switching occurs.

If the channel participation is successful, the IPTV set-top box 130 receives a transport stream from the content providing device 100 (S530).

When it is confirmed that the transport stream has been received by the channel participation confirmation unit 410, the TS measuring unit 420 measures the size of the transport stream and checks whether it is less than or equal to a preset threshold (S540). Here, the preset threshold refers to a data size sufficient to determine that the IPTV set-top box 130 has not received the transport stream. For example, the threshold may be set to a size that can be approximated to 0 bytes. The threshold may be set differently according to the required quality of service. If it is 0 bytes as a result of measuring the size of the received transport stream, it may be determined that the transport stream has not been received regardless of the threshold setting.

When a program outage occurs, the size of the transport stream is 0 bytes, but it cannot be determined that the program outage has occurred just because the size of the transport stream is 0 bytes. This is because there are cases in which it cannot be considered that the reception of the transport stream is normally terminated, such as when the user changes to VOD viewing while watching IPTV, exits to a menu, or turns off the power of the set-top box. Here, that the reception of the transport stream is normally terminated means that the IPTV set-top box 130 transmits a channel leave message (IGMP Leave) to the router device 120 to terminate the reception of the transport stream for the corresponding channel. Therefore, in order to measure the program outage, it is necessary to check whether the channel is withdrawn in addition to measuring the size of the transport stream.

When the size of the transport stream is determined by the TS measuring unit 420 to be less than or equal to a preset threshold, the channel withdrawal confirmation unit 430 of the IPTV set-top box 130 checks whether the reception of the transport stream is normally terminated (S550).

Specifically, the channel leave confirmation unit 430 checks whether a channel leave message (IGMP Leave) is transmitted as a channel change command is input by the user, and when it is confirmed that the channel leave message (IGMP Leave) is not transmitted, It can be confirmed that the reception of the transport stream is abnormally terminated.

When it is confirmed that the reception of the transport stream is abnormally terminated by the channel withdrawal confirmation unit 430, the program outage measuring unit 440 monitors whether or not the channel participation is successful according to the retransmission of the channel participation message (IGMP Join) to monitor the program outage. is measured (S560 to S580).

Specifically, the program outage measuring unit 440 may determine that the program outage has occurred when it is confirmed that the channel participation by retransmission of the channel participation message (IGMP Join) has failed (S560, No) (S570). On the other hand, if it is confirmed that the channel participation by retransmission of the channel participation message (IGMP Join) is successful (S560, yes), it can be determined that the program outage has been resolved (S580).

When it is determined that the program outage is resolved, the program outage measuring unit 440 may measure a time interval from the time when the program outage occurs to the time when the program outage is resolved ( S580 ). In this way, it is possible to check the time the program outage is maintained.

The program outage measuring unit 440 may measure the occurrence and duration of the program outage, generate image quality information, and transmit it to a network management device (not shown). The image quality information of this embodiment can be utilized as an important quality indicator in managing the perceived quality of the customer. For example, the IPTV service provider can improve service quality by collecting information about each customer program outage (no broadcast signal) case and analyzing the cause of the network problem based on this using this embodiment.

Although it is described that each process is sequentially executed in FIG. 5 , it is not necessarily limited thereto. In other words, since it may be applicable to changing and executing the process described in FIG. 5 or executing one or more processes in parallel, FIG. 5 is not limited to a chronological order.

Meanwhile, each step of the flowchart shown in FIG. 5 may be implemented as computer-readable codes on a computer-readable recording medium. The computer-readable recording medium includes all kinds of recording devices in which data readable by a computer system is stored. That is, the computer-readable recording medium includes a magnetic storage medium (eg, a ROM, a floppy disk, a hard disk, etc.), an optically readable medium (eg, a CD-ROM, a DVD, etc.) and a carrier wave (eg, the Internet). storage media such as transmission via In addition, the computer-readable recording medium is distributed in a network-connected computer system so that the computer-readable code can be stored and executed in a distributed manner.

The above description is merely illustrative of the technical idea of this embodiment, and various modifications and variations will be possible by those skilled in the art to which this embodiment belongs without departing from the essential characteristics of the present embodiment. Accordingly, the present embodiments are intended to explain rather than limit the technical spirit of the present embodiment, and the scope of the technical spirit of the present embodiment is not limited by these embodiments. The protection scope of this embodiment should be interpreted by the following claims, and all technical ideas within the equivalent range should be interpreted as being included in the scope of the present embodiment.

As described above, the present embodiment is applied to the technical field for measuring the program outage in the IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) system, and includes a set-top box and It is a useful invention that provides a method for its operation.

100: content providing device 120: router device
130: IPTV set-top box 140: display device
410: channel participation confirmation unit 420: TS measurement unit
430: channel withdrawal confirmation unit 440: program output measurement unit

Claims (7)

a channel participation confirmation unit that confirms whether a channel join message (IGMP Join) is transmitted as a channel selection command is input by the user, and checks whether a transport stream (TS) is received from the content providing device according to the success of channel joining;
a TS measuring unit that measures the size of the transport stream and checks whether the size of the transport stream is less than or equal to a preset threshold when the channel participation confirmation unit confirms that the transport stream has been received;
When the TS measurement unit determines that the size of the transport stream is less than or equal to a preset threshold, a channel leave check unit for checking whether reception of the transport stream is normally terminated based on whether an IGMP leave message is transmitted; and
When it is confirmed that the reception of the transport stream is abnormally terminated by the channel withdrawal confirmation unit, a program out of measuring the program outage by monitoring the success of channel participation according to the retransmission of the channel join message (IGMP Join) tee measurement unit
IPTV set-top box comprising a. According to claim 1,
The channel withdrawal confirmation unit,
As the channel change command is input by the user, it is checked whether a channel leave message (IGMP Leave) is transmitted, and when it is confirmed that the channel leave message (IGMP Leave) is not transmitted, the reception of the transport stream is abnormally terminated IPTV set-top box, characterized in that it is confirmed that the According to claim 1,
The program output measuring unit,
IPTV set-top box, characterized in that it is determined that the program outage has occurred when it is confirmed that channel participation by retransmission of the channel join message (IGMP Join) has failed. 4. The method of claim 3,
The program output measuring unit,
If it is confirmed that channel participation by retransmission of the channel join message (IGMP Join) is successful, it is determined that the program outage has been resolved,
IPTV set-top box, characterized in that for measuring a time interval from the time when the program outage occurs to the time when the resolution is resolved. In the operating method for the IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) set-top box (Set-Top Box) to measure the program outage (Program Outage),
A channel participation confirmation process of confirming whether a channel joining message (IGMP Join) is transmitted as a channel selection command is input by the user and confirming whether a Transport Stream (TS) is received from the content providing device according to the success of channel joining;
a TS measurement process of measuring a size of the transport stream and checking whether it is less than or equal to a preset threshold when it is confirmed that the transport stream has been received in the channel participation confirmation process;
a channel departure confirmation process of checking whether reception of the transport stream is normally terminated based on whether a channel exit message is transmitted when the size of the transport stream is determined to be less than or equal to a preset threshold in the TS measurement process; and
When it is confirmed that the reception of the transport stream is abnormally terminated in the channel withdrawal confirmation process, a program for measuring the program outage by monitoring the success of channel participation according to the retransmission of the channel join message (IGMP Join) Outage measurement process
An operation method of an IPTV set-top box comprising a. 6. The method of claim 5,
The channel withdrawal confirmation process is,
As the channel change command is input by the user, it is checked whether a channel leave message (IGMP Leave) is transmitted, and when it is confirmed that the channel leave message (IGMP Leave) is not transmitted, the reception of the transport stream is abnormally terminated An operation method of an IPTV set-top box, characterized in that it is confirmed that the 6. The method of claim 5,
The program outage measurement process is
If it is confirmed that channel participation by retransmission of the channel join message (IGMP Join) has failed, it is determined that the program outage has occurred,
When it is confirmed that the channel participation by retransmission of the channel join message (IGMP Join) is successful, it is determined that the program outage has been resolved, and the time interval from the time when the program outage occurs to the time when the program outage is resolved is measured. How an IPTV set-top box works.

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