KR20010075753A - apparatus for broadcasting receive with cable modem - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A broadcasting receiving device including cable modem is provided to utilize a cable modem function at a minimum price by using an open cable set-top to purchase just a PCMCIA(personal computer memory card international association) cable modem. CONSTITUTION: A cable modem MAC(media access control) processor(34) controls an access to use commonly several user nodes of a transmission/receiving unit. A PCMCIA attribute register discriminates whether a system is in a cable modem mode or in a general set-top mode, and sets the system to transform into a corresponding mode. A ROM(36) records a cable modem operating software. A communication interface unit performs an interfacing with other communication implement. The transmission/receiving unit of a cable modem is used in combination.

Description

Apparatus for broadcasting receive with cable modem

The present invention relates to a personal computer memory card international association (PCMCIA) cable modem using an open cable set-top box, which is a broadcast receiving device, and in particular, an open cable set-top box having no built-in cable modem function. PCMCIA cable for open cable set-top box that inserts cable modem made in PCMCIA card type into PCMCIA slot for POD interface in Open Cable Set-top Box and connects to PC A broadcast receiving system having a modem.

In the era of digital cable broadcasting, US cables now establish a standard called open cable, which allows consumer manufacturers to create cable set-tops and sell them to consumers at retail outlets. Promoting.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the structure of a conventional open cable set top. The concept of an open cable is a cryptographic module (hereinafter referred to as a POD module) 22 including a CA (Conditional Access) system 24 existing in a conventional cable set top. Is separated from the set top 10 and the POD interface defining the standard interface between the set top 10 and the POD module 22 allows anyone to create the set top 10 so that consumers can purchase the set top directly like a VCR If a broadcaster gives a subscriber a POD module, the subscriber can use the POD module 22 and the open cable set-top 10 to receive various cable broadcasts.

The POD module 22 uses a PCMCIA card, and also decodes the cable program received through the in-band band and passes it back to the set-top 10 while the OOB transmitter 14 and the OOB receiver installed in the set-top 10. (13) communicates with the head-end, which is an external signal repeater, interprets commands received from the head-end, and then communicates with the CPU 15 in the set-top 10 through the POD interface 21. The head-end will perform the instructions or pass the user input to the head-end.

Here, reference numeral 11 is a tuner, 12 is a QAM demodulator, 16 and 25 are transport demux, 17 is an MPEG decoder, 18 is an AC-3 decoder, 19 is a ROM, 20 is a RAM, and 26 is a CPU.

Currently, the specification of open cable set-top is defined as a device that can receive only cable digital broadcasting.It is not yet defined a product that embeds a cable modem, and after standardization of basic open cable set-top is completed, it is established as a standard with built-in cable modem. Seems to be.

The US FCC ordered US cable broadcasters to begin selling open cable set-tops from July 2000 in order to drive the cable set-top market to retail, with open cable set-tops scheduled for release in the second half of 2000. The main product is expected to be set-top for broadcast reception without cable modem function.

If a person who purchases such an open cable broadcasting set-top wants a cable modem function in the future, there is a problem in that a price burden occurs because the cable modem built-in open cable set-top must be purchased separately or a cable modem built-in.

Therefore, the present invention has been invented in view of the above-described problems of the prior art, and when open cable broadcast receiving set-top purchasers want to purchase a cable modem in the future, the cable modem can be purchased at a minimum price by using a PCMCIA cable modem using an open cable set-top. It is to provide a broadcast receiving system that can utilize the function.

1 is a block diagram of a conventional broadcast receiving apparatus;

2 is a block diagram of a broadcast receiving apparatus of the present invention.

* Description of Signs of Major Reference Symbol

10,30 open cable set-top 11: tuner

12: QAM demodulator 13: OOB receiver

14: OOB Transmitter 15,26: CPU

16,25: TP Demux 17: MPEG decoder

18: AC-3 Decoder 19: ROM

20: RAM 21: POD Interface

22: POD module 23: OOB protocol handler

24: CA system 31: FEC encoder

32: PCMCIA interface 33: PCMCIA cable modem module

34: cable modem MAC processor 35: local RAM

36: ROM 37 for cable models: Ethernet MAC processor

38: 10 Base T Transceiver

One feature of the invention is that the cable modem signal transceiver uses an open cable set-top transceiver, a cable modem MAC (Media Access Control) processor, a ROM containing the cable modem operating S / W, and an Ethernet for the PC interface (Ethernet). Part) consists of a built-in PCMCIA card.

In addition, another feature of the present invention is to have a means for setting the system to the cable modem mode by reading the attribute register in the PCMCIA card to recognize that it is a cable modem.

According to the present invention having such a feature, since the broadcast reception-only set-top is provided with a cable modem function, the time for purchasing the open-cable set-top can be met if the cable modem function is desired in the future.

You can use a cable modem without having to buy a cable modem or buy an open cable set-top with a built-in cable modem.

EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION Hereinafter, the Example of this invention is described in detail based on an accompanying drawing.

2 is a block diagram showing a broadcast receiving system equipped with a cable modem according to the present invention.

In the broadcast receiving system of the present invention, the open cable set-top 30 installs a forward error correction (FEC) encoder for correcting bit errors occurring in a channel in the OOB transmitter 14, and functions as an OOB receiver instead of removing the OOB receiver. Since the same configuration as that of the conventional open cable set-top 10 is provided except that the QAM 12 can be used, the same reference numerals are used for the same constituent members, and detailed description thereof will be omitted.

The PCMCIA cable modem module (or PCMCIA card) 33 of the present invention includes a cable modem MAC (Media Access Control) processor 34 for access control to smoothly use multiple user nodes of a transceiver and a cable modem MAC. ROM 36, which has a dedicated local RAM 35 of the processor 34, and an attribute register of PCMCIA for setting the system to switch the system to the cable modem mode, and stores the cable modem operation S / W. And an Ethernet MAC processor 37 for interfacing to exchange information with an external user PC and a 10 base T transceiver 38 for connecting with an Ethernet cable of the user PC. The PCMCIA cable modem module 33 is inserted into the PCMCIA slot 32 for the POD interface of the open cable set-top 30 by jointly using the transceivers 11, 12, 14, and 31 of the open cable set-top. It is connected to the reception.

Referring to the operation of the broadcast transmission and reception system having a cable modem according to the present invention configured as described above, when the PCMCIA modem module 33 is inserted into the PCMCIA slot 32 for the POD interface of the open cable set-top 30, the PCMCIA memory card After operating in the mode, the attribute register installed in the ROM 36 of the PCMCIA card is checked to determine whether it is an open cable POD module or a general PCMCIA card, and the operation is performed by switching to the corresponding mode.

The PCMCIA cable modem module 33 also records the cable modem indication information in the PCMCIA attribute register, and when the open cable set-top 30 reads this information and recognizes it as a cable modem, the set-top mode is switched to the cable modem mode.

An example of cable modem recognition is as follows.

That is, the attribute registers of the POD module are of the types described below.

CISTPL-LINKTARGET

CISTPL-DEVICE-OA

CISTPL-DEVICE-OC

CISTPL-VERS-1

CISTPL-MANFID

CISTPL-CONFIG

CCST-CIF

CISTPL-CFTABLE-ENTRY

STCE-EV

STCE-PD

CISTPL-END

By reading the CCST-CIF register among these registers, it can be recognized as an open cable POD module. The definition of CCST-CIF is as follows.

Byte Address _h 7 6 5 4 3 2 One 0 0 00 ST-CODE = CCST-CIF (CO _H ) One 02 ST-LINK = 11 _H 2 04 STCI-IFN = 41 _H 3 06 STCI-IFN-1 = 03 _H 4 08 STCI-STR (multiple bytes) 4E _H (N) 5 0A 52 _H (R) 6 0C 53 _H (S) 7 0E 53 _H (S) 8 10 5F _H (-) 9 12 43 _H (C) 10 14 49 _H (I) 11 16 5F _H (-) 12 18 56 _H (V) 13 1A 31 _H (1) 14 1C 2E _H 15 1E 30 _H (0) 16 20 30 _H (0) 17 22 00 (Null) 18 24 TPL-END = FF _H

If the STCI-IFN (Byte 2 & 3) value is 0341 (Hexa), the attribute is recognized as an open cable POD module. The cable modem defines this value as 0342 (Hexa) and recognizes the cable modem.

Upon recognizing that the PCMCIA cable modem is inserted as described above, the CPU 15 of the open cable set-top 30 reads a program from the cable modem ROM contained in the PCMCIA module to perform the following process.

The transmission and reception processing method uses the same modulation and demodulation method for both the open cable and the MCNS standard, which is the US cable modem standard, and the cable modem downstream from the QAM demodulator 12 in the open cable set-top 30 connected to the cable to the PCMCIA cable modem module 33. (Down Stream) is received by the cable modem MAC processor 34, the protocol processing and handed over to the CPU 15, the CPU 15 passes this data to the Ethernet MAC processor 37 and processes the 10 base T transceiver (10) Base T Transceiver) 38 transfers data to the user's PC.

On the other hand, the up-stream data coming from the user PC is processed in the reverse order to the above-described process and transmitted to the cable modem MAC processor 34. 31 is sent to the OOB transmitter 14, the OOB transmitter 14 modulates the transmitted data and then sent to the cable head-end via the cable.

As described above, the present invention adds a cable modem function to an open cable set-top dedicated to broadcast reception, so that open cable broadcast reception set-top purchasers purchase only a PCMCIA cable modem utilizing an open cable set-top when purchasing a cable modem in the future. This has the effect of taking advantage of the cable modem functionality.

Claims (2)

A cable modem media access control (MAC) processor for access control for seamless sharing between multiple user nodes of a transceiver; Cable modem operation S at the same time as having an attribute register of the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA) to set the system to determine whether the system is in cable modem mode or normal set-top mode and to switch to that mode. ROM to store / W, A communication interface for interfacing with other information devices; Broadcast receiving system having a cable modem, characterized in that configured to serve as a transceiver of the cable modem. The method of claim 1, And said other information device is a personal computer and said interface is an Ethernet device for a PC interface consisting of an Ethernet MAC processor and a 10 base T transceiver.