KR20050041597A - Vod service system and method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a VOD service system and a service method thereof.

In the present invention, the size of the data frame provided per real time to the encoded data or edited and produced data provided from the information provider to determine the size. The data frame is packetized by comparing the determined frame size with the data frame size to be transmitted and adjusting a frame rate to be transmitted per packet. Thereafter, the packetized data is streamed and transmitted to the user terminal.

According to the present invention, when the data streaming transmission, the transmission bit rate is as uniform as possible, and the streaming transmission of the data is made stable.

Description

VOD service system and service method thereof

The present invention relates to a video on demand (VOD) service, and more particularly, to a system and a method for providing a VOD service through a wired or wireless network.

In recent years, with the rapid development of semiconductor and information communication technology, the construction of the high-speed information communication base, which started from the super-highway concept of information, is rapidly progressing, and people are actively participating in information rather than simply receiving information. The desire to obtain interactive information is increasing. In order to meet these people's desire for active information acquisition, the development of interactive cable television (interactive-TV), an advanced form of cable television (CATV) that is now commercially available and widespread, is being accelerated.

In particular, with the development of digital interactive television technology, video on demand (VOD) services are being developed to provide information required by a user at a desired time.

VOD service is also known as customized video information service and video on-demand system, and it is an interactive service that can use the desired contents at the desired time according to the subscriber's request rather than unilaterally receiving the program from the existing public network broadcasting or cable TV. Examples of services that can be realized with VOD include, for example, movies on demand (NOD), news on demand (NOD), which provides immediate information for each title or sector of news and provides a summary or headline of news. , Teleshopping, telemedicine diagnostics, games, home banking, video conferencing.

In general, a conventional VOD service system encodes content received from an information provider into an appropriate format, and processes the encoded content so that the data can be played in real time, for example, a mobile phone, a television, or a PDA. And so on).

However, since the encoded content is processed in units of frames without considering the data amount of the content, when the frame having a large amount of data is transmitted, the packet bursts more than other packets. As the data is transmitted, the BPS (bit per second) instantaneously has a peak value, and the BPS fluctuates such that the amount of change in the BPS increases and decreases. As a result, when the data is not constantly transmitted and the corresponding data is played on the user terminal, an audio or image corresponding to the data may not be reproduced normally.

Therefore, the technical problem to be achieved by the present invention is to solve the conventional problems, to ensure that the amount of data transmission in the VOD service system over a wired or wireless network as constant as possible.

In order to achieve this technical problem, the VOD service system according to an aspect of the present invention is a system for providing a video on demand (VOD) service connected to a user terminal through a network, and determines a size of a data frame to be transmitted per transmission unit. A rate determining unit including a size determining unit, a size analyzing unit analyzing a size of a data frame to be transmitted to the user terminal, and a frame processing unit adjusting a frame rate to be transmitted per transmission unit according to the determined frame size and a frame size to be transmitted. part; And a streaming transmission processor for streaming the data whose frame rate is adjusted and transmitting the stream to the user terminal.

In addition, the VOD service system according to another aspect of the present invention, a rate control unit for determining the size of the data frame to be transmitted per transmission unit, and adjusts the rate of the data frame to be transmitted per transmission unit according to the determined frame size, and the frame A streaming server including a streaming transmission processor for streaming the data whose rate is adjusted and transmitting the same to the user terminal; And providing a menu for selecting contents to a user terminal connected through the network, and when the user selects predetermined content, provides a streaming server address to the user terminal so that the user terminal accesses the streaming server. It includes a management server to receive data corresponding to the selected content. The rate controller may include a size determiner configured to determine a size of a data frame to be transmitted per transmission unit; A size analyzer which analyzes a size of a data frame to be transmitted to the user terminal; And a frame processor configured to adjust a frame rate to be transmitted per transmission unit according to the determined frame size and the frame size to be transmitted. The encoding server may further include an encoding server configured to encode data provided from an information provider connected on a network and provide the encoded data to the rate controller. In this case, the encoding server may encode and provide the data in real time.

On the other hand, the management server may further include a storage for storing the content edited and authored by a separate authoring tool or the content provided from the information provider. In this case, when the user requests a file streaming service, the streaming server reads data corresponding to the content requested by the user from the storage, and then adjusts the frame rate and the streaming process for the data.

In the VOD service system of the present invention having such a feature, the rate adjusting unit may further include a terminal information processing unit for extracting terminal information from a user terminal connected through the network, and the size determining unit is configured to terminal according to the terminal information. Determining the processing power of the to set the frame size to be transmitted per transmission unit. In particular, when it is determined that the user terminal is a wireless terminal according to the terminal information, the size determiner may set one frame to be transmitted per transmission unit.

In addition, when the size of the data frame to be transmitted is larger than the determined frame size, the frame processor divides the data frame to be transmitted into a plurality of packets according to the determined frame size.

In addition, the VOD service method according to another aspect of the present invention, a VOD service method of a system connected to a user terminal through a network, the method comprising the steps of: a) determining the frame size to be transmitted per packet; b) analyzing a data frame size to be sent to the user terminal; c) packetizing the data frame by comparing the determined frame size with the analyzed frame size and adjusting a frame rate to be transmitted per packet; And d) streaming the packetized data and transmitting the streamed data to the user terminal.

In this case, the method may further include encoding data provided from the information provider through a network into a predetermined format, and in this case, step b) analyzes a frame size of the encoded data.

Alternatively, the method may further include receiving and storing the stored and edited data. In this case, step b) reads the stored data and analyzes the frame size.

On the other hand, step a) is to extract the terminal information from the user terminal; And determining a processing capability of the terminal according to the terminal information and setting a frame size to be transmitted per packet according to the determination result.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings so that those skilled in the art may easily implement the present invention. As those skilled in the art would realize, the described embodiments may be modified in various different ways, all without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention.

1 illustrates a schematic concept of a VOD service according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 illustrates a detailed structure of a VOD system for implementing such a concept.

As shown in FIG. 1, in the embodiment of the present invention, authored (or edited) data or real-time data is provided to users through a VOD service system. In particular, the authored data is stored in a DB or the like by the management server, processed by the streaming server, and provided to the user. The real-time data is encoded by the encoding server and then processed by the streaming server and provided to the user.

A system (hereinafter, referred to as a VOD service system) 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention for such a VOD service, as shown in FIG. 2, may be connected to a user terminal through a network (wired or wireless network) 200. It is connected to the 300, and receives and processes the content provided from the information provider, that is, the raw data (raw data) and transmits to the user terminal (300).

The VOD service system 100 specifically includes an encoding server 10, a streaming server 20, a download server 30, and a management server 40.

The encoding server 10 encodes the initial data provided from the information provider in a predetermined format, for example, a motion picture experts group (MPEG). In particular, the raw data can be encoded in a predetermined format in real time.

The streaming server 20 streams the encoded data (including data encoded in real time or data encoded and stored in the management server) and transmits the stream to the user terminal 300 through the network 200. In particular, an embodiment of the present invention includes an RS processor 21 for performing a rate shaping (RS) process on the encoded data, and a streaming transmission processor 22 for streaming and processing the RS-processed data.

The RS processor 21 adjusts the data transmission rate such that the RS processing, that is, the amount of data transmitted per transmission unit, is constant. Although a packet is used as a transmission unit here, it is not necessarily limited thereto. For RS processing, the size analyzer 211 analyzes the size of the data frame to be transmitted, the size determiner 212 determines the size of the data frame to be transmitted per transmission unit, and the transmission unit according to the determined frame size and the frame size to be transmitted. And a frame processor 213 for packetizing data by adjusting a frame rate to be transmitted. In addition, the terminal further includes a terminal information processor 214 for providing the information on the data processing capability of the user terminal to receive the data to the size determiner 212 to determine the frame size according to the data processing capability of the user terminal. do.

The streaming transmission processor 22 streams the RS-processed data and transmits the data to the user terminal 300 through the network 200. The streaming processing technology is a technology for playing audio, video, multimedia, etc. in real time. The streaming processing technology compresses and encodes data to reduce the transmission time of the data to the maximum, and transmit the data to the user terminal 300. Since such streaming processing is a known technique, detailed description is omitted here.

On the other hand, the download server 30 downloads the data encoded in a predetermined format to the terminal according to the user's request. The download server 30 may be configured separately from the streaming server 20 or may be implemented by being included in the streaming server 20 as in the embodiment of the present invention.

The management server 40 controls and manages each of the servers 10 to 30 to process and transmit data. Specifically, it manages content provided from an information provider, provides a page for allowing a user terminal to access a menu and selects a menu, and performs menu management (which can function as a web or a swap server), and The streaming server 20 or the download server 30 is controlled according to a request so that data streaming or data download to the corresponding user terminal 300 is performed. On the other hand, the management server 40 may include a storage unit 41 for storing the content (data) provided from the information provider or the content (data) edited and produced by a separate authoring tool. Although the storage unit 41 is included in the management server 40 here, it may be implemented as a separate server separately from the management server.

In this embodiment, the management server performs menu management together with content management. However, the content management and menu management differ from each other by constructing a separate server that performs menu management by performing a function as a web or swap server other than the management server. It can also be made by means.

Data processed in the VOD service system having such a structure include data (file data) in the form of files worked offline, and data (stream data) in the form of multicast streams for real time transmission such as TV broadcasting. According to this data, the following services can be provided in the VOD system.

1. Real time broadcasting service

The data (for example, TV broadcast data) is encoded in real time and then streamed and provided to the user.

2. VOD streaming service using files

After editing and producing data using a separate authoring tool, the data is stored in the storage unit 41 of the management server 40, and then after the data is read from the storage unit 41 according to the user's streaming request, the user processes the streaming process. To provide.

3. VOD download service using file

After editing and producing data using the authoring tool, the data is stored in the storage unit 41 of the management server 40, and then data is downloaded to the user's terminal according to the user's request.

Next, the operation of the VOD service system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention will be described based on such a structure.

First, a service for providing content in real time, that is, a method of real-time broadcasting service, will be described.

3 illustrates an interworking relationship between a terminal and each server when performing a real time broadcast service, and FIG. 4 sequentially illustrates the real time broadcast service process.

When the user runs the connection program on the terminal 300 or presses a connection shortening button or the like to connect to the VOD system 100 through the network, the management server 40 of the VOD system 100 displays a user-selectable screen. Provided to the terminal 300 (S100 ~ S110). Accordingly, when the user selects a live channel while selecting a predetermined content, a uniform resource locator (URL) for the live channel is transmitted to the user terminal 300 (S120 to S130). Accordingly, the user terminal 300 requests content by accessing the streaming server 20 based on the URL provided from the management server 40 (S140).

The streaming server 20 checks the live channel selected by the user according to the URL accessed by the user terminal 300 (S150), receives the encoded data for the corresponding live channel from the encoding server 10, and then processes the streaming. Provided to the user terminal 300.

More specifically, the encoding server 10 receives information of a predetermined channel from a broadcasting station, as shown in FIG. 3, in an information provider, and in real time in a predetermined format, for example, a Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG). The encoding is transmitted to the streaming server 20 (S160).

As shown in FIG. 5, the RS processing unit 21 of the streaming server 20 performs RS processing on the encoded data (S170 to S180). 5 is a flowchart illustrating an RS processing process according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Specifically, first, in order to determine the size of the data frame to be transmitted per transmission unit, the size determining unit 212 of the RS processing unit 21, one packet of the transmission protocol based on a predetermined transmission bps (for example, 128kbps) The number of bits to be loaded is calculated (S1000). In this case, a real-time transport protocol (RTP), which is a standard protocol of domestic and overseas VOD transmitters, is used as a protocol for transmitting streaming data in real time, but is not limited thereto. The packet structure of the RTP protocol is illustrated in FIG. 6. In the RTP protocol, the amount of data carried in the payload is not fixed. Therefore, in the embodiment of the present invention, a certain amount of data is transmitted in a packet according to the RTP protocol so that a data transmission amount is constant. Since the RTP protocol is known as a standard protocol, detailed description of RTP is omitted here.

In step S1000, after calculating the transmission protocol, that is, the number of bits to be carried per RTP packet, the frame size to be transmitted per packet is determined based on the calculated number of bits of one packet. At this time, the size determination unit 212 determines the frame size to be transmitted per packet in consideration of the terminal information provided from the terminal information processing unit 214 (S1100). For example, when the user terminal is a mobile terminal such as a mobile phone or a PDA, if one or more frames exist in one packet of the current RTP protocol, there is a restriction that the corresponding frame cannot be parsed. Accordingly, the size determination unit 212 may process the terminal's processing capability, that is, protocol parsing, based on the information of the terminal (generally, the terminal information is transmitted together with the network connection) that requested the content provided from the terminal information processing unit 214. After determining the parsing mechanism and the decoding capacity, the frame size per packet is determined based on the determination result. To this end, for example, the size determiner 212 may include a table in which protocol parsing mechanisms and decoding processing capability information are stored corresponding to terminal types. In this case, the size determiner 212 determines the type of the terminal based on the information of the terminal, and confirms protocol parsing mechanism and decoding processing capability information corresponding to the type from the table. On the other hand, considering the processing capability of the terminal (S1100) can be omitted.

The size determiner 212 determines the frame size (set size) to be transmitted per one RTP packet according to the calculated number of bits of one packet and / or the processing capability of the terminal (S1200), and then the frame processor of the RS processor 21. 213 analyzes the size of the data frame to be transmitted provided from the encoding server 20, compares the analyzed size with the set size, and adjusts the frame rate to be transmitted per packet (S1300 to S1500). For example, when the size of the data frame to be transmitted is larger than the set size, the frame is divided into a plurality of packets instead of all the packets in one packet. When the size of the data frame to be transmitted is smaller than the set size, the next frame is included in the packet together with the next frame.

After the RS processing is performed, the streaming transmission processor 22 streams the RS processed packets and transmits them to the user terminal 300 as shown in FIG. 4 (S190).

As described above, by encoding and transmitting data corresponding to the content in real time while streaming, the user may receive and play the corresponding content on the terminal 300 in real time (S200), in particular, Since the packet rate is adjusted, the phenomenon of bps fluctuation can be prevented. In addition, the streaming transmission rate is converted to a flat (shaping) structure, a stable streaming service is achieved.

Meanwhile, as described above, RS processing may be performed when a real time streaming service is performed, and RS processing may also be performed when a VOD streaming service using a file is performed.

FIG. 7 illustrates an interworking relationship between a terminal and each server when performing a streaming service using a file, and FIG. 8 sequentially illustrates a streaming service process using such a file.

As shown in FIG. 7 and FIG. 8, the user executes a program (eg, a browser) capable of connecting to a network on a terminal (eg, a PDA), and the like, and the VOD system according to an embodiment of the present invention. When connected to 100, the management server 40 provides a selectable menu (S300 to S310). Accordingly, when the user selects a predetermined menu and selects a content having a desired title (S320), the management server 40 transmits an address (URL) for accessing the selected content to the user terminal 300 (S330). Here, the address, that is, the URL, is an address accessible to a server capable of receiving the streaming service, and is composed of an address and a path of the content. Meanwhile, the authentication step for the user terminal may be performed above.

The user terminal 300 receiving the address closes the browser and drives a player capable of playing the content to access the streaming server 20 corresponding to the address (S340).

The streaming server 20 checks whether the user terminal 300 to be accessed is authenticated through the management server 40 (this authentication step may be selectively performed), and then the storage unit 41 of the management server 40. After the corresponding content file is found, the user terminal 300 is notified that preparation for transmission is completed (S350 to S360). Accordingly, if the player of the user terminal 300 establishes a connection with the streaming server 20 according to the protocol standard (S370), the streaming server 20 is described above with respect to the data corresponding to the content (Fig. 5). Reference) After performing the RS process and transmits to the user terminal (300). That is, as described above, the size of a frame to be transmitted per packet is set according to the terminal protocol parsing mechanism and the decoding processing capability, packetized the data according to the set frame size, and then streamed and transmitted (S380). S390).

The player of the user terminal 300 receives and reproduces the data transmitted in this way (S400).

As described above, by adjusting the data so that the frame rate transmitted per packet is constant, the separation rate (indicating the amount of change in BPS) of the BPS can be significantly reduced.

9 shows a variation rate of the separation rate according to RS processing according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 9 (a) is a graph showing a BPS separation rate of data that is streamed and transmitted according to the prior art, and FIG. 9 (b) shows data of the case of streaming transmission of RS processed data according to an embodiment of the present invention. A graph showing the BPS separation rate.

When streaming the MPEG file content encoded at 120kbps without RS processing, as shown in FIG. 9 (a), the maximum BPS separation rate is high as 149%, whereas as shown in FIG. If the file content is subjected to RS processing and then streamed, the maximum BPS separation rate is 8.8%. Therefore, it can be seen that the amount of data transmitted according to RS processing is constant.

Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above, the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto, and various modifications and improvements of those skilled in the art using the basic concepts of the present invention defined in the following claims are also provided. It belongs to the scope of rights.

According to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the streaming terminal transmits the streaming transmission bit rate as uniformly (flatly) as possible at the time of VOD service, thereby stably streaming data.

In addition, the phenomenon that the bps fluctuates is reduced, thereby minimizing the load on the wired / wireless network.

In addition, a plurality of users may be provided with a uniform quality of service (QoS).

In addition, even when the number of service users increases at the same time, it is possible to efficiently use a limited network bandwidth.

1 is a conceptual diagram of a VOD service system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a structural diagram of a VOD service system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a conceptual diagram of a real-time streaming transmission according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a real-time streaming transmission process shown in FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a detailed flowchart of RS processing shown in FIG. 4.

6 is a packet structure diagram of an RTP.

7 is a conceptual diagram illustrating streaming transmission using a file according to an embodiment of the present invention.

8 is a flowchart illustrating a streaming transmission processing process using the file illustrated in FIG. 7.

9 is a diagram showing the amount of change in BPS according to RS processing in the embodiment of the present invention.

Claims (15)

In the VOD service system that is connected to the user terminal through a network to provide a video on demand (VOD) service, A size determiner which determines a size of a data frame to be transmitted per transmission unit, a size analyzer which analyzes a size of a data frame to be transmitted to the user terminal, and a frame rate to be transmitted per transmission unit according to the determined frame size and a frame size to be transmitted A rate adjusting unit including a frame processing unit for adjusting the control unit; And Streaming transmission processing unit for streaming the frame rate-controlled data to transmit to the user terminal VOD service system comprising a. In the VOD service system that is connected to the user terminal through a network to provide a video on demand (VOD) service, A rate controller which determines a size of a data frame to be transmitted per transmission unit, and adjusts a rate of a data frame to be transmitted per transmission unit according to the determined frame size, and streams the data whose frame rate is adjusted. Streaming server comprising a streaming transmission processing unit for transmitting to the user terminal; And Providing a menu for selecting contents to a user terminal connected through the network, and when the user selects predetermined content, provides a streaming server address to the user terminal, and the user terminal accesses the streaming server to select the selected content. Management server to receive data corresponding to content VOD service system comprising a. The method of claim 2, The rate control unit A size determiner configured to determine a size of a data frame to be transmitted per transmission unit; A size analyzer which analyzes a size of a data frame to be transmitted to the user terminal; A frame processor for adjusting a frame rate to be transmitted per transmission unit according to the determined frame size and a frame size to be transmitted; VOD service system comprising a. The method according to claim 1 or 3 The rate control unit A terminal information processing unit for extracting terminal information from a user terminal connected through the network; The size determining unit determines the processing capacity of the terminal according to the terminal information, and sets the frame size to be transmitted per transmission unit according to the determination result. The method of claim 4 And the size determining unit sets one frame to be transmitted per transmission unit when the user terminal is determined to be a wireless terminal according to the terminal information. The method according to claim 1 or 3 The frame processing unit And when the size of the data frame to be transmitted is larger than the determined frame size, divides the data frame to be transmitted into a plurality of packets according to the determined frame size. The method of claim 2 And an encoding server for encoding data provided from an information provider connected on a network and providing the encoded data to the rate controller. The method of claim 7, The encoding server is a VOD service system for encoding and providing the data in real time. The method of claim 2 The management server stores a content edited and authored by a separate authoring tool or content provided from the information provider VOD service system further comprising. The method of claim 9 When the user requests a file streaming service, the streaming server reads data corresponding to the content requested by the user from the storage unit, and then performs frame rate adjustment and streaming processing on the data. In a VOD service method of a system connected to a user terminal through a network, a) determining a frame size to transmit per packet; b) analyzing a data frame size to be sent to the user terminal; c) packetizing the data frame by comparing the determined frame size with the analyzed frame size and adjusting a frame rate to be transmitted per packet; And d) streaming the packetized data and transmitting the streamed data to the user terminal; VOD service method comprising a. The method of claim 11, Encoding the data provided from the information provider via the network into a predetermined format, Step b) is to analyze the frame size of the encoded data. The method of claim 11, And receiving and storing the stored and edited data, The step b) reads the stored data and then analyzes the frame size. The method of claim 11, Step a) Extracting terminal information from the user terminal; Determining a processing capability of the terminal according to the terminal information and setting a frame size to be transmitted per packet based on the determination result. The method of claim 11, Step c) And when the size of the data frame to be transmitted is larger than the determined frame size, dividing the data frame to be transmitted into a plurality of packets according to the determined frame size.