KR20070109800A - Method and apparatus for roaming/handover with service continuity in cbms - Google Patents

Abstract

A method and apparatus for roaming/handover with service continuity in CBMS(Convergence of Broadcasting and Mobile Service) are provided to switch service mapping information between a neighboring network and a home network, thereby effectively scheduling when receiving the service of the terminal by supporting the service continuity of a terminal. A method for roaming/handover with service continuity in CBMS(Convergence of Broadcasting and Mobile Service) comprises the following steps of: requesting service mapping information to a home network through an interactive channel by sensing a need of roaming of a terminal which receives a specific service; switching service mapping information including time difference information according to a service support and content type information; and responding collected service mapping information to the terminal through the interactive channel in the home network.

Description

Roaming method and apparatus for guaranteeing service continuity in digital broadcasting system {METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ROAMING / HANDOVER WITH SERVICE CONTINUITY IN CBMS}

1 is a block diagram illustrating a convergence structure of a broadcast and mobile communication service according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 illustrates a data model of an electronic service announcement (ESG) according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 3 illustrates a conventional roaming procedure without service continuity to which the present invention is applied.

4 illustrates a roaming procedure that guarantees service continuity in accordance with the present invention.

5 is a signal flow diagram illustrating a procedure of a terminal according to the present invention.

6A and 6B are signal flow diagrams illustrating a procedure of a home network according to the present invention.

7 illustrates a signaling flow of roaming messages to guarantee service continuity according to the present invention.

8 illustrates a structure of a network according to the present invention.

9 illustrates the structure of a terminal according to the present invention;

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a digital broadcasting system, and more particularly, using an electronic service guide (hereinafter referred to as ESG) of convergence of broadcasting and mobile service (hereinafter referred to as CBMS) A method and apparatus for roaming to guarantee service continuity of a specific service in progress.

Today, due to the development of communication and broadcasting technology, a broadcasting system or a mobile communication system provides a portable broadcasting, and a portable terminal capable of transmitting packet data through a broadcast channel as well as a general broadcasting service limited to voice and video. Mobile Broadcast is under discussion.

The portable broadcast includes a discovery of a service by a mobile terminal such as a mobile phone, a notebook computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), etc. that can receive the portable broadcast, a subscription of the service by the mobile terminal, and various services for receiving the service. Providing branch control information, the transmission of the service and the reception of the service by the mobile terminal can be made.

The Open Mobile Alliance (hereinafter referred to as OMA) is one of the organizations that research standards for interoperability of individual mobility solutions, and is mainly responsible for setting various application standards for mobile games and Internet services. Doing.

Among the working groups of OMA, especially the sub working group of OMA BAC (Browser and Content) BCAST (Mobile Broadcast), a broadcasting service and a mobile communication service are provided by using a mobile terminal capable of communicating with an interactive network. I'm working on a technique for fusion.

In addition, DVB-CBMS (Digital Video Broadcasting-Convergence of Broadcasting and Mobile Service), which is one of the standards for portable broadcasting terminal, also defines a system structure and interface for convergence of broadcasting service and mobile communication service.

In general, a terminal for receiving a broadcast service in a mobile broadcasting system receives a service guide (SG) including description information about the service itself, billing information for the service, and information on a method of receiving the service. By using the service guide, a desired service is received.

In a mobile broadcasting system, when a terminal moves to a network of another service provider (that is, a visited network) instead of the home service provider's network (that is, a home network) to which the user subscribes, the user may use the terminal owned by the user. You want to receive the services of a home network broadcast service or a foreign service provider in a roaming contract. This procedure is called roaming. In addition, even when the terminal moves from the home network to the visited network while receiving the broadcast service, the user wants to receive the broadcast service through the terminal without interruption. This procedure is called handover.

However, the conventional convergence system of broadcast and mobile communication services does not provide a clear procedure for roaming and handover of broadcast services.

Therefore, there is a need for a technique for efficiently providing roaming and handover of a broadcast service in a portable broadcasting system.

Accordingly, the present invention, which has been devised to solve the problems of the prior art operating as described above, provides a roaming method and apparatus for guaranteeing continuity of services in a convergence system of broadcasting and mobile communication services.

In addition, the present invention provides a method and apparatus for roaming by exchanging service mapping information between a home network and a neighbor network in order to ensure continuity of services in a convergence system of broadcasting and mobile communication services.

In addition, the present invention provides a roaming method and apparatus for generating and exchanging a message including service content type information between a home network and a neighbor network in order to ensure continuity of services in a convergence system of broadcasting and mobile communication services.

In addition, the present invention provides a roaming method and apparatus for generating and exchanging a message including time difference information of a service between a home network and a neighbor network in order to ensure continuity of services in a convergence system of broadcasting and mobile communication services.

The present invention relates to a roaming method of guaranteeing service continuity in a digital broadcasting system, comprising: detecting a need for roaming by a terminal receiving a specific service and requesting service mapping information through an interactive channel to a home network; Exchanging service mapping information including content type information corresponding to the specific service and time difference information according to service support between the network and a neighboring network, and using the service mapping information collected by the home network to the terminal. It is characterized by including the process provided through.

In the present invention, when the home network and the neighbor network exchanges the service mapping information, the home network is the service mapping information request message corresponding to the same service as the specific service that the terminal is receiving the at least one or more neighboring network And receiving a service mapping information response message corresponding to the specific service from the at least one or more neighboring networks.

According to the present invention, when a home network and a neighbor network exchange service mapping information, the home network sends a service mapping information request message corresponding to a plurality of services that the terminal can receive to the at least one neighbor network. And transmitting a service mapping information response message corresponding to the requested plurality of services from the at least one neighboring networks.

Hereinafter, the operating principle of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description of the present invention, if it is determined that a detailed description of a known function or configuration may unnecessarily flow the gist of the present invention, the detailed description thereof will be omitted. Terms to be described later are terms defined in consideration of functions in the present invention, and may be changed according to intentions or customs of users or operators. Therefore, the definition should be made based on the contents throughout the specification.

The main subject of the present invention to be described below is a receiver that is a subscriber of a home service provider, i.e., a terminal, from a service area of a home service provider in another broadcasting network in a convergence of broadcasting and mobile communication services (CBMS) system. The present invention provides a method and apparatus for continuously receiving a service without interruption of a service being received when moving to a service area.

The present invention is characterized in that it is possible to exchange service mapping information by transmitting and receiving a service mapping request and response message between the home network and other networks.

1 is a block diagram showing the structure of a CBMS system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Here we show the logical entities to achieve the functions required for DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld) based Internet Protocol (IP) Data Cast (hereinafter referred to as IPDC). have. The illustrated entities are divided according to the main functions and may be located in physically separated servers or in the same server.

Referring to FIG. 1, a content provider (hereinafter referred to as CC) 110 produces a content source of a broadcast service and sends it to a service application block 120.

The service application block 120 aggregates the content sources from the content provider 110 with metadata required for service configuration to generate service data for a specific service. To this end, the service application block 120 is composed of a number of sub-entities that manage different applications for each service.

The service management block (hereinafter referred to as SM) 130 is a service configuration between the service application block 120 and the terminal 160 (service configuration), resource allocation, electronic service guidance provisioning (security) And so on.

The broadcast network 140 is a network for transmitting broadcast service data, which is, for example, a DVB-H system.

The bidirectional network 150 generally includes a cellular mobile communication network such as Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) according to 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) -2000 or Wireless Broadband internet (WiBro) according to 3GPP2. As another example, the present invention may be any kind of mobile communication network that provides a function of receiving information or a request transmitted from the terminal 160 and transmitting a response to the information or the request.

The broadcast network 140 and the bidirectional network 150 operate as transmission bearers in the CBMS system. The terminal 160 refers to a user terminal, and refers to a receiver capable of accessing the bidirectional network 150 and receiving a broadcast service from the broadcast network 140.

In the CBMS system, the terminal 160 receives service data and signaling information from the broadcast network, and communicates the service data and signaling information with the bidirectional network 150 in both directions.

The following describes an interface between each entity including the logical entities described above.

X-1. X-2 and X-3 interfaces refer to referential points (hereinafter referred to as 'reference points') between the broadcast network and other entities, and are generally not used in the bidirectional standard based on DVB-H. The X-1 interface connects between the content provider 110 and the service application block 120, the X-2 interface connects between the bidirectional network 150 and the terminal 160, and the X-3 interface connects the service management block. The connection between the 130 and the bidirectional network 150 is performed.

The CBMS-1 interface carries broadcast related signaling, and the CBMS-2 interface carries contents such as audio, video, and files. The CBMS-3 interface carries an electronic service announcement (ESG). The CBMS-4 interface carries electronic service announcements in the form of point-to-point (PtP) transmissions. The CBMS-5 interface carries Short Message Service (SMS), Multimedia Message Service (MMS), etc. in the form of point-to-point transmission. The CBMS-6 interface carries configuration parameters such as the number of services, the allocated bandwidth, and the like for DVB-H transmission. The CBMS-7 interface carries the declaration or metadata of the service application. The above description is only representative of the functions of the respective interfaces, and the functions of the respective interfaces are not limited only by the above description.

2 illustrates a data model of an electronic service announcement (ESG) according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, each block shown represents fragments of ESG data. That is, the ESG data model includes the service fragment 202, the schedule event fragment 204, the content fragment 206, the acquisition fragment 208, the service bundle fragment 210, the purchase fragment 212, and the purchase fragment. It consists of channel fragments 214.

The service fragment 202 includes a description of the overall service, the schedule event fragment 204 represents information of a service over time, and the acquisition fragment 208 provides service access information that must be known in order to receive service data. The service bundle fragment 210 includes information on a case where multiple services are bundled into a single service bundle, and the purchase fragment 212 informs price information for purchasing the service bundle, and a purchase channel fragment. 214 informs the system about which system to use to obtain the right to purchase.

Each fragment of the data model may refer to another fragment and arrows between the fragments indicate the reference relationship. The reference refers to information that a current fragment is associated with its fragment using information transmitted from another fragment. That is, when one service is composed of several contents, the service fragment 202 includes only the description of the entire service, for example, the name of the service and the language of the service, and the content itself transmitted through the service. The description is not included, but the service fragment is referred to in the content fragment 206 of the corresponding content. In addition, in order to know various pieces of information necessary for the terminal to receive the service, for example, session information used in a protocol to be transmitted, the information is received by demodulating and acquiring the acquisition fragment 208 referenced by the service fragment 202. Can get them.

The ESG data is separately transmitted to the terminal using at least one IP (Internet Protocol) stream at a separate time from the data stream. Thus, the service provider can use the ESG data model to provide information before the service is sent that the user should know before receiving the service. By receiving the ESG stream, the terminal acquires information necessary for receiving the services provided by the service provider, and when the user selects a specific service, the terminal uses the obtained information to transmit the data stream. After accessing, you will receive data. Information for the terminal to access the service data stream is transmitted through the acquisition fragment 208 as described in FIG.

The ESG data model is bundled in several pieces for each fragment and contained in one container, and each container is regarded as one object in a File Delivery over Unidirectional Transport Protocol (FLUTE) session and transmitted.

When handover is required in the CBMS system, different handover types according to different conditions are used. For example, depending on the availability of an interactive channel, passive handover may be used or active handover may be used. In this case, signaling transmission through a bidirectional channel or service delivery through a bidirectional channel is used depending on whether signaling information or service data can be delivered through a bidirectional channel. In addition, network control handover and terminal control handover may be used depending on whether the handover decision is made to the network or the terminal.

Since the UE cannot immediately know the entire handover procedure without condition information, it is necessary to communicate with the network to obtain information related to the handover type (hereinafter referred to as handover information). Therefore, in the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the above handover information is added to the electronic service announcement (ESG) related to the broadcast service. The UE obtains the handover information from the ESG before the handover actually occurs, and determines the time and handover type appropriately based on other condition information obtained from the ESG.

The handover information according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention is added as a new information element to at least one of the service fragment 202, the content fragment 206, the acquisition fragment 208 described as an example, or ESG It is added as a new fragment (eg a handover fragment) within.

In this regard, the concept of handover and roaming is not clearly defined in the current mobile communication system, but it is expected that handover and roaming will change according to changes of IP platform, ESG provider and network operator.

In this regard, the present invention proposes a method for performing hand-off and roaming in the case of assuming an IP platform change. In addition, the present invention can be modified and applied according to other definitions such as changing the ESG provider, changing the network operator.

In addition, "roaming" and "handover" refer to the same procedure, the present invention is characterized by using the term 'roaming' as an example. In addition, the present invention describes the 'roaming' and the 'IP' platform as an example, hereinafter, it characterized in that it also includes a roaming procedure according to the ESG provider change, network operator change.

3 illustrates a roaming procedure that is not guaranteed for service continuity in connection with the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 3, in step 311, the terminal receives a service from a home network (IP platform, ESG provider). In step 312, the ESG of the neighbor network is viewed. In step 313, the service is received from another network (IP platform, ESG provider).

As described above, the terminal may not be able to consume a service on one IP platform (ESG provider, network provider, etc.), and when the terminal still wants to consume the service, another IP may be used. Can be tuned to the platform. This procedure is called roaming.

However, according to the current general roaming procedure, the terminal must stop receiving the service currently provided in the home network in order to receive the ESG of the neighbor network and confirm whether the desired service exists in step 312. In this case, when a desired service exists in another network, the terminal may switch to another network to receive a desired corresponding service (turn to receive the service). However, since the current service must be terminated first and then restarted, the roaming procedure according to FIG. 3 does not support service continuity of the terminal.

In this regard, FIG. 4 illustrates a roaming procedure for guaranteeing service continuity according to the present invention.

For example, if the same service exists in another IP platform, the terminal may search for the candidate while continuing to receive the service from the current IP platform, and receive the same service from the other IP platform. That is, roaming may be supported to guarantee service continuity. At this time, the service identifier (service ID, IP address) is assigned only within a certain range (one ESG provider, IP platform, network, etc.). If the terminal wants to keep the current consumption service out of the current range, the method proposed in the present invention can be used. The present invention intends to apply the present invention when the terminal wants to maintain service but change its reception from another range (eg, IP platform, provider, network, etc.).

First, looking at the concept of service continuity, it should consider two factors.

One is the continuity of the service content and the other is the time difference.

First, when considering the service content concept, service content from two different IP platforms (or ESG providers) may be classified into three types as shown in Table 1 below.

In addition, service continuation according to time difference may be classified into three types as shown in Table 2 below.

That is, when the type 1 time difference type is identical, the service A provided by the IP platforms (or ESG providers) of the home network and the IP platforms (or ESG providers) of the other network are provided. There is no time difference between services A '.

If the time difference type is ahead, the service A 'provided by the IP platforms (or ESG providers) of the other network is preceded by the service A provided by the IP platforms (or ESG providers) of the home network. If it is being serviced.

If the time difference type is behind, the service A provided by the IP platforms (or ESG providers) of the home network is preceded by the service A 'provided by the IP platforms (or ESG providers) of the other network. If it is being serviced. Therefore, it may be used to schedule a service in an external network by informing the time information of Table 2 above.

In consideration of the above factors, the mapping information may be summarized as shown in Table 3 below.

Here, service A is called a service of a home network (IP platform, ESG provider), and service A` is a mapping service of an external network (IP platform, ESG provider).

Here, the access information includes a corresponding frequency, transport stream, cell, network information, and the like, and may make it easier for the terminal to search for a desired service.

In addition, as described above, it can be seen that there are different types of service continuity problems. In practice, what type of type information is provided depends on the situation.

Case 1 .

For example, if a user is consuming a service while moving to the service area boundary of the current service, roaming is necessary.

However, the user wants to use the current service without interruption. In this case, the requirements for time are very high, and what the user wants is a service with no time difference. Therefore, the terminal needs only information on the candidate service with no time difference.

Case 2 .

For other uses, roaming occurs when a user moves between different countries (especially when taking into account the European communication environment, for example). At this point, the user does not want to consume the exact same service without interruption, but whether the same or similar services and related information as those of the home network (IP platform, ESG provider) are available on other networks (IP platform, ESG provider). Want to know.

This is because a user usually wants to consume some regular service even though he is away from the home network. If this information exists in an external ESG, the user can parse the external ESG to obtain that information.

In addition, if the corresponding information can be provided to the home network, there may be advantages as follows. First, the user does not have to wait until arriving at the external network, and after the external ESG is parsed, it can obtain this information in advance and plan accordingly. Second, you can store the procedure for parsing an external ESG.

For example, if the user moves to a foreign country and the ESG is in a foreign language, it may not be easy to find a service desired by the terminal.

Therefore, it would be convenient if the user was previously provided with the relevant service information as shown in Tables 4 and 5 below.

Through service mapping information as shown in Tables 4 and 5, a user can find a desired service more quickly and easily. Thus, this provides a beneficial advantage to the user in terms of service. In addition, this information provides a beneficial advantage for service operators by encouraging more users to consume the service as it supports the continuity of the service. In addition, the related information may be provided in various ways depending on the situation.

Accordingly, the present invention includes providing mapping information of a service between different IP platforms (or an ESG provider or a network operator). In particular, the present invention proposes a method of collecting mapping information through an interactive network.

4 illustrates a roaming procedure for guaranteeing service continuity according to the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 4, if it is found in step 411 that the terminal requires a roaming process, the terminal continues to receive a current service from the home network. In this case, the terminal receives a service from a home network (IP platform, ESG provider).

In step 412, the terminal requests and collects corresponding service mapping information through the interactive network. At this time, the terminal searches for candidates for roaming to guarantee service continuity.

In step 413, the terminal switches to receive the corresponding service from the neighbor network and receives the service from the neighbor network (IP platform, ESG provider). Accordingly, the terminal can support service continuity.

That is, when the same service exists in another IP platform (or provider, network, etc.), the terminal may enable service continuity by guaranteeing specific information.

In this regard, the present invention proposes mapping information indicating a relationship and an access parameter for the same service provided in different IP platforms (or providers, networks, etc.). The service mapping information may be added to PSI / SI or ESG. In addition, the service mapping information may be transmitted through an interactive channel.

Hereinafter, the procedure, message flow, and message format of each network node will be described in more detail below.

5 is a signal flow diagram illustrating a procedure of a terminal according to the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 5, in step 510, the terminal receives a service from a home network. In this case, when it is detected that roaming is necessary, the terminal sends a service mapping information request to the home network in step 512. In step 514, the terminal receives service mapping information from the home network. In step 516, the terminal checks whether service mapping information is available. In this case, if it is confirmed that the service mapping information is movable, in step 518, the terminal tests candidate networks and selects one other network that provides a service with the best signal. In step 520, the terminal roams to the selected neighbor network to continue the service.

Meanwhile, in step 516, no information available in the service mapping information exists, and the flow proceeds to step 522. In operation 522, a corresponding operation is performed.

As described above, the terminal sends a service mapping information request to the home network when roaming is required. In this case, the terminal may determine what kind of roaming service is acceptable, whether it is an identical, variation, or associated service, what is a requirement for service difference, whether scheduling is necessary, and access information. You can ask if it is necessary. Thereafter, after receiving the service mapping information response from the home network, the terminal checks whether the requested service mapping information is available and continuously receives the service.

6A and 6B illustrate a roaming procedure of a home network according to the present invention. Here, two embodiments may be described according to an agreement between a home network and an external network.

Referring to FIG. 6A, the home network communicates service mapping information with a neighbor network in step 610 and updates the service mapping information. At this time, the home network requests the service mapping information to the neighboring network and receives a response in response to the service mapping information request from the neighboring network. In step 612, the home network receives a service mapping information request from the terminal. In step 614, the home network sends a service mapping information response to the terminal.

As described above, in the first embodiment, the home network and the neighbor network communicate service mapping information and maintain updates. This means that the home network already stores mapping information. Therefore, when the home network receives the request, it can send a response directly to the terminal according to the communication information.

6B is a diagram illustrating a roaming procedure of a home network according to a second embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 6B, in step 620, the home network receives a service mapping information request from a terminal. In step 622, the home network sends a service mapping information request to the neighbor network. In step 624, the home network receives the service mapping information response from the neighbor network. In step 626, the home network sends a service mapping information response to the terminal.

As described above, in the second embodiment, the home network and the neighbor network do not communicate service mapping information in advance. Thus, when the home network receives the request, the home network sends a mapping information request to the neighboring network. When the home network receives the response from the neighbor network, the home network sends the result to the terminal.

7 is a diagram illustrating a signaling flow of a roaming message to guarantee service continuity according to the present invention. Here, message flow steps 711 to 761 relate to the first procedure, and message flow steps 712 to 762 relate to the second procedure.

Referring to FIG. 7, first, 701 denotes a terminal, and 703 denotes a home network. 705 represents a neighbor network providing the same service.

According to the first procedure, in step 707, the terminal 701 is receiving a service from the home network 703. At this time, the neighbor network 705 is in a state in which the current terminal provides a service receiving a service. In this regard, the terminal 701 roams to the neighbor network 705 to ensure continuity of services.

In step 711, the home network 703 receives service information communication from the neighbor network 705. The service information communication includes service mapping information. That is, the service mapping information is communicated between the home IP platform and the visited IP platform.

In step 721, the terminal 703 requests service mapping information from the home network 703 through an interactive channel.

In step 731, the interactive network transmits the service mapping information request to the MM block managing mobility, handover, and roaming of the terminal through an interactive channel. That is, the service mapping information request is requested to the home MM block as service mapping information for one service.

In step 741, the MM block transmits a service mapping information response for the terminal 701 to the interactive network. In the service mapping information response, service mapping information for one service will be transmitted to the terminal. In step 751, the interactive network transmits the service mapping information response to the terminal through the interactive channel.

In step 761, the terminal performs a test on the neighbor networks and selects one network that provides the best service among the candidate networks that have undergone the test. The terminal roams to the selected other network.

According to the second procedure, the terminal 701 is receiving a service from the neighbor network 705. In this case, the terminal 701 transmits the service mapping information request through the interactive channel to the home network 703 in step 712. In step 722, the service mapping information request is transmitted to an MM block that manages mobility, handover, and roaming of the terminal 701 through an interactive channel.

In step 732, the MM block that receives the service mapping information request message from the terminal 701 requests the service mapping information request to the neighbor network 705. In step 742, the MM block of the home network receives a service mapping information response from the neighbor network. In step 752, the MM block transmits the service mapping information response to the interactive network. In step 762, the interactive network transmits a service mapping information response through the interactive channel to the terminal.

In step 772, the terminal performs a test on the neighbor networks and selects one network that provides the best service among the candidate networks that have undergone the test. The terminal roams to the selected other network.

Hereinafter, a message defined in each step described in FIG. 7 will be defined. That is, according to the present invention will be described for the logical messages for roaming to ensure service continuity.

First, the service mapping information request is for a request for one or more services of interest of the terminal, and the terminal has one or more services of interest. At this time, the terminal wants to know only mapping information about the requested services. In addition, the terminal does not care whether other mapping services exist.

Accordingly, the network may define a service mapping information request message by defining a structure that filters and feeds back only mapping information about services requested by the terminal.

Table 6 below shows the structure of the service mapping information request.

In addition, when the terminal requests all mapping service information about one or more external networks, IP platforms, and ESG providers, that is, when the terminal wants to know all available mapping services that exist in one or more external networks, the network requests the request. All service mapping information is retrieved and fed back to the terminal.

In this case, the service mapping information request message may be indicated as a service mapping information request message type 2, which may be represented as shown in Table 7 below.

Table 8 below shows a service mapping information response message.

Hereinafter, the service mapping information response message may be configured by service by service, type by type, and scope by scope.

First, an example of configuring mapping information for each service, which is the first method, will be described.

Service by service; When enumerating all mapping service candidates one by one, mapping information may be configured as shown in Table 8 below.

At this time, the message format of the service mapping information response message is shown in Table 9 below. In addition, except for the mapping information, corresponding frequency, transport stream, cell, and network information may be provided so that the terminal may easily find a desired service.

According to the second method, an example of configuring mapping information for each type will be described.

Type by type; The mapping service may be classified according to the content type, and the mapping information may be configured as shown in Table 10 below.

At this time, the message format of the service mapping information response message is shown in Table 11 below.

Finally, an example of configuring mapping information for each range, which is a third method, will be described.

Scope by scope; Mapping services are classified according to different ranges, which may be based on different networks, IP platforms, ESG providers, and the like.

Accordingly, the mapping information based on the IP platform may be configured as shown in Table 12, or may be configured in a similar manner based on the ESG provider and the network operator.

The message format of the service mapping information response message based on the IP platform is shown in Table 13 below. At this time, the message format based on the network or ESG provider may also be configured as shown in Table 13.

8 is a diagram showing the structure of a network according to an embodiment of the present invention. Only entities that perform logical functions related to the preferred embodiment of the present invention are shown here in the SMs of the visited and home networks.

Referring to FIG. 8, the SA 804 combines related metadata and broadcast content from a plurality of sources to provide a specific service to generate service data, and the format of the service data can be understood by the terminal 820. After encoding to provide the terminal 820 through streaming or file carousel (carrousel) delivery, and generates metadata including the service description to be used in the ESG.

ESG entity 842 inside SM 808 is responsible for creating and sending ESGs using metadata provided from SA 804. The Service Configuration & Resource Allocation entity 844 is responsible for service configuration and network resource allocation, and communicates with the SA 804 to negotiate bandwidth of a broadcast bearer. It allocates services to locations on a broadcast network topology or determines service bandwidth and schedules service times.

Security / Service Protection provision entity 846 is responsible for security and authentication, service protection, and service provisioning. The entities 842 to 846 are connected to the MM block 840 to perform functions required for handover. The MM block 840 performs operations related to mobility of the terminal 820, particularly handover and roaming. In particular, in accordance with the present invention, the MM block 840 sends and receives roaming proposals and responses. It also communicates with other entities and sub-entities to support roaming procedures. Communicate with MM blocks in other networks for information exchange.

9 is a diagram illustrating a structure of a terminal receiver according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 9, the receiver 900 includes an interactive adapter 904 capable of connecting to a bidirectional network as well as a broadcast receiver 902 capable of receiving a broadcast signal from a broadcast network. The broadcast receiver 902 receives service data or signaling information from a broadcast network, and the bidirectional converter 904 transmits and receives service data or signaling information through a bidirectional network. MM block 908 handles handover related operations as mentioned above.

At least one of the devices 902, 904 receives an ESG to detect handover information and then sends the roaming information to the MM block 908, which performs the roaming related operations as described above. For processing, a subscription management block 910 that is in charge of the management / acquisition of terminal rights related to the service subscription and the decryption of service content, and a content receiving unit providing audio and video of a broadcast service to a user. (content consumption block) 912.

 Meanwhile, in the detailed description of the present invention, specific embodiments have been described, but various modifications are possible without departing from the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the scope of the present invention should not be limited to the described embodiments, but should be determined not only by the scope of the following claims, but also by the equivalents of the claims.

As described above, the present invention has an effect of supporting service continuity of a terminal receiving a specific service by exchanging service mapping information between a home network and a neighbor network. In this case, the present invention has an effect of effectively scheduling when receiving a service by supporting the service continuity in consideration of the characteristics of the contents of the service, or supporting the service continuity in consideration of the time difference.

That is, the present invention has the advantage of supporting the service requested by the terminal faster through the service mapping information between the home network and the neighboring network.

In addition, the present invention provides an advantage of providing business promotion to service operators by inducing more users to consume the service by supporting broadcasting with service continuity using service mapping information.

Claims (8)

A roaming method for guaranteeing service continuity in a digital broadcasting system, Detecting the need for roaming by a terminal receiving a specific service, requesting service mapping information to a home network through an interactive channel, Exchanging, by the home network and at least one neighboring network, content type information corresponding to the specific service and service mapping information including time difference information according to service support; And responding, by the home network, the collected service mapping information to the terminal through an interactive channel. The method of claim 1, wherein the exchanging of the service mapping information comprises: Transmitting, by the home network, a service mapping information request message corresponding to the same service as the specific service being received by the terminal to the at least one neighboring network; And receiving a service mapping information response message corresponding to the specific service from the at least one neighboring networks. The method of claim 1, wherein the exchanging of the service mapping information comprises: Transmitting, by the home network, a service mapping information request message corresponding to a plurality of services that the terminal can receive to the at least one neighboring network; And receiving a service mapping information response message corresponding to the requested plurality of services from the at least one neighboring networks. The method of claim 2, wherein the service mapping information request message, And information indicating whether the language is the same as the specific service, information indicating different language, information indicating different subtitle, and information indicating different camera. The method of claim 2, wherein the service mapping information request message, And information indicating whether to be serviced first with a time difference, and information indicating whether to be serviced later with the time difference. The method of claim 2, wherein the service mapping information response message is: And roaming information comprising one or more distinct service identifiers associated with the particular service. The method of claim 2, wherein the service mapping information response message is: Roaming method characterized in that it comprises services distinguished by content type in relation to the specific service. The method of claim 2, wherein the service mapping information response message is: Roaming method characterized in that it comprises services distinguished by the Internet protocol platform providing a service in relation to the specific service.

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