KR20080051457A - System for channel zapping in iptv and method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

A channel change method in an IPTV(Internet Protocol TV) and a system therefor are provided to reduce the loss of a bandwidth of a network and change a channel at high speed in IPTV environment by previously registering a plurality of viewing candidate channels in a router through the correction of an existing IGMP(Internet Group Management Protocol) message. Routers(106,107) receive a channel change request of a user in IPTV environment and previously register viewing candidate channels. An Internet broadcasting server(108) previously transmits broadcasting packets of the viewing candidate channels to the routers. When a channel whose change is requested by the user is included in the previously registered candidate channels, the routers transmit the corresponding broadcasting packet to a set-top box(101) of the user.

Description

Channel change method in IPP and its system {System for channel zapping in IPTV and Method}

1 is a block diagram of a network for transmitting an Internet broadcast service packet from an Internet broadcast server to a subscriber.

2 is a view showing an example of a TV screen for the fast change of the channel according to the present invention.

3 is an IGMP Report message format newly defined in the present invention.

4 is an IGMP Leave message format newly defined in the present invention.

5A and 5B illustrate a configuration of a sub-screen at the time of changing a channel in the preferred channel registration mode and a flow for changing the channel of the main screen, showing a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a channel change in a case where a sub picture does not exist and is in a normal mode, and shows another preferred embodiment of the present invention.

The present invention relates to a channel change system in IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) and a method thereof, and more particularly, to register a viewing candidate channel to a router in advance by modifying an Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) message. A system and method for enabling channel change at high speed.

In case of the existing IPTV, if the user wants to change the channel, the channel is released by using the IGMP Leave message to release the existing channel from the router and inserting the channel to be changed in the IGMP Report message. Is done. In this case, the router uses the multicast routing protocol to generate a message for releasing the existing channel and transmit it to other routers when the channel is no longer needed, and to register a new channel if the inserted channel is not registered in the router. Create and send to other routers.

Therefore, if a new channel due to channel change is already registered in the router, the change to the new channel can be made quickly, but if it is not registered in the router, the channel change time becomes long. Currently, most IPTV services broadcast broadcast service packets to a router adjacent to the set-top box for faster channel change time, and channel change is performed using IGMP only between the set-top box and the router. In this case, since the broadcast service packet (broadcast data) is broadcast in the IP network, there is a problem that the loss of network bandwidth is inevitably increased.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention and the technical problem to be achieved is to reduce the loss of bandwidth of the network by registering a plurality of viewing candidate channels in advance through the modification of the existing IGMP message in the IPTV eventually The present invention provides a method and a system for changing a channel in an IPTV that enable a high speed channel change in an environment.

In order to embody the technical idea of the present invention and to achieve the above object and technical problem, a method of changing a channel in IPTV disclosed herein

(a) the set-top box pre-registering the viewing candidate channels with the router upon changing of the channel being watched by the user in the IPTV environment; (b) an internet broadcasting server providing an IPTV service, previously transmitting broadcast packets of the viewing candidate channels to the router; And (c) if the channel changed by the user is included in the pre-registered candidate channels, the router transmitting the corresponding broadcast packet to the set-top box, thereby achieving the object and technical problem of the present invention.

In order to embody the technical idea of the present invention and to achieve the above object and technical problem, the channel change system in the IPTV disclosed herein

A router for pre-registering viewing candidate channels in response to a channel change request of a user in an IPTV environment; And an internet broadcasting server for pre-transmitting broadcast packets of the viewing candidate channels to the router, and when the channel requested by the user is included in the pre-registered candidate channels, the router corresponds to the set-top box of the user. The purpose and technical problem of the present invention are achieved by transmitting a broadcast packet.

First, for the convenience of understanding the operation of the present invention will be mentioned the core of the technical idea provided by the present invention.

The core of the technical idea of the present invention relates to a method for supporting a channel change at high speed when providing a broadcast service through the Internet. ) To receive the broadcast service packet of candidate channels from the router to the router.

To this end, the present invention registers the viewing candidate channels with the router in advance so that the broadcast service packets of the candidate channels are precast from the broadcast header end to the router. Therefore, if the channel is a candidate channel registered in advance when the user's channel is changed, the corresponding broadcast service packet is directly transmitted from the router to the set-top box, so that the channel can be changed in a short time, which is the biggest effect of the technical idea of the present invention. to be.

Hereinafter, the configuration of the invention for clarifying the technical spirit of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, based on the embodiments of the present invention. The same reference numerals are used even in different drawings, and it will be apparent that components of other drawings may be cited when necessary in describing the drawings.

1 is a block diagram of a network for transmitting an Internet broadcast service packet from an Internet broadcast server to a subscriber. The configuration of the network shown in FIG. 1 corresponds to the basic environment for carrying out the invention.

The transmission of the Internet broadcast service packet (broadcast data, hereinafter referred to as 'broadcast packet') from the Internet broadcast server 108 to the user is first performed through the home gateway (HomeGW) 103 in the subscriber set-top box 101. The router 106 of 105 registers the multicast address of the channel to be watched using the IGMP protocol, and each of the routers 106 and 107 is transmitted from the Internet broadcast server 108 through multicast routing. The service packet is transmitted to the home gateway 103.

At this time, when the user wants to change the channel, the set-top box 101 transmits an IGMP Leave message to the router 106 to release the multicast address of the existing channel, and registers the IGMP Report to register the multicast address of the new channel. Send a message to the router 106. When the channel 106 no longer exists, the router 106 receives the IGMP Leave message and informs neighboring routers of the release of the multicast address of the channel using the multicast routing protocol. If the multicast address is not registered, the neighboring routers are notified using the multicast routing protocol to register the multicast address of the new channel. Thereafter, when the broadcast service packet of the new channel is transmitted to the set-top box 101 through the router 106 and the home gateway 103, the user can watch the Internet broadcast corresponding to the new channel.

At this time, when the new channel is already registered in the router 106 connected to the home gateway 103, since the broadcast packet of the new channel is already being transmitted to the router 106, the router 106 to the set-top box 101. The channel change time is quick because the broadcast packet can be transmitted immediately. However, if a new channel is not registered, the router 106 must register the new channel with neighboring routers using the multicast router protocol, and must receive broadcast packets of the new channel through several routers. Changing channels takes a lot of time.

Accordingly, the present invention modifies an existing IGMP message to register a plurality of viewing candidate channels (new channels) in advance with the router 106 and to receive broadcast packets of registered viewing candidate channels from the Internet broadcasting server 108 in advance. It is an object of the present invention to shorten the channel change time by allowing a broadcast packet of a new channel to be immediately received from the router 106 when the channel is changed.

In this case, the present invention proposes two methods for registering a new channel in advance. First, the user registers channels corresponding to the subscreen as a new channel while the subscreen is displayed on the TV screen. Second, the set top box 101 does not provide a subscreen. When providing only the screen (main screen) of the channel currently being watched, when a user changes to a new channel, a part of neighboring channels or favorite channels of the new channel is pre-registered as a new channel.

2 is a view showing an example of a TV screen for the fast change of the channel according to the present invention.

The set-top box 101 according to the present invention supports a function of allowing a user to change to a channel of the sub-screens 202 to 205 while watching the main screen and displaying only the main screen 201 on the TV screen.

The former function may be implemented in an environment in which a broadcast corresponding to a preferred channel is provided as a sub-screen or a broadcast corresponding to a neighboring channel, which is a channel before or after the current viewing channel, as a sub-screen, and the latter function is changed in a channel The upper and lower channels of the time remote controller may be implemented to be preferred channels or peripheral channels.

3 is a format of an IGMP Report message newly defined in the present invention.

The existing IGMP Report message, as shown in the upper part of FIG. 3, is a Group Record 306 which is multicast address information of a channel to be registered in the Type 301, Reserved 302, Checksum 303, and Router 106. , 307), and the number of group records (305). The format of the message shown in the lower part of FIG. 3 shows the format of the Group Records 306 and 307. Details of these messages are detailed in IGMP, and thus the detailed description thereof is weak.

In the present invention, in order to speed up the channel change rate of IPTV, the above-mentioned IGMP Report message is modified, and the number of Candidate Group Records (308, 309) and Candidate Group Records (304), namely, multiple viewing candidate channels, is added to the existing IGMP Report message. Add cast address information to define modified IGMP Report message. At this time, the message format of the Candidate Group Record 308 and 309 is the same as that of the Group Record 306 and 307 mentioned above.

4 is a format of an IGMP Leave message newly defined in the present invention.

Existing IGMP Leave message, as shown in Figure 4, Type (401), Maximum response time (402), Checksum (403) and Group Record (406, 407, 408), which is the multicast address information of the channel to be released, It is composed of a group record number 405. The details of these messages are specified in IGMP in detail as in the case of IGMP Report messages, so the detailed explanation is weak.

In the present invention, the IGMP Leave message described above is modified to speed up the channel change rate of the IPTV, and the Candidate Group Address (409 to 411) and the Candidate Group Address number (404), i. Add cast address information to define the modified IGMP Leave message.

In the present invention, the set-top box 101 allows a user to select (change) a channel using a favorite channel registration function of registering a channel (favorite channel) that he / she likes (preferred channel registration mode), or the preferred channel. Allows you to select a channel in a mode other than the registration mode (normal mode).

In addition, the display side supports the mode that the user is currently watching and displays the main screen and sub-screen on the TV screen at the same time, and the mode in which only the main screen is displayed on the TV screen. In the registration mode, it can be configured as a channel registered as a favorite channel, and in the normal mode, it can be configured in the order of surrounding channels or channels in the main screen.

5A and 5B illustrate the configuration of a sub-screen when a channel is changed in the preferred channel registration mode and a flow for changing a channel of the main screen.

The user 102 selects the increase or decrease icons 206 and 207 of the channel (sub-channel) corresponding to the sub screen to request a change of the sub screen currently displayed on the TV 102 (S501). The set-top box 101 receives the change request and transmits a screen request message of a subchannel that is increased or decreased to the EPG server of the Internet broadcasting server 108 through the router 106 (S502a and S502b).

At this time, when the set-top box 101 transmits the screen request message of the sub-channel to the router 106, the IGMP is inserted by inserting the addresses of the sub-screen channels currently displayed in the Candidate Group Address 409 to 411 of FIG. Construct and send a Leave message. On the other hand, the router 106 receiving the IGMP Leave message transmits a multicast address information release message to neighboring routers when the terminal corresponding to the address inserted in the Candidate Group Address 409 to 411 no longer exists (S503). ).

The set-top box 101 receives the sub-screen requested to be changed from the broadcast server 108 and displays it on the TV 102 (S504), and the multicast address information of the channels corresponding to the displayed sub-screen is described above. It inserts into Candidate Group Records 308 and 309 in 3 to form an IGMP Report message and transmits it to the router 106 (S505).

When the multicast address information inserted in the IGMP Report message is not registered, the router 106 transmits a multicast registration message to neighboring routers (S506). The broadcast server 108 can be transmitted to the router 106 (S507).

In this situation, when the user 102 wants to change the channel of the main screen to any one of the sub-screens being displayed by the step S504, first, one of the sub-screens is selected (S508). The set-top box 101 inserts the channel address of the main screen currently displayed in the Group Address 406 to 408 in FIG. 4 to generate an IGMP Leave message and transmit it to the router 106 (S509).

Receiving the IGMP Leave message, the router 106 transmits a multicast address information release message to neighboring routers when the terminal registered with the address inserted in the group address 406 to 408 no longer exists (S510). In addition, the set-top box 101 inserts multicast address information of a channel corresponding to the selected sub-screen in the Group Records 306 to 307 in FIG. 3 to generate an IGMP Report message and transmit the generated IGMP Report message to the router 106 (S512a). .

The router 106 transmits the broadcast packet corresponding to the multicast address previously transmitted from the Internet broadcasting server 108 in step S507 and inserted into the IGMP Report message by S511 to the set-top box 101 (S512b). Channel changes are made to.

In the case of FIG. 5A, when the channel of the sub screen is selected, the selected sub screen becomes the main screen and the sub screens are not changed. Unlike the above, it may be assumed that the previous main screen may move to the sub screen while the sub screen is changed to the main screen. The flow in this case is shown in Figure 5b.

First, steps S501 to S508 in FIG. 5A are applied to the case in FIG. 5B. The set top box 101 transmits a screen request message of a sub channel to the internet broadcasting server 108. At this time, the channel address of the selected subscreen is inserted into the group record 306 to 307, and the channel address of the main screen currently displayed is inserted into the candidate group record 308 to 309 to generate an IGMP Report message. Are transmitted to (S519a, S519b).

Receiving the IGMP Report message, the router 106 stops transmitting the broadcast packet of the channel of the main screen inserted in the Candidate Group Address (308 to 309) to the set top box (101), and the group record (306 to 307). By sending the broadcast packet corresponding to the multicast address to the set-top box 101, the channel corresponding to the selected sub screen is displayed as the main screen of the TV 102, and the previous main screen is moved to the sub screen to change the channel for the main screen. This is done (S520a, S520b).

6 is a flowchart of channel change in the case where the sub picture does not exist and is in the normal mode.

If the user 102 requests a channel change by increasing or decreasing the channel number (S601), the set-top box 101 is a peripheral channel of the channel of the newly changed screen among the channels existing in the previous Candidate Group Records 308 to 309. By inserting the addresses of the channels other than the Candidate Group Address (409 to 411) to generate an IGMP Leave message and transmits to the router 106 (S602). On the other hand, the router 106 is already receiving the broadcast packet of the channels that existed in the previous Candidate Group Records 308 to 309 from the Internet broadcast server 108.

The router 106 receiving the IGMP Leave message transmits a multicast address information release message to neighboring routers when the terminal corresponding to the address inserted in the Candidate Group Address 409 to 411 no longer exists (S603). The set-top box 101 generates an IGMP Report message by inserting the channel address of the existing screen and the channel address that is a new peripheral channel into the Candidate Group Records 308 to 309 and inserting the newly selected channel into the Group Records 306 to 307. The router 106 transmits the data to the router 106 (S604).

The router 106 stops the transmission of the broadcast packet of the channel corresponding to the multicast address inserted in the Candidate Group Records 308 to 309 of the IGMP Report message to the set-top box 101, and the Group Records 306 to 307. The channel is changed by transmitting the broadcast packet of the channel corresponding to the multicast address inserted into the user 102 via the set top box 101 (S605a, S605b). In addition, when the multicast address of the Candidate Group Records 308 to 309 is not registered, the router 106 transmits a multicast address information registration message to the neighboring router (S606), and broadcasts the neighboring channels of the channel displayed on the screen. Packets are received from the Internet broadcasting server 108 (S607).

As an example of this situation, if there are four candidate channels (peripheral channels), assuming that the user is watching channel 10, channel 10 is currently registered as a group record (306 to 307), and 8,9 Channels 11 and 12 are registered as Candidate Group Records (308 to 309). At this time, the router 106 is receiving broadcast packets corresponding to channels 8, 9, 11, and 12 from the Internet broadcasting server 108.

If the user requests channel change to watch channel 9, channel 10 becomes Candidate Group Record (308-309) in Group Record (306-307), and channel 7 becomes Candidate Group Record (308-309). Newly added. Meanwhile, channel 12 is removed from the Candidate Group Records 308 to 309 and inserted into the Candidate Group Addresses 409 to 411, and Channel 9 becomes the Group Records 306 to 307.

Although FIG. 6 illustrates an embodiment of a channel change in the normal mode, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the channel change may be operated in the same manner in the preferred channel registration mode.

The present invention can also be embodied as computer readable code on a computer readable recording medium. The computer-readable recording medium includes all kinds of recording devices in which data that can be read by a computer system is stored.

Examples of computer-readable recording media include ROM, RAM, CD-ROM, magnetic tape, floppy disk, optical data storage, and the like, and may also be implemented in the form of a carrier wave (for example, transmission over the Internet). Include. The computer readable recording medium can also be distributed over network coupled computer systems so that the computer readable code is stored and executed in a distributed fashion.

So far I looked at the center of the preferred embodiment for the present invention. Those skilled in the art will understand that the present invention may be implemented in a modified form without departing from the essential characteristics of the present invention.

Therefore, the disclosed embodiments should be considered in descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation. The scope of the present invention is shown in the claims rather than the foregoing description, and all differences within the equivalent scope will be construed as being included in the present invention.

According to the present invention, the change candidate channel (new channel) is registered in advance in the router, and the broadcast packet of the registered candidate channel is received in advance from the Internet broadcasting server, so that when the channel is changed, the broadcast packet of the new channel can be received directly from the router. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the channel change time of the IPTV to achieve a desirable effect of enabling a faster channel change rate.

Claims (15)

(a) the set-top box pre-registering the viewing candidate channels with the router upon changing of the channel being watched by the user in the IPTV environment; (b) an internet broadcasting server providing an IPTV service, previously transmitting broadcast packets of the viewing candidate channels to the router; And (c) if the channel changed by the user is included in the pre-registered candidate channels, the router transmitting the corresponding broadcast packet to the set-top box. The method of claim 1, wherein the viewing candidate channels are The channel changing method in the IPTV, characterized in that the user's favorite channel or the channel surrounding the channel being watched by the user. The method of claim 2, wherein the set top box provides the preferred channel or the neighboring channel as a sub screen to the user's TV. The method of claim 3, wherein step (a) And the set-top box inserts the multicast address information of the viewing candidate channels to generate an IGMP Report message, and transmits the IGMP Report message to the router. The method of claim 4, wherein the user changes the channel being watched. The set-top box inserts the multicast address information of the channel being watched by the user to generate an IGMP Leave message and transmits it to the router, and the router transmits the multicast address information release message of the channel being watched to a neighboring router. And disabling the multicast address information of the channel being watched. The method of claim 4, wherein the user changes the channel being watched. The set-top box does not generate the IGMP Leave message for releasing the channel being watched, and inserts the multicast address information of the channel being watched into the multicast address information of the candidate channels to transmit the IGMP Report message. A method of changing a channel in IPTV, characterized in that. The method of claim 6, wherein the screen of the channel being watched is provided as the sub-screen due to the channel change of the user. A computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for executing the method of claim 1 on a computer. A router for pre-registering viewing candidate channels in response to a channel change request of a user in an IPTV environment; And An internet broadcast server for pre-transmitting broadcast packets of the viewing candidate channels to the router; And when the channel requested by the user is included in the pre-registered candidate channels, the router transmits a corresponding broadcast packet to the set-top box of the user. 10. The method of claim 9, wherein the viewing candidate channels The channel change system in the IPTV, characterized in that the user's favorite channel or the channel surrounding the channel being watched by the user. The system of claim 10, wherein the set top box provides the preferred channel or the peripheral channel as a sub screen to the user's TV. The method of claim 11, wherein the pre-registration of the viewing candidate channels is performed. And the set-top box inserts multicast address information of the viewing candidate channels to generate an IGMP Report message, and transmits the IGMP Report message to the router. The method of claim 12, wherein when the user changes the channel being watched The set-top box inserts the multicast address information of the channel being watched by the user to generate an IGMP Leave message and transmit the message to the router. And the router releases the multicast address information of the channel being watched to the neighboring router to release the multicast address information of the channel being watched. The method of claim 12, wherein when the user changes the channel being watched The set-top box does not generate the IGMP Leave message for releasing the channel being watched, and inserts the multicast address information of the channel being watched into the multicast address information of the candidate channels to transmit the IGMP Report message. A channel change system in IPTV, characterized in that. 15. The channel change system of claim 14, wherein a screen of the channel being viewed is provided as the sub-screen due to the channel change request of the user.

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