Patent Application
20070002885
This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119 to an application entitled “Conditional Access Method and DMB System for Regionally Limiting DMB Reception” filed in the Korean Intellectual Property Office on Jun. 16, 2005 and assigned Serial No. 2005-52093, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) system, and more particularly, to a conditional access system (CAS) for DMB.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a conditional access system (CAS) is a system for ensuring that pay broadcasts are only accessible to those who are entitled to watch them. The CAS performs a function for limiting access to services such that subscribers can receive the services only when paying viewing fees. That is, the CAS is the technology enabling “pay services” to be provided. When the broadcast content is scrambled and transmitted receivers are permitted to receive broadcast content only if viewing fees are paid.
Then, the DMB satellite 104 sends the TS packets to a DMB receiving terminal 102 on the ground. The DMB receiving terminal 102 receives and demultiplexes the scrambled TS packets from the DMB satellite 104 and extracts the ECM from the TS packets. The DMB receiving terminal 102 detects the presence of conditional access features for the specific broadcast content or the specific broadcast channel from the extracted ECM, and checks the EMM to determine if the reception of the broadcast content for the subscriber is limited through the subscriber information stored in the DMB receiving terminal 102. If it is determined that the subscriber is entitled to receive the broadcast content using the EMM, the DMB receiving terminal 102 descrambles the scrambled TS packets, such that a user can watch DMB. However, if it is determined that the subscriber is not entitled to receive the specific broadcast content using the EMM, the DMB receiving terminal 102 does not descramble the scrambled TS packets, such that the user cannot watch the specific broadcast content.
Because the broadcast content is collectively broadcast to DMB receiving terminals on the ground in case of DMB using the DMB satellite, a spillover phenomenon occurs in which the DMB is provided to an undesired region. When the DMB system broadcasts any broadcast content or broadcast channel limited to a specific region, TS packets may be received from the DMB satellite 104 regardless of a region. There is a problem in that the conventional DMB system cannot limit the reception of specific broadcast content in a specific region.
The ECM indicating conditional access features for specific broadcast content and the EMM indicating if the subscriber is entitled to receive the broadcast content can limit the reception of the specific broadcast content for the subscriber. These are only provided as means for limiting the reception of the broadcast content itself as in pay broadcast content or parental ratings for the broadcast content. However, the EMM and ECM do not provide regional conditional access features according to location of the DMB receiving terminal. There is a problem in that limiting the reception of specific broadcast content or a specific broadcast channel only in a specific region is impossible or various service fee systems cannot be provided to users according to DMB reception regions of the users.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) system and conditional access method that can limit the reception of broadcast content or a broadcast channel with regional conditional access features according to a current location of a DMB receiving terminal in a conditional access system (CAS) of the DMB system.
The above and other objects of the present invention can be achieved by a digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) system, including a DMB receiving terminal for limiting reception of a broadcast channel according to regional conditional access features of the broadcast channel selected by a user; and a DMB station for including and broadcasting reception restriction information for limiting the reception of the broadcast channel for a subscriber according to a region in which the DMB receiving terminal is located.
The above and other objects of the present invention can also be achieved by a conditional access method, including determining if there is present a broadcast channel with regional conditional access features for regionally limiting reception by digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) receiving terminals among broadcast channels in a DMB station; collecting location information from the DMB receiving terminals in the DMB station; checking a subscriber of a DMB receiving terminal whose reception of the broadcast channel with the regional conditional access features is limited using the location information and generating and broadcasting reception restriction information for limiting the reception of the broadcast channel from the DMB station; and limiting the reception of the broadcast channel for a user according to whether the reception restriction information has been received for the broadcast channel selected by the user in the DMB receiving terminal.
The above and other objects and advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail herein below with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, the same or similar elements are denoted by the same reference numerals even though they are depicted in different drawings. In the following description, detailed descriptions of functions and configurations incorporated herein that are well known to those skilled in the art are omitted for clarity and conciseness. The present invention can be applied for broadcast content such as a specific broadcast program, but an example in which the present invention is applied for a broadcast channel will be described for convenience of explanation.
First, a basic principle of the present invention will be described to help a better understanding of the present invention. In the present invention, a digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) station collects information about location of a DMB receiving terminal when a broadcast channel with regional conditional access features is being broadcast. Here, the DMB station can collect the location information received by the DMB receiving terminal from a Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite. Of course, when the DMB receiving terminal can interwork with a mobile communication network, the DMB station can collect the location information from a base station (BS) of the mobile communication network. The DMB station checks those subscribers for whom reception of the broadcast channel with the regional conditional access features is limited.
For the subscribers determined as being located in a limited region according to the regional conditional access features of the broadcast channel, reception restriction information is generated to limit the reception of the broadcast channel. Here, the reception restriction information can be included in subscriber entitlement information. In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, the DMB station generates and transmits information indicating if a user of the DMB receiving terminal can watch a specific broadcast channel in a region in which the DMB receiving terminal is located. On the basis of subscriber entitlement information, the DMB receiving terminal descrambles TS packets of the broadcast channel and outputs the descrambled packets. Therefore, the present invention can limit the reception of the specific broadcast channel according to the region in which the user of the DMB receiving terminal is located.
When the DMB receiving terminal 202 receives a GPS signal to obtain its own location information, the GPS satellite 206 can provide GPS location information of the DMB receiving terminal 202 according to a period or conditions preset in the DMB receiving terminal 202. In this case, the DMB receiving terminal 202 receives its own location information from the GPS satellite 206, and sends the received location information through a transmission path connected to the DMB station 200.
When a broadcast channel with the regional conditional access features is present among channels currently being broadcast, the subscriber location information collector 300 of the CAS 314 receives current location information from the DMB receiving terminal 202 or requests that the MPC 204 coupled to the DMB receiving terminal 202 send the location information of the DMB receiving terminal 202. The subscriber location information collector 300 receives the location information of the DMB receiving terminal 202 as a response to the request. The subscriber management system 302 of the CAS 314 manages subscriber entitlement information based on subscriber information. The subscriber management system 302 compares prestored subscriber information of the DMB receiving terminal 202 and the current location information of the DMB receiving terminal 202 input from the subscriber location information collector 300 with the channel-by-channel conditional access information (ECM). The subscriber management system 302 generates reception restriction information indicating if the subscribers can watch the broadcast channel. The reception restriction information can be included in subscriber entitlement information (EMM).
Even when the subscriber of the DMB receiving terminal 202 is located in a region in which the broadcasting reception is limited, he or she may be entitled to watch the broadcast according to the subscriber information. In this case, the subscriber management system 302 does not generate reception restriction information for limiting the reception of the broadcast channel even when the DMB receiving terminal 202 is located in a region in which the reception is limited according to regional conditional access features of the broadcast channel. Moreover, the subscriber management system 302 generates a control word (CW) from the subscriber information. Here, the CW indicates a key used for scrambling a broadcast signal including video and audio signals. The subscriber management system 302 inputs the generated CW to the scrambler 308 and then inputs the generated EMM to the multiplexer 310.
After receiving the CW from the subscriber management system 302, the scrambler 308 scrambles the broadcast signal with the CW. The scrambled broadcast signal is input to the multiplexer 310. Then, the multiplexer 310 multiplexes the broadcast signal, the channel-by-channel conditional access information (ECM), the subscriber entitlement information (EMM), and the PSI into a TS packet, and outputs a result of the multiplexing to the modulator 312. The modulator 312 modulates the input TS packet and then sends the modulated packet to the DMB satellite 104. The DMB station 200 with the CAS 314 broadcasts the subscriber entitlement information indicating if the user is entitled to watch a specific broadcast channel with the regional conditional access features in a region in which the user is located. When receiving the subscriber entitlement information, the DMB receiving terminal 202 can determine if the user can currently watch the broadcast channel with the regional conditional access features from the subscriber entitlement information. The DMB system can limit the reception of the specific broadcast channel according to the current location of the user. The operation of the DMB station 200 with the CAS 314 in accordance with the embodiment of the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to
The memory 352 connected to the controller 350 is configured by a read only memory (ROM), a flash memory, a random access memory (RAM), a unique information memory 368, and so on. Among these memories, the ROM stores a program for processing and control operations of the controller 350 and various types of reference data. The RAM provides a working memory of the controller 350. The flash memory provides an area for storing various types of data capable of being updated. The unique information memory 368 stores unique information of the subscriber of the DMB receiving terminal 202. Here, the unique information memory 368 may be a subscriber identification module card or integrated circuit (IC) card.
The key input unit 354 is provided with various keys including numeric keys and provides a key input from the user to the controller 350. A radio frequency (RF) unit 360 receives an RF signal corresponding to a modulated TS packet. The received RF signal is converted into an intermediate frequency (IF) signal and outputs the converted signal to the baseband processor 358 connected to the controller 350. The baseband processor 358 serves as a baseband analog application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) (BBA) for providing an interface between the controller 350 and the RF unit 360. The baseband processor 358 converts an analog IF signal applied from the RF unit 360 into a digital baseband signal and then applies the digital baseband signal to the controller 350.
When the DMB receiving terminal 202 receives the location information from the GPS satellite 206, a location information transceiver 366 connected to the controller 350 receives the location information of the DMB receiving terminal 202 from the GPS satellite 206 if a preset period expires according to a control operation of the controller 350 and then transmits the received location information to the DMB station 200. On the other hand, when the DMB receiving terminal 202 is coupled to the MPC 204 through the mobile communication network, the location information transceiver 366 may not need to be provided by the DMB receiving terminal 202. In this case, the MPC 204 coupled to the DMB receiving terminal 202 sends the location information of the DMB receiving terminal 202 as a response to a request of the DMB station 200 according to a preset period, or sends the location information of the DMB receiving terminal 202 to the DMB station 200 if a preset condition is satisfied. For example, the preset condition may be a case where the location of the DMB receiving terminal is changed when a handover for the DMB receiving terminal 202 occurs.
The TS packet receiver/demultiplexer 364 connected to the controller 350 receives and demultiplexes a TS packet corresponding to a digital signal input from the baseband processor 358. Here, the TS packet receiver/demultiplexer 364 searches for and identifies a packet identifier (ID) (PID) allocated to subscriber entitlement information (EMM) from a conditional access table (CAT) included in PSI, and searches for an EMM stream. The entitlement information (EMM) is extracted from the EMM stream. A determination is made as to whether the subscriber of the DMB receiving terminal 202 is entitled to watch broadcast content or a broadcast channel currently selected by the user using the extracted EMM. If the subscriber of the DMB receiving terminal 202 is entitled to watch the broadcast channel, a scrambled broadcast signal is descrambled using the subscriber information. In accordance with the embodiment of the present invention, the DMB system with the CAS 314 can limit the reception of the broadcast content or channel with the regional conditional access features according to the current location of the DMB receiving terminal 202.
The channel-by-channel conditional access information (ECM) indicating the regional conditional access features for a broadcast channel is included in the PSI and then the PSI is transmitted to the DMB receiving terminal 202. The subscriber entitlement information (EMM) includes information indicating if the user can watch a broadcast channel with the regional conditional access features, i.e., the reception restriction information, according to location information of the DMB receiving terminal 202 sent from the DMB receiving terminal 202. The DMB system with the CAS 314 can determine if the user of the DMB receiving terminal 202 can watch the broadcast channel with the regional conditional access features for limiting the broadcast according to the current location of the user when the EMM extractor 404 provided in the TS packet receiver/demultiplexer 364 of the DMB receiving terminal 202 extracts the EMM.
When the reception restriction information for the broadcast channel is not included in the entitlement information (EMM), the entitlement information identification module 410 receives unique information of the subscriber, generates a CW, i.e., a descrambling key, from the received unique information, and descrambles a broadcast signal demultiplexed by the demultiplexer 414 using the generated CW. When the reception restriction information is not included in the subscriber entitlement information, the user can watch the broadcast channel with the regional conditional access features. However, when the reception restriction information is included in the subscriber entitlement information, the reception of the broadcast channel for the user is limited. The operation of the TS packet receiver/demultiplexer 364 in accordance with the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to
If a broadcast channel with the regional conditional access features is included in the broadcast channels currently being broadcast in step 504, a region based on the current location of subscribers is identified through the location information in step 506. Then, the subscriber management system 302 of the CAS 314 proceeds to step 508 to check subscribers whose reception of broadcast channels with the regional conditional access features is limited in regions in which the subscribers are located. When the number of broadcast channels with the regional conditional access features is multiple, the subscribers whose reception is limited are checked for each broadcast channel with the regional conditional access features. Then, the subscriber management system 302 proceeds to step 510 to generate reception restriction information for limiting the reception of a broadcast channel with the regional conditional access features for the subscribers. The reception restriction information can be included in the subscriber entitlement information. The CAS 314 generates the subscriber entitlement information including information indicating if a subscriber is entitled to watch a specific broadcast channel according to the location of the DMB receiving terminal 202. The multiplexer 310 multiplexes the generated EMM and the scrambled broadcast signal output from the scrambler 308 and then sends a TS packet. Therefore, the present invention can limit the reception of a specific broadcast channel according to the location of the DMB receiving terminal 202 using the subscriber entitlement information including information indicating if a subscriber is entitled to watch a broadcast channel with the regional conditional access features.
Then, the TS packet receiver/demultiplexer 364 proceeds to step 604 to search for a PID mapped to an EMM stream from the generated CAT through the EMM extractor 404. Subscriber-by-subscriber entitlement information (EMM) is extracted from EMM streams. The TS packet receiver/demultiplexer 364 proceeds to step 609 to identify the subscriber entitlement information (EMM) using the entitlement information identification module 410.
The TS packet receiver/demultiplexer 364 proceeds to step 610 to determine if the user can watch the currently selected broadcast channel using the subscriber entitlement information (EMM). The entitlement information identification module 410 determines that the user is not entitled to watch the broadcast channel when reception restriction information for the broadcast channel is included in the subscriber entitlement information.
If the user is not entitled to watch the broadcast channel as a result of the determination in step 610, the TS packet receiver/demultiplexer 364 proceeds to step 614 to limit the reception of the broadcast channel. In this case, the TS packet receiver/demultiplexer 364 may perform a control operation such that the entitlement information identification module 410 does not generate a CW for descrambling a scrambled broadcast signal according to a method for limiting the reception of the broadcast channel. Therefore, when the user is not entitled to watch the broadcast channel, the broadcast channel is not descrambled and the user cannot watch the broadcast channel.
However, if the subscriber entitlement information (EMM) does not include the reception restriction information for the broadcast channel selected by the user in step 610, the TS packet receiver/demultiplexer 364 proceeds to step 612 to permit the reception of the broadcast channel. In this case, the entitlement information identification module 410 receives unique information of the subscriber from the unique information memory 368, generates a CW using the received information, and inputs the CW to the descrambler 412. Then, the descrambler 412 descrambles the scrambled broadcast signal received and demultiplexed by the TS packet receiver 400 and the demultiplexer 414 using the CW. Then, descrambled video/audio signals are input to the controller 350, such that the user can watch the broadcast channel. In accordance with the present invention, the reception of the broadcast channel is limited according to the current location of the user of the DMB receiving terminal 202 in the DMB system.
In the present invention, the DMB station collects the location information of the DMB receiving terminal when a broadcast channel with regional conditional access features is being broadcast. According to the current location of the DMB receiving terminal, the DMB station checks subscribers whose reception of the broadcast channel with the regional conditional reception features is limited. The DMB station includes reception restriction information for limiting the reception of the broadcast channel in subscriber entitlement information of subscribers. The DMB receiving terminal descrambles and outputs a TS packet of the broadcast channel according to the received subscriber entitlement information. Therefore, the present invention can limit the reception of a specific broadcast channel according to the location of the user of the DMB receiving terminal.
Although preferred embodiments of the present invention have been disclosed for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions, and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope of the present invention. The example in which the DMB receiving terminal 202 is coupled to the DMB station 200 or the MPC 204 through the mobile communication network in accordance with the embodiment of the present invention has been described in relation to
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005-52093 | Jun 2005 | KR | national |
