Patent Application
20060053450
The invention relates generally to mobile telecommunications networks. More specifically, the invention provides a method and system for updating electronic service guide data in a mobile terminal operating in a unidirectional communication environment.
Audio, video and other types of data may be transmitted through a variety of types of networks according to many different protocols. For example, data can be transmitted through a collection of networks usually referred to as the “Internet” using protocols of the Internet protocol suite, such as Internet Protocol (IP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP). Data is often transmitted through the Internet addressed to a single user. However, it can be addressed to a group of users, commonly known as multicasting. In the case in which the data is addressed to all users it is called broadcasting.
One way of broadcasting data is to use an IP datacasting (IPDC) network. IPDC is a combination of digital broadcast and Internet Protocol. Through such an IP-based broadcasting network, one or more service providers can supply different types of IP services including on-line newspapers, radio, and television. These IP services are organized into one or more media streams in the form of audio, video and/or other types of data. To determine when and where these streams occur, users refer to an electronic service guide (ESG). One example used in digital video broadcasting (DVB) streams is an electronic program guide (EPG). One type of DVB is Digital video broadcasting-handheld (DVB-H), a recently developed technology that increases the capabilities and services available on small handheld devices, such as mobile telephones. The DVB-H is designed to deliver 10 Mbps of data to a battery-powered terminal device.
DVB transport streams deliver compressed audio and video and data to a user via third party delivery networks. Moving Picture Expert Group (MPEG) is a technology by which encoded video, audio, and data within a single program is multiplexed, with other programs, into a transport stream (TS). The TS is a packetised data stream, with fixed length packets, including a header. The individual elements of a program, audio and video, are each carried within packets having a unique packet identification (PID). To enable a receiver device to locate the different elements of a particular program within the TS, Program Specific Information (PSI), which is embedded into the TS, is supplied. In addition, additional Service Information (SI), a set of tables adhering to the MPEG private section syntax, is incorporated into the TS. This enables a receiver device to correctly process the data contained within the TS.
Carousels are intended for the periodic transmission of information over the transport stream (TS). Although the content of a carousel can be changed in response to a request from a destination device, it is more usual for the carousel to be repeated regardless of whether any destination device is active or requesting the carousel data at that moment. A destination device that needs specific data waits until the needed data is retransmitted. Data carousels contain modules of data of unspecified content. Therefore, the destination device must know what to do with the data received. Alternatively, object carousels contain identifiable data objects such as .jpg or .txt files and even the application software needed to use other objects. A directory structure enables a destination device to find an object, to extract and download the object's associated application software, and then to use the object. Data carousels are often used for downloading new system software to destination device whereas an object carousel is typically used for game delivery, shopping services, and electronic service guides (ESG). Both data and object carousels are repeated at periodic intervals though the repetition rate can vary from item to item. For example the ESG for the next hour viewing options may repeat more often than that for the next month.
A number of applications can be included in the same carousel at the same time allowing users the opportunity, e.g., to choose between looking at an ESG and playing an interactive game. Where applications relate to a particular TV program or commercial, it may be desirable for the application to be available to the user for a period of time after the program has ended even though a new application for the next TV program is available. The object carousel generator has to share the overall carousel bandwidth between the various applications being carried at any one time.
Under conventional systems, once a carousel has been generated, changes to programming cannot be made prior to the start of a specified program. As with a printed newspaper, once an ESG has been generated and delivered in a carousel, the content of the ESG cannot be changed. An operator may need to change a program list due to the cancellation of a live event, the unexpected broadcast of a major news event, or the blackout of a broadcast of a sporting event. In the case of a canceled event, the operator may desire to change the live event with a sequence of other programming, such as cartoons, during the two-hour program slot originally set for the live event. Under conventional systems, an operator can change the actual broadcast, but she cannot change the program list received by a mobile terminal. A mobile terminal user can see the cartoons; however, the ESG data still identifies the programming, the cartoons, as the live event.
According to aspects of the invention, electronic service guide (ESG) data is received in a network and metadata associated with the ESG data is encapsulated to generate a new ESG object. A current ESG object is replaced with the new ESG object. The new ESG object is transmitted in a carousel to mobile terminals and a notification of the change to the carousel is transmitted also. In accordance with another aspect, the notification and ESG object in the carousel are received at mobile terminals. The new ESG object replaces the current ESG object in the mobile terminals. An ESG object parser extracts the metadata associated with the ESG data from the new ESG object and stores the metadata in a database. The mobile terminals' displays are updated to reflect the change in the ESG. Depending on the nature of the change, the user may be notified by the mobile terminal.
Another aspect of the invention provides a system for delivering ESG data and a system for receiving ESG data. A carousel manager controls operation of a carousel generator to update the carousel data being transmitted to mobile terminals. A carousel manager in the mobile terminals controls operation of a carousel receiver in the mobile terminal to receive the updated carousel. The carousel manager in the mobile terminal can determine the appropriate time to update the ESG data within the mobile terminal.
A more complete understanding of the present invention and the advantages thereof may be acquired by referring to the following description in consideration of the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numbers indicate like features, and wherein:
In the following description of the various embodiments, reference is made to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof, and in which is shown by way of illustration various embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. It is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural and functional modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.
Generally, there can be program breaks for a certain TV channel, e.g., the time axis is not completely covered. Such an example is shown by the gap between program #1 and program #2 for TV channel TV3. The program provides information and metadata to a user. The TV channel is not interrupted between programs and it is possible to continue to receive the TV channel from one program to the next. A TV channel may appear in more than one bundle and free to air channels, i.e., channels that can be viewed without a purchase transaction, may not appear in any bundle. It should be understood by those skilled in the art that although the pay-per-view period #1 appears linked to programs #3 and #4 of the TV channel TV1, the pay-per-view period may be defined as a time window of channel TV1 and not as a combination of programs that are broadcast in the time period.
As shown in
SDP file #2 describes a session with a restricted lifetime for IP Flows #1-#4. The lifetime is restricted to the period of Program #1. SDP file #3 describes a session consisting of IP Flows #2-#4 and IP Flows #5-#6 for a restricted lifetime of Programs #3 and #4. Finally, SDP file #4 describes a session including IP Flows #1-#3 with a restricted lifetime of Program #6. A service that represents a TV channel, such as TV channel #1, is shown with an open-ended SDP file #1 attached. More than one open-ended SDP file may exist. Multiple programs #1-#6 are shown of the service, non-overlapping, covering the entire time axis, each referring to at least one SDP file. Although not shown in
A TV channel under the present invention is flexible as it allows multiple sessions, identified by their SDP file, to share IP Flows. For example, programs #3 and #4 could be a sporting event related transmission, including an additional camera feed and the transmission of synchronized data. The TV channel as shown in
Modified or new ESG data and associated metadata are encapsulated by the ESG object generator 203 into an ESG object. ESG is a collection of ESG objects. An ESG object is an encapsulated object containing data about the ESG. Encapsulation includes the object type, object version, and object validity information. The version is a sequence number incremented every time the object is modified and the validity information describes the life span of an object thus enabling the cleanup of the metadata storage. ESG objects may not be consistent with each other and/or may refer to another object.
ESG data relates to a network, including one or more cells, and to a geographical area in the network coverage, e.g., cell coverage, as there can be local services available. When a mobile terminal moves from one geographical area to another geographical area, some services may remain available, some may no longer be available, and some may become available. Therefore some of the ESG objects are valid in the new geographical area as in the old geographic area. In one embodiment, a terminal may identify those ESG objects which are valid in the new geographic area and may store/cache objects that are no longer valid. In another embodiment, a terminal may receive and store ESG objects from different frequencies, IP platforms, and network operators and then combine these objects with ESG objects from the current network into a unified ESG.
Returning to
The network carousel manager 209 controls operation of the carousel generator 207. Network carousel manager 209 sends a carousel regeneration request to the carousel generator 207 to instruct the carousel generator 207 to fetch the carousel content from the cache 205 that now contains the ESG object associated with the modified or new ESG. In response, carousel generator 207 updates the carousel and notifies the network carousel manager 209 in a carousel status response. The network carousel manager 209 then transmits a carousel version change notification to a DVB-H generator 211. DVB-H generator 211 and carousel generator 207 transmit the ESG object in a carousel and the notification of a change in the carousel version. The DVB-H 211 is shown as transmitting in the transport stream TS and in communication with the carousel generator 207 by means of a user datagram protocol.
The carousel generator 207 transmits the carousel with the ESG object by means of an Asynchronous Layer Coding (ALC)/File Delivery over Unidirectional Transport (FLUTE) protocol. ALC or a protocol based on ALC provides reliable delivery of content and can be used to deliver full or partial ESG data, updates and notification of updates. ALC provides a unidirectional transport service for binary objects, such as files. FLUTE is a protocol for the unidirectional delivery of files over the Internet, which is particularly suited to multicast networks. FLUTE builds on Asynchronous Layered Coding, the base protocol designed for massively scalable multicast distribution. The ALC/FLUTE arrow shown in
Terminal carousel manager 309 then sends a notification that the ESG object has been refreshed to the ESG object parser 303. The ESG object parser 303 obtains the ESG object from the cache 305 and parses the ESG object to remove the encapsulation. The files of the carousel are sent to the cache 305 and the extracted ESG metadata is sent to an ESG data storage 301 for storage. Database 301 maintains the metadata associated with the new or modified ESG data. Under the systems shown in
Channel object 410 includes channel metadata for a user 411, content provider branding data or reference to a synchronized data feed 413, and channel classification and rating data 415. Content provider branding data may be a file or set of files containing information about the content provider, such as a logo, name, and/or contact information. It also may be an HTML page which is then displayed when the content is viewed. Channel SDP 430 includes a description of use and required terminal capabilities 431, audio/video media and address information, including start and end time, 433, synchronized auxiliary data address information 435, and proprietary extensions 437. For example, if there is an advertising space in the terminal screen and the advertisements are synchronized to the TV service, the advertisement carousel address may be included in the audio/video media and address information 433. Other examples are additional audio feeds with different languages, where the addresses of different audio feeds may be included in the audio/video media and address information 433. Subtitles are another example. Finally, program object 450 includes program metadata for a user, including start and end time, non-overlapping with gaps permitted, 451, program interaction references 453, and program classification and rating data 455. An example of program interaction references 453 includes a rating service for the program where a web universal resource locator (URL) is provided in order to launch the terminal browser and allow the user to submit the rating information. An example of classification and rating data 455 includes parental rating or critics review rating.
Price object 540 includes price information data 542 and additional metadata 544. Price information data 542 describes how a channel-package is a per day price, how a channel is a per minute price, and how a program is a per program price. Price information data 542 is one of the three options of channel-package price, channel price, or program price. Purchase channel object 560 includes operator identity data 562 and purchase transaction technical data 564. Operator identity data 562 may be used to select those purchase channels that a current user, e.g., customer to an operator, can use. Purchase transaction technical data 564 may be data that is needed to complete a transaction, such as an address of the e-commerce system and protocol used to communicate with the e-commerce system.
At step 803, modified/new ESG data is sent to an ESG object generator, such as ESG object generator 203. At step 805, the ESG object generator encapsulates the modified/new ESG data, and stores the encapsulated modified/new ESG data in a cache at step 807. This cache may include cache 205 from
The process moves to step 817 where the carousel generator notifies the network carousel manager tat the carousel has been updated. In response, the network carousel manager sets the Program Specific Information/Service Information (PSI/SI) to include the carousel version change notification and sends to a DVB-H generator at step 819. The DVB-H generator may be DVB-H generator 211 in
The process moves to step 913 where the carousel receiver sends a carousel status response to the terminal carousel manager indicating that the updated carousel has been received. The terminal carousel manager sends a refresh notification to an ESG object parser at step 915. The ESG object parser may include ESG object parser 303. At step 917, the ESG object parser parses the encapsulated modified/new ESG data from the cache. The modified/new ESG data is then stored in a database at step 919. The database may include database 301. The process continues to step 921 where the ESG object parser notifies the terminal carousel manager that the parsing/extracting process has been completed. At step 923, the terminal carousel manager refreshes the display of the mobile terminal of a user and the modified/new ESG data is read from the cache at step 925 to be viewed by the user.
ESG objects are not distributed to the carousels by type. In accordance with aspects of the present invention, the objects are placed on different carousels based on the intended use or lifetime. Objects with a short lifetime, e.g., less than 2 hours, are placed in the current-2 hour carousel. Because the number of objects in the current-2 hour carousel is relatively small, they can all be placed regardless of the type. Objects with a longer lifetime, e.g., today or the next 24 hours, are placed in other carousels. The longer lifetime objects are divided into XML, that is information to the user, and SDP, that is information to the computer, carousels. Such an arrangement allows a mobile terminal application to receive an XML file first thereby presenting the information to the user faster since a computer needs the information only just before the service is being broadcasted/received. All information, which is not related to the broadcasted content but more to promote an identity of a broadcast operator or content provider, may be placed to the current-7 days mainpage carousel. The objects in this carousel may be of various types, such as HTML pages, image files, and/or sound files.
A version carousel (“envelopes”) is a collection of the envelopes in the carousels. The envelope is a XML structure of which an example is presented below:
One or more aspects of the invention may be embodied in computer-executable instructions, such as in one or more program modules, executed by one or more computers, set top boxes, mobile terminals, or other devices. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types when executed by a processor in a computer or other device. The computer executable instructions may be stored on a computer readable medium such as a hard disk, optical disk, removable storage media, solid state memory, RAM, etc. As will be appreciated by one of skill in the art, the functionality of the program modules may be combined or distributed as desired in various embodiments. In addition, the functionality may be embodied in whole or in part in firmware or hardware equivalents such as integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays (FPGA), and the like.
