Systems and methods for establishing and administering sessions in digital cable systems

• US 20020100059A1
• Filed: 01/18/2002
• Published: 07/25/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 01/22/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Time Warner Cable Inc. (Charter Communications Incorporated), Ericsson Television Incorporated (Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson)
• Original Assignee: N2 Broadband Incorporated and Time Warner Cable
• Inventors: DeFreese, Darryl Lanay, Buehl, Joseph G., Addington, Timothy Hall
• Granted Patent: US 7,171,678 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/116
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/613 for the control of the source by the destination control signals issued by the client directed to the server or network components specially adapted for selective content distribution H04N21/637
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/443 OS processes, e.g. booting an STB, implementing a Java virtual machine in an STB or power management in an STB
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/643 Communication protocols network streaming protocols, e.g. real-time transport protocol [RTP] or real-time control protocol [RTCP], H04L65/65
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6433 Digital Storage Media - Command and Control Protocol [DSM-CC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

Systems and methods facilitate the provisioning of a new service in a cable system without requiring that server hardware and/or software be changed to implement the service, or that an equivalent session manager be created in a set-top box. Session requests are generated at the STB and transmitted to the service, which then interprets the request, rather than forwarded from the STB to a server implementing the service, as in conventional systems. To effect the routing to the service the session request contains routing information. Servers facilitating the implementation of services do not know details about, or even the existence of, new services added to the system.

Claims

1. A method of implementing a service in a cable system, comprising:

receiving at a set-top box (STB) application level data generated by a service, where said application level data represents a service offering comprising;

service data identifying particular services within the service offering, and

routing data identifying the location of said service in said cable system;

identifying at least one of said particular service within said service offering; and

generating a session request to receive the identified at least one particular service, wherein said session request includes said routing data.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting said session request to said service, wherein said service is located at a headend of the cable system.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising parsing said session request at said service to extract the identified at least one particular service.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising determining the location of the identified at least one particular service in said cable system.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said routing data further identifies the location of a session gateway in said cable system.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein generating a session request comprises generating a session request at a generic session manager of the STB to receive the identified at least one particular service, wherein said session request includes said routing data and said service data.

7. A system for administering a session in a cable system, comprising:

a service residing in said cable system;

at least one set-top box, wherein the at least one set-box is in communication with said service and generates a request to the service; and

wherein said request comprises routing information identifying the location of said service and session data identifying a particular service requested.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the at least one set-top box comprises a generic session manager, and wherein said generic session manager generates said request.

9. The system of claim 7, further comprising at least one server located at a headend of the cable system and in communication with said service.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the at least one server comprises a session manager, and wherein the service communicates with said session manager to identify the particular service requested.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the at least one server comprises a session manager, and wherein said session manager communicates with said cable system to establish a communication path through which to implement said service.

12. The system of claim 7, further comprising a session resource manager, wherein the session resource manager identifies available resources of said cable system.

13. The system of claim 7, further comprising at least one session gateway in communication with said set-top box and said service, wherein said request comprises routing information identifying the at least one session gateway.

14. The system of claim 13, further comprising at least one service gateway in communication with said at least one session gateway, and wherein said request further comprises routing information identifying the at least one service gateway.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising querying at least one service to determine the location of the at least one particular service in said cable system.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising executing, at said service, an instruction to the determined location to forward said at least one particular service to said generator.

15. A method of fulfilling a session request in a cable system, comprising:

receiving a session request at a service, wherein said session request identifies the location of said service in said cable system and the generator of said session request;

parsing said session request to identify at least one particular service identified within said session request; and

forwarding said at least one particular service identified within said session request to said generator.

18. A session request generated by a generic session manager within a set-top box, comprising:

session data identifying a particular service identified by a service, and

routing data identifying the location of said service in said cable system.