Service gateway for interactive television

• US 20020108121A1
• Filed: 05/16/2001
• Published: 08/08/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 02/02/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: OpenTV, Inc. (Kudelski SA)
• Original Assignee: OpenTV, Inc. (Kudelski SA)
• Inventors: Delpuch, Alain, Dureau, Vincent, Huntington, Matthew, Henrard, Jose, Lam, Waiman, Alao, Rachad
• Granted Patent: US 7,305,697 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/110
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/066 Format adaptation, e.g. format conversion or compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• 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: H04L 65/752 adapting media to network capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/238 Interfacing the downstream path of the transmission network, e.g. adapting the transmission rate of a video stream to network bandwidth; Processing of multiplex streams hybrid fiber coaxial [HFC] networks for downstream channel allocation for video distribution H04L12/2801; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10; real-time communication protocols in data switching networks H04L65/00; scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2385 Channel allocation H04N21/266 takes precedence; Bandwidth allocation H04N21/24 takes precedence ; allocation of channels according to the instantaneous demands of the users in time-division multiplex systems H04J3/1682; admission control, resource allocation in open networks H04L12/5692; arrangements for maintenance or administration in data switching networks involving bandwidth and capacity management H04L41/0896; negotiating bandwidth in wireless networks H04W28/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2402 Monitoring of the downstream path of the transmission network, e.g. bandwidth available traffic monitoring in data switching networks H04L43/00; monitoring data switching networks utilization H04L43/0876
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2542 for selling goods, e.g. TV shopping payment schemes, payment architectures or payment protocols for electronic shopping systems G06Q20/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25858 involving client software characteristics, e.g. OS identifier
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25875 involving end-user authentication restricting access to computer systems by authenticating users using a predetermined code G06F21/33; arrangements for secret or secure communication including means for verifying the identity or authority of a user of the system H04L9/32; networks authentication protocols H04L63/08; authentication in wireless network security H04W12/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25891 being end-user preferences retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2668 Creating a channel for a dedicated end-user group, e.g. insertion of targeted commercials based on end-user profiles information retrieval from the Internet by querying with filtering and personalisation G06F16/9535; arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast H04H20/10; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; adaptation of message content in packet-switching networks H04L51/063
• 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 21/437 Interfacing the upstream path of the transmission network, e.g. for transmitting client requests to a VOD server flow control in data networks H04L47/10; streaming protocols, e.g. RTP or RTCP, H04L65/65; scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests in data packet switching networks H04L67/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/438 Interfacing the downstream path of the transmission network originating from a server, e.g. retrieving encoded video stream packets from an IP network
• 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 21/64707 : for transferring content from a first network to a second network, e.g. between IP and wireless
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 : involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8126 : involving additional data, e.g. news, sports, stocks, weather forecasts
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 : Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8543 : using a description language, e.g. Multimedia and Hypermedia information coding Expert Group [MHEG], eXtensible Markup Language [XML] information retrieval of semistructured data, the underlying structure being taken into account, e.g. mark-up language structure data G06F16/80
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8545 : for generating interactive applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17309 : Transmission or handling of upstream communications

Abstract

A service gateway provides a proxy between a client protocol and a plurality of standard communication protocols. The service gateway provides asymmetrical routing, data compression and encryption to optimize client processing power and communication link bandwidth. The service gateway enables content translation between clients and service providers. The service gateway keeps track of client available memory and sequence numbers in messages to generate error codes when applicable. A store and forward message capability is provided along with abstract session identifiers. The service gateway supports user datagram protocol.

Claims

1. A service gateway residing in a server at a head end operator for providing communication between a plurality of service providers and a plurality of applications running on a plurality of head end operator client devices comprising:

a server for communication between the service providers and the client devices;

an application level meta language for communication between client applications and service providers;

a communication link between the client devices and the service platform for transmission of messages between the client devices and the service gateway;

a transport protocol process residing in the client device for sending a transport level message encapsulating the meta language to a service provider; and

a conversion function for converting the client'"'"'s message from the transport level protocol into a plurality of standard protocols for transmission to the service provider over the communication link.

2. The service gateway of claim 1 further comprising a transcoder for converting content received from a service provider into a format suitable for display on the client device.

3. The service gateway of claim 1 wherein the service gateway performs asymmetrical data compression wherein the service gateway compresses data received from a client and sends the compressed data to a service provider.

4. The service gateway of claim 1 wherein the service gateway performs asymmetrical data routing of data sent to the client and sent back to the service provider from the client based on the size of the data and the availability of the broadcast stream and the point-to-point connections between the service gateway and the clients.

5. The service gateway of claim 1 wherein the service gateway receives a LHTTP message encapsulating HTTP requests within a transport level message and converts the LHTTP request into a standard HTTP communication protocol.

6. The service gateway of claim 1 further comprising:

a data name service for resolving a service identifier of an application server for a client process identifying a service in a transport communication protocol message.

7. The service gateway of claim 1 wherein the service gateway individually encrypts each fragment of a transport level message.

8. The service gateway claim 1 wherein the the service gateway sets up a business filter associated with a client to select information to be captured from a broadcast data stream for the client based on at least one of the following:

client preferences, viewer profiles or transaction history.

9. The service gateway of claim 1 further comprising an offline viewer identification function which enables offline viewer payment.

10. The service gateway of claim 1 further comprising an offline order form.

11. The service gateway of claim 1 further comprising a store and forward library comprising messages having delivery timing constraints comprising “

as soon as possible”

, “

when connected”

, “

after a random period of time”

, “

after a set period of time”

, “

after a specified occurrence, event or message” and

“

spread stored messages over available time and bandwidth.

12. The service gateway of claim 1 wherein the service gateway receives a message from a client indicating the client'"'"'s available memory and the service gateway checks incoming messages directed to the client to determine that the available memory is sufficient to receive the message before forwarding the message to the client.

13. The service gateway of claim 1 further comprising:

sequence numbers in a message is sent from a client to the service gateway, wherein a sequence number is associated with one of a plurality of sequence-numbered message fragments;

a message table wherein each message fragment sequence number is stored in a table along with a time of receipt; and

a sliding time rejection window for rejection of message packets with sequence numbers appear in the rejection window.

14. The service gateway of claim 1, wherein the service gateway creates a session identifier derived from a hardware identifier and inserts a session identifier in place of the hardware identifier into each communication between a client and a service provider.

15. The service gateway of claim 1 further comprising:

a socket type abstraction layer created by the service gateway to accommodate User Datagram Protocol (UDP) data, wherein the socket type abstraction layer runs on top of UDP and encapsulates UDP into transport level protocol messages.

16. The service gateway of claim 1 further comprising:

a registration authentication function for multiple users at a single client with multiple users, through nicknames, personal identifiers and client hardware identifier (HID).

17. The service gateway of claim 1 further comprising:

business agents that control transactions and control access by the service provider access to user information.

18. The service gateway of claim 1 further comprising:

business agents which insert, replace and delete client identification information from a message from a client to a service provider during a transaction, thereby hiding the identity of the client from the service provider.

19. The service gateway of claim 18 wherein the amount and type of client business information provided to a service provider, is guided by business rules depending on an agreement between the service provider and a network operator.

20. The SGW of claim 19 wherein the business agents provide default values and control access to user information.

21. The SGW of claim 11 wherein the store and forward function enables delivery of a message from the client to be transmitted to a service at a later time, wherein a plurality of messages are dispersed for delivery over a period of time to reduce peak transmission load.

22. A service gateway residing in a service platform at a head end operator for providing communication between a plurality of service providers and a plurality of applications running on a plurality of head end operator client devices comprising:

a server for communication between the service providers and the client devices;

an application level meta language for communication between client applications and service providers;

a communication link between the client devices and the server for transmission of messages between the client devices and the service gateway;

a transport protocol process residing in the client device for sending a transport level message encapsulating the meta language to a service provider;

a conversion function for converting the client'"'"'s message from the transport level into a plurality of standard protocols for transmission to the service provider over the communication link, wherein the service gateway compresses data received from a client data and sends the compressed data to the service provider and the service gateway performs asymmetrical data routing of data sent to the client and sent back to the service provider from the client based on the size of the data and availability of the broadcast stream and the point-to-point connections between the service gateway and the clients and wherein the service gateway individually encrypts each fragment of a transport level message.

23. The service gateway of claim 23 wherein the service gateway receives a LHTTP message encapsulating HTTP requests within a transport level message and converts the LHTTP request into a standard HTTP communication protocol.

24. The service gateway of claim 22 further comprising:

a data name service for resolving a service identifier of an application server for a client process.

25. The service gateway claim 22 wherein the the service gateway sets up a business filter associated with a client to select information for the client based on at least one of the following:

client preferences, viewer profiles or transaction history.

26. The service gateway of claim 22 further comprising an offline viewer identification function which enables offline viewer payment;

an offline order form; and

a store and forward library comprising messages having delivery timing constraints comprising “

as soon as possible”

, “

when connected”

, “

after a random period of time”

, “

after a set period of time”

, “

after a specified occurrence, event or message” and

“

spread stored messages over available time and bandwidth.

27. The service gateway of claim 22 wherein the service gateway receives a message from a client indicating the client'"'"'s available memory, wherein the service gateway checks incoming messages directed to the client to determine that the available memory is sufficient to receive the message before forwarding the message to the client, the service gateway further comprising:

sequence numbers in a message is sent from a client to the service gateway, wherein sequence number is associated with one of a plurality of sequence-numbered message fragments;

a message table wherein each message fragment sequence number is stored in a table along with a time of receipt; and

a sliding time rejection window of recently used sequence numbers with a time stamp for each sequence number wherein fragments received with a sequence number that appears in the sliding window are disgarded.

28. The service gateway of claim 22 derived, wherein the service gateway creates a session identifier from a hardware identifier and inserts a session identifier in place of the hardware identifier into each communication between a client and a service provider, further comprising a socket type abstraction layer created by the service gateway to accommodate User Datagram Protocol (UDP) data, the socket type abstraction layer running on top of UDP and encapsulating UDP into transport level protocol message

29. The service gateway of claim 22 further comprising:

a registration authentication function at a single client with multiple users, wherein multiple users are authenticated through nicknames, personal identifiers and client hardware identifiers(HID);

business agents that control transactions and control access by the service provider access to user information, wherein business agents insert, replace and delete client identification information from a message from a client to a service provider during a transaction, thereby hiding the identity of the client from the service provider, wherein the amount and type of client business information provided to a service provider, is guided by business rules depending on an agreement between the service provider and a network operator.