System and method for providing a plurality of programming services in a television system

• US 20040133928A1
• Filed: 12/19/2003
• Published: 07/08/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 05/01/1998
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: NDS Limited (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: NDS Limited (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Schlarb, John M., Jerding, Dean F., Rodriguez, Arturo A.
• Application Number:
  US10/740,929
• Publication Number:
  US 20040133928A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/152
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4782 Web browsing , e.g. WebTV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8586 by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/165 Centralised control of user terminal subsequent to an upstream request signal H04N7/17345; Registering at central by two-way working H04N7/17309
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A system and method of providing for displaying a full service cable television system. The cable television system is adapted to provide a plurality of different user services. Accordingly, the system and method are designed to allow a user to access services in an efficient memory conserving fashion. Using a plurality of data tables, a cable television system is able to access a plurality of different services including cable channels, interactive program guides, pay per view activation, video on demand and interactive online services such as world wide web browsing and E-mail via their home television set.

Claims

1. In a cable television system having a headend and a set-top, a method of activating a service provided by the headend to the set-top, wherein the service is one service of a plurality of services provided by the headend to the set-top, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving from the headend a plurality of tables, wherein a first table of the plurality of tables includes multiple sets of service attributes, wherein each set of service attributes is associated with a particular service;

storing the plurality of tables in a memory of the set-top;

receiving at the set-top a signal associated with a specific service of the plurality of services provided by the headend, wherein the specific service has a set of one of the multiple sets of service attributes associated therewith;

retrieving and reading the set of service attributes associated with the specific service; and

launching the specific service responsive to the set of service attributes associated with the specific service including a launch attribute permitting non-subscriber launch.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of tables includes a second table that associates channel numbers with service identifiers and associates service identifiers with channel numbers, and wherein a third table associates service identifiers with applications and sets of parameters, wherein each service of the plurality of services provided by the headend is associated with a unique service identifier and defined by a particular application and particular set of parameters.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the second table includes a bitmap for indicating whether a channel number is valid.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the second table further includes a plurality of blocks of data, each block of data associating a service identifier with a valid channel number.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein each block of data has a service identifier field and a channel number field, and the blocks of data are arranged such that the service identifiers in the service identifier fields are increasing in magnitude and non-contiguous.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the bitmap represents a contiguous range of channel numbers, each bit of the bitmap representing a particular channel number, and each bit that represents a valid channel number is set to a predetermined value.

7. The method of claim 6, further including the steps of:

accessing a specific block of data of the plurality of data blocks, whereby the specific block of data contains the unique service identifier of the specific service; and

retrieving the channel number associated with the service identifier.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the step of accessing a specific block of data further includes the step of:

searching on the plurality of data blocks to find the specific block of data that contains the unique service identifier of the specific service.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein each block of data of the plurality of blocks of data further includes an attribute specifying that the channel associated with that block of data is reachable by incrementing or decrementing channel numbers with an input device.