Method of announcing sessions

• US 20060253544A1
• Filed: 11/27/2003
• Published: 11/09/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Luoma, Juha-Pekka, Paila, Toni, Muller, Dominique
• Granted Patent: US 9,485,044 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/25 Arrangements for updating broadcast information or broadcast-related information
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/72 using electronic programme guides [EPG] focusing on identifying broadcast space time H04H60/39 ; menu type display of EPG in television receivers H04N21/47
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/73 using meta-information
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/82 the transmission system being the Internet

Abstract

An electronic service guide (ESG) is provided by transmitting announcements describing multimedia sessions, such as video streams. Sessions are organised into a session directory (28) which is split into two parts: a full session directory (291) and an updated session directory (292). A first kind of announcement describes all sessions in the full session directory. A second kind of announcement describes sessions in the updated session directory. Once a client has received a description of the full session directory, it need only listen to announcements of the second type so as to learn of any updates to sessions.

Claims

1. A method of announcing sessions transmitted through a network, the method comprising:

providing a first set of announcements describing a plurality of sessions; and

providing a second set of announcements describing at least one updated session.

2. A method according to claim 1, comprising providing said first set of announcements through a first channel and providing said second set of announcements through a second, different channel.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein providing said first set of announcements and providing said second set of announcements comprises providing said first set of announcements through a first IP address and providing said second set of announcements through a second, different IP address respectively.

7. A method according to claim 1, wherein providing said first set of announcements and providing said second set of announcements comprises providing said first set of announcements through a first port number and providing said second set of announcements through a second, different port number respectively.

9. A method according to claim 1, wherein providing said first set of announcements and providing said second set of announcements comprises including in each announcement of said first set of announcements data for identifying said announcement as an announcement which describes a one of said plurality of sessions and in each announcement of said second set of announcements data for identifying said announcement as an announcement which describes a one of said at least one updated session.

10. A method according to claim 1, wherein providing said first set of announcements and providing said second set of announcements comprises including in each announcement of said first set of announcements respective data for specifying a position of a corresponding session within a first portion of a session directory and including in each announcement of said second set of announcements respective data for specifying a position of a corresponding session within a second portion of the session directory.

13. A method according to claim 1, further comprising providing a third set of announcements describing another plurality of sessions including said at least one updated session.

15. A method according to claim 1, comprising arranging the providing of said second set of announcements after the providing of said first set of announcements.

17. A method according to claim 1, comprising transmitting said first set of announcements according to a session announcement protocol (SAP).

18. A method according to claim 1, comprising transmitting said first set of announcements according to a unidirectional transport protocol.

21. A method according to claim 1, comprising transmitting said first set of announcements according to user datagram protocol (UDP).

22. A method according to claim 1, comprising including a description of a corresponding session in each announcement.

23. A method according to claim 1, comprising including a description of a corresponding session arranged according to session description protocol (SDP) in each announcement.

25. A method according to claim 1, comprising providing said first set of announcements as a series of linked messages.

26. A method according to claim 1, comprising providing said first set of announcements in a first set of time slots and providing said second set of announcements in a second set of time slots, each timeslot of said first set of timeslots being provided at a different time from each timeslot of said second set of timeslots.

27. A method according to claim 1, comprising multiplexing said first and second sets of announcements.

28. A method according to claim 1, further comprising providing a third set of announcements identifying said at least one updated session.

29. A method according to claim 1, wherein providing the second set of announcements describing the at least one updated session comprises providing a set of announcements identifying the at least one updated session.

31. A method according to claim 1, wherein providing the second set of announcements describing the at least one updated session comprises providing a set of notifications pointing to the at least one updated session.

34. A method according to claim 1, comprising transmitting at least one of said sets of announcements according to asynchronous layered coding (ALC) protocol.

42. A computer program which, when executed by data processing apparatus, causes the data processing apparatus to perform a method of announcing sessions transmitted through a network according to claim 1.

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43. A method of accessing sessions transmitted through a network, the method comprising:

selectively receiving a first set of announcements describing a plurality of sessions; and

selectively receiving a second set of announcements describing at least one updated session.

44. A method according to claim 75, further comprising determining whether all of said first set of announcements have been received.

45. A method according to claim 44, further comprising selecting not to receive further said first set of announcements and selecting to receive said second set of announcements.

75. A method according to claim 43 wherein the second set of announcements describing the at least one updated session are in the form of a set of announcements identifying the at least one updated session.

76. A method according to claim 45 further comprising selecting to receive a third set of announcements describing another plurality of sessions including said at least one updated session.

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53. A method of accessing sessions transmitted through a network, the method comprising:

listening to a first set of announcements describing a plurality of sessions;

determining whether said first set of announcements have been received;

if said first set of announcements have been received, then stopping listening to said first set of announcements and listening to a second set of announcements describing at least one updated session.

54. A method according to claim 53, further comprising:

stopping listening to a third. set of announcements describing a further plurality of sessions including said at least one updated session.

55. An apparatus for announcing sessions transmitted through a network, the apparatus comprising:

means for providing a first set of announcements describing a plurality of sessions; and

means for providing a second set of announcements describing at least one updated session.

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58. An apparatus for accessing sessions transmitted through a network, the apparatus comprising:

means for selectively receiving a first set of announcements describing a plurality of sessions; and

means for selectively receiving a second set of announcements describing at least one updated session.

59. An apparatus according to claim 58, comprising:

means for determining whether said first set of announcements has been received;

said apparatus being configured such that if said determining means determines that said first set of announcements has been received, then the m'"'"'vans for selectively receiving said second set of announcements is configured to receive said second set of announcements.

60. An apparatus according to claim 59, comprising:

means for selectively receiving a third set of announcements describing another plurality of session including said at least one updated session;

said apparatus being configured such that if said determining means determines that said first set of announcements has been received, then the means for selectively receiving said third set of announcements is configured not to receive or not to forward said third set of announcements.

61. Apparatus according to claim 60 which is a mobile communications device.

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64. A system for delivering program schedule data to end-user terminals, said system comprising two sets of announcements, each set comprising at least one announcement, the schedule data being organized at least partly from a first set of announcements describing at least partly a plurality of sessions and at least partly from a second set of announcements describing at least one at least partly updated session.

65. A system for presenting program schedule data to end-user terminals, said system comprising at least two set of announcements, each set comprising at least one announcement, the schedule data being organized at least partly from a first set of repeatable announcements describing a plurality of sessions, at least partly from a second set of repeatable announcements describing at least one at least partly updated session and at least session descriptions of at least one of the repeatable announcements for defining whether the at least one of the first and second announcements is received or not.

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