Method to determine the completeness of a service guide

• US 20070055786A1
• Filed: 09/08/2005
• Published: 03/08/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: Jansky, Martin, Paila, Toni, Pohjolainen, Topi
• Granted Patent: US 8,316,132 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/230
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/95 characterised by a specific format, e.g. an encoded audio stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/764 at the destination reformatting of additional data in video clients H04N21/4355
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/16 Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26283 for associating distribution time parameters to content, e.g. to generate electronic program guide data
• 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 21/4586 Content update operation triggered locally, e.g. by comparing the version of software modules in a DVB carousel to the version stored locally deployment, distribution, installation, update of software G06F8/65; error detection or correction of the data by redundancy during software upgrading G06F11/1433; arrangements for updating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/25
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/654 Transmission by server directed to the client
• 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 21/8402 involving a version number, e.g. version number of EPG data arrangements for version control in computers G06F8/71
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments

Abstract

Provided are apparatuses and methods in a digital broadcast transmission system for deducing the contents or topology of an ESG fragment, transport object, container or session. In one example, descriptors may be transmitted on a first channel that may correspond to ESG fragments transmitted on a second channel. The first and second channel can be received at a subscriber terminal. The subscriber terminal may thus be apprised of the topology of the ESG fragments to minimize the amount of information the subscriber terminal needs to receive. This provides an optimized overall retrieval of the ESG fragments.

Claims

1. A transmitter for transmitting ESG fragments comprising:

an input for receiving data to be included in an ESG fragment for transmission;

an identifier module for determining a characteristic of the ESG fragment;

an output for transmitting the ESG fragment on a first channel and for transmitting data corresponding to the characteristic of the ESG fragment on a second channel, the data corresponding to the characteristic of the ESG fragment including at least one descriptor of the ESG fragment.

2. The transmitter of claim 1 wherein the data corresponding to the characteristic of the ESG fragment includes a parameter indicating the arrangement of the ESG fragment within the transmission.

3. The transmitter of claim 2 wherein the data corresponding to the characteristic of the ESG fragment further includes a parameter indicating the identity of the ESG fragment.

4. The transmitter of claim 2 wherein the data corresponding to the characteristic of the ESG fragment includes a parameter indicating the version of the ESG fragment.

5. The transmitter of claim 1 wherein the characteristic is the topology of the ESG fragment.

6. A receiver for receiving at least one ESG fragment, the receiver comprising:

an input for receiving a list of descriptors including at least one descriptor corresponding to at least one ESG fragment; and

a processor for performing the following steps;

storing at least one descriptor of at least one previously received ESG fragment;

storing an ESG fragment to be received at the receiver; and

determining ESG fragments to be received at the receiver based on the list of descriptors and the stored at least one descriptor,

wherein the ESG fragments to be received at the receiver and corresponding descriptors are stored in the memory.

7. The receiver of claim 6 wherein the input receives the list of descriptors in an announcement channel.

8. The receiver of claim 6 wherein the input further receives an ESG fragment corresponding to at least one descriptor on the list of descriptors.

9. The receiver of claim 7 wherein the list of descriptors is received on an announcement first channel and the ESG fragment corresponding to at least one descriptor on the list of descriptors is received on a delivery channel.

10. The receiver of claim 6 wherein the processor compares at least one descriptor in the list of descriptors with descriptors stored in memory.

11. The receiver of claim 10 wherein the processor determines that an ESG fragment corresponding to the at least one descriptor on the list of descriptors is not to be received if the at least one descriptor on the list of descriptors matches at least one descriptor stored in the memory.

12. The receiver of claim 11 wherein the processor determines that an ESG fragment corresponding to the at least one descriptor on the list of descriptors is to be received if the at least one descriptor on the list of descriptors does not match at least one descriptor stored in the memory.

13. The receiver of claim 11 wherein the processor determines that an ESG fragment corresponding to the at least one descriptor stored in the memory is to be deleted if the at least one descriptor stored in memory does not match at least one descriptor on the list of descriptors.

14. The receiver of claim 6 wherein the list of descriptors includes an identifier descriptor and a version descriptor corresponding to at least one ESG fragment and the at least one descriptor stored in memory includes at least one identifier descriptor and a corresponding version descriptor corresponding to a stored ESG fragment.

15. The receiver of claim 14 wherein the processor determines that an ESG fragment corresponding to the identifier descriptor and the version descriptor on the list of descriptors is to be received if the identifier descriptor and the version descriptor on the list of descriptors is different from an identifier descriptor and corresponding version descriptor stored in memory.

16. The receiver of claim 15 wherein the processor determines that an ESG fragment corresponding to the identifier descriptor and the version descriptor on the list of descriptors is not to be received if the identifier descriptor does not match an identifier descriptor stored in memory and that an ESG fragment in memory corresponding to the identifier descriptor and that the corresponding version descriptor stored in memory is to be deleted if the identifier descriptor stored in memory matches an identifier descriptor on the list of descriptors but the version descriptor corresponding to the identifier descriptor stored in memory is less than the version descriptor corresponding to the identifier descriptor on the list of descriptors.

17. The receiver of claim 16 wherein the ESG fragments determined to be received are stored in the memory with corresponding identifiers and the ESG fragments determined to be deleted from the memory and corresponding identifiers are removed from the memory.

18. A method for receiving an ESG fragment comprising:

receiving a list of descriptors on an announcement channel;

receiving an ESG fragment on a delivery channel, the ESG fragment corresponding to at least one descriptor in the list of descriptors;

comparing the at least one descriptor in the list of descriptors with descriptors previously stored in memory;

determining whether the ESG fragment is to be received based on the comparing step;

storing the ESG fragment and the corresponding at least one descriptor if the ESG fragment is determined to be received based on the determining step.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the comparing step comprises determining that the at least one descriptor in the list of descriptors is the same as a descriptor stored in memory and wherein the step of determining whether the ESG fragment is to be received comprises determining that the ESG fragment is not to be received.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the comparing step comprises determining that the at least one descriptor in the list of descriptors is different from the descriptors previously stored in memory and wherein the step of determining whether the ESG fragment is to be received comprises determining that the ESG fragment is to be received.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein the storing step comprises storing the ESG fragment and the at least one descriptor corresponding to the ESG fragment in memory.

22. The method of claim 18 wherein the list of descriptors comprises an identifier descriptor and a version descriptor corresponding to the received ESG fragment.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein the comparing step comprises determining whether the identifier descriptor and the version descriptor corresponding to the received ESG fragment matches an identifier descriptor and a corresponding version descriptor in the memory.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the comparing step comprises determining that the identifier descriptor and the version descriptor corresponding to the received ESG fragment matches the identifier descriptor and the corresponding version descriptor in the memory and wherein the determining step comprises determining that the ESG fragment is not to be received.

25. The method of claim 23 wherein the comparing step comprises determining that the identifier descriptor of the received ESG fragment does not match the identifier descriptor in the memory and wherein the determining step comprises determining that the received ESG fragment is an ESG fragment to be received based on the comparing step.

26. The method of claim 23 wherein the comparing step comprises determining that the identifier descriptor of the received ESG fragment matches the identifier descriptor in the memory and the version descriptor corresponding to the identifier descriptor of the received ESG fragment is greater than the version descriptor corresponding to the identifier descriptor in the memory and wherein the determining step comprises determining that the ESG fragment corresponding to the identifier descriptor and corresponding version descriptor in the memory is to be deleted.

27. The method of claim 26 further comprising deleting an ESG fragment stored in memory responsive to the determining step, the ESG fragment stored in memory corresponding to the identifier descriptor and corresponding version descriptor in the memory.

28. A computer-readable medium comprising computer-executable code for performing the steps of:

receiving a list of descriptors at a subscriber terminal in a first channel, wherein at least one of the descriptors on the list of descriptors corresponds to a received ESG fragment, the received ESG fragment being received in a second channel;

determining whether the received ESG fragment is to be stored in memory based on comparing the descriptor corresponding to the received ESG fragment to descriptors stored in memory; and

storing the received ESG fragment and the corresponding descriptor in memory based on the determining step.

29. The computer-readable medium of claim 28 wherein the comparing comprises determining that the descriptor corresponding to the received ESG fragment is different from each descriptor stored in memory.

30. The computer-readable medium of claim 28 wherein only a portion of the descriptor corresponding to the received ESG fragment is the same as a corresponding portion of a descriptor stored in memory and wherein the storing step comprises deleting an ESG fragment stored in memory and the corresponding portion of the descriptor stored in memory.

31. The computer-readable medium of claim 30 wherein the portion of the descriptor corresponding to the received ESG fragment that is the same as the corresponding portion of the descriptor stored in memory comprises an identifier descriptor of the received ESG fragment.

32. The computer-readable medium of claim 31 wherein the portion of the descriptor corresponding to the received ESG fragment that is different from the corresponding portion of the descriptor stored in memory comprises a version descriptor of the received ESG fragment.

33. The computer-readable medium of claim 32 wherein the version descriptor in the portion of the descriptor corresponding to the received ESG fragment that is different from the corresponding portion of the descriptor stored in memory is greater than a corresponding version descriptor in the corresponding portion of the descriptor stored in memory.

34. The computer-readable medium of claim 28 wherein the comparing comprises determining that the descriptor corresponding to the received ESG fragment is the same as a descriptor stored in the memory.