MOBILE TV SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE FOR MOBILE TERMINALS

• US 20090100475A1
• Filed: 06/11/2008
• Published: 04/16/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/12/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Analog Devices, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Analog Devices, Inc.
• Inventors: Sharifi, Kamran
• Granted Patent: US 9,219,951 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/62
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/611 for multicast or broadcast systems for broadcast or conference H04L12/18; arrangements for broadcast or distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/00; arrangements for broadcast applications with a direct linkage to broadcast information or to broadcast space-time H04H60/00; selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS], H04W4/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41407 embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/434 Disassembling of a multiplex stream, e.g. demultiplexing audio and video streams, extraction of additional data from a video stream; Remultiplexing of multiplex streams; Extraction or processing of SI; Disassembling of packetised elementary stream demultiplexing of data packets for data networks, e.g. RTP/UDP H04L65/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4345 Extraction or processing of SI, e.g. extracting service information from an MPEG stream
• 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 21/472 End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or services; End-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification, for manipulating displayed content end-user interfaces for retrieving video data from a database G06F16/739; network services for supporting unicast streaming H04L65/612
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64315 DVB-H
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6581 Reference data, e.g. a movie identifier for ordering a movie or a product identifier in a home shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/44 Receiver circuitry for the reception of television signals according to analogue transmission standards H04N5/14 takes precedence

Abstract

A mobile TV system architecture for a mobile terminal that reduces the processing required by the main processor during reception of digital broadcasts such as DVB-H. The mobile terminal architecture includes a main processor system and a mobile TV receiver device. The mobile TV receiver device includes units for SI/PSI processing, IP processing and decryption engine. The SI/PSI (service information/program specific information) processing unit receives non-protected transport stream (TS) packets and extracts SI/PSI tables which can be stored in memory local to the receiver device. The IP processing unit receives decrypted error-corrected protected packets containing multimedia content. The receiver device may include an HTTP server for communicating with a browser application running on the main processor system. The browser application presents multimedia content, received via HTTP, corresponding to a URL entered or selected by a user.

Claims

1. A mobile terminal comprising:

a host device having a media player adapted to receive a multimedia stream and present a multimedia program;

a receiver device, connected to the host device, the receiver device comprising;

a receiver front end having an antenna and a receiver front end output, the receiver front end adapted to receive a radio frequency (RF) signal via the antenna, and output a stream of packets from the receiver front end output; and

a processing unit having a processor output, the processing unit adapted to receive internet protocol (IP) packets derived from packets in the stream of packets, identify IP packets corresponding to the multimedia stream, and output the multimedia stream from the processor output; and

an interface adapted to connect the host device and the receiver device.

2. The mobile terminal of claim 1 wherein the receiver device further comprises an HTTP server adapted to transmit data to the host device via the interface.

3. The mobile terminal of claim 2, wherein:

the processing unit is a protected packet processing unit;

the protected packet processing unit further comprises an IP processing unit adapted to identify IP packets corresponding to the multimedia stream;

the packets in the stream of packets are protected packets in the stream of packets; and

the receiver device further comprises a service information and program specific information (SI/PSI) processing unit adapted to extract SI/PSI tables from non-protected packets in the stream of packets.

4. The mobile terminal of claim 3, wherein the receiver device further comprises:

a demultiplexer comprising a first output and a second output, the demultiplexer connected to the receiver front end output to receive the stream of packets and adapted to output protected packets from the first output and to output non-protected packets from the second output.

5. The mobile terminal of claim 4 wherein the receiver device further comprises:

a correction unit having an IP packet output and connected to the first output, the correction unit adapted to perform error correction to protected packets, and output IP packets from the IP packet output, each IP packet corresponding to one of the protected packets.

6. The mobile terminal of claim 5 wherein the protected packet processing unit further comprises:

a decryption engine adapted to decrypt the multimedia stream from IP packets corresponding to the multimedia stream, based on a decryption key and to output the multimedia stream from the processor output.

7. The mobile terminal of claim 6 wherein:

the RF signal is a first RF signal;

the receiver front end further comprises a signal strength output, the receiver front end further adapted to output signal strength information from the signal strength output; and

the receiver device further comprises;

a receiver controller connected to the signal strength output and adapted to configure the receiver front end to receive a second RF signal when the signal strength information corresponds to an undesirable state.

8. The mobile terminal of claim 7 wherein the error correction is multiprotocol encapsulation-forward error correction (MPE-FEC).

9. The mobile terminal of claim 7 wherein the IP packets corresponding to the multimedia stream are in real-time transport protocol (RTP).

10. The mobile terminal of claim 7 wherein the interface is a serial interface.

11. The mobile terminal of claim 7 wherein the receiver device further comprises:

an electronic service guide (ESG) decoder having an ESG output adapted to output ESG data decrypted from ESG information, the ESG information received from IP packets corresponding to ESG files; and

a service purchase and protection (SPP) unit adapted connected to the ESG output and to extract the decryption key from the ESG data and provide the decryption key to the decryption engine.

12. The mobile terminal of claim 11 wherein the receiver device further comprises:

a session description protocol (SDP) unit adapted to extract media details from IP packets corresponding to SDP files, and output the media details from the processor output.

13. The mobile terminal of claim 12, wherein:

the IP packets corresponding to SDP files are delivered to the SDP unit through a file delivery over unidirectional transport (FLUTE) parser unit and an extensible markup language (XML) parser unit in the protected packet processing unit; and

the IP packets corresponding to ESG files are delivered to the ESG decoder through the FLUTE parser unit and the XML parser unit.

14. A method of operating a mobile terminal, the mobile terminal comprising a host device and a receiver device, the receiver device initially configured to receive packets arriving in a first time slot, the method comprising:

transmitting from the host device to the receiver device a multimedia content selection;

identifying an address corresponding to the multimedia content selection;

looking up a packet identifier in a table stored on the receiver device, the packet identifier corresponding to the address;

reconfiguring the receiver device to a second time slot; and

transmitting multimedia content decrypted with a decryption key from the receiver device to the host device.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the multimedia content selection is transmitted as a uniform resource locator (URL).

16. The method of claim 15, wherein identifying is performed by an HTTP server running on the receiver device.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the HTTP server identifies the address corresponding to the URL by decoding the URL using information stored by a service information and program specific information (SI/PSI) processing unit and by an electronic service guide (ESG) decoder, wherein the SI/PSI processing unit and the ESG decoder are modules in the receiver device.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein the multimedia content selection and multimedia content are transmitted over a serial interface.

19. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

searching at least one of the packets received in the first time slot for the packet identifier.

20. A method of processing a broadcast signal by a receiver device for transmission to a host device, the method comprising:

receiving a RF broadcast signal at the receiver device;

converting, in the receiver device, the RF broadcast signal into a baseband signal comprising protected and non-protected packets;

sorting protected and non-protected packets in the receiver device;

extracting service information and program specific information (SI/PSI) tables from non-protected packets and storing the SI/PSI tables to memory in the receiver device;

error correcting protected packets, in the receiver device, wherein the error correcting produces internet protocol (IP) packets;

determining, in the receiver device, an IP packet type based on a destination address for each IP packet; and

transmitting IP packets having an audio/video (A/V) packet type from the receiver device to the host device, over a serial interface, for playback.

21. A wireless communications device comprising:

a host processor including a media player and a user interface that permits a user to select a TV channel; and

a receiver block connected to the host processor, the receiver block comprising;

a receiver front end configured to receive an RF signal containing a stream of packets; and

a processing unit configured to process at least a portion of the received stream of packets and, in response to a request from the host processor for the user selected TV channel, to provide packets corresponding to the selected TV channel to the host processor for playback by the media player.

22. The wireless communications device of claim 21, wherein the receiver block is connected to the host processor by a serial interface.

23. The wireless communications device of claim 21, wherein the processing unit comprises a decryption engine adapted to decrypt the packets corresponding to the selected TV channel based on a decryption key.

24. The wireless communications device of claim 21, wherein the receiver block further comprises an HTTP server, wherein the processing unit provides the packets corresponding to the selected TV channel to the host processor in hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) through the HTTP server.

25. The wireless communications device of claim 24, wherein:

the processing unit is a protected packet processing unit;

the protected packet processing unit further comprises an IP processing unit;

the packets corresponding to the selected TV channel are of a protected packet type; and

the receiver block further comprises a service information and program specific information (SI/PSI) processing unit adapted to extract SI/PSI tables from non-protected packets in the stream of packets.

26. The wireless communications device of claim 25, wherein the receiver block further comprises:

a correction block to perform error correction to the protected packets and to send the protected packets after error correction to the protected packet processing unit;

a demultiplexer adapted to send protected packets to the correction block and non-protected packets to the SI/PSI processing unit; and

a receiver controller to monitor a signal strength of the RF signal and reconfigure the receiver front end based on information in the SI/PSI tables when the signal strength corresponds to an undesirable state.