DCAS HEADEND SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROCESSING ERROR OF SECURE MICRO CLIENT SOFTWARE

• US 20110154098A1
• Filed: 09/14/2010
• Published: 06/23/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Inventors: KIM, Soon Choul
• Granted Patent: US 8,386,831 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0709 in a distributed system consisting of a plurality of standalone computer nodes, e.g. clusters, client-server systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/076 by exceeding a count or rate limit, e.g. word- or bit count limit
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0775 Content or structure details of the error report, e.g. specific table structure, specific error fields
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0884 by delegation of authentication, e.g. a proxy authenticates an entity to be authenticated on behalf of this entity vis-à-vis an authentication entity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26291 for providing content or additional data updates, e.g. updating software modules, stored at the client deployment, distribution, installation, update of software G06F8/65; error detection or correction during software upgrading G06F11/1433; arrangements for updating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/25
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6118 involving cable transmission, e.g. using a cable modem
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8193 dedicated tools, e.g. video decoder software or IPMP tool

Abstract

A Downloadable Conditional Access System (DCAS) headend system and method for processing an error of Secure Micro (SM) Client Software are provided to prevent further transmission of SM Client Software where an error occurred, and to prevent unnecessary traffic due to repeat reinstallation of SM Client Software between an Authentication Proxy (AP) server and a terminal, by changing policy information regarding a transmission of SM Client Software associated with error information, when a number of terminals that transmit the error information exceeds a reference value as a result of analyzing result information regarding a reception and an installation of the SM Client Software received from a terminal corresponding to a DCAS headend system.

Claims

1. A Downloadable Conditional Access System (DCAS) headend system, comprising:

an Authentication Proxy (AP) server to authenticate a terminal;

a DCAS Provisioning Server (DPS) to store and process policy information regarding a transmission of a Secure Micro (SM) Client Software; and

an Integrated Personalization System (IPS) server to store the SM Client Software, and to transmit the SM Client Software to the terminal when the terminal is authenticated by the AP server,

wherein the AP server receives result information regarding a reception and an installation of the SM Client Software from the terminal, and transmits the result information to the DPS and the IPS server, and

wherein the DPS changes policy information related to an error associated with the SM Client Software among the policy information, when the received result information contains error information regarding the error and when a number of terminals that transmit the error information exceeds a reference value.

2. The DCAS headend system of claim 1, wherein the DPS changes the policy information so that the SM Client Software associated with the error is removed, or so that the error is corrected.

3. The DCAS headend system of claim 1, wherein the policy information comprises at least one of a policy identifier (ID) of the policy information, an AP ID of the AP server, a value being a number of times the policy information is changed, an application time during which the policy information is applied to the AP server, the reference value, an elapsed time after the policy information is applied to the AP server, and a value being a number of clients of the SM Client Software, the clients being associated with the policy information.

4. The DCAS headend system of claim 1, wherein the result information comprises at least one of:

a result value indicating whether the terminal receives and installs the SM Client Software without the error;

an ID of the terminal;

an ID of the SM Client Software; and

an error code indicating a type of the error when the error occurs.

5. The DCAS headend system of claim 4, wherein the error code comprises at least one of:

a code indicating a fault in a network or a server;

a code indicating a reception failure of the SM Client Software;

a code indicating a verification failure of the SM Client Software;

a code indicating an execution failure of the SM Client Software; and

a code indicating that there is no response from the terminal.

6. The DCAS headend system of claim 1, wherein the error information comprises at least one of:

a client ID of a client of the SM Client Software;

a reception trial count indicating a number of times that the terminal attempts to receive the SM Client Software; and

an error occurrence count indicating a number of times that an error occurs.

7. The DCAS headend system of claim 1, wherein the SM Client Software is classified into at least one SM class corresponding to an SM contained in the terminal, and

wherein the at least one SM class is classified into a CAS client version, an ASD client version, and a Digital Rights Management (DRM) client version.

8. The DCAS headend system of claim 1, wherein the DPS sets the reference value based on at least one of:

a reception trial count per unit of time indicating a number of times that the terminal attempts to receive the SM Client Software per unit of time;

a reception failure count per unit of time indicating a number of times that the terminal fails to receive the SM Client Software per unit of time;

a total reception trial count indicating a total number of times that the terminal attempts to receive the SM Client Software;

a total reception failure count indicating a total number of times that the terminal fails to receive the SM Client Software;

a failure rate per unit of time indicating a percentage of the reception failure count per unit of time with respect to the reception trial count per unit of time; and

an average failure rate indicating a percentage of the total reception failure count with respect to the total reception trial count.

9. A DCAS headend system, comprising:

a transmitter to transmit SM Client Software to a terminal;

a receiver to receive error information regarding an error from the terminal, when the error is associated with the SM Client Software; and

a processor to change policy information regarding a transmission of the SM Client Software associated with the error, when a number of terminals that transmit the error information exceeds a reference value,

wherein the transmitter stops the transmission of the SM Client Software associated with the error, when the number of terminals that transmit the error information exceeds the reference value.

10. The DCAS headend system of claim 9, wherein the processor changes the policy information so that the SM Client Software associated with the error is removed, or so that the error is corrected.

11. The DCAS headend system of claim 9, further comprising:

a storage unit to store at least one of the SM Client Software and the policy information.

12. The DCAS headend system of claim 9, wherein the SM Client Software is classified into at least one SM class corresponding to an SM contained in the terminal, and

wherein the at least one SM class is classified into a CAS client version, an ASD client version, and a DRM client version.

13. A DPS of a DCAS headend system, the DPS comprising:

a first database to store information regarding SM Client Software, the SM Client Software being transmitted to a terminal;

a second database to receive result information regarding a reception and an installation of the SM Client Software from the terminal, and to store the received result information;

a third database to store policy information regarding a transmission of the SM Client Software;

a determiner; and

a processor,

wherein the second database extracts error information regarding an error associated with the SM Client Software from the result information,

wherein the determiner receives the error information from the second database, and when a number of terminals that transmit the error information exceeds a reference value, extracts the information regarding the SM Client Software associated with the error information from the first database and transmits the extracted information to the processor, and

wherein the processor changes policy information related to the error associated with the SM Client Software among the policy information stored in the third database, based on the information received from the determiner.

14. The DPS of claim 13, the DPS changing the policy information so that the SM Client Software associated with the error is removed, or so that the error is corrected.

15. The DPS of claim 13, wherein the determiner sets the reference value based on at least one of:

a reception trial count per unit of time indicating a number of times that the terminal attempts to receive the SM Client Software per unit of time;

a reception failure count per unit of time indicating a number of times that the terminal fails to receive the SM Client Software per unit of time;

a total reception trial count indicating a total number of times that the terminal attempts to receive the SM Client Software;

a total reception failure count indicating a total number of times that the terminal fails to receive the SM Client Software;

a failure rate per unit of time indicating a percentage of the reception failure count per unit of time with respect to the reception trial count per unit of time; and

an average failure rate indicating a percentage of the total reception failure count with respect to the total reception trial count.

16. The DPS of claim 13, further comprising:

a controller to control a time at which the determiner receives the error information from the second database.

17. A method of removing an error in a DCAS headend system, the method comprising:

transmitting SM Client Software to a terminal, when the terminal is authenticated by an AP server;

receiving, by the AP server, result information regarding a reception and an installation of the SM Client Software from the terminal, and transmitting the result information to a DPS and an IPS server; and

changing policy information regarding a transmission of the SM Client Software associated with an error, when the result information received by the DPS contains error information regarding the error and when a number of terminals that transmit the error information exceeds a reference value.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the changing of the policy information comprises changing the policy information so that the SM Client Software associated with the error is removed, or so that the error is corrected.

19. A method of removing an error in a DCAS headend system, the method comprising:

transmitting SM Client Software to a terminal;

receiving error information regarding an error from the terminal, when the error occurs in the SM Client Software;

stopping a transmission of the SM Client Software where the error occurred, when a number of terminals that transmit the error information exceeds a reference value; and

changing policy information regarding the transmission of the SM Client Software associated with the error.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the changing of the policy information comprises changing the policy information so that the SM Client Software associated with the error is removed, or so that the error is corrected.