METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ACCESSING SERVICE DISCOVERY METADATA

• US 20130198790A1
• Filed: 04/12/2011
• Published: 08/01/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/12/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Inventors: Thang, Truong Cong, Kang, Jung Won, Bae, Seong Jun, Park, Sang Taick, Ryu, Won
• Application Number:
  US13/641,059
• Publication Number:
  US 20130198790A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/109
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2362 Generation or processing of Service Information [SI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64322 IP
• 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

Abstract

Provided is a method and apparatus for accessing service discovery metadata. Advance Internet Protocol Television (AIT) devices may access discovery metadata of different schemes using a generic protocol based on the moving picture experts group (MPEG) Extensible Middleware (MXM). According to the above access scheme, end-user devices, description service provider devices, and IPTV service provider devices may exchange metadata. Subsequent modification and addition of a metadata scheme may be supported.

Claims

1. A discovery metadata accessing method of a requesting device, the method comprising:

generating an access metadata request message indicating information associated with a metadata section desired to be accessed;

transmitting the access metadata request message to a description provider device;

receiving, from the description provider device, an access metadata response message comprising description of the metadata section; and

obtaining metadata based on the description of the metadata section.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising

signing the access metadata request message.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

responding to the description provider device using a notification message.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a metadata scheme request message for accessing the metadata;

transmitting the metadata scheme request message to the description provider device; and

receiving from the description provider device, a metadata scheme response message indicating whether a scheme of the metadata is accessible.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the metadata scheme request message comprises a list of all the metadata schemes supported by the requesting device and a priority attribute for each scheme of the list.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein when the scheme of the metadata is accessible, the metadata scheme response message comprises an adopted scheme element indicating a metadata scheme selected by the description provider device based on optical match between properties of the requesting device and the description provider device.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein when the scheme of the metadata is inaccessible, the metadata scheme response message comprises a scheme result element indicating a cause of a failure.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein the access metadata request message comprises at least one of a scheme name element indicating a type of the metadata scheme, an encoding element indicating an encoding type to be used for the metadata, a requested section element indicating a group of sections requested in a level of a section hierarchy, and a section condition element transferring identifiers of metadata sections requested in the level of the section hierarchy.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein when the metadata request message does not indicate a version value of the metadata section, or when a version value present in the description provider device of the metadata section requested to the description provider device is greater than a value indicated in the access metadata request message, the metadata response message comprises description of the metadata section.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the metadata section is identified by at least one identifier based on a hierarchical level used to divide the metadata section.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the obtaining comprises getting the metadata included in a metadata section element of the access metadata response message, or retrieving the metadata from a position indicated by a metadata Universal Resource Locator (URL) element of the access metadata response message.

19. The method of claim 10, wherein the metadata section is identified by at least one identifier based on a hierarchical level used to divide the metadata section.

12. A metadata providing method of a description provider device, the method comprising:

receiving, from a requesting device, an access metadata request message indicating information associated with a metadata section desired to be accessed by the requesting device;

generating an access metadata response message comprising the metadata section; and

transmitting the access metadata response message to the requesting message.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

verifying a signature of the access metadata request message.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving a notification message from the requesting device.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving, from the requesting device, a metadata scheme request message for accessing metadata;

generating a metadata scheme response message indicating whether a scheme js of the metadata is accessible; and

transmitting the metadata scheme response message to the requesting device.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein when the scheme of the metadata is accessible, the metadata scheme response message comprises an adopted scheme element indicating a metadata scheme selected by the description provider device based on optical match between properties of the requesting device and the description provider device.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein when the scheme of the metadata is inaccessible, the metadata scheme response message comprises a scheme result element indicating a cause of a failure.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein when the metadata request message does not indicate a version value of the metadata section, or when a version value present in the description provider device of the metadata section requested to the description provider device is greater than a value indicated in the access metadata request message, the metadata response message comprises description of the metadata section.

20. A requesting device, comprising:

a control unit to generate an access metadata request message indicating information associated with a metadata section desired to be accessed, and to discover metadata based on description of the metadata section; and

an interface unit to transmit the access metadata request message to a description provider device, and to receive, from the description provider device, an access metadata response message comprising the description of the metadata section.