Method and device for transmitting information to the DVB network

• US 6,763,035 B1
• Filed: 06/10/1999
• Issued: 07/13/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/10/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Technology GmbH (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Koskelainen, Petri, Luoma, Juha-Pekka
• Primary Examiner(s): VANDERPUYE, KENNETH N
• Application Number:
  US09/329,532
• Time in Patent Office: 1,860 Days
• Field of Search: 709/229, 709/203, 709/217, 709/230, 370/486, 370/487, 370/351, 370/390, 370/466, 370/401
• US Class Current: 370/466
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/238 Interfacing the downstream path of the transmission network, e.g. adapting the transmission rate of a video stream to network bandwidth; Processing of multiplex streams hybrid fiber coaxial [HFC] networks for downstream channel allocation for video distribution H04L12/2801; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10; real-time communication protocols in data switching networks H04L65/00; scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2381 Adapting the multiplex stream to a specific network, e.g. an Internet Protocol [IP] network transmission of MPEG streams over ATM H04L12/5601
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6405 Multicasting data broadcast and multicast in packet switching networks H04L12/18

Abstract

Information is transmitted to a DVB network (15) as an information stream according to the DVB standards, the information is sent from the information producer (11a) or transmitter to the operator (19) of the DVB network (15) for transmission to the DVB network (15), the information producer (11a) transmits the information to a well-known multicast address in Internet (40) as packets according to the multicast Internet protocol (IP), and an operator (19) receives the multicast IP packets that contain the information from Internet (40). In addition, the invention relates to a device (12) for transmitting information to the DVB network (15), which device (12) has means (41) for receiving the information to be transmitted, means (14) for adding the received information to an information stream to be sent to the DVB network (15) and means (14) for sending the information stream to the DVB network (15) and means (41) for receiving packets according to the multicast Internet protocol.

Claims

1. A method for transmitting information to a digital video broadcasting network as an information stream which complies with digital video broadcasting standards, in which method the information is transmitted from an information producer or transmitter to an operator of the digital video broadcasting network to be sent to said digital video broadcasting network, the method comprising

the producer or transmitter of said information sends said information to a well-known multicast address of an internet as packets which comply with an internet protocol,

said operator receives the multicast internet protocol packets which contain said information from said internet, and

said operator selects an information from said information stream to be transmitted to said digital video broadcasting network, encodes said selected information to comply with the digital video broadcasting standards and sends said selected information to said digital video broadcasting network.

2. A method according to claim 1, in which at least part of transmission data of said information is transmitted from said producer of said information to said digital video broadcasting operator, wherein

said information producer sends the transmission data of the information to be transmitted as packets according to a session announcement protocol/session description protocol to a well-known multicast address in said internet,

said digital video broadcasting operator receives said session announcement protocol/session description protocol packets, and

said digital video broadcasting operator estimates the transmission data according to said session announcement protocol/session description protocol packets and, if he so desires, adds information according to said SAP/SDP packets to an internet protocol/electronic program guide database of a session announcement protocol/session description protocol server.

3. A method according to claim 2, wherein at least part of the information of said internet protocol/electronic program guide database is coded into packets according to said SAP/SDP protocol, which are further coded into packets according to the internet protocol and added to the information stream to be sent to said digital video broadcasting network.

4. A method according to claim 2, wherein the information of the received multicast internet protocol packets contained in said information to be transmitted are compared to the information of the internet protocol/electronic program guide database.

9. A method according to claim 3, wherein the information of the received multicast internet protocol packets contained in said information to be transmitted are compared to the information of the internet protocol/electronic program guide database.

5. A device for transmitting information to a digital video broadcasting (network, which device has means for receiving the information in packets according to a multicast internet protocol, means for selectively adding the information based on predetermined criteria to an information stream for transmission to said digital video broadcasting network, for encoding said received information to comply with a digital video broadcasting standard and for transmitting the information stream to said digital video broadcasting network.

6. A device according to claim 5, wherein the device has means for receiving transmission data for said information as session announcement protocol/session description protocol packets, said means for receiving the information as the session announcement protocol/session description protocol packets can be optionally combined with the means for receiving the information in packets according to the multicast internet protocol.

7. A device according to claim 6, wherein the device has means for maintaining an internet protocol/electronic program guide database.

8. A device according to claim 7, wherein the device has means by which session announcement protocol information transmitted by said session announcement protocol/session description protocol packets from accepted sources is updated to the internet protocol/electronic program guide database.

10. Apparatus for transmitting information to a digital video broadcasting network, comprising:

a receiver for receiving said information in the form of packets according to a multicast internet protocol;

a first server responsive to said received information for receiving session announcement protocol/session description protocol packets from said receiver; and

a digital video broadcasting server responsive to said received information for transmitting the information to the digital video broadcasting network in compliance with digital video broadcasting standards.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein said server for receiving the session announcement protocol/session description protocol packets has means for maintaining an internet protocol electronic program guide database.

12. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein said server for receiving the session announcement protocol/session description protocol packets updates SAP information from accepted sources to the internet protocol/electronic program guide database.

13. The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising a controller, responsive to said SAP/SDP packets from said server, for providing a control signal, wherein said first server is responsive to said control signal for controlling said transmitting the information to the digital video broadcasting network.

14. A method for transmitting information to a digital video broadcasting network, in which method the information is transmitted from an information producer to an operator of the network for sending said information to the network, the method comprising the steps of:

sending from the producer or transmitter said information to an internet multicast address as packets with an address,

receiving the packets which contain said information with the address at the operator,

maintaining an internet protocol/electronic program guide database at the operator based on said packets, and

selecting information from said received information to be transmitted to said digital video broadcasting network, encoding said selected information to comply with digital video broadcasting standards and sending said selected information to said digital video broadcasting network.

15. A method for transmitting information to a digital video broadcasting network, the method comprising the steps of:

transmitting said information from an information producer or transmitter to a multicast address as packets in accordance with a multicast internet protocol,

receiving said packets at an operator of the network for sending said information to the network,

maintaining an internet protocol/electronic program guide database at the operator based on said packets, and

selecting information from said received information to be transmitted to said digital video broadcasting network, encoding said selected information to comply with digital video broadcasting standards and sending said selected information to said digital video broadcasting network.

16. A method for transmitting information to a digital video broadcasting network, in which method the information is transmitted from an information producer to an operator of the network for sending said information to the network, the method comprising the steps of:

sending from the producer or transmitter said information as packets to a multicast internet address,

receiving the packets which contain said information with the address at the operator,

maintaining an internet protocol/electronic program guide database at the operator, and

selecting information from the said received information to be transmitted to said digital video broadcasting network, encoding said selected information to comply with digital video broadcasting standards and sending said selected information to said digital video broadcasting network.