Method and server side and terminal for finding interactive electric service guide

• US 8,726,315 B2
• Filed: 03/13/2009
• Issued: 05/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Zhang, Chuxiong, Shi, Teng, Zhang, Jie, Zhang, Yuanyuan
• Primary Examiner(s): Flynn, Nathan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Marandi, James R
• Application Number:
  US12/403,843
• Publication Number:
  US 20090178082A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,887 Days
• US Class Current: 725/51
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/38 Arrangements for distribution where lower stations, e.g. receivers, interact with the broadcast
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/57 for mobile receivers
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/93 which locates resources of other pieces of information, e.g. URL [Uniform Resource Locator]
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/72 using electronic programme guides [EPG] focusing on identifying broadcast space time H04H60/39 ; menu type display of EPG in television receivers H04N21/47
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/00 Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD] real-time bi-directional transmission of motion video data H04N7/14 ; broadcast or conference over packet switching networks H04L12/18
• 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 21/4821 using a grid, e.g. sorted out by channel and broadcast time
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A method and a service side and a terminal for finding an interactive electronic service guide. Said method comprises: the server side down-issuing the information corresponding to the finding interactive ESG service to the terminal through the broadcast channel, and the terminal acquires the information for finding the interactive ESG service in the broadcast channel. Said server side comprises a sending module of the related information for finding interactive ESG service and a down-issue module for the ESG supplier list. The terminal comprises a receiving module of the related information for finding the interactive ESG service and a receiving module for the ESG supplier list.

Claims

1. A method for discovering an interactive Electronic Service Guide (ESG) using a terminal of a mobile communication network, comprising:

obtaining, by the terminal from a server in an ESG bootstrap session via a broadcast channel, a list of available ESG providers, and selecting an ESG provider from the list of available ESG providers;

obtaining, by the terminal from the server in the ESG bootstrap session via the broadcast channel, discovery information of the selected ESG provider;

wherein the discovery information includes entrance information for accessing an interactive ESG provided by the selected ESG provider via a link separate from the broadcast channel, and wherein the entrance information includes a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of a web service through which the interactive ESG is provided via the separate link.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

determining that the server stores the entrance information of the interactive ESG in the discovery information and entrance information of a broadcast ESG is also stored in the ESG discovery information, and adding in the discovery information an interactive ESG identity which distinguishes the entrance information of the broadcast ESG from the entrance information of the interactive ESG.

3. A server, comprising a module for sending information related to discovering of an interactive Electronic Service Guide (ESG) service and a module for issuing a list of ESG providers, wherein:

the module for sending information related to discovering the interactive ESG service is configured to issue discovery information of ESG providers which is related to discovering the interactive ESG service to a terminal via a broadcast channel; and

the module for issuing a list of ESG providers is configured to issue, in an ESG bootstrap session via the broadcast channel, a list of available ESG providers to the terminal wherein the discovery information includes entrance information for accessing an interactive ESG provided by a selected ESG provider via a link separate from the broadcast channel, and wherein the entrance information includes a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of a web service through which the interactive ESG is provided via the separate link.

4. A terminal, comprising:

a module for receiving information related to discovering an interactive Electronic Service Guide (ESG) service and a module for receiving a list of ESG providers, wherein;

the module for receiving a list of ESG providers is configured to obtain, from a server in an ESG bootstrap session via a broadcast channel, a list of available ESG providers, to display the list to a user and to record an ESG provider selected by the user; and

the module for receiving information related to discovering the interactive ESG service is configured to obtain, from the server in the ESG bootstrap session via the broadcast channel, corresponding discovery information of the selected ESG provider, which is related to discovering the interactive ESG service;

wherein the discovery information includes entrance information for accessing an interactive ESG provided by the selected ESG provider via a link separate from the broadcast channel, and wherein the entrance information includes a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of a web service through which the interactive ESG is provided via the separate link.

5. The terminal according to claim 4, further comprising:

a module configured to determine a relation between the interactive ESG and a related broadcast ESG in accordance with the discovery information.