Modularization of broadcast receiver driver components

• US 7,882,269 B2
• Filed: 12/01/2004
• Issued: 02/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/16/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: McDowell, Sean C., Borseth, Jay Alan, Pritchett, Thaddeus C., Backman, Terje K., Goll, David A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Srivastava; Vivek
• Assistant Examiner(s): ELFERVIG, TAYLOR A
• Application Number:
  US11/000,611
• Publication Number:
  US 20050097227A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,253 Days
• Field of Search: 709/250, 709/208
• US Class Current: 709/250
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/438 Interfacing the downstream path of the transmission network originating from a server, e.g. retrieving encoded video stream packets from an IP network
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4383 Accessing a communication channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/443 OS processes, e.g. booting an STB, implementing a Java virtual machine in an STB or power management in an STB
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859

Abstract

A modularized broadcast receiver driver architecture includes one or more control nodes, under control of a network module, that perform a series of one or more functions to receive a broadcast signal and extract content information from the signal. None of the multiple control nodes requires knowledge of the network type via which the signal is being received. Rather, a network module is aware of the network type and configures the control nodes to carry out their respective functions.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a network module, executed by a processor, to control extraction of information from a received signal broadcast in a first signal format, wherein the network module;

controls extraction of information based, at least in part, on the network type and on information regarding the first signal format;

configures at least a subset of a plurality of control nodes of one or more broadcast receiver drivers in accordance with a basic receiver topology for a network type via which the signal is received;

provides a registration interface which can be accessed by each of the control nodes to identify themselves to the network module,

monitors the received signal to detect a change in format of the received signal from the first signal format to a second signal format; and

a broadcast receiver driver, coupled to receive control from the network module, including a plurality of control nodes, wherein each control node;

performs a particular unique step of information extraction independent of what other steps other control are performing;

registers with the network module by accessing the registration interface;

and

includes an interface via which the network module can configure the control node to adjust the control node specific to the particular unique step of the information extraction the control node is performing; and

responsive to the network module detecting a change in format of the received signal from the first signal format, the network module configures an additional control node not previously utilized of the plurality of control nodes to extract information from the received signal broadcast in the second signal format.

2. A system as recited in claim 1, further comprising a transport information filter to extract information from the signal and make the extracted information available to the network module (FIG. 5, col. 6 II. 50-67, col. 7 II. 1-7).

3. A system as recited in claim 1, further comprising a transport information filter to extract information from the signal and make the extracted information available to the network module, wherein the network module is to control extraction of the information based at least in part on the information extracted by the transport information filter.

4. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein the broadcast receiver driver further includes an interface via which the network module can identify an interface on each of the plurality of control nodes.

5. A combined set of one or more broadcast receiver drivers, executed by a processor, comprising:

a network module to control extraction of information from a received signal;

a plurality of control nodes to receive an input that corresponds to a signal received via a network type, wherein;

each of the plurality of control nodes is chosen from a group consisting of;

a signal range selector corresponding to an antenna selection;

a radio frequency (RF) tuning node to filter particular radio frequencies;

a demodulator node to translate analog signals into digital streams;

a tuner capture node to separate the digital stream into packets and perform Forward Error Correction (FEC);

a plurality of demultiplexer nodes, wherein the plurality of demultiplexer nodes comprises;

a demultiplexer node to extract packets for data information packets wherein the data information packets are made available to a data application for presentation to a user;

a demultiplexer node to extract decryption key information packets;

a demultiplexer node to extract audio information; and

a demultiplexer node to extract video information;

a decryption node to receive a first stream of input packets containing data to be decrypted and a second stream of input packets containing a decryption key to decrypt the data of the first stream of input packets, wherein the network module informs the decryption node which stream contains data and which stream contains the decryption key;

an Ethernet packager to package packets into Ethernet frames;

a stream selection filter to perform additional filtering of packets;

each control node performs a particular unique operation of information extraction from the signal independent of operations other control nodes are performing and each control node further performs a specific function, the control node comprising;

a transformation module to transform the input to an output independent of the network type

a network module interface to receive, from a network module, configuration information for use by the transformation module in transforming the input to the output.

6. A control node as recited in claim 5, wherein one of the plurality of the control nodes further comprises a stream selector and wherein the configuration information comprises an identification of packets in an input bit stream that are to be output by the stream selector.

7. A control node as recited in claim 5, wherein the network module interface includes a void transform interface via which the network module can instruct the plurality of the control nodes to stop receiving input.

8. A control node as recited in claim 5, wherein the network module interface includes a null transform interface via which the network module can instruct the plurality of the control nodes to provide an output identical to the input.

9. A control node as recited in claim 5, wherein the network module interface includes an auto tune frequency filter interface via which the network module can identify, as at least part of the configuration information, a frequency of a transponder, a polarity of the transponder, and a range of the transponder.

10. A control node as recited in claim 5, wherein the network module interface includes a frequency filter interface via which the network module can identify, as at least part of the configuration information, a center frequency of a carrier that should be locked.

11. A control node as recited in claim 5, wherein the network module interface includes a frequency filter interface via which the network module can identify, as at least part of the configuration information, a polarity of a carrier that should be locked.

12. A control node as recited in claim 5, wherein the control node is responsive to configuration information extracted from a signal format wherein the signal format was foreseen when the one or more broadcast receiver drivers associated with the control node was developed.

13. A control node as recited in claim 5, wherein the control node is responsive to configuration information extracted from a signal format wherein the signal format was unforeseen when the one or more broadcast receiver drivers associated with the control node was developed.