Broadcasting variants of digital signals in a conditional access system

• US 9,532,006 B2
• Filed: 01/04/2011
• Issued: 12/27/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/05/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Irdeto B.V. (MultiChoice Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Irdeto B.V. (MultiChoice Group Ltd.)
• Inventors: Westerveld, Egbert
• Primary Examiner(s): Armouche, Hadi
• Assistant Examiner(s): HOLMES, ANGELA R
• Application Number:
  US12/983,953
• Publication Number:
  US 20110211695A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,184 Days
• Field of Search: 380/212, 380/223, 380/240, 713/176
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/0021 Image watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23424 involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for inserting or substituting an advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234345 the reformatting operation being performed only on part of the stream, e.g. a region of the image or a time segment
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23892 involving embedding information at multiplex stream level, e.g. embedding a watermark at packet level
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23897 by partially encrypting, e.g. encrypting only the ending portion of a movie
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26616 for merging a unicast channel into a multicast channel, e.g. in a VOD application, when a client served by unicast channel catches up a multicast channel to save bandwidth data multicast over packet-switching network H04L12/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44016 involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for substituting a video clip
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44055 by partially decrypting, e.g. decrypting a video stream that has been partially encrypted
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44236 Monitoring of piracy processes or activities protecting computer platforms against harmful, malicious or unexpected behaviour or activities using intrusion detection and counter measures G06F21/566; computer virus detection and handling G06F21/56
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4623 Processing of entitlement messages, e.g. ECM [Entitlement Control Message] or EMM [Entitlement Management Message] arrangements for conditional access to broadcast information or to broadcast-related services H04H60/14
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8358 involving watermark protecting executable software by watermarking G06F21/16; image watermarking in general G06T1/0021; watermarks inserted in still images for transmission purposes H04N1/32144; inserting watermarks during video coding H04N19/467
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/1675 Providing digital key or authorisation information for generation or regeneration of the scrambling sequence pseudo-random number generators in general G06F7/58

Abstract

The invention provides a headend system, a receiver, a smartcard and a conditional access system enabling distribution of multiple variants of a part of a digital signal, such as multiple variants of an audio part or a video part of a data stream, without requiring receivers to be updated. The digital signal generated by the headend system enables a receiver to receive and process the digital signal without requiring identification of the copies in the second digital signal. Error handling capabilities of the receiver ensure that only one copy is used in the output of the receiver. The error handling capabilities are triggered by having the receiver use one decryption key for descrambling all copies, resulting in one copy being descrambled correctly and the other copies being descrambled incorrectly.

Claims

1. A headend system comprising:

a duplicator configured to generate two or more copies of at least a part of a first digital signal;

one or more scramblers configured to scramble each copy to obtain scrambled copies, wherein each copy is scrambled differently; and

a combiner configured to combine the scrambled copies to obtain a second digital signal within which the scrambled copies are not identifiable as being related to one of the two or more copies of the at least a part of the first digital signal so that descrambling, at a receiver of the second digital signal, of the scrambled copies using a decryption key for one of the scrambled copies descrambles said one of the scrambled copies into a meaningful output and all other scrambled copies into a non-meaningful output that an error handler of the receiver discards.

2. The headend system according to claim 1, further comprising one or more first packetizers configured to packetize each copy of the at least a part of the first digital signal into a data packet,

wherein the one or more scramblers are configured to scramble a payload of each data packet to obtain scrambled data packets,

and wherein the combiner comprises a multiplexer and the second digital signal comprises a content stream, the multiplexer being configured to multiplex the scrambled data packets to obtain the content stream.

3. The headend system according to claim 2, further comprising:

one or more watermark insertion modules are configured to insert the watermark in the payload of each data packet to obtain watermarked data packets,

wherein the one or more scramblers are configured to scramble the payload of each watermarked data packet.

4. The headend system according to claim 1, further comprising a first packetizer configured to packetize the first digital signal into data packets, wherein the duplicator is configured to generate two or more copies of one or more of the data packets,

wherein the one or more scramblers are configured to scramble a payload of each copy to obtain scrambled copies of the one or more of the data packets,

and wherein the combiner is a multiplexer and the second digital signal is a content stream, the multiplexer being configured to multiplex the scrambled data packets to obtain the content stream.

5. The headend system according to claim 4, further comprising:

one or more watermark insertion modules configured to insert the watermark in the payload of each copy to obtain watermarked copies of the one or more of the data packets,

and wherein the one or more scramblers are configured to scramble the payload of each watermarked data packet.

6. The headend system according to claim 2, further comprising one or more second packetizers for packetizing each data packet into one or more further data packets, wherein each further data packet comprises a further payload with a predefined length, wherein the one or more second packetizers are configured to:

determine a header length of a header of the data packet and, if the header length is not equal to or a multiple of the predefined length, add one or more stuffing bits to the header such that the header length becomes equal to a the multiple of the predefined length;

determine a payload length of the payload of the data packet and, if the payload length is not equal to or a multiple of the predefined length, add one or more stuffing bits to the payload such that the payload length becomes equal to a the multiple of the predefined length;

split the header into one or more header parts having the predefined length;

split the payload into one or more payload parts having the predefined length; and

sequentially place the one or more header parts and the one or more payload parts in the further payload of the further data packets,

wherein the one or more scramblers are configured to scramble the further payload of each further data packet, and

wherein the multiplexer is further configured to group the further data packets.

7. The headend system according to claim 1, further comprising a key generator and an entitlement message generator, wherein the key generator is configured to provide one or more encryption keys to the one or more scramblers for scrambling each copy, and wherein the entitlement message generator is configured to generate an entitlement message comprising key data for the one or more of the encryption keys to enable a receiver of the entitlement message and the second digital signal to obtain a decryption key for descrambling one of the scrambled copies into a meaningful output and to descramble all other scrambled copies into a non-meaningful output.

8. The headend system according to claim 7, further comprising a selection data generator configured to generate selection data, the selection data enabling the receiver to obtain one decryption key from the key data, and wherein the entitlement message generator is further configured to include the selection data in the entitlement message.

9. A receiver for receiving a second digital signal and an entitlement message from a headend system according to claim 8, the second digital signal comprising two or more scrambled copies of at least a part of a first digital signal, wherein the scrambled copies are not identifiable as being related to one of two or more copies of the at least a part of the first digital signal, the entitlement message comprising key data for two or more decryption keys, the entitlement message further comprising selection data, the receiver comprising:

a decryptor configured to obtain the key data and the selection data from the entitlement message;

a memory comprising a fingerprint vector;

a matching module configured to match the selection data with the fingerprint vector to obtain a matching result;

a key selector configured to obtain one decryption key from the key data based on the matching result to enable the receiver to descramble one of the scrambled copies into a meaningful output and to descramble all other scrambled copies into a non-meaningful output; and

an error handler configured to discard the non-meaningful output.

10. A hardware smartcard for use in a receiver for receiving a second digital signal and an entitlement message from a headend system according to claim 8, the second digital signal comprising two or more scrambled copies of at least a part of a first digital signal, wherein the scrambled copies are not identifiable as being related to one of two or more copies of the at least a part of the first digital signal, the entitlement message comprising key data for two or more decryption keys, the entitlement message further comprising selection data, the smartcard comprising:

an input module configured to receive the entitlement message from the receiver;

a decryptor configured to obtain the key data and the selection data from the entitlement message;

a memory comprising a fingerprint vector;

a matching module configured to match the selection data with the fingerprint vector to obtain a matching result; and

a key selector configured to obtain one decryption key from the key data based on the matching result to enable the receiver to descramble one of the scrambled copies into a meaningful output and to descramble all other scrambled copies into a non-meaningful output that an error handler of the receiver discards.

11. A conditional access system comprising:

a headend system, wherein the headend system comprises;

a duplicator configured to generate two or more copies of at least a part of a first digital signal;

one or more scramblers configured to scramble each copy to obtain scrambled copies of the at least a part of the first digital signal, wherein each copy is scrambled differently; and

a combiner configured to combine the scrambled copies to obtain a second digital signal within which the scrambled copies are not identifiable as being related to one of the two or more copies of the at least a part of the first digital signal so that descrambling, at a receiver of the second digital signal, of the scrambled copies using a decryption key for one of the scrambled copies descrambles said one of the scrambled copies into a meaningful output and all other scrambled copies into a non-meaningful output that an error handler of the receiver discards; and

one or more receivers according to claim 9.

15. The headend system according to claim 1, further comprising:

one or more watermark insertion modules configured to insert a watermark in each copy to obtain watermarked copies of the at least a part of the first digital signal, wherein the watermark is different for each copy.

18. A conditional access system comprising:

a headend system, wherein the headend system comprises;

a duplicator configured to generate two or more copies of at least a part of a first digital signal;

one or more scramblers configured to scramble each copy to obtain scrambled copies of the at least a part of the first digital signal, wherein each copy is scrambled differently; and

a combiner configured to combine the scrambled copies to obtain a second digital signal within which the scrambled copies are not identifiable as being related to one of the two or more copies of the at least a part of the first digital signal so that descrambling, at a receiver of the second digital signal, of the scrambled copies using a decryption key for one of the scrambled copies descrambles said one of the scrambled copies into a meaningful output and all other scrambled copies into a non-meaningful output that an error handler of the receiver discards;

one or more receivers; and

one or more hardware smartcards according to claim 10.

12. A method for use in a headend system, the method comprising the steps of:

generating two or more copies of at least a part of a first digital signal;

scrambling each copy to obtain scrambled copies of the least a part of the first digital signal, wherein each copy is scrambled differently; and

combining the scrambled copies to obtain a second digital signal within which the scrambled copies are not identifiable as being related to one of the two or more copies of the least a part of the first digital signal so that descrambling, at a receiver of the second digital signal, of the scrambled copies using a decryption key for one of the scrambled copies descrambles said one of the scrambled copies into a meaningful output and all other scrambled copies into a non-meaningful output that an error handler of the receiver discards.

13. The method according to claim 12, further comprising the steps of:

generating an entitlement message comprising key data for one or more encryption keys to enable a receiver of the entitlement message and the second digital signal to obtain a decryption key for descrambling one of the scrambled copies into a meaningful output and to descramble all other scrambled copies into a non-meaningful output; and

transmitting the second digital signal and the entitlement message to one or more receivers.

16. The method according to claim 12, further comprising:

inserting a watermark in each copy to obtain watermarked copies of the at least a part of the first digital signal, wherein the watermark is different for each copy.

14. A method for use in a hardware smartcard the method comprising the steps of:

receiving an entitlement message from a receiver, the entitlement message comprising key data for two or more decryption keys, the entitlement message further comprising the selection data;

decrypting the entitlement message to obtain the key data and the selection data;

reading the fingerprint vector from a memory;

matching the selection data with the fingerprint vector to obtain a matching result; and

obtaining the one decryption key from the key data based on the matching result to enable the receiver to descramble a first scrambled copy of a digital signal into the meaningful output and to descramble a second scrambled copy of the digital signal into the non-meaningful output that an error handler of the receiver discards.

17. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing one or more programs, the one or more programs comprising instructions which, when executed by a computer processor cause the computer processor to perform a method comprising:

generating two or more copies of at least a part of the first digital signal;

scrambling each copy to obtain scrambled copies of the at least a part of the first digital signal, wherein each copy is scrambled differently; and

combining the scrambled copies to obtain a second digital signal within which the scrambled copies are not identifiable as being related to one of the two or more copies of the at least a part of the first digital signal so that descrambling, at a receiver of the second digital signal, of the scrambled copies using a decryption key for one of the scrambled copies descrambled said one of the scrambled copies into a meaningful output and all other scrambled copies into a non-meaningful output that an error handler of the receiver discards.