CN101247502A - A digital multimedia broadcasting system and authorization method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

A digital multimedia broadcasting system and its authorization method. The digital multimedia broadcasting system includes a front-end subsystem, an authorization subsystem, a terminal subsystem, and a third-party device, wherein the front-end subsystem is used to issue broadcast programs encrypted by the authorization subsystem. The terminal subsystem is characterized in that the authorization method includes the following steps: the third-party device obtains authorization information from the authorization subsystem; the terminal obtains authorization information from the third-party device by using a peripheral interface; the terminal obtains authorization and performs subsequent operations. The system and method proposed by the present invention use third-party equipment to obtain authorization information first, but the terminal obtains authorization from the third-party equipment through the peripheral interface, does not occupy the capacity of the broadcast channel, and realizes flexible authorization of various scales of users.

Description

A digital multimedia broadcasting system and authorization method thereof

technical field

The present invention relates to digital multimedia broadcasting, in particular to a digital multimedia broadcasting system and its authorization method.

Background technique

The existing broadcasting system is a one-way information dissemination system, which is characterized by one-point sending, multi-point receiving, one-way information dissemination, and it can broadcast a large amount of information to thousands of terminals at the same time. Typical broadcasting systems such as: traditional radio, television, etc. Digital multimedia broadcasting is a digital broadcasting system, and it is an information release mode widely used around the world. The mature markets include: digital TV broadcasting such as cable, terrestrial, satellite, etc.; digital audio broadcasting such as cable, terrestrial, satellite, etc. . At the same time, many new digital TV broadcasts have appeared on the market, such as: mobile multimedia broadcasting, IP multimedia broadcasting, etc.

As shown in FIG. 1 , an existing broadcast system 1 generally includes several parts such as a front-end subsystem 10 , a terminal subsystem 20 , and an authorization subsystem 30 . Among them, the front-end subsystem 10 is responsible for broadcasting and management of digital programs. For example, the front-end subsystem of a digital TV station broadcasts digital broadcast programs, manages program broadcast time, etc.; the terminal subsystem 20 includes multiple terminals, which are receiving devices for broadcast programs , respectively receive and play or process the broadcast programs broadcast by the front-end subsystem; the authorization subsystem 30 is responsible for encrypting and protecting the broadcast programs of the front-end subsystem, and after the encrypted content is transmitted to the terminal subsystem, it must pass through the authorization subsystem 30 The confirmation can be decrypted and played by the terminal, and the terminal must obtain the necessary authorization to play the broadcast content.

Under the conditions of traditional digital multimedia broadcasting, since the broadcasting system is one-way, and the start-up time of the terminal is uncertain, the authorization for a single terminal is usually sent by cyclic broadcasting. The front-end subsystem 10 broadcasts the authorization information cyclically. After the terminal is turned on, it can receive the authorization information for itself within a certain period of time. If it is necessary to authorize a large number of terminals, it is necessary to broadcast the authorization of each terminal cyclically, as shown in FIG. 1 .

Since the broadcast channel capacity of the digital multimedia broadcasting system 1 is limited, and the number of terminals is increasing, for example, in the existing digital multimedia broadcasting system, it can usually support millions of terminal users. In this case, The cyclic authorization will occupy a large channel capacity, and if the channel capacity is also limited, the time to send the authorization cyclically will be longer. This will cause the terminal to fail to receive authorization information in time.

In a new type of digital multimedia broadcasting system, such as a satellite mobile multimedia broadcasting system, due to the large number of terminals, which may reach 100 million users, and the broadcast channel capacity is very limited, the broadcast authorization method cannot meet the needs of system operation at all.

The existing main way to realize the authorization of the digital multimedia broadcasting system is that the front-end subsystem broadcasts the authorization information cyclically. The reason for cyclic broadcasting is that the front-end subsystem cannot know when the terminal is turned on to receive. For example: in the existing digital TV broadcasting system, the terminal is the TV set-top box of the family, and the start-up time and duration of the TV set-top box of each family are uncertain, and it may watch TV every night or once a week; It could be 2 hours or 10 minutes. Therefore, by cyclically broadcasting the authorization, it can be ensured that the authorization information can be received as long as the terminal is powered on for a period of time.

Assume that the front-end subsystem needs to support 1 million authorized terminals. Each terminal has 2 pieces of authorization information, and the size of each piece of authorization information is 50 bytes. The licensed broadcast channel capacity that the front-end subsystem can utilize is 500kbps. Then it can be calculated that the time required to send the authorized broadcast of 1 million terminals once is: 1 million×2×50×8/500k=1600 seconds, about 25 minutes.

That is to say, the terminal must be turned on for at least 25 minutes to ensure that authorization is received. This time will also increase exponentially if the number of authorizations per terminal increases or the number of terminals increases. If this time exceeds the average start-up time of ordinary terminals, many terminals will not be able to receive authorization within the start-up time, which will have a great impact on front-end operations and end-user usage.

In the case of a small number of terminals, a small number of authorizations, and sufficient broadcast channel capacity, the above-mentioned authorization cyclic transmission method basically has no major impact on front-end operations and end-user usage because it takes less time to send an authorization in a cyclical manner. However, in the new digital multimedia broadcasting system, the number of terminals may be extremely large, reaching 100 million users, and the capacity of the broadcasting channel is limited, only below 500kbps, so the cyclic authorization transmission method cannot meet the demand at all. This defect is caused by the characteristics of the authorized broadcasting technology itself. Because it is impossible to know when the terminal is turned on, the authorization must be sent in a cyclic broadcast manner, resulting in a decrease in user experience when there are a large number of users.

Contents of the invention

In order to solve the problem that the traditional broadcast authorization cannot authorize the terminal in time when there are a large number of users, the present invention proposes a new authorization method under the condition of digital multimedia broadcasting. This method is applied to the digital multimedia broadcasting system and can well solve the problem of Terminal authorization problem.

The present invention proposes an authorization method for a digital multimedia broadcasting system. The digital multimedia broadcasting system includes a front-end subsystem, an authorization subsystem, a terminal subsystem, and a third-party device. Broadcasting programs to the terminal subsystem, the authorization method includes the following steps: Step A: the third-party device obtains authorization information from the authorization subsystem; Step B: the terminal obtains authorization information from the third-party device by using a peripheral interface; Step C: the terminal Obtain authorization for subsequent operations.

Wherein, step C includes: the terminal decrypts the broadcast program according to the encryption key in the authorization information, and then plays and/or processes it.

Wherein, in step A, the third-party device obtains authorization information from the authorization subsystem through a two-way channel.

Wherein, in step A, the third-party device obtains the authorization information by downloading from the front-end network of the authorization subsystem.

Wherein, the authorization information is in the form of a file and has nothing to do with third-party equipment.

The present invention also proposes a digital multimedia broadcasting system, including a front-end subsystem, an authorization subsystem, a terminal subsystem, and a third-party device, wherein the front-end subsystem is used to deliver broadcast programs encrypted by the authorization subsystem to the A terminal subsystem; the authorization subsystem is coupled with the aforementioned front-end subsystem, and is used to encrypt the broadcast program and send authorization information; the third-party device is coupled to the aforementioned authorization subsystem, and is used to obtain from the authorization subsystem Authorization information; the terminal subsystem is coupled with the aforementioned front-end subsystem and the aforementioned third-party equipment, and the terminal subsystem includes a plurality of terminals with peripheral interfaces for receiving broadcast programs and authorization information, and using the authorization information in the The encryption key decrypts the program for playback and/or processing.

Wherein, the third-party device obtains the authorization information from the authorization subsystem through a two-way channel or obtains the authorization information by downloading from the front-end network of the authorization subsystem.

Wherein, the two-way channel includes an IP network channel and a mobile phone network channel.

Wherein, the peripheral interface includes: a USB interface and a Bluetooth communication interface.

Wherein, the authorization information is in the form of a file and has nothing to do with third-party equipment.

In the present invention, a third-party device is used to first obtain authorization information, and then the terminal obtains authorization from the third-party device through a peripheral interface. The advantage is:

1. There is no need to circulate broadcast authorization, and it does not occupy the capacity of the broadcast channel.

2. Third-party devices can obtain authorization in various ways, and can support a large number of terminal authorizations.

3. Regardless of the number of terminals, terminals can obtain authorization in a timely manner, which is of great benefit to the operating system and terminal user experience.

Description of drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of an existing broadcasting system;

Fig. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of the digital multimedia broadcasting system of the present invention;

Fig. 3 is a flowchart of an embodiment of the authorization method of the present invention.

Detailed ways

The core content of the present invention is: first use a third-party device to obtain authorization information from the authorization subsystem, and then obtain the authorization information from the third-party device through the peripheral interface by the terminal, and obtain authorization without occupying the broadcast channel.

Authorization is to transmit the authorization information including the encryption key of the program to the specified terminal, so that the terminal without the authorization information cannot process the program, and only the terminal with the authorization information can process the program.

The technical solution of the present invention will be further described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments.

FIG. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of a digital multimedia broadcasting system 1' of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2, the broadcasting system 1' at least includes a front-end subsystem 10', a terminal subsystem 20', an authorization subsystem 30' and third-party equipment 40'. Among them, the front-end subsystem 10' is responsible for broadcasting and management of digital programs. For example, the front-end subsystem of a digital TV station is responsible for broadcasting digital broadcasting programs and managing the broadcasting time of programs, etc.; the authorization subsystem 30' is coupled with the front-end subsystem 10' , which is responsible for encrypting the broadcast program of the front-end subsystem 10', and sending out the authorization information containing the encryption key, so as to authorize the designated terminal to ensure security; the terminal subsystem 20' includes multiple terminals 201 ⁿ (n is a positive integer), each terminal includes at least one peripheral interface, such as a USB interface, a Bluetooth communication interface, etc., for obtaining authorization information from a third-party device, sending and receiving files or information with a third-party device, which is also The receiving device of the broadcast program, after receiving the broadcast program from the front-end subsystem, uses the encryption key in the authorization information obtained from the third-party device to decrypt the broadcast program, and then performs subsequent operations such as playback or processing; the third-party device 40' Coupled with the authorization subsystem and the terminal subsystem, it is used to obtain authorization information from the authorization subsystem for use by a specific terminal. The third-party device can communicate with the authorization subsystem through a two-way channel to obtain authorization information, and can also obtain authorization information in other ways, such as downloading from the front-end website of the authorization subsystem, wherein the two-way channel is, for example, an IP network channel (IP set-top box It can not only receive broadcast programs, but also has IP network interface), mobile phone network channel, etc.

It should be noted that the above-mentioned authorization information can be in the form of files or other methods, and has nothing to do with third-party equipment and two-way channels. This can ensure that the authorization system does not need to be modified, and can be completed by using any third-party equipment, peripheral interfaces, and two-way channels.

The following describes the preferred embodiments of the authorization method of the present invention.

Please refer to Fig. 3, the steps of the method for realizing the present invention in this embodiment are as follows:

Step 300: The third-party device obtains authorization information from the authorization subsystem;

Step 302: the terminal obtains authorization information from a third-party device through a peripheral interface;

Step 304: The terminal obtains authorization and performs subsequent operations.

This embodiment is a technical solution for the method for the terminal to obtain authorization information. For the terminal to receive the encrypted broadcast program issued by the front-end subsystem, it is the same as the existing technology, and will not be described here. In addition, the present invention does not limit the acquisition of Authorization information and the order of receiving broadcast programs, that is to say, the terminal can receive broadcast programs first, and then obtain authorization information through a third-party device, or obtain authorization information from a third-party device first, and then use the authorization information after receiving broadcast programs. The information decryption program performs follow-up operations such as playback and processing. There are various ways for a third-party device to obtain authorization information from the authorization subsystem, typically such as the aforementioned communication with the authorization subsystem through a two-way channel to obtain authorization information; or by logging in to the front-end website of the authorization subsystem to download To obtain authorization information, can be achieved. The invention does not limit the manner in which it can be realized.

In order to make the application of the present invention clear for readers, two usage examples are listed below to illustrate the present invention.

Example one

The user downloads the authorization information from the front-end website, saves it as an authorization file, and saves the authorization file into a USB flash drive, then inserts the USB flash drive into a terminal with a USB interface, and processes the authorization file to obtain authorization information after the terminal recognizes it.

In this example, the third-party device is a USB flash drive, which obtains the authorization information by downloading the authorization information from the front-end website of the authorization subsystem and saving it as an authorization file. Then, the terminal uses its peripheral interface to obtain the authorization information. That is, the USB interface obtains the authorization file stored on the U disk, and obtains the authorization information.

So far, the terminal has successfully obtained the authorization information. After receiving the encrypted broadcast program issued by the front-end subsystem, it can use the authorization information to decrypt the broadcast program, and then perform subsequent operations such as playback and processing. , to avoid the defect of the traditional cyclic broadcast authorization occupying the broadcast channel, and realize the purpose of the present invention.

Example two

The user purchases a point card containing authorization information from the retailer, and the point card can be inserted into the terminal, and the terminal obtains the authorization information from the point card after identification.

In this example, the third-party device is a point card, and the point card already contains authorization information. Of course, the authorization information can be filled in directly by the operator or in other ways. The specific way It depends on actual needs, and this technology has been widely used in various technical fields, and will not be repeated here. The interface for inserting the above-mentioned point card in the terminal is the peripheral interface, through which the terminal can obtain authorization information from the inserted point card.

So far, the terminal has successfully obtained the authorization information. After receiving the encrypted broadcast program issued by the front-end subsystem, it can use the authorization information to decrypt the broadcast program, and then perform subsequent operations such as playback and processing. , to avoid the defect of the traditional cyclic broadcast authorization occupying the broadcast channel, and realize the purpose of the present invention.

Compared with the cyclic broadcast authorization method of the digital multimedia broadcasting system in the prior art, the "external interactive authorization" scheme of the present invention first uses a third-party device to obtain authorization information from the authorization subsystem, and then the terminal obtains authorization information from the third party through the peripheral interface. The device obtains authorization information. Through the present invention, there is no need to circulate broadcast authorization, and the broadcast channel capacity is not occupied; moreover, third-party equipment can obtain authorization in various ways, and can support a super large number of terminal authorizations; in addition, regardless of the number of terminals, terminals can obtain authorization in time information, which is of great benefit to both the operating system and the end-user experience.

The above embodiments are only for illustrating the present invention, but not as limitations.

Claims (10)

1. An authorization method for a digital multimedia broadcasting system, the digital multimedia broadcasting system includes a front-end subsystem, an authorization subsystem, a terminal subsystem, and a third-party device, wherein the front-end subsystem is used to issue broadcasts encrypted by the authorization subsystem program to the terminal subsystem, characterized in that the authorization method includes the following steps: Step A: The third-party device obtains authorization information from the authorization subsystem; Step B: the terminal obtains the authorization information from the third-party device through the peripheral interface; Step C: The terminal obtains authorization and performs subsequent operations. 2. The authorization method according to claim 1, wherein step C comprises: The terminal decrypts the broadcast program according to the encryption key in the authorization information, and then plays and/or processes it. 3. The authorization method according to claim 1, wherein in step A, the third-party device obtains authorization information from the authorization subsystem through a two-way channel. 4. The authorization method according to claim 1, wherein in step A, the third-party device obtains the authorization information by downloading from the front-end network of the authorization subsystem. 5. The authorization method according to claim 1, wherein the authorization information is in the form of a file and has nothing to do with third-party equipment. 6. A digital multimedia broadcasting system, comprising a front-end subsystem, an authorization subsystem, a terminal subsystem and third-party equipment, characterized in that: The front-end subsystem is used to send broadcast programs encrypted by the authorized subsystem to the terminal subsystem; The authorization subsystem is coupled with the aforementioned front-end subsystem, and is used for encrypting the broadcast program and sending authorization information; The third-party device is coupled to the aforementioned authorization subsystem, and is used to obtain authorization information from the authorization subsystem; The terminal subsystem is coupled with the aforementioned front-end subsystem and the aforementioned third-party equipment, and the terminal subsystem includes a plurality of terminals with peripheral interfaces for receiving broadcast programs and authorization information, and using the encryption key in the authorization information Play and/or process the program after decryption. 7. The broadcasting system according to claim 6, wherein the third-party device obtains the authorization information from the authorization subsystem through a two-way channel or obtains the authorization information by downloading from the front-end network of the authorization subsystem. 8. The broadcast system according to claim 7, wherein the two-way channel comprises an IP network channel and a mobile phone network channel. 9. The broadcasting system according to claim 6, wherein the peripheral interface comprises: a USB interface and a Bluetooth communication interface. 10. The broadcast system according to claim 6, wherein the authorization information is in the form of a file and has nothing to do with third-party equipment.

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