Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
  • H04N21/60—Network structure or processes for video distribution between server and client or between remote clients; Control signalling between clients, server and network components; Transmission of management data between server and client, e.g. sending from server to client commands for recording incoming content stream; Communication details between server and client 
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
  • H04N21/40—Client devices specifically adapted for the reception of or interaction with content, e.g. set-top-box [STB]; Operations thereof
  • H04N21/47—End-user applications
  • H04N21/478—Supplemental services, e.g. displaying phone caller identification, shopping application
  • H04N21/4782—Web browsing, e.g. WebTV
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L67/00—Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications
  • H04L67/14—Session management
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L9/00—Cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for secret or secure communications; Network security protocols
  • H04L9/40—Network security protocols
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
  • H04N21/40—Client devices specifically adapted for the reception of or interaction with content, e.g. set-top-box [STB]; Operations thereof
  • H04N21/45—Management operations performed by the client for facilitating the reception of or the interaction with the content or administrating data related to the end-user or to the client device itself, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies, resolving scheduling conflicts
  • H04N21/462—Content or additional data management e.g. creating a master electronic programme guide from data received from the Internet and a Head-end or controlling the complexity of a video stream by scaling the resolution or bit-rate based on the client capabilities
  • H04N21/4622—Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L69/00—Network arrangements, protocols or services independent of the application payload and not provided for in the other groups of this subclass
  • H04L69/30—Definitions, standards or architectural aspects of layered protocol stacks
  • H04L69/32—Architecture of open systems interconnection [OSI] 7-layer type protocol stacks, e.g. the interfaces between the data link level and the physical level
  • H04L69/322—Intralayer communication protocols among peer entities or protocol data unit [PDU] definitions
  • H04L69/329—Intralayer communication protocols among peer entities or protocol data unit [PDU] definitions in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Definitions

• the invention relates to a method of establishing a connection between an interactive device, in particular an interactive television receiver, and a server through a connection, as well as such a receiver.
• the terminals are connected to one or more communication networks (see Figure 1), for example:
• - a bidirectional network (modem return path, cable, etc.) of point-to-point type, such as the telephone network; - a one-way distribution network (terrestrial TV broadcasting network, cable, satellite) analog or digital.
• interactive consumer terminal covers television receivers with interactive modules, DVB decoders, Internet decoders, etc.
• An interactive terminal generally consists of resident software with which the manufacturer of the terminal combines download functions allowing the latter to retrieve interactive services, whether by the broadcast channel or the return channel.
• This resident software can be an interpreter executing applications or a browser interpreting HTML pages or scripts.
• the terminal can connect to online servers through the telephone network at different price levels.
• the electronic mail will for example be billed for local communication for the user of the terminal while a response sent during a TV game may cost, for example, 3.71 Frs.
• This principle is based on the use of different telephone numbers, each corresponding to a different rate level.
• the telephone number called, as well as other connection parameters, are specified in a configuration file (configuration.
• each telephone number corresponds to an authentication process which must allow the terminal to connect by specifying certain connection parameters, such as a DNS (name of domain), a login word, password, etc.
• DNS name of domain
• FIG. 2 illustrates this principle: An HTML page of an interactive service contains information for updating the configuration file 'Configuration. xml 'of a connection. This update is done.
• the HTML page also includes a URL link to this connection. If this link is activated, the HTML page indicates to the browser that the connection must be established. The browser then initializes the connection based on the content of the configuration file.
• the subject of the invention is a method of establishing a connection between a receiving device and an interactive services server, characterized in that it comprises the steps, at the receiving device level:
• the update of the configuration file, on which the establishment of the connection to be made will be based, is triggered by the determination of a set of connection parameters, among a plurality of sets.
• the configuration file is for example that of browser software, which will not have to be modified per se for the implementation of the invention.
• the domain identifier, from which the correct set of connection parameters is determined is a URL.
• the identifier can also directly index one of the parameter sets.
• - Figure 1 already described, is a block diagram of a system for transmitting interactive services known per se
• - Figure 2 is a prior art block diagram illustrating the extraction of connection parameters without connection interface
• FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating the operation of the connection interface for extracting the connection parameters
• FIG. 4 illustrates the operations to be carried out involving a resident service when an 'on-line' service is to be launched
• FIG. 5 illustrates the operations to be carried out involving a broadcast service when an on-line service is to be launched
• - Figure 6 illustrates the operation to be performed to change the interactive service 'on-line' when one is already connected to another service of this type
• - Figure 7 is a diagram illustrating the operations performed to extract, from from a received URL, connection parameters, such as telephone number, connection word, password, server name ... through the connection interface.
• connection interface function function designated HERE under the reference 'OpenURL'
• connection interface analyzes the parameter of the function (here a URL) and deduces a domain name
• a correspondence file contains for all the appropriate domain names, and for each domain name, the connection parameters (for example telephone number, authentication parameters in particular,) These parameters are used to update the browser configuration file 'Configuration xml'
• the initialization of the connection is then controlled by the connection interface at the browser level, by generating an HTML instruction of the same type as that present in the HTML page of Figure 2
• the correspondence file is stored in the receiver during the manufacturing phase. According to an alternative embodiment, it is trans secured to the receiver by the transmitter
• connection interface is, according to the present example, a 'JavaScript' structure inspired by the object-oriented model in which the developer manipulates an object, attributes and methods.
• FIG. 4 illustrates the operations to be carried out involving a resident service when an online service must be launched.
• the resident service initially active in FIG. 4, opens an instance of the connection interface, then calls the OpenURL function already mentioned in relation to FIG. 3
• the configuration file is then updated as already explained, then a command to initialize the connection is sent to the corresponding service (the browser in the context of this example)
• the online service is started and the resident service is stopped
• the interactive module ensures that one and only one service is executed at a given time
• FIG. 5 illustrates the operations to be performed involving a radio broadcast service when an on-line service is to be launched. The procedure is similar to that of FIG. 4
• FIG. 6 illustrates the operation to be performed to change the interactive on-line service when one is already connected to another service of this type.
• it must be checked whether the connection parameters of the new service are identical to those of the current service.
• the new service has the same price level as the previous one (ie the cost of the connection per unit of time). If so, the same connection is used (case illustrated by the Figure 6: the online service does not need to use the connection interface), if not, there is disconnection, then reconnection.
• window.location aURL.
• FIG. 7 is a diagram of the operations carried out for extracting, from a received URL, the connection parameters, such as telephone number, connection word, password, server name, etc., through the interface. of connection.
• connection interface compares the domain names in its correspondence file with the domain name deduced from the URL. If a match is found, everything goes as previously described in relation to Figure 2. If the connection interface reaches the end of the list in the match file (domain '*') default values are used to establish the connection. According to a variant of the invention), there is no default entry in the table which avoids the misuse of a default price level. Indeed, from the moment when the service operator provides the means to access a resource whose domain name is not present in the correspondence file, it leaves the door open to competition which could benefit from it. to offer competing services at more attractive rates. By blocking the connection in the event of failure to identify the tariff level, the service operator protects itself against this problem.

Landscapes

• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Signal Processing (AREA)
• Multimedia (AREA)
• Databases & Information Systems (AREA)
• Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
• Computer Security & Cryptography (AREA)
• Two-Way Televisions, Distribution Of Moving Picture Or The Like (AREA)
• Information Transfer Between Computers (AREA)
• Circuits Of Receivers In General (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (3)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=8855588

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (8)

Families Citing this family (4)

Family Cites Families (4)

• 2001
  • 2001-10-19 EP EP01978572A patent/EP1329104A2/de not_active Ceased
  • 2001-10-19 AU AU2002210672A patent/AU2002210672A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2001-10-19 US US10/399,425 patent/US20040055015A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2001-10-19 KR KR10-2003-7004996A patent/KR20030046493A/ko not_active Ceased
  • 2001-10-19 JP JP2002538673A patent/JP2004527807A/ja active Pending
  • 2001-10-19 MX MXPA03003504A patent/MXPA03003504A/es not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 2001-10-19 WO PCT/FR2001/003235 patent/WO2002035835A2/fr not_active Ceased
  • 2001-10-19 CN CNA018174957A patent/CN1471788A/zh active Pending

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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