KR20070032522A - Data structure and method for program guide, and broadcasting apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

A data structure for a program guide, a method therefor, and a broadcasting device to which the same is applied are provided to allow a displayed EPG(Electronic Program Guide) to have the same structure as an MCI(Multiplex Configuration Information) structure and allow a user to easily understand an EPG configuration by re-configuring service information of an EPG and an EPG element by a service unit, and managing and displaying program and channel association information by the service unit. A data structure includes a service information element, at least one ensemble element, at least one service element, and at least one service component element. The service information element transmits broadcasting station information or channel information. The ensemble element, included in the service information element, includes information about a corresponding ensemble. The service element, included in the ensemble element, includes a service identification attribute capable of identifying a corresponding service. The service component element, included in the service element, includes a service component identification attribute capable of identifying a corresponding service component. The data structure is formed as an XML(eXtensible Markup Language) type.

Description

Data structure and method for program guide, and broadcasting apparatus using the same

1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of a general DMB service structure

2 is a diagram showing an embodiment of a structure of a ServiceInformation element of a general EPG service

3 illustrates an embodiment of a structure of an epg element of a general EPG service.

4 illustrates an embodiment of a structure of a ServiceInformation element of an EPG service according to the present invention.

5 illustrates an embodiment of a binary encoding format of serviceIDType according to the present invention.

6A and 6B illustrate an embodiment of an XML structure of a ServiceInformation element according to the present invention.

7 is a view showing an embodiment of an XML structure of epg.schedule.scope.serviceScope according to the present invention

8 illustrates an embodiment of an XML structure of epg.schedule.location.bearer according to the present invention.

9 is a schematic diagram of a mobile broadcast receiver for decoding an EPG service according to the present invention;

Explanation of symbols for main parts of the drawings

101: Tuner 102: FIC Demux

103: MCI parser 104: FIDC parser

105: SI parser 106: MSC parser

107: TP Demux 108: PSI Parser

109: video decoder 110: audio decoder

111: MOT Decoder 112: XML Parser

113: EPG processing unit 114: audio decoder

The present invention relates to an apparatus for mobile broadcasting, and more particularly, to a data structure and a method for providing program guide information on a service basis.

Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) among mobile broadcasts is based on Eureka-147 Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB), which has been adopted as the European terrestrial radio standard. That is, the Eureka-147 was created for digital audio broadcasting (DAB), but it is also used as a technology for terrestrial DMB that serves a small screen size video using a narrow frequency bandwidth of 2 MHz.

In the Eureka-147 system, one broadcast service in an ensemble can be configured with a plurality of service components, and multiple broadcasts can be multiplexed and transmitted through about 2Mhz frequency band.

1 is a diagram illustrating such a relationship, in which at least one service component constitutes one service and at least one service constitutes one ensemble.

The ensemble corresponds to a broadcasting station, the service corresponds to one channel of a TV or radio, and is composed of one or more service components. The service component means video, audio, traffic information, or broadcast service information constituting a broadcast program. The service component corresponds 1: 1 to a sub channel.

In the above-described Eureka-147 scheme, there are multiplex configuration information (MCI) as information for indicating what services are multiplexed in an ensemble, service components constituting each service, and where service components are located.

That is, the Eureka-147 system transmits data through repetitive transmission of a unit structure called a frame. The transmission frame is composed of a synchronization channel, a fast information channel (FIC), and a main service channel (MSC).

The synchronization channel has a predetermined form so that the DMB receiver recognizes the beginning of the frame, and a null symbol and a phase reference symbol (PRS) are allocated.

The FIC is used to transmit various types of information for receiving a broadcast service, and is composed of MCI, Service Information (SI), Fast Information Data Channel (FIDC), and CA (Conditional Access). Here, the form of the MCI in the FIC is clearly defined in the Eureka-147 scheme, and thus, a detailed description thereof will be omitted. At this time, the DMB receiver refers to the MIC information present in the FIC to recognize where the service component of the service desired by the user is located in the MSC. That is, the DMB receiver receives the desired broadcast by extracting and restoring a portion containing the service component of the service desired by the user from the broadcast contents delivered through the MSC. Therefore, MCI is essential information for receiving desired broadcast service in DMB which multiplexes multiple broadcast services.

The MSC is composed of one or more Common Interleaved Frames (CIFs), and is used for transmitting broadcast services such as video, audio, and data.

Data services that can be supported by the DMB include a broadcast web site (BWS), a slide show, a dynamic label segment (DLS), a transport protocol expert group (TPEG), and an electronic program guide (EPG).

That is, the DMB also provides an EPG that allows a user to easily access desired broadcast contents. The user can obtain information about a broadcast program such as a program name, a broadcast time, a genre, and a program summary through the EPG. Furthermore, the user can be provided with a program search and a viewing guide information to select a desired program. .

At this time, the EPG is divided into two types, one of which is an EPG of an extensible markup language (XML) format for expressing broadcast programming information, and the other is a binary format for transmitting broadcast programming information. EPG.

The XML EPG is composed of an EPG element containing program / program group organization information and a service information element containing broadcast station and channel information. That is, the EPG is represented by service information and program information. The service information has a serviceInformation element as a top element, and the program information has an epg element as a top element.

FIG. 2 is a general diagram illustrating the structure of the serviceInformation element and is composed of one or more ensemble elements. Each ensemble element may have several service elements. Here, the ensemble element refers to a signal transmitted at one physical frequency, and a service element has the meaning of an individual channel of a broadcast.

In FIG. 2, the ensemble element stores frequency information of the ensemble in the frequency element, and short, medium, and long names of the ensemble are stored in the serviceNameGroup element. The description and logo of the ensemble are stored in the mediaDescription element, and the CA (Conditional Access), keywords (keywords), and link information are stored in the corresponding element.

Like the ensemble element, the service element includes the serviceNameGroup, mediaDescription, CA, keywords, and link elements, and additionally, a service ID (serviceID) that uniquely identifies the corresponding service (actually a service component), a genre of the service, Contains information about the language of the service (epgLanguage).

The serviceID element of the service element includes an attribute called a unique number (id) and a type.

The id attribute is dabIDType and has the following format. The dabIDType is an identifier capable of uniquely recognizing a specific service component.

dabIDType: <ECC>. <Eid>. <Sid>. <SCIdS>. <X-PAD>

The ECC and the Eid are keys that can uniquely recognize the ensemble, and the Sid are keys that can uniquely recognize services within the ensemble. SCIdS is a key that can uniquely recognize service components in a service. The ECC, Eid, and X-PAD are optional fields and may not appear in some cases.

3 is a general diagram showing the structure of an epg element, and stores organization information of a program.

The epg element may consist of a schedule, program, programGroups, or alternateSource element. The Schedule element includes a variety of information including a time range covered by the schedule information and start and end time information of each program within the time range.

At this time, the id attribute of the bearer in the location element of the program element has the above-described dabIDType. The id attribute of the serviceScope element also has a dabIDType.

The XML EPG data having the structure as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 are binary encoded and transmitted through a multimedia object transfer protocol.

However, referring to the service element of FIG. 2, the name indicates a service, and EPG information is not described and transmitted in service units, but EPG information is described and transmitted in service component units.

The XML EPG uses dabIDType as an identifier for uniquely recognizing a service in a serviceInformation and epg element, and SCIdS in the dabIDType enables unique recognition of a service component of a service. In other words, what is defined as a service in XML EPG means not a service but a service component.

As such, the basic structure of the MCI and the EPG are different from each other, which may confuse the user. That is, the basic structure of the MCI is composed of an ensemble, a service, and a service component, but the EPG has an ensemble and a service component structure.

At this time, the information indicating the service is described in duplicate in the service component.

That is, the ensemble consists of several services, and each service consists of several service components. There is no method for distinguishing and displaying each service in the EPG. The screen expresses channel information and program organization information in units of service components. However, when using an EPG service, a unit that a user can recognize and easily understand is a service unit.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a data structure, a method for displaying EPG information in service units, and a broadcast apparatus using the same.

In order to achieve the above object, a data structure for program guide information according to the present invention comprises: a service information element for transmitting broadcast station and / or channel information; At least one ensemble element included in the service information element and including information on the ensemble; At least one service element included in the ensemble element and including a service identification attribute for identifying a corresponding service; And at least one service component element included in the service element and including a service component identification attribute capable of identifying the corresponding service component, wherein the ensemble element, the service element, and the service component element are corresponding multiplexed array information. (MCI) to form a hierarchical structure.

The service identification attribute of the service element may include an error correction code (ECC), an ensemble identifier (Eid), and a service identifier (Sid).

The error correction code (ECC) and ensemble identifier (Eid) are selectively included in the service identification attribute.

The service component identification attribute of the service component element may include an error correction code (ECC), an ensemble identifier (Eid), a service identifier (Sid), service component identifiers (SCIds), and an X-PAD.

An error correction code (ECC), an ensemble identifier (Eid), and an X-PAD in the service component identification attribute are selectively included in the service component identification attribute.

The program guide information further includes a program information element for transmitting program information of a program, wherein an identification attribute of a bearer element in a location element of a program element constituting the program information element may identify a corresponding service. It is a service identification attribute.

The identification attribute of the serviceScope element in the scope element of the schedule element constituting the program information element may be a service identification attribute for identifying the corresponding service.

The method for guiding a program of a broadcast according to the present invention includes at least one service element including a service identification attribute capable of uniquely identifying a corresponding service, and at least one service component capable of uniquely identifying a corresponding service component. Generating service information including the element; Generating program information including program organization information including a service identification attribute capable of uniquely identifying a corresponding service; Transmitting the service information and the program information generated in the step; Extracting a service identification attribute and a service component identification attribute from the service information and program information transmitted in the step; And displaying the program guide information in service units by referring to the service identification attribute and the service component identification attribute extracted in the step.

The service identification attribute is composed of an error correction code (ECC), an ensemble identifier (Eid), and a service identifier (Sid), and the error correction code (ECC) and the ensemble identifier (Eid) are selectively included.

The service component identification attribute includes an error correction code (ECC), an ensemble identifier (Eid), a service identifier (Sid), a service component identifier (SCIds), and an X-PAD. The error correction code (ECC) and an ensemble identifier ( Eid), and X-PAD are optionally included.

The identification attribute of the bearer element in the location element of the program element generated in the program information generation step may be a service identification attribute capable of uniquely identifying the corresponding service.

The identification attribute of the serviceScope element in the scope element of the schedule element generated in the program information generation step may be a service identification attribute capable of identifying the corresponding service.

The broadcast apparatus according to the present invention includes a service including at least one service element including a service identification attribute for uniquely identifying a corresponding service, and at least one service component element for uniquely identifying the corresponding service component. A transmitter for generating information and generating and transmitting program information including program organization information including a service identification attribute capable of uniquely identifying a corresponding service; And a receiver which extracts a service identification attribute and a service component identification attribute from the service information and the program information transmitted from the transmitter, and displays program guide information in service units by referring to the extracted service identification attribute and the service component identification attribute. It is characterized in that the configuration.

Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of embodiments taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings, preferred embodiments of the present invention that can specifically realize the above object will be described. At this time, the configuration and operation of the present invention shown in the drawings and described by it will be described as at least one embodiment, by which the technical spirit of the present invention and its core configuration and operation is not limited.

The present invention is characterized in that the serviceInformation and epg elements of the EPG are configured in an ensemble, a service, and a service component structure to correspond to the corresponding MCI.

4 is a diagram illustrating the structure of a serviceInformation element according to the present invention, and describes information on an ensemble, a service, and a service component of an MCI in service units.

The ensemble element of the serviceInformation element may have a plurality of service elements. In the present invention, only one service element is illustrated.

In FIG. 4, an ensemble element stores frequency information of an ensemble in a frequency element, and short, medium, and long names of the ensemble are stored in a serviceNameGroup element. The description and logo of the ensemble are stored in the mediaDescription element, and the CA (Conditional Access), keywords (keywords), and link information are stored in the corresponding element.

The service element is composed of a serviceID for storing uniquely distinguishable information, a genre of the service, a language of the service, and a service component element. The service component element stores information that can uniquely distinguish a service component in a Servicecomponent ID element.

The service element also includes a serviceNameGroup, mediaDescription, CA, keywords, and link elements as well as an ensemble element.

The service component element includes CA, keywords, and link elements.

In this case, the serviceID element includes an attribute called a unique number (id) and a type. The id attribute should be configured with information uniquely recognizing a specific service.

That is, the id attribute of the conventional serviceID element is composed of information that can uniquely recognize a service component. As a result, an EPG is expressed in a service component unit rather than a service unit.

The present invention is to solve this problem, the id attribute of the serviceID element to distinguish only the corresponding service.

In the present invention, the id attribute of the serviceID element capable of uniquely recognizing a specific service is defined as serviceIDType, and is formed in the following format.

serviceIDType: <ECC>. <Eid>. <Sid>

The ECC and the Eid are values capable of uniquely recognizing the ensemble, and the Sid values are uniquely recognizable of services within the ensemble. Here, the ECC and the Eid are optional fields and may not appear in some cases.

In addition, the id attribute of the serviceComponentID element that can uniquely recognize a specific service component is defined as serviceComponentIDType.

serviceComppnentIDType: <ECC>. <Eid>. <Sid>. <SCIdS>. <X-PAD>

That is, the serviceComponentIDType has the same structure as the conventional dabIDType.

The ECC and the Eid are values capable of uniquely recognizing the ensemble, and the Sid values are uniquely recognizable of services within the ensemble. SCIdS is a value that can uniquely recognize a service component in a service.

The ECC, Eid, and X-PAD are optional fields and may not appear in some cases.

5 shows an example of the binary encoding format of the serviceIDType, and there may or may not be ECC or EId according to the value of the Ens flag (1 bit).

At this time, the dabIDType fields in the XML EPG are changed to the serviceIDType field through the encoding of FIG. 5, whereby the EPG data actually transmitted and displayed are service units.

6A and 6B illustrate an example in which the serviceInformation element of FIG. 4 is displayed in an XML format as it is and includes a service identification attribute (serviceIDType) when the element name is a service (serviceID). The service component element (servicecomponentID) includes a service component identification attribute (servicecomponentIDType).

That is, in the present invention, the id attribute information of serviceInformation.ensemble.service.serviceID, the id attribute information of epg.schedule.scope.serviceScope, and the dabIDType field of the id attribute information of epg.schedule.location.bearer are changed to the serviceIDType field. Will be described in the Examples.

Referring to the XML structure of serviceInformation.ensemble.service.serviceID according to the present invention in FIG. 6, it can be seen that the id attribute type ('id' type) of the serviceID element is indicated by the serviceIDType field.

This changed the XML structure of the existing service component unit to the XML structure of the service unit. And the type attribute of the existing serviceID element is lost.

Each service in serviceInformation also points to a unique service.

7 illustrates an XML structure of epg.schedule.scope.serviceScope according to the present invention. Similarly, an id attribute type ('id' type) of a serviceScope element is indicated by a serviceIDType field.

8 illustrates an XML structure of epg.schedule.location.bearer according to the present invention. Similarly, the id attribute type ('id' type) of a bearer element is indicated by a serviceIDType field.

When the XML EPG is configured as a service unit, the EPG structure is the same as the MCI structure so that the user can easily understand the EPG composition when presented through the XML parser.

9 is a block diagram illustrating decoding related components of a mobile broadcast receiver according to the present invention, and includes a tuner 101, an FIC demux 102, an MCI parser 103, an FIDC parser 104, an SI parser 105, and an MSC decode. MUX 106, Transport (TP) Demux 107, PSI Decoder 108, Video Decoder 109, Audio Decoder 110, MOT Decoder 111, XML Parser 112, EPG Processing Unit 113 ), And an audio decoder 114.

In the mobile broadcast receiver configured as described above, parts related to the present invention are the MSC demux 106, the MOT decoder 111, the XML parser 112, and the EPG processor 113.

That is, the tuner 101 receives and demodulates a DMB service of a specific channel, and then outputs FIC channel information to the FIC demux 102 and MSC channel information to the MSC demux 106.

The FIC demux 102 separates the MCI, SI, and FIDC from the FIC channel and provides them to the MCI parser 103, the FIDC parser 104, and the SI parser 105, respectively.

The MSC demux 106 separates the DMB broadcast service from the signal received through the MSC channel and outputs it to the TP demux 107, and separates the EPG service and outputs the MOT decoder 111 to output the dedicated audio (ie, The DAB) service is separated and output to the audio decoder 114. The TP demux 107 separates PSI, video, and audio from the DMB broadcasting service, and then outputs the PSI to the PSI decoder 108, outputs the video to the video decoder 109, and outputs audio to the audio decoder 110. Will output The audio decoders 110 and 114 are provided because the audio decoding algorithms used in the DMB service and the audio decoding algorithms used in the existing DAB service are different. For example, the audio decoding algorithm used in the DMB service is BSAC, and the audio decoding algorithm used in the DAB service is MUSICAM.

On the other hand, the MOT protocol is a transfer algorithm for transmitting information through various DAB (or DMB) data channels, and enables interoperability between a data service and an application type. At this time, the EPG service is also transmitted as an object through the MOT protocol. At this time, the EPG service object is divided into segments and transmitted in packet mode to facilitate data management during transmission.

Therefore, the MOT decoder 111 collects segments of the EPG service delivered in the form of an object, forms an XML file, and outputs the XML file to the XML parser 112. The XML parser 112 analyzes each XML (markup language) file of the EPG, extracts program and channel related information, and outputs the information to the EPG processing unit 113. The EPG processing unit 113 stores program and channel related information in a storage device such as a memory, or displays it on a screen in a graphic form having a user interface (UI) function if necessary.

At this time, since the serviceInformation and epg elements of the EPG are reconfigured in service units, program and channel related information are managed and displayed in service units.

On the other hand, the terms used in the present invention (terminology) are terms defined in consideration of the functions in the present invention may vary according to the intention or practice of those skilled in the art, the definitions are the overall contents of the present invention It should be based on.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and as can be seen in the appended claims, modifications can be made by those skilled in the art to which the invention pertains, and such modifications are within the scope of the present invention.

The effects of the data structure, method, and broadcast apparatus using the same for the EPG service according to the present invention described above are as follows.

First, by constructing an XML EPG in service units to reduce redundant service information for each service component, the amount of data to be transmitted can be reduced to occupy a smaller transmission channel.

Second, by reconfiguring the serviceInformation and epg elements of the EPG in service units and managing and displaying program and channel related information in service units, the displayed EPG structure becomes the same structure as the MCI structure so that the user can easily understand the EPG composition. .

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that various changes and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

Therefore, the technical scope of the present invention should not be limited to the contents described in the embodiments, but should be defined by the claims.

Claims (21)

In the data structure of the program guide information, A service information element for transmitting broadcast station and / or channel information; At least one ensemble element included in the service information element and including information on the ensemble; At least one service element included in the ensemble element and including a service identification attribute for identifying a corresponding service; And And at least one service component element included in the service element and including a service component identification attribute capable of identifying the corresponding service component, and configured in XML format. The method of claim 1, The service identification attribute of the service element is composed of an error correction code (ECC), an ensemble identifier (Eid), and a service identifier (Sid). The method of claim 2, And the error correction code (ECC) and ensemble identifier (Eid) are optionally included in the service identification attribute. The method of claim 1, wherein the service element An element for storing a short, media, and long name for the service; An element for storing a description and a logo for the service; An element that stores Conditional Access (CA) information for the service; An element for storing keywords for the service; An element for storing link information about the service; An element for storing genre information about the service; And And at least one of the elements for storing language information about the service. The method of claim 1, The service component identification attribute of the service component element includes an error correction code (ECC), an ensemble identifier (Eid), a service identifier (Sid), service component identifiers (SCIds), and an X-PAD. Data structure for the information. The method of claim 5, wherein The error correction code (ECC), ensemble identifier (Eid), and X-PAD are optionally included in the service component identification attribute. The method of claim 1, wherein the service component element An element for storing Conditional Access (CA) information for the service component; An element for storing keywords for the service component; And And at least one of the elements for storing link information for the service component. The method of claim 1, The program guide information further includes a program information element in XML format for transmitting program information of the program. And an identification attribute of a bearer element in a location element of a program element constituting the program information element is a service identification attribute for identifying a corresponding service. The method of claim 8, The identification attribute of the serviceScope element in the scope element of the schedule element constituting the program information element is a service identification attribute for identifying a corresponding service. The method according to claim 8 or 9, The service identification attribute is composed of an error correction code (ECC), an ensemble identifier (Eid) and a service identifier (Sid), and the error correction code (ECC) and an ensemble identifier (Eid) are selectively included. Structure for program guide information. Generating at least one service element including a service identification attribute capable of uniquely identifying the corresponding service and at least one service component element capable of uniquely identifying the corresponding service component in XML format; ; Generating program information in an XML format including program programming information including a service identification attribute for uniquely identifying a corresponding service; Transmitting the service information and the program information generated in the step; Extracting a service identification attribute and a service component identification attribute from the service information and program information in the XML format transmitted in the step; And And displaying program guide information in service units by referring to the service identification property and the service component identification property extracted in the step. The method of claim 11, The service identification attribute is composed of an error correction code (ECC), an ensemble identifier (Eid), and a service identifier (Sid), and the error correction code (ECC) and an ensemble identifier (Eid) are selectively included. How to guide your program. The method of claim 11, The service component identification attribute includes an error correction code (ECC), an ensemble identifier (Eid), a service identifier (Sid), a service component identifier (SCIds), and an X-PAD. The error correction code (ECC) and an ensemble identifier ( Eid), and X-PAD is optionally included. The method of claim 11, The identification attribute of the bearer element in the location element of the program element generated in the program information generation step is a service identification attribute for uniquely identifying the corresponding service. The method of claim 11, The identification attribute of the serviceScope element in the scope element of the schedule element generated in the program information generation step is a service identification attribute for identifying a corresponding service. The method according to any one of claims 14 to 15, The service identification attribute is composed of an error correction code (ECC), an ensemble identifier (Eid) and a service identifier (Sid), and the error correction code (ECC) and an ensemble identifier (Eid) are selectively included. How to guide your program. Generate at least one service element including a service identification attribute that can uniquely identify the service and at least one service component element that can uniquely identify the service component in XML format, A transmitter for generating and transmitting program information in XML format including program formation information including a service identification attribute capable of uniquely identifying a corresponding service; And A receiver that extracts a service identification attribute and a service component identification attribute from the XML format service information and program information transmitted from the transmitter, and displays program guide information in service units by referring to the extracted service identification attribute and service component identification attribute. Broadcasting apparatus comprising a. The method of claim 17, The service information includes at least one ensemble element, each ensemble element includes at least one service element including a service identification attribute capable of uniquely identifying a corresponding service, and each service element is a corresponding service component. And at least one service component element comprising a service component identification attribute capable of uniquely identifying a. The method of claim 17, And the program information comprises a bearer element in a location element of a program element including at least the service identification attribute and a serviceScope element in a scope element of a schedule element. The method of claim 17, The service identification attribute is composed of an error correction code (ECC), an ensemble identifier (Eid) and a service identifier (Sid), and the error correction code (ECC) and an ensemble identifier (Eid) are selectively included. Device. The method of claim 17, The service component identification attribute includes an error correction code (ECC), an ensemble identifier (Eid), a service identifier (Sid), a service component identifier (SCIds), and an X-PAD. The error correction code (ECC) and an ensemble identifier ( Eid), and X-PAD are optionally included.

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