Multicast Services of Digital Television in a New Management Framework

The direct satellite broadcasting of digital TV signals provides a convenient means of distributing video and audio content over a broad geographical area and overcomes the difficulties involved in deploying cable-based systems in mountainous areas, remote rural regions, off-lying islands, and so forth. Furthermore, since digital TV signals can be distributed over wired and wireless networks in the same way as any other form of digital data, the potential exists to combine digital TV services with conventional Internet and telephony services in order to provide end-users with an integrated entertainment / communications package. This study proposes a framework for a multicast digital television service in which a DSM server is used to multicast the digital TV signals received via a satellite dish to a group of 8~10 clients connected to the server via a SONET optic-fiber Intranet. The paper describes the major hardware and software components of the proposed framework and discusses the various management and Conditional Access (CA) mechanisms implemented within it. Overall, the framework presented in this study represents an ideal solution for the provision of a cost-effective, secure and value-added digital TV service to small groups of local subscribers located within close physical proximity of one another, e.g. within a hotel, an apartment block, a school dormitory, and so forth.