Key distribution based on hierarchical access control for conditional access system in DTV broadcast

Conditional access system (CAS) is one of the key techniques in digital television (DTV) broadcast, which is used to charge the subscriber for subscribing fee by scrambling the program information. Scrambling algorithm and key distribution are the most important parts for CAS. In this paper, we proposed a new key distribution scheme based on hierarchical access control for conditional access system in digital television broadcast. Our key distribution scheme can greatly reduce the encrypting computation and acquire higher efficiency and security. Moreover, the proposed scheme is more flexible in processing joining and leaving of subscriber, which is very important for service provider to manage the subscriber.