Dual-network playback equipment and dual-network integration method

Abstract

The present invention discloses a dual-network playback device and a dual-network integration method, wherein the dual-network playback device includes a master device for accessing a public network, and at least one slave device for accessing a private network connected to the master device via a first interface, wherein the slave device and the master device implement access to the private network, authentication authorization, billing, and data encryption and decryption processing according to data interaction rules of at least one operator. The present invention provides a low-cost, simple-structured, and efficient solution for private network access while being able to provide public network access.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the technical field of audio and video playback, and in particular to a dual-network playback device. Background Art

[0002] Before the development of the Internet, users usually watched TV through a dedicated network (private network) to obtain the corresponding audio and video resources. After the development of the Internet, many video resources on the public network (public network) appeared, such as the iQiyi platform, Tencent Video, etc., which are all video resources on the public network.

[0003] In the prior art, private networks are usually unable to watch video resources from public networks, and public networks are unable to watch video resources from private networks in real time. Even if existing set-top box devices can watch video resources from private networks, they are not real-time video resources, and their viewing effects cannot be compared with those of normal private networks.

[0004] Currently, the main public network is the OTT network, and the private network is the IPTV network.

[0005] In order to allow users to watch both OTT network resources and IPTV network video resources, there are many technical solutions for integrating IPTV and OTT in the prior art. However, physically integrating the two modules of IPTV and OTT will make the structure of terminal devices (such as set-top boxes and TV boxes) extremely complicated, making development and adaptation difficult and costly.

[0006] There are also solutions for fusion from other directions in the prior art, but the effects are not ideal.

[0007] The existing patent with publication number CN 113923494A discloses an IPTV set-top box and a dual-network playback method, which integrates the dual networks from the software aspect. However, the disadvantage is that it implements customized terminal software, which has obvious limitations. The technical solution cannot be promoted and can only be applied to special individuals.

[0008] The existing patent with publication number CN 106303637A discloses an IPTV service processing method and system based on an OTT terminal, and the existing patent with publication number CN 113747210A discloses a method, device and server for accessing an IPTV network through an OTT TV device, both of which are based on an IPTV adaptation platform to achieve OTT and IPTV integration, and are forwarded by the IPTV adaptation platform. The disadvantage is that the adaptation is performed by the head-end server, which requires upgrading and transformation of the server, which is costly and difficult to ensure security.

[0009] The existing patent with publication number CN112995750A discloses a method and system for implementing IPTV multicast services in a home router scenario, and the existing patent with publication number CN112341344A discloses a method and system for a home gateway to provide Internet and IPTV access in parallel. Both are fusion solutions based on home gateways, but the disadvantage is that they require the purchase of expensive home gateway equipment, which is costly.

[0010] An existing patent with publication number CN112492403A discloses an IPTV soft terminal implementation method, which is a fusion solution based on a customized optical modem. Its disadvantages are that the customized optical modem has limitations, and it is difficult to promote the technical solution horizontally, which is not conducive to operation.

[0011] Therefore, how to provide a dual-network playback device that is convenient to implement and low in cost is a technical problem that needs to be solved urgently in the industry. Summary of the invention

[0012] In order to solve the technical problems of high cost and complex implementation of dual-network fusion equipment in the prior art, the present invention proposes a dual-network playback device and a dual-network fusion method.

[0013] The dual-network playback device proposed in the present invention includes a master device for accessing a public network, and at least one slave device for accessing a private network connected to the master device via a first interface. The slave device and the master device implement access to the private network, authentication authorization, billing, and data encryption and decryption processing according to data interaction rules of at least one operator.

[0014] Further, the slave device includes a network interface controller, a first interface controller, and a first IP data processing module; the master device includes a second interface controller, a second IP data processing module, and an application module;

[0015] The network interface controller is used to access the dedicated network, convert physical frames received from the dedicated network into data packets and forward them to the first IP data processing module, or convert data packets received from the first IP data processing module into physical frames and send them to the dedicated network;

[0016] The first and second interface controllers are used to implement the data protocol and control of the first interface;

[0017] The first and second IP data processing modules interpret and process data packets, implement TCP and IP layer protocol reception, interpretation, encapsulation, and sending processing, and implement access, authentication and authorization, billing, and data encryption and decryption processing of a dedicated network according to the access rules of at least one operator;

[0018] The application module is used to complete the presentation of corresponding services and user interaction.

[0019] Furthermore, the application module includes an interactive interface and a player.

[0020] Furthermore, the first IP data processing module implements data encapsulation or decapsulation conversion processing;

[0021] The second IP data processing module includes: a network frame unpacking unit, a network protocol stack unit and a private protocol processing unit.

[0022] Furthermore, the second IP data processing module implements data encapsulation or decapsulation conversion processing;

[0023] The first IP data processing module includes: a network frame unpacking unit, a network protocol stack unit and a private protocol processing unit.

[0024] Furthermore, the public network is an OTT network.

[0025] Furthermore, the dedicated network is an IPTV network.

[0026] Furthermore, the first interface is a USB interface.

[0027] The present invention physically uses the master device accessing the public network and the slave device accessing the private network as two devices, and the two devices are connected through a high-bandwidth first interface. The cooperation between the master device and the slave device realizes the effect of dual-network integration, providing a simple, efficient and low-cost solution for accessing a private network for horizontal non-customized intelligent terminals, solving the problem of integration of private networks and public networks in the prior art. Furthermore, the present invention separates the private network customization service from the system level and places it on the application layer or the slave end, reducing the cost pressure of operators customizing high-cost intelligent terminals, which is beneficial to the customized operation of operators. The present invention uses a USB dedicated network card as a slave device, and then superimposes the APK mode in the master device to realize dual-network integration, that is, the second IP processing module of the master device of the present invention is located at the application end, which solves the problem that the IP data processing is placed below the application layer in the prior art and dual-network integration cannot be realized. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0028] The present invention is described in detail below with reference to the embodiments and accompanying drawings, wherein:

[0029] Figure 1 It is the overall framework diagram of the present invention.

[0030] Figure 2 It is a detailed architecture diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

[0031] Figure 3 It is a detailed architecture diagram of another embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0032] In order to make the technical problems, technical solutions and beneficial effects to be solved by the present invention more clearly understood, the present invention is further described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and embodiments. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are only used to explain the present invention and are not used to limit the present invention.

[0033] Thus, a feature indicated in this specification will be used to illustrate one of the features of an embodiment of the present invention, rather than implying that each embodiment of the present invention must have the described feature. In addition, it should be noted that this specification describes many features. Although some features can be combined together to illustrate possible system designs, these features can also be used in other combinations that are not explicitly described. Thus, unless otherwise stated, the described combinations are not intended to be limiting.

[0034] The dual-network playback device of the present invention comprises a master-end device and at least one slave-end device.

[0035] The master device is used to access a public network, the slave device is used to access a private network, and the slave device is connected to the master device via a first interface. The slave device and the master device cooperate and divide the work, and according to the data interaction rules of at least one operator, implement the access, authentication authorization, billing, and data encryption and decryption processing of the private network, that is, the various specific divisions of work between the master device and the slave device in order to undertake the work of accessing the private network are all included in the protection scope of the present invention.

[0036] In the prior art, there are many existing technical solutions for the master-end device to access the public network. For example, various network TV boxes in the prior art are all master-end devices that can access the public network, such as Dangbei Box, Huawei Box, Tmall Magic Box, etc. For another example, televisions and display screens that can watch network TV in the prior art are also master-end devices that can access the public network, such as Xiaomi TV, Huawei TV, etc. In view of the variety of technical implementation solutions for realizing the master-end device to access the public network in the prior art, how the master-end device accesses the public network is not described in detail in the present invention. The present invention mainly introduces that the master-end device assists the slave-end device to access the private network, so that the user can achieve the purpose of watching both the resources of the public network and the resources of the private network at the same time through the dual-network playback device of the present invention.

[0037] The slave device includes a network interface controller, a first interface controller, and a first IP data processing module. The master device includes a second interface controller, a second IP data processing module, and an application module.

[0038] like Figure 1As shown, in a specific embodiment, the slave device and the master device can be connected via a USB interface. In other embodiments, an HDMI interface or other interfaces can also be used for connection.

[0039] The network interface controller is used to access the dedicated network, convert the physical frames received from the dedicated network into data packets and forward them to the first IP data processing module, or convert the data packets received from the first IP data processing module into physical frames and send them to the dedicated network. The first IP data processing module processes IP data packets, that is, the physical frames are IP data packets after the header is removed. In one embodiment, the dedicated network can be an IPTV network. For example, the network interface controller receives physical frames from the IPTV network, which are usually only tens of bytes in size, and the transmission of the USB interface is usually 512 bytes per data packet. Therefore, in order to improve the transmission efficiency of the first interface (such as the USB interface), the network interface controller will package multiple physical frames and then send them together to the host, that is, according to the number of received physical frames, they are sorted into data packets, plus header information, etc. The header information generally contains information such as the offset and size of each physical frame, so that the subsequent modules can clearly know the size of the data packet, and the host device splits according to the header information to obtain the final physical frame.

[0040] The first and second interface controllers are used to implement the data protocol and control of the first interface. When the first interface is a USB interface, the first interface controller is substantially a USB controller, and similarly, the second interface controller is also substantially a USB controller, and they are used to implement the USB protocol and control.

[0041] The first and second IP data processing modules interpret and process the data packets, implement the reception, interpretation, encapsulation and sending processing of TCP and IP layer protocols, and implement the access, authentication authorization, billing, and data encryption and decryption processing of the dedicated network according to the access rules of at least one operator. The specific division of labor and cooperation between the first IP data processing module and the second IP data processing module can be different in different embodiments, all of which fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

[0042] The application module is used to complete the presentation of the corresponding business and user interaction. Specifically, the application module calls the underlying support module to complete the presentation of the business and user interaction. The underlying support module referred to in the present invention includes but is not limited to the system network protocol stack module, decoder module, etc.

[0043] In a specific embodiment, the application module includes an interactive interface and a player. The user can present the corresponding content through the interactive interface, so that the user can select the playback resources on the public network or the private network for playback, and can also perform interactive operations such as settings and login. The player mainly performs data download, data encapsulation and decapsulation processing, calls the underlying player function for decoding and presentation, audio and video synchronization control, etc.

[0044] The above-mentioned master-end device can be divided into three levels, namely application layer, system layer and hardware layer.

[0045] The application layer includes software-related content such as the user interface, player, and the second IP data processing module.

[0046] The system layer includes standard network protocol stack, decoder driver and USB driver. The network protocol stack processes public network data according to the standard. The decoder driver controls the hardware decoder and provides an access control interface to the application layer. The USB driver is used to operate and control the USB controller and provide an access control interface to the application layer.

[0047] The hardware layer includes network controllers, decoders, and USB controllers.

[0048] Network controller generally refers to network card.

[0049] The decoder specifically refers to the hardware decoder.

[0050] USB controller. A Universal Serial Bus (USB) host controller is an interface that allows enabled hardware to interact and communicate with specific software. USB connections are standard input and output ports for most computers and various other digital devices, allowing data to be transferred via cables or any other form of direct connection. A USB host controller manages the communication between peripheral devices and the computer system.

[0051] like Figure 2 As shown, the present invention provides a specific embodiment of the division of labor and cooperation between the first IP data processing module and the second IP data processing module.

[0052] The first IP data processing module implements data encapsulation or decapsulation conversion processing. Specifically, when the first IP data processing module sends data outward, it is responsible for decapsulating the upper layer data and then sending it out through the network interface controller. The upper layer data here includes data such as the user's account password, as well as data such as the user's playback request. The data obtained by the first IP data processing module can be data transmitted from any layer of the application layer, transport layer, network layer, link layer, and physical layer of the main end device; on the other hand, after receiving data from the network interface controller, it is responsible for encapsulating the data and then transmitting it to the main end device through the first interface controller. The data received by the network interface controller includes video data, key data, etc.

[0053] The second IP data processing module includes: a network frame unpacking unit, a network protocol stack unit and a private protocol processing unit.

[0054] When the network frame unpacking unit sends data outward, on the one hand, it is responsible for encapsulating the upper-layer data and sending it to the slave device through the second interface controller, and the slave device sends the data out; on the other hand, when receiving data, after reading the data from the second interface controller, it unpacks the data, restores it into a network frame, and then hands it over to the upper-layer network protocol stack unit for processing.

[0055] The network protocol stack unit is used to implement the TCP / IP network protocol stack.

[0056] The private protocol processing unit is used to perform private network authentication, access, billing and other processing.

[0057] like Figure 3 As shown, the present invention provides another specific embodiment of the division of labor and cooperation between the first IP data processing module and the second IP data processing module.

[0058] The second IP data processing module implements data encapsulation or decapsulation conversion processing. Encapsulation refers to the second IP data processing module encapsulating multiple data frames into one data frame. Decapsulation refers to the second IP data processing module decapsulating one data frame into multiple data frames. The data frame can specifically be any one of a physical frame, an IP data frame, and a USB frame. The type of the data frame before encapsulation and the type of the data frame after encapsulation can be the same or different. The type of the data frame before decapsulation and the type of the data frame after decapsulation can be the same or different.

[0059] The first IP data processing module includes: a network frame unpacking unit, a network protocol stack unit and a private protocol processing unit.

[0060] When the network frame unpacking unit sends data outward, on the one hand, it is responsible for encapsulating the upper-layer data and sending it out through the network interface controller; on the other hand, when receiving data, after reading the data from the network interface controller, it unpacks the data, restores it into a network frame, and then passes it to the main device through the first interface controller.

[0061] The network protocol stack unit is used to implement the TCP / IP network protocol stack.

[0062] The private protocol processing unit is used to perform private network authentication, access, billing and other processing.

[0063] The dual-network fusion method of the present invention is implemented based on the above-mentioned dual-network playback device. The application layer of the master-end device of the dual-network playback device implements the access, authentication authorization, billing, and data encryption and decryption processing of the dedicated network through the application program according to the access rules of at least one operator, so that the master-end device cooperates with the slave-end device to implement the access, authentication authorization, billing, and data encryption and decryption processing of the dedicated network. The USB network card can only be used for the public network, and the system layer directly takes over. It cannot be customized and modified for the operator network, and cannot meet the customization requirements of the dedicated network. The present invention is based on the widely used high-bandwidth first interface (such as USB interface, HDMI interface, etc.), and provides a new solution for the integration of the dedicated network and the public network. The present invention puts the customized content such as the original underlying network protocol stack and the operator's private network private protocol into the APP of the application layer for implementation, so that a relatively simple framework can realize the integration of dual-network playback resources.

[0064] The above description is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention and is not intended to limit the present invention. Any modifications, equivalent substitutions and improvements made within the spirit and principles of the present invention should be included in the protection scope of the present invention. It is known to those skilled in the art that various changes or equivalent substitutions can be made to these features and embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. In addition, under the guidance of the present invention, these features and embodiments can be modified to adapt to specific circumstances and materials without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Therefore, the present invention is not limited by the specific embodiments disclosed herein, and all embodiments falling within the scope of the claims of this application belong to the scope protected by the present invention.

Claims

1. A dual-network playback device, comprising a master device for accessing a public network, characterized in that: Also included is at least one slave device connected to the master device through the first interface for accessing the dedicated network, wherein the slave device and the master device implement access, authentication and authorization, billing, and data encryption and decryption processing of the dedicated network according to data interaction rules of at least one operator; The slave device includes a network interface controller, a first interface controller, and a first IP data processing module; the master device includes a second interface controller, a second IP data processing module, and an application module; The network interface controller is used to access the dedicated network, convert physical frames received from the dedicated network into data packets and forward them to the first IP data processing module, or convert data packets received from the first IP data processing module into physical frames and send them to the dedicated network; The first and second interface controllers are used to implement the data protocol and control of the first interface; The first IP data processing module interprets and processes the data packets, and the second IP data processing module implements TCP and IP layer protocol reception, interpretation, encapsulation, and sending processing, as well as access, authentication and authorization, billing, and data encryption and decryption processing of a dedicated network according to the access rules of at least one operator; The application module is used to complete the presentation of corresponding services and user interaction; The first IP data processing module implements data encapsulation or decapsulation conversion processing; The second IP data processing module includes: a network frame unpacking unit, a network protocol stack unit and a private protocol processing unit; The master-end device is divided into an application layer, a system layer and a hardware layer, and the application layer includes a second IP data processing module.

2. The dual-network playback device according to claim 1, characterized in that: The application module includes an interactive interface and a player.

3. The dual-network playback device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that: The public network is an OTT network.

4. The dual-network playback device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that: The dedicated network is an IPTV network.

5. The dual-network playback device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that: The first interface is a USB interface.

6. A dual network integration method using the dual network playback device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that: The application layer of the master device implements access, authentication and authorization, billing, and data encryption and decryption processing of the dedicated network through an application program according to the access rules of at least one operator, so that the master device cooperates with the slave device to implement access, authentication and authorization, billing, and data encryption and decryption processing of the dedicated network.

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