Access Control Module Indexing for Fast Channel Switching
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing systems for processing access rights to encrypted broadcast services experience significant delays in channel switching due to the large number of rights stored in security modules, leading to undesirable interruptions during fast channel changes, known as 'zapping', as they require extensive processing and decryption of data.
Innovation Solution
A method that involves an access control module evaluating user rights by exploring a service information table, extracting access conditions, searching for an index in a rights table, and transmitting this index to the security module for quick verification and decryption, thereby reducing the processing time and improving channel switching speed.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the security module processes all access rights for each channel selection, then the access control is thorough and accurate, but the processing time increases significantly causing channel switching delays
Solution Approach 1:
The access control module pre-processes and stores access rights information in a rights table before channel switching occurs. When a channel is selected, the system retrieves pre-stored rights information instead of processing all rights from scratch, enabling fast channel switching while maintaining accurate access control.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention extracts only the necessary access rights information related to the selected channel from the complete rights table. By filtering and extracting only relevant rights data rather than processing all stored rights, the system reduces processing time during channel switching while maintaining accurate access control for the selected channel.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the system stores many access rights in the security module to support diverse channels and services, then the system versatility increases, but the processing complexity and time for channel switching increases
Solution Approach 1:
The rights table is segmented into structured entries with indices for different channels and services. Each entry contains only the relevant access rights for that specific channel, allowing the system to efficiently navigate and retrieve only the necessary rights information without processing the entire rights database, thus reducing complexity while maintaining versatility.
Solution Approach 2:
The access control module acts as an intermediary between the user's channel selection and the security module's rights verification. It pre-processes rights information and presents only the necessary data to the security module, reducing the processing burden on the security module while supporting diverse channels and services.
3Reliability
If the security module verifies all access conditions for each channel, then the access control security is maintained, but the decryption process becomes slower reducing channel switching speed
Solution Approach 1:
The access control module pre-identifies and transmits the relevant rights index to the security module before decryption is needed. This preliminary action allows the security module to start verification processes in advance or work with pre-filtered data, maintaining security while reducing the time required for channel switching and decryption operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The system extracts and transmits only the necessary rights index information to the security module rather than all access conditions. This extraction reduces the amount of data the security module must process during verification, maintaining access control security while significantly improving channel switching speed.
Data Source
AI summary
The aim of the present invention consists of reducing the switching time from one reception channel to another. In fact, this reduction will be particularly discernable since the number of different rights stored in a security module of a multimedia unit or decoder is high. When a user selects a service among those proposed by an electronic programs guide, an access control module explores a stored service information table in order to extract an access condition associated to the service. This access condition allows determining an index in a rights table stored in the access control module of a right that fulfills the access condition. The access control module transmits to the security module the index thus determined alone or accompanied by a control message. This index allows the security module to find quickly the right that it compares afterwards with the access condition included in the control message after decryption of the latter.