Parallel Service Plan Scanning for Digital TV Set-Top Boxes
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing methods for configuring television set-top boxes to receive digital television/radio broadcasting signals are inefficient, requiring a lengthy scanning process that takes tens of minutes to detect and recover service information across multiple channels, leading to a poor user experience, especially when new services appear.
Innovation Solution
The method decouples frequency channel discovery from service recovery, allowing these processes to be performed in parallel, maximizing the use of receivers in set-top box devices to significantly reduce scanning time.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If sequential detection and retrieval process is used to scan each service, then service information can be accurately detected and retrieved, but the scanning time becomes extremely long (tens of minutes)
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the frequency band into multiple sub-bands and assigns different receivers to scan different sub-bands simultaneously. This segmentation allows parallel processing of frequency channels, reducing the overall scanning time while maintaining detection accuracy through systematic coverage of the entire frequency range.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs frequency channel detection in advance before service information retrieval. By first identifying which frequency channels contain services and then retrieving service information only for those channels, the system avoids sequential processing of all services, significantly reducing total scanning time while maintaining accurate service detection.
2Productivity
If multiple receivers are available in the set-top box, then parallel processing capability exists, but the receivers are not fully utilized in sequential scanning
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the functions of multiple receivers into a coordinated parallel scanning system. Each receiver operates independently on assigned sub-bands, but their results are merged into a unified service plan. This merging approach maximizes the productivity contribution of each receiver while managing complexity through systematic task distribution and result consolidation.
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention relates to a method for scanning a frequency band for producing a service plan. The invention parallelises the scanning by dividing the analysis into two steps: an exploration step for the purpose of detecting channels or frequencies carrying services; and an analysis step for extracting detected channels from program information in order to supply a service plan. Each of the steps is performed by multiple task instances. These tasks share the band to be explored and synchronise, for one same step, via semaphores and, for an inter-step communication, according to a producer/consumer principle.