Prepaid Pay Television Security Module Credit Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current conditional access systems for encrypted data streams require frequent user management and renewal of subscription rights, leading to high operational costs and resource allocation for managing subscribers, especially when users are offline or on holiday, and existing solutions do not address the creation of user units without a back channel or knowledge of the owner's payment means.
Innovation Solution
A system where a managing center transmits encrypted data streams with control words to user units linked to a security module with a credit that decreases based on consumption, allowing users to independently reload their credit using a unique address and value code, which is verified and encrypted, enabling credit reloading without a communication channel to the managing center and eliminating the need for user database recording of payment means.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If subscription-based access control is implemented with centralized managing center, then security and access control are improved, but operational costs and resource allocation for managing subscribers increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables users to automatically renew their own subscription rights without manual intervention from the managing center. The security module autonomously receives renewal messages and updates local rights, eliminating the need for centralized subscriber management operations.
Solution Approach 2:
Subscription rights are pre-loaded with extended validity periods and automatically renewed without requiring user action or managing center intervention. The system performs renewal operations in advance before rights expiration, ensuring continuous access without manual management.
2Reliability
If centralized subscriber management is implemented to track payment and renewal, then access control reliability is improved, but system complexity and communication requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts subscriber management functionality from the centralized managing center and relocates it to the distributed security modules. Each security module independently manages local subscription rights, eliminating the need for complex centralized tracking and communication infrastructure.
3Reliability
If frequent control word changes are implemented to prevent attacks, then security is improved, but processing overhead and decryption delays increase
Solution Approach 1:
Control words are pre-loaded into the security module in advance of being needed. The module receives and stores multiple control words before they are required for decryption, eliminating real-time communication delays while maintaining security through frequent key changes.
Data Source
AI summary
A system includes a managing center transmitting a data stream encrypted by control words included in control messages. The data stream is received by at least one user unit linked to a security module identified by a unique address. The security module contains a credit which is deducted according to the consumption of data from the stream. The security module can deduct the credit of an amount related to a product or an amount related to a duration, this amount and/or this duration being defined in the control message or in a management message. The user transmits to the managing center an identifier identifying the unique address and a value code representing an amount of credit to reload, the managing center dealing with and checking the value code and transmitting an encrypted message having the unique address and the amount to reload the credit with, to the security module.