Edge Device Conditional Access Caching for SDV Latency
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Solution Overview
Problem
Prior art Switched Digital Video (SDV) systems experience performance issues due to latency in channel tuning, as edge devices need to retrieve encryption information from a conditional access system, leading to excessive burden and undesirable tuning latencies.
Innovation Solution
The edge device proactively fetches and caches conditional access information, allowing it to quickly encrypt and route content streams without relying on real-time retrieval from the event information scheduler, thereby reducing latency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If edge devices retrieve encryption information from the conditional access system in real-time, then the system maintains centralized security control, but the tuning latency increases and processing performance deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The edge device proactively fetches and caches conditional access information before it is needed for content stream encryption. By performing the encryption information retrieval in advance rather than waiting for real-time requests, the system eliminates tuning latency while maintaining centralized security control through periodic cache updates from the event information scheduler.
2Reliability
If edge devices fetch encryption information from the event information scheduler, then the conditional access system maintains centralized control, but the edge devices experience excessive burden and performance degradation
Solution Approach 1:
The edge device performs preliminary fetching of conditional access information and stores it in a local cache. This preliminary action transfers the processing burden from real-time interactions to advance retrieval operations, significantly improving edge device productivity while the periodic cache updates from the event information scheduler maintain centralized control.
Solution Approach 2:
The local cache acts as an intermediary between the event information scheduler and the encryption process. Instead of directly querying the scheduler during content stream processing, the edge device uses the cached information as a mediator, reducing the burden on both the scheduler and edge device while maintaining system security architecture.
3Loss of time
If the edge device uses a local cache for conditional access information, then the tuning latency is reduced and processing performance improves, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The edge device implements a local cache with preliminary fetching capability, which adds structural complexity but eliminates tuning latency. The cache stores conditional access information locally, allowing immediate access during content stream encryption without real-time network queries, thus trading device complexity for significant performance improvement.
Data Source
AI summary
A system and method that receives a tune request in a switched digital video (SDV) system, where the tune request includes an identifier of a set-top box, and an SDV channel. The method receives a content stream associated with the SDV channel. The method retrieves conditional access (CA) information from a local cache, where the CA information includes encryption information for the content stream. The method converts the content stream to an encrypted content stream using the encryption information, and sends the encrypted content stream to the set-top box.