Motivation

Continued studies on universal integrated receiver or set-top box for the reception of advanced content distribution services include all aspects of a universal integrated receiver or set-top box with connectivity to the home network, including service definition, architecture, and specifications.

The future service environment will be both IP and broadcast based. It will be highly interactive, and standardized technology will be critical in creating a convenient and interoperable solution for the consumer.

Because there are many broadcast and IP services available, a variety of functions will be required by devices in the home. Due to considerations of consumer cost and convenience, it is desirable that these functions be integrated into a single device. In order to provide this wide variety of services in a manner that is acceptable to service providers, consumers, and content providers, it is important to standardize a number of critical areas. These include security, conditional access, protection against unauthorized copying, protection against unauthorized redistribution (“redistribution control”), device provisioning and management, quality of service, etc.

Furthermore, it can be foreseen that the various services within the scope of Study Group 9, that home users will be able to access over the digital television infrastructure may be based on various service platforms (middle-wares) that support proprietary applications. An architecture would be necessary to bundle these middle-wares and to assure cross-platform² and multi-platform³ operation among them. It would be very convenient to users if the integrated receivers or set-top boxes would be designed to exchange middleware dynamically and to navigate among applications that users can access, or at least among the most widely employed ones.

Question

• What architecture will be required for the next generation set top box (STB)?
• How will broadcast and IP based service reception, via connection to the access network, be integrated into the next generation STB?
• What technologies will be required to accommodate service delivery over the home network?
• What security, conditional access, protection against unauthorized copying or redistribution is required for the next generation set top box?
• What provisioning and management tools will be required for the next generation STB?
• What type of quality of service will be required for the next generation STB?
• What protocols will be required to enable the next generation STB to interoperate with other devices in the home, including both IP and non-IP devices?
• What technologies will be required to present services to consumers in the next generation STB?
• What types of content management capabilities will be required for the next generation STB?
• What provisions can be made in order that the integrated receiver or set-top box may contain a facility to exchange middle-ware dynamically and to navigate within an application and among applications. This would allow the receiver/set-top box to properly operate with received services that reside in a variety of platforms and applications, thus providing maximum operating convenience to the home user.
• What enhancements to existing Recommendations are required to provide energy savings directly or indirectly in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) or in other industries? What enhancements to developing or new Recommendations are required to provide such energy savings?

Tasks

Tasks include, but are not limited to the creation of an architecture document describing interoperation among multiple applications and platforms by means of converged mechanisms by 2009, and also the creation of one or more specification documents by 2012.

An up-to-date status of work under this Question is contained in the SG 9 Work Programme.

Relationships

Recommendations:

• J.190, J.191, J.192, J.112, J.122, and the J.200 series

Questions:

• 3/9, 4/9, 7/9, 12/9

Study groups:

• ITU SGs 13, 15, 17

Standardization bodies:

• ISO/IEC, IETF and regional standardization bodies, e.g. SCTE, ETSI

¹The ITU Terminology database defines “content” as “program material and related information of any variety”

²The term cross-platform refers to communications between different platforms within the home network environment, which have different applications residing within them. These communications are controlled by systems which primarily reside within one or more of the platforms.

³The term multi-platform refers to communications between different platforms, which have the same or similar applications. These communications are primarily controlled by systems within the operator’s network.