Television – Special applications – Manufacturing
Reexamination Certificate
1999-07-20
2001-09-11
Eisenzopf, Reinhard J. (Department: 2614)
Television
Special applications
Manufacturing
C725S109000, C725S112000, C725S114000, C725S054000, C725S148000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06288738
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to interfacing a wide-band network with a narrow-band network and more particularly to transparently interfacing a unidirectional wide-band broadcast network and the Internet.
2. Description of the Related Arts
Currently, there are two dominant digital infrastructures that are widely accepted and in public use. The first is the Internet structure also known as the world wide web based on narrow-band networks, and the second is Digital Pay television (TV) networks such as DirectTV™ based on wide-band networks.
Being the two dominant digital infrastructures, a single super hybrid infrastructure would provide an immense amount of information for its users. Users having access to the single super hybrid infrastructure would have limitless options available. However, no provisions have been made to converge the two infrastructures into a single super hybrid infrastructure. Moreover, consideration of the properties of each of these networks provides an understanding as to why the two infrastructure are not likely to converge into a single super hybrid infrastructure.
The Internet infrastructure relies on a backbone of limited bandwidth in view of the number of users and services that the Internet infrastructure supports. Users are typically limited to 28.8 kb/s (kilo bits/sec) accessing through telco lines. A fraction of the users are able to upgrade to cable modems capable of Mb/s (mega bits/sec) transfer rates. The terminals used to access the Internet possess high processing power and large amounts of storage. These terminals are commonly referred to as desktop computers. The terminal displays of these desktop computers also possess the ability to produce high quality pictures. In an effort to take advantage of the high processing power of the terminals and reduce bandwidth consumption of the Internet, programming for the Internet relies on the large amounts of computer caching available at the terminals. Increasing reliance is also placed on distributed processing, in which a portion of the processing is downloaded onto the terminal to complete the processing needed to access the various world wide web sites.
On the other hand, the wide-band network based Digital Pay TV networks rely on a wide-band broadcast mono-directional network combined with a point to point low bit rate (2400 bits/sec) bidirectional network. The terminals that receive the wide-band broadcast data possess low processing power and little to no storage media. The displays coupled to the terminals are low quality interlaced displays such as a typical National Television Standards Committee (NTSC) TV found commonly in most households. Thus, the terminals available to the wide-band networks possess low processing power with virtually no storage media for data and provide low quality displays compared to the Internet terminals.
Further advances based on the Digital Pay TV networks include interactive TV systems. In order to make interactive TV less costly and therefore more attractive to consumer acceptance, it is desirable to keep memory requirements in the receiver to a minimum. Thus, as development for interactive TV systems continues, the trend is to continue building terminals with low processing power and low storage requirements.
Contrary to the trend of maintaining low processing power and minimizing storage requirements, new Internet protocols that are being developed rely more on the processing power of the latest generation computers. Thus, as the Internet technology based on the narrow-band network develops and the interactive TV technology based on the wide-band network technology develops, the Internet technology and the interactive TV technology continue to alienate each other and move apart. Consequently, consumers seeking Internet access who subscribe to interactive TV are forced to acquire the latest generation computer. The cost of having both a subscription to interactive TV and the latest generation computer for Internet access can be cost prohibitive for the consumer. In order for the providers of interactive TV to supply a complete service, a transparent consumer interface between the wide-band network of interactive TV and the narrow-band network for the Internet is needed.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide Internet connectivity to low end terminals operating in an interactive TV wide-band network, and a method of operating the same that support on-the-fly translation and routing of data between the Internet and the interactive TV wide-band network for transparent access to the Internet.
SUMMARY
The present invention provides an apparatus for seamless connectivity between the Internet and an interactive TV wide-band network and methods of operating the same which support transparent on-the-fly translation and routing of data between the Internet and the interactive TV wide-band network. The novel seamless connectivity between the networks is based on a gateway that provides translation and routing of data. Thus, according to one aspect of the invention, a seamless connection for interfacing between a wide-band network and a narrow-band network comprises a decoder having a decoder input, a first decoder port, and a second decoder port, which receives wide-band data from the wide-band network via the second decoder port and decodes the wide-band data to provide decoded data in response to decoder requests from the decoder input. A gateway coupled to the decoder, the narrow-band network, and the wide-band network, and having a first gateway port to receive the decoder requests from the first decoder port, a second gateway port to interface with the narrow-band network, and a third gateway port to interface with the wide-band network, retrieves requested data from the narrow-band network in response to the decoder requests and transfers the requested data to the wide-band network for transfer to the decoder. The decoder receives the requested Internet data from the wide-band network.
According to one aspect of the invention the seamless connection further comprises a display device having a display input which displays the requested data and wherein the decoder includes a third decoder port coupled to the display input to provide decoded requested data to the display device. Thus, the requested Internet data is displayed on the display device.
According to another aspect of the invention, the first decoder port includes a bi-directional port, and the first gateway port also includes a bi-directional port. The gateway includes circuitry that parses the requested data to provide narrow-band data and wide-band data and transfers the narrow-band data for output to the first decoder port. The decoder receives the narrow-band data and decodes the narrow-band data for output to the display device. The gateway transfers the wide-band data to the wide-band network. The decoder receives the wide-band data and recombines the wide-band data with the narrow-band data for output to the display device. Thus, criteria may be established to efficiently determine the dynamic routing of the requested data between the wide-band network and the low bit rate network to the decoder. Criteria include the type of Internet data requested, the availability of bandwidth, size of the Internet data, and added costs associated with transmitting using the wide-band network.
An apparatus and method for seamless connectivity between the Internet and an interactive TV wide-band network are provided. The gateway supports a high performance computer for executing the native protocols of the Internet. The gateway parses the Internet data, which enables the low processing power decoders to process the Internet data for display. Thus, lower cost decoders with low processing power can function to provide Internet access.
Other aspects and advantages of the present invention can be seen upon review of the figures, the detailed description, and the claims that follow.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5488412 (1996-01-01), Majeti et al.
patent: 56404
Dureau Vincent Louis
Girons Regis St.
Eisenzopf Reinhard J.
Lo Linus H.
Park Vaughan & Fleming LLP
Sun Microsystems Inc.
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