Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Computer-to-computer data routing – Least weight routing
Reexamination Certificate
2000-10-19
2003-08-19
Dinh, Dung C. (Department: 2153)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Computer-to-computer data routing
Least weight routing
C709S241000, C370S265000, C370S264000, C717S175000, C717S178000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06609144
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a program reception/execution apparatus that receives and executes a transmitted machine program and to a program transmission apparatus for transmitting such a machine program, and in particular to a program reception/execution apparatus that receives and executes a transmitted machine program for performing control that relates to programs broadcast by a digital broadcasting system and to a program transmission apparatus for transmitting such a machine program.
2. Related Art
In recent years there have been rapid advances in techniques relating to the digitization of various kinds of information signals, such as audio and video. As a result, a great amount of research and development is being performed all over the world with the aim of achieving a system capable of acting both as a digital broadcasting system and digital communication system.
In the development of digital broadcasting systems, one of the most important issues is the compression processing of digitized image signals and audio signals. Standards such as Moving Picture Image Coding Experts Group (MPEG), Joint Photographic Coding Experts Group (JPEG) and H.261 have become established as the main techniques for compression processing for these kinds of data, although another technique known as ISO/IEC 13818 [ISO/IEC JTC (Joint Technical Committee)1/SC(Subcommittee)29/WG(Working Group)] has been proposed by the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and the IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission). This technique is a broad technique that applies to broadcasting, communication, and storage media and is currently under review prior to becoming an international standard.
The technique known as ISO/IEC 13818 does not only apply to a data compression method, but also stipulates a method to be used for a control part for a digital broadcasting system where a broadcaster separately performs a compression process on digital images, audio, and other data that compose a program and multiplexes the compressed data into a bitstream, while a receiver apparatus selectively receives a desired program. It should be noted here that in this specification, the term “program” refers to a TV program or other such event which is broadcast, while the term “machine program” refers to a collection of one or more instructions which is conventionally known as a (computer) program.
The following is a description of the compression processing performed for digital image data and digital audio data and the multiplexing of the compressed data into a bitstream for communication purposes, based on the regulations of ISO/IEC 13818. This description will refer to
FIG. 1
,
FIG. 2
, and FIG.
3
.
FIG. 1
is an overview of the components which perform the compression processing on the digital image data and digital audio data, and multiplex the compressed data into a bitstream.
After digital image data has been compressed by the image encoding circuit
1311
and converted into an image elementary stream (“image ES”), it is outputted to the packetizing circuit
1312
where it is divided into packet units to convert it into an image Packetized Elementary Stream (PES) that will form one frame. This packetized elementary stream is then supplied to the multiplexing circuit
1313
. The digital audio data is compressed by the audio encoding circuit
1314
and so converted into an audio ES. This audio ES is supplied to the packetizing circuit
1315
where it is divided into packet units to convert it into an audio PES that will form one frame. The audio PES is also supplied to the multiplexing circuit
1313
. The multiplexing circuit
1313
multiplexes the image PES and the audio PES according to time division multiplexing and so generates a multiplexed signal in packet units composed of 188 bytes that form a Transport Stream (TS).
In the multiplexed signal, both images and audio are divided up into one frame units, with these being composed of PES that have been appended with a header.
FIG. 2
shows the composition of a PES.
As shown in
FIG. 2
, the PES have variable lengths. To allow the time division multiplexing of audio and images, the PES created as described above are divided into 184 byte units to convert them into packets, with each packet being given a 4-byte header to form 188-byte transport packets (TP).
FIG. 3
shows the components used for forming a bitstream for broadcasting purposes.
As shown in
FIG. 3
, “program
1
” is composed of a single program, with the multiplexing circuit
15161
multiplexing two sets of image data, two sets of audio data, one set of other information data, and one Program Map Table (PMT). This PMT includes information such as a Packet Identifier (PID) for identifying the image data, audio data, and information data as well as information relating to programs and the like. As shown in
FIG. 3
, by using n multiplexing circuits
15161
,
15162
, . . .
1516
n
, n programs can be set. The data that composes the n programs set in this way is then multiplexed according to time division by the multiplexing circuit
1517
.
The multiplexing circuit
1517
multiplexes information, such as a Program Association Table (PAT) as general program information for extracting the PMT of each program, a Conditional Access Table (CAT) for controlling the scrambling of the data, a Network Information Table (NIT) showing information about the network being used, according to time division. These four kinds of table, PMT, PAT, CAT, and NIT relating to program information are set in accordance with ISO/IEC 13818 standard. The PIDs of these tables are such that the PAT has the PID “00”, the CAT has the PID “01”, and the PIDs of the PMT and the NID can be set freely.
It should be noted here that in
FIG. 1
, the multiplexing of only images and audio is shown, although in reality a variety of other kinds of data, such as additional information data for the programs and program information, are converted into TP and are multiplexed with the images and audio according to time division. These other kinds of data are composed of objects for various programs, with the provision of such objects allowing a greater variety of programs to be realized by the digital broadcasting system. An example of such a system is disclosed by Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application H07-231308.
The data processing method used in a conventional digital broadcasting system is described below.
FIG. 4
shows an example configuration of a digital broadcast reception apparatus in a conventional digital broadcasting system.
The signal (package object) received by the reception
5
antenna
16011
is inputted into the broadcast reception subsystem
16100
and is demodulated, before being stored in the secondary storage apparatus
16102
, including the recording media
16014
composed of the magnetic disk (hard disk)
16014
a
and the magnetic-optical disk
16014
b
, via the
10
data storage management unit
16101
. The secondary storage apparatus
16102
is designed so that necessary data and machine programs can be stored via the external input/output management unit
16103
and so that the stored content can be read.
The reproduction subsystem
16104
is an independent processing system called a virtual machine. This is composed of standard software, and for the ease of explanation, has been shown as a collection of function blocks. These function blocks are the loader
16122
, the fundamental class library
16121
, the resource/security management unit
16123
, the process (thread) management unit
16124
, the intermediate code interpreter
16125
, and the synchronization management unit
16126
.
The fundamental class library
16121
is written in intermediate code, and is a collection of classes that are used by fundamental functions of the reproduction subsystem
16104
, and by a variety of program objects and other objects. When using the objects belonging to the classes written in this fundamental class library
16121
, it is not necessary to tran
Hirai Junichi
Inoue Shinji
Kakiuchi Takashi
Kozuka Masayuki
Kusumi Yuki
Dinh Dung C.
Le Hien
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