Design and implementation of an end-to-end operation system for digital television

Abstract

This paper addresses an end-to-end operation system for digital television (DTV) applications. It is designed to develop, broadcast, download and execute interactive DTV applications. The system is composed of three subsystems. They are application execution system (AES), data broadcast system (DBS) and application development environment (ADE). AES, generally called DTV middleware system, is the software system running in DTV se-top box (STB) to execute and control interactive DTV applications. It isolates DTV applications from STB hardware. DBS is used to multiplex, transmit and broadcast DTV data, as well as manage DTV applications. ADE is a special integrative toolkit designed for developing interactive DTV applications. Application developers can edit, compile, debug and test a DTV application in ADE. Then DBS broadcasts the application through DTV channel. After being downloaded into STB, the application is executed by AES in the STB. Design and implementation of these three subsystems are presented in this paper. The proposed system has been used in real environment of interactive DTV operation