PHD A Generic and Flexible Architecture for IPTV in Authorized Domains

Abstract

As TV consumers expect a growing quantity and quality of services provided to them, and providers fear uncontrolled distribution of the digital content, one of the more promising theoretical proposals to balance these two needs are the so-called "Authorized Domains" (AD). We present in this paper a novel architecture that builds on the AD concept, but extends it to allow for a more generic, open, and flexible solution. The contributions of our work are twofold: First, we analyze and motivate which features a generic and flexible IPTV architecture should exhibit in order to enable various business models, while maintaining in all instances the above-mentioned core features. Second, we present our architecture – “Personal Home Domains” (PHD) –, which adds some key features to the original AD: it allows offline content in addition to streaming; it harmonizes the distribution inside the domain with (new) the delivery from service provider to the domain; it allows for the distribution of free or age-protected content; it emphasizes the mobility of users more than the original concept; and it allows for non-compliant devices inside the domain devices as well.