Franciscus L. A. J. Kamperman

Conditional Access System Interoperability Through Software Downloading

Interoperability between conditional access (CA) systems and set-top boxes (STB)-CA-STB interoperability-has been an issue from the very beginning of receiver development for digital pay-TV. Interoperability ensures that any service can be received on any (interoperable) STB. The common interface solutions SimulCrypt and MultiCrypt are now standardized. However, these solutions have a number of disadvantages, including the need for service providers to agree on using each others system, increased bandwidth usage, inflexibility, cost, and limited functionality. This paper describes another solution for CA-STB interoperability, based on downloading interoperable software into the STB. It provides full CA-STB interoperability. Furthermore, it can be introduced relatively easily into future STBs and will require only minimal changes in current CA systems.

Protected data storage system for optical discs

This paper presents a system that provides a data storage area on optical discs which is protected against unauthorized access. The protected area is referred to as a key locker. It is of particular importance to applications that use digital rights management (DRM). An advantage of the key locker concept is its DRM-agnostic nature. As such, any DRM system can benefit from the protected area.