DVB-SI introduction

Presentation on DVB-SI
Srikanth Eswaran

PSI & SI what are they

Program Specific Information (PSI)
Defined in the MPEG-2 systems specifications Provide information required to decrypt and display chosen event PAT, PMT and CAT are three main tables in PSI

Service Information (SI)

Information on available services Frequencies which carry these services Common interest categories/groups for these services Events in a service Network details of service help manage revenue flow to service providers

Impacts of errors
Errors in Audio Video
Cause annoyance to people watching the TV Some glitches that users might put up with No major revenue loss

Errors in Service Information

Improper data display (EPG, etc) could make it difficult for users to make purchasing decisions Immediate loss of revenue for service provider

DVB Service delivery model

An automatic device that receives, amplifies, and retransmits a signal on a different frequency

Refers to radio frequencies within the RF spectrum 3Hz to 300 Ghz

A sequence of programmes under the control of a broadcaster which can be broadcast as part of a chedule

Why is PSI/SI required?

Automatic Tuning of receiver upon selection
TSID and channel number are required to tune

Program location
Program in BROADCASTING: set of elements having common start and stop times Program in MPEG: collection of elementary streams with same PCR_PID and program number

EPG (Electronic Program Guide) API (Application Programming Interface)

CA (Conditional Access)

Table Structure PSI & SI (MPEG-2 & DVB)

PAT PMT

NIT
ACTUAL Delivery Sys.

PID=0x0010

PID=0x0010

NIT
OTHER Delivery Sys.

NETWORK INFORMATION.

PID=Ox0011

BAT SDT
OTHER TS

BOUQUET INFORMATION.

CAT TSDT PCR

PROGRAMME CLOCK REF.

SDT
ACTUAL TS

PID=Ox0011

PID=Ox0011

SERVICE DESCRIPTION.

EIT
ACTUAL TS

PID=0X0012

EIT
ACTUAL TS

EIT
OTHER TS

EVENT INFORMATION.

TDT
TIME AND DATE.

PID=0X0012

RST
RUNNING STATUS.

TOT
TIME OFFSET.

ST
STUFFING TABLE. 6

Table Structure PSI & SI (MPEG-2 & DVB)

Example table associations - DVB

PAT & PMT

PAT Program Association Table
This table lists all the services found in this Transport Stream. Each service is identified by a PMT. The PAT is always on PID 0. Program Map Table This table identifies all the Elementary Streams within a service. There is one PMT per service, but there may be more that one PMT on the same PID.

Structure of PAT and PMT tables

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SI Tables
NIT Network Information Table
groups a number of Transport Streams together provides tuning information for an IRD (Integrated Receiver Decoder). For each different delivery mechanism (e.g. terrestrial and satellite) there is a different Network ID for same service

BAT Bouquet Association Table

Provides group of services which are presented to the user as though they were on the same Transport Stream. The user may select different services within the bouquet, but be unaware that the IRD is in fact retuning its input to pick up a new transport stream within the network.

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SI Tables
SDT Service Description Table
provides a name, language codes, running status and country availability.

EIT Event Information Table

Present/Following information allows events on a service such as classifications like running, not running, paused, starts in a few seconds. Schedule information is arranged by table, sub-table, segment and section into 3 hours blocks within which the program guide information can be transmitted. In general, the EIT information may be scrambled, although different countries may provide regulations which restrict this practise.
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SI Tables
TDT Time and Date Table
Provides UTC (Universal Time) coded as MJD (Modified Julian Date)

TOT Time Offset Table

Is used to provide time offsets to give local time.

RST Running Status Table

These are sent out only once to update the status of an event. The RST updates this information and allows timely automatic switching to events

ST Stuffing Table
Used to replace or invalidate tables.

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SI Tables for partial bitstreams

Partial bitstreams
Are those that have only partial SI information corresponding to that bitstream (for eg., recorded bitstreams)

DIT Discontinuity Information Table

Used to inform a downstream device that transport stream information has been removed and the stream may be a partial stream missing some SI tables.

SIT Selection Informative

Table Used to inform a downstream device that Transport Stream information has been removed and the streammay be a partial stream missing some SI tables.

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Conditional Access Table

This table controls the scrambling of a service. It associates one or more CA systems with their EMM (Entitlement Management Message) stream and any other extra data that may be required.
CAT contents
This gives info that customer is authorized to decramble channels using ECMs that appear later

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PMT with CAT information

This has the control word that is sent to CA module on receiver side to descramble the channel

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How are the tables packed into transport streams?

Concept of Sections
Syntatic structure used to map MPEG-2 & SI tables into TS packets Sections within each table limited to 1024 bytes, except EIT (4096b) Elements of a section
Table ID which table is being referred to
Table ID extension which subtable is being referred to Section number applies only to sub tables Version number indicates newer versions of table sent earlier Current next indicator now or next either table to be used for current event transmissions or for future!

Mapping of these tables into TS packets (ordering, stuffing, etc)

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PID values for SI table sections

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Values for table_ids

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NIT section syntax example

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EIT section syntax example

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Descriptors in tables
Boquet name example in BAT

CA identifer descriptor

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Descriptor tags

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Service information acquisition and storage

Mode of transmissions and receptions

Data and object carousel way of transmitting schedules SI parser on receiver end, which extracts PAT, PMT, SDT, EIT table information to retrieve mainly the list of services and events

Storage considerations
Embedded database to store information from these tables particularly the EIT and SDT to reproduce on EPG screen when requested by user Customized databases, or choice of DBs like SQ-Lite (self-contained, serverless, zero-configuration, transactional SQL database engine) Compression any technique or using libraries such as zlib Persistency of the DB cache into flash in file format

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References
Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB); Specification for Service Information (SI) in DVB systems
ETSI EN 300 468 V1.3.1 (1998-02) - http://tinyurl.com/5ylbvb Interactive TV Web - http://www.interactivetvweb.org/ Neil Pickford - Communications Lab - http://happy.emu.id.au/lab/ DVB SI Basics - Snell and Wilcox - http://www.snellwilcox.com Digital Video Broadcasting - Instituto de Telecomunicaes - Plo de Aveiro - http://www.av.it.pt/ ATSC - http://www.atsc.org SQLite - http://www.sqlite.org

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Thank you !

Questions?
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