Design And Implementation Of The EPG Portal In IPTV System

IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) is a new interactive service, whose signals propagatethrough the broadband network. It integrated with a variety of technologies such as Internet,communication and multimedia in the integration. IPTV is the mutual penetration oftraditional television and Internet.The new business will be the integration of the traditionalbusiness of radio and television and telecommunications. It is an important breakthrough ofthe integration of three networks, which are telecommunication network, computer networkand cable television network.EPG (Electronic Program Guide) is a portal service subsystem of IPTV System, runningon the IPTV business support platform. EPG, depended on the terminal Set Top Box, is thehuman-computer interaction interface for end users. The EPG of IPTV is different from thatof traditional digital television, because the environment provided by digital televisionterminal is different from that provided by IPTV terminal. IPTV is capable to offer betterinteraction performance, therefore we need to design EPG basing on the characteristics ofIPTV. This topic is proposed based on the IPTV project in Hebei province. The purpose ofthis study is to design and implement EPG portal system in the IPTV system, and to realizethe complete solution of the IPTV business process, by integrated with IPTV platforminterface and set-top box terminal interface.First this paper illustrated the research background, and introduced the status and thetrends of IPTV. Then It analyzed the architecture of IPTV system，and described the EPG’sposition and role. Finally the paper constructed the EPG system in the order of requirementanalysis, system design, code implementation, according to the related theory of softwareengineering.In this paper, the main works include:(1) Analyzed the requirements. Figure out the scope and the goal of EPG system. Thefunction of EPG is to provide navigation for user operations in IPTV, and provide informationabout the programs or the user. EPG is also used for parsing user’s command and interactingwith users. The function modules of EPG include select a program、play control, manage bookmarks, manage collections, order products, check consumer records.(2) Designed the EPG system. Introduced the perspective of the system, we designed theinternal structure of the system. Then divided logical layers of the system and designed theirinteractions. The EPG System was divided into three layers: presentation layer、business layerand data layer. The presentation layer communicates with the business layer and the data layerthrough request and response model of HTTP protocol. EPG portal system of IPTV is similarto WEB portal system.The difference is that the browser to display EPG page is embedded inthe IPTV set top box. Users manipulate EPG by television remote control rather than mouse,therefore there will be more JavaScript to meet the demand of interaction.(3) Designed and realized the key process. The key business processes of EPG systeminclude parsing user command, processing mobile of focus, the flow of getting data, the flowof order and authentication. This paper analyzed these processes, and designed the generalsolutions to solve these problems.