Design of an IPTV Conditional Access System Supporting Multiple-Services

Abstract

Conditional Access (CA) is typically used by pay-television operators to restrict access to content to authorized subscribers. While several commercial CA solutions exist for structured broadcasting, Internet-based television, and video-on-demand services, these solutions are mostly proprietary. Use of proprietary solutions incurs royalty payments and increased cost of components for Set-Top-Box manufacturers. In many developing countries Set-Top-Boxes for the migration to Digital Television will be subsidized by government. An efficient, flexible, and open conditional system that does not incur royalties or require specialised security hardware would be beneficial for these countries. In this chapter, the authors explore conditional access solutions that draw on the area of cryptographic key management and distribution for IPTV environments. They wrap up with propositions on how an open Cryptographic Access Control (CAC) system can be implemented practically by pay-television operators who have to handle a large number of subscriptions.