CN101588258A - Information reporting method and system - Google Patents

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention relate to an information reporting method and system. The method includes: collecting content operation information of the Internet TV; and sending the content operation information according to a preset reporting strategy. The system includes: an information collection device for collecting content operation information of the Internet TV; an information reporting device for sending the content operation information collected by the information collection device according to a preset reporting strategy. The embodiment of the present invention can send the collected content operation information of the Internet TV according to the preset reporting strategy, and can realize the reporting of relatively comprehensive content operation information, thereby meeting the requirements of IPTV basic services and enhanced services. Through the implementation of the embodiment of the present invention, it is helpful for the IPTV system to realize the capabilities of extracting user preference data, extracting status information, extracting historical operation records, updating IPTV content metadata, and the like.

Description

Information reporting method and system

technical field

The invention relates to the field of image communication, in particular to an information reporting method and system.

Background technique

Internet Protocol Television (IPTV for short) is a manageable network that transmits TV, video, text, graphics, and data over an IP network, and provides quality of service/quality of experience assurance, security, interactivity, and reliability. multimedia business. Users can use IPTV terminal equipment (User Equipment, UE) to perform IPTV services. The terminal equipment can be a personal computer or a set-top box (Set Top Box, referred to as STB) + ordinary TV, or a mobile terminal.

IPTV (IMS-based IPTV) based on IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) network is a multimedia service introduced on the IMS network architecture, which can be enhanced by enhancing the IMS network entities and interfaces, including protocol Expansion, refinement and enhancement of AS capabilities have realized various basic IPTV services, including on-demand (Content on Demand, referred to as CoD) programs, live broadcast (BroadCast, referred to as BC; or LTV Live TV; or Linear TV) programs, network Content recording (Network-Personal Video Recorder, referred to as N-PVR); it can also provide users with enhanced services through the interaction and control of user data and content data, such as Pay Per View (PPV for short) services Reservation, advertising business, recommendation business, etc.

The inventor found in the process of realizing the present invention that the existing terminal equipment reports the relevant information of the Internet TV service to the network side and has the following defects:

1. The reporting method is based on the instant reporting method of PUBLISH messages based on Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), which will generate a large amount of information interaction, which will have a great impact on network transmission burden and network equipment load;

2. The status information recorded by the terminal device only includes the currently watched or recorded content identifier, and does not include detailed operation information on the content, for example: the content playback control (Video Cassette Recorder, VCR for short) operation of the CoD program, such as playback, Stop, pause, fast forward, rewind, etc., so this information cannot be reported to the network for use in the implementation of IPTV services as a source of other information, such as historical status information, user preference data, and so on.

Contents of the invention

Embodiments of the present invention provide an information reporting method and system, which are used to solve the problems of incomplete content operation information collected in IPTV services, a single collection and reporting method, and a large amount of interactive information. The collected comprehensive IPTV content operation information is reported to the network, reducing the amount of information interaction, reducing the burden of network transmission and the load of network equipment.

An embodiment of the present invention provides a method for reporting information, including:

Collect content operation information of Internet TV;

The content operation information is sent according to a preset reporting policy.

The embodiment of the present invention also provides an information reporting system, including:

An information collection device, used for collecting content operation information of Internet TV;

The information reporting device is configured to send the content operation information collected by the information collecting device according to a preset reporting policy.

It can be seen from the above technical solution that the embodiment of the present invention can send the collected content operation information of IPTV according to the preset reporting strategy, and can realize the reporting of relatively comprehensive content operation information, thereby meeting the needs of IPTV basic services and enhanced services. Through the implementation of the embodiment of the present invention, it is helpful for the IPTV system to realize the capabilities of extracting user preference data, extracting status information, extracting historical operation records, updating IPTV content metadata, and the like. The embodiment of the present invention can further reduce the amount of information interaction, thereby reducing the load of network transmission and the load of network equipment.

Specific embodiments of the present invention will be described in further detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Description of drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic flow chart of the first embodiment of the information reporting method of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a schematic flow chart of the second embodiment of the information reporting method of the present invention;

Fig. 3 is a schematic flow diagram of scheme 1 in the second embodiment of the information reporting method of the present invention;

Fig. 4 is a schematic flowchart of scheme 2 in the second embodiment of the information reporting method of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic flow diagram of scheme 3 in the second embodiment of the information reporting method of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a schematic flowchart of scheme 4 in the second embodiment of the information reporting method of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a schematic flowchart of scheme 5 in the second embodiment of the information reporting method of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a schematic flowchart of scheme 6 in the second embodiment of the information reporting method of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of the first embodiment of the information reporting system of the present invention;

Fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of the second embodiment of the information reporting system of the present invention.

Detailed ways

In the embodiment of the present invention, after the information collection device collects the content operation information of the Internet TV, the content operation information is stored, and the information reporting unit sends the content operation information collected by the information collection device according to the preset reporting strategy .

The content operation information may include content operation type, user ID, content operation time, and content operation object ID.

Wherein the content operation type may include: business type (such as BC, CoD, etc.), VCR operation type (such as fast forward, rewind, etc.), interaction type (such as comment, gaming, etc.); the content operation object identification may include: business access object Identification (such as live channel identification, live program identification, on-demand program identification, etc.), VCR operation object identification (such as program identification, etc.), interactive object identification (such as program identification, etc.); content operation time can be: access time, operation time, interactive time.

Wherein, the content operation information of the IPTV may come from the manual operation of the IPTV program by the user through the terminal device, that is, the program operation information, or from the control operation of the IPTV program content by the network, that is, the content control information. Including but not limited to one or more of the following:

The first category: IPTV service access information;

This type of information can be identified according to different IPTV services, for example, it can include existing IPTV services BC, CoD, and N-PVR, and can also include, but is not limited to, CoV in enhanced services. At this time, the IPTV content operation information may include, but is not limited to, service identifiers, user identifiers, access time, and access object identifiers. in,

Service identifiers are used to distinguish different IPTV services and describe user operations. For example: BC service can set "BCService" as the service identifier, indicating that the user has accessed live programs within a certain period of time or at a point in time; CoV service can set "CoVService" as the service identifier, etc.;

The user ID is used to distinguish visitors of different IPTV services, and the user can obtain a user ID that uniquely identifies the contract relationship by signing with an IPTV operator. For example: In an IMS-based IPTV network, different IPTV users can be distinguished by using an IMS Public User Identifier (IMPU for short). For all users who do not need a contract relationship, a common user ID can also be used, such as the public anonymous user Anonymous, to distinguish it from other user IDs that have a contract relationship. At this time, all users using a shared user ID are considered to be the same user;

The access time is used to record the time information of the user accessing the IPTV service. The access time can be a period of time, or a point in time, or even a sign with specific meaning. The above-mentioned time period is an interval on the time axis, and can be expressed in multiple ways, for example: it can be expressed as (starting point, end point), which are used to describe the start time and end time of the user's access to a specific IPTV service respectively; it can also be expressed as ( Starting point, duration) are respectively used to describe the start time of the user's access to a specific IPTV service and the duration of the service. It should be noted that any other method capable of representing a time period can also be used, and only two preferable representation methods are listed here. The above-mentioned time point is a point on the time axis, representing a certain moment, which can be regarded as a special case of a time period, for example: the starting point=end point, or the situation of duration=0. The above-mentioned identifiers with specific meanings represent a specific period of time or a specific time point, for example: "now" can be used to represent the current time point, "yesterday" can be used to represent the day before the current time, etc.;

The access object identifier is used to identify the IPTV content accessed by the user in a specific IPTV service. For different IPTV services, the access objects are different. For example, for BC services, users can access a specific live service package, a specific live channel, or a certain program, correspondingly, its access objects can be live service package identifiers, live channel identifiers or live program identifiers; for CoD services, its access object identifiers can be user-demanded content identifiers; The identifier may be the identifier of the recorded content; for the CoV service, the identifier of the access object may be the identifier of the content uploaded by the user. The access object identifier can be a logical identifier of the content, and can be a content reference identifier (Content Reference Identifier, CRID) that complies with the TVAnytime standard, such as the Universal Resource Identifier (TV Universal Resource Identifier, TV URI) specified by RFC2838; It can be the physical location of the content after location analysis, and it can be a Universal Resource Locator (Universal Resource Locator, URL), but not limited to this;

The second category: content VCR operation information;

This type of information records operation information on content that can be randomly located. The content that can be randomly located may be a BC program, a time-shifted part of a CoD program, an uploaded part of CoV content, and the like. For this type of content, users can perform operations such as fast forward, rewind, pause, resume playback, and random positioning within the program. At this time, the IPTV content operation information may include, but is not limited to, an operation object identifier, an operation type, a user identifier, and an operation time. in,

The operation object identifier refers to the object operated by the VCR. The identifier can be a logical identifier of the content. In practical applications, it can be a CRID (Content Reference Identifier) that complies with the TVAnytime standard and is not limited to this; the operation object identifier can also be the physical location of the content after location analysis. In practical applications It can be a URL (Universal Resource Locator, universal resource locator) and is not limited to this;

The operation type refers to the VCR operation that the user can take. In practical applications, the range of VCR operation types may include, but not limited to, fast forward, rewind, pause playback, resume playback, locate to the beginning, locate to the end, randomly locate, etc.;

User ID, used to distinguish different IPTV content visitors. The description is the same as the "User ID" in the first category of information;

Operation time, which is used to record the time period or time point when the VCR operation occurs, and describes the same as the "access time" in the first type of information;

The third category: content interaction information;

This type of information records the operation of interactive content related to IPTV content. The "interactive content" refers to content such as programs, controls, scripts, and executable programs that allow users to participate in the interaction. At this time, the content operation information describes the access to the interactive content. For example: when a user watches an on-demand program, he can request to comment on the program according to his preference, then the "comment" can be used as an IPTV interactive information; when the user watches an advertisement, a "click to call" prompt appears on the screen The user can make a phone call to the advertisement provider, and "click to call" can also be used as an IPTV interactive message. At this time, the content interaction information may include, but is not limited to, the interaction object identifier, interaction type, user identifier, and interaction time, among which,

The interaction object identifier refers to the object targeted by the user interaction, that is, the associated IPTV content identifier, which can be a logical identifier or a physical identifier of the content, such as CRID or URL, which is the same as the operation object identifier in the second type of information;

The interaction type refers to an interactive operation type related to the IPTV content. The interaction type can be user's "comments" on specific IPTV content, "click to call" on specific advertisements, "bookmarks" set at specific time points on specific IPTV content, different audio tracks or subtitle languages on the same program "Track/subtitle selection", triggering "parental control" for certain types of programs, "voting" for specific programs, "gambling" for specific programs, "quizzes", etc.;

The user ID and interaction time are respectively the same as the user ID and operation time in the second category.

In the content operation information of the above three types of Internet TV, in addition to the consistent description format of the user identification, the "access time", "operation time" and "interaction time" can also adopt a consistent description format, for example: Use the Extensible Markup Language (XML) text to describe the content operation information. No matter what kind of information, you can define a parameter "ActionTime" in the corresponding XML schema (Schema), and the value corresponding to the parameter That is, it has time period or time point information that conforms to the description format. Similarly, the access object ID, operation object ID, and interaction object ID can also adopt a unified description format. For example, if the parameter "ActionObjectID" is defined in the XML outline, the value corresponding to this parameter is the object ID that conforms to the description format.

The operation type in the above-mentioned second type of information and the interaction type in the third type of information can adopt the same description format, for example: define a parameter "ActionType" in the XML outline, and the value corresponding to the parameter is a specific VCR or interaction type. Further, the service identifier in the first type of information can also be used as an option of the parameter "ActionType", which is used to describe the access operation information to the service.

Among the first type of information, there may be one or more access object identifiers. For example: when a user watches a live program, the content operation information may contain one or more of the following identifiers: live service package identifier, live channel identifier, and live program identifier, then there may be one or two identifiers in the content operation information at this time. One or three access object IDs. For mosaic (Mosaic) business that presents multiple video images on one screen at the same time, users may access four, nine or even more small images at the same time, so there can be more video images in the content operation information. Access object ID. When multiple business access objects appear, the same description method can be used, for example, the parameter "ActionObjectID" can be used for all; or different description methods can be used, such as the parameter "PackageID" for the live service package and the parameter "PackageID" for the live channel ChannelID", live programs use the parameter "ProgramID", etc.

In addition to the content described above, the content operation information of the above three types of IPTV may further include associated additional information, so as to facilitate the processing of the reported information by the information processing device at the network side. For example: the first type of information can further include the description information of the service access object, such as the type of CoD content accessed; the second type of information can further include information such as the double speed of VCR fast forwarding and whether it is completely played; the third type The information may further include which audio track the user selected, which language subtitles were selected, the level of parental control performed, which option was selected in the vote, how much bet was placed in the lottery, etc., specifically in the actual In the application, the description format can be appropriately extended according to the needs of the business.

As shown in FIG. 1, it is a schematic flow chart of the first embodiment of the information reporting method of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, this embodiment may include the following steps:

Step 101, the information collection device collects IPTV content operation information.

In this step, the information collection device collects the content operation information from the program operation information initiated by the user through the terminal device or the content control information initiated by the network, and decides whether to cache the collected content operation information or directly Send to the information reporting device for reporting. For different sources of program operation information or content control information, the information collection device may collect one or a combination of information of the first type, the second type and the third type of content operation information. When multiple types of information need to be collected, there may be one or more information collection devices to collect one type of information respectively.

The content operation information collected by the information collection device can be described in binary or text form and sent to the information reporting device for reporting. In order for the information reporting device and the information receiving device on the network side to understand and analyze the content operation information in a common description format, the information collection device needs to standardize the format for different information description methods.

In practical applications, if you use XML text for description and transmission, you can define the corresponding XML outline. Through the format definition of the XML outline, you can convert the content operation information that needs to be reported into formatted XML text; if you use other non-XML text For description and transmission, the format of the content operation information to be transmitted can be specified on the basis that the information reporting device and the information receiving device on the network side can understand each other; if binary is used for description and transmission, the transmission can be defined in the form of a function The corresponding bytes in the payload are defined.

Although the description format can be XML text, non-XML text, and non-text binary representation, its fundamental purpose is to express and encapsulate the transmitted content operation information on a common basis, so that information collection devices, information reporting devices, and The information receiving device and the information processing device on the network side can understand and analyze the content operation information.

The preset collection strategy mentioned above refers to the operation strategy of the information collection device for the collected content operation information. The strategy may be determined by the internal logic of the information collection device, or notified to the information collection device by other network entities. The collection strategies described include but are not limited to the following two:

Once the information collection device collects legal content operation information, it will immediately send it to the information reporting device for reporting. The legality refers to conforming to the description format, which can be understood and parsed by the information reporting device and the information receiving device;

The content operation information collected by the information collection device is cached within a certain period of time instead of being sent to the information reporting device for reporting immediately. At this time, the information collection device may include a storage module to store the collected content operation information. The time period may be a certain fixed time period, such as one month or one day; it may also be an unfixed time period, such as from a certain time point to another time point, or between two on-demand programs. period.

For the collection process of content operation information, the three types of content operation information mentioned above can be considered separately:

For the first type of content operation information, one or more information collection devices obtain and process access information of specific users to IPTV services at a specific time period or time point, thereby generating relevant content operation information: service identification, user identification, access time , access object ID. The access information to the IPTV service may come from session information established between the terminal device and the IPTV network, or may be service information obtained from the IPTV content when the terminal device receives and presents the IPTV content, or may be obtained by the terminal device through a Web site (Portal) The service information obtained when accessing the service browsing page published by the IPTV service provider.

Take the BC service as an example, assuming that the user's sign-up ID is someone@somewhere.com, at 14:35:22 of the Universal Time Coordinated (UTC) time 2008/04/02, he chooses to enter the channel under the live service package Package_1 Channel_1 was watching a program, and the live program being watched at that time was Program_1, which lasted for 30 seconds and then quit the current live broadcast service package. If described in the form of an XML outline, a content operation information can be expressed as Example 1:

Example 1:

…

<ActionRecord> //Used to identify a content operation information record

<ServiceType>BCService</ServiceType> //Business ID

<UserID>someone@somewhere.com</UserID>//User ID

<ActionTime>20080402T143522.00Z, 30</ActionTime> //Business access time, the time period length is 30 seconds

<BCRecord> //Extension for BC business

<PackageID>Package_1</PackageID> //Service access object ID 1: Live service package ID

<ChannelID>Channel_1</ChannelID> //Business access object ID 2: live channel ID

<ProgramID>Program_1</ProgramID> //Service access object identification 3: Live program identification

</BCRecord>

</ActionRecord>

…

The content operation information can also be expressed as Example 2:

Example 2:

…

<ActionRecord> //Used to identify a content operation information record

<UserID>someone@somewhere.com</UserID> //User ID

<ActionTime>20080402T143522.00Z, 20080402T143552.00Z</ActionTime>//business access time, the time period is 30 seconds

<BCRecord> //Business ID, BC business

<PackageID>Package_1</PackageID> //Service access object ID 1: Live service package ID

<ChannelID>Channel_1</ChannelID> //Business access object ID 2: live channel ID

<ProgramID>Program_1</ProgramID> //Service access object identification 3: Live program identification

</BCRecord>

</ActionRecord>

…

For the second type of content operation information, one or more information collection devices obtain and process the VCR operation information of IPTV content by a specific user at a specific time period or time point, thereby generating relevant content operation information: operation object identifier, operation type, User ID, time of operation. The VCR operation information on the IPTV content may come from the event information generated by the user manually triggering the button of the TV remote controller, or it may be the control information that the network automatically operates on the IPTV content according to the playback control strategy generated in advance, or it may be the user-triggered TV remote control, after the request is triggered to the network, the network will operate the control information on the content.

Taking the CoD service as an example, assume that the user's subscription ID is someone@somewhere.com, ordered the program Program_2, and started at 14:35:22 UTC time 2008/04/02, and paused at the 45th second of the program for 10 minutes. seconds, after which playback resumes. If described in the form of an XML outline, a content operation information can be expressed as Example 3:

Example 3:

…

<ActionRecord> //Used to identify a content operation information record

<ActionType>Pause</Pause> //Action type, "pause", because PauseRecord appears below, this line can be omitted

<UserID>someone@somewhere.com</UserID>//User ID

<ActionTime>20080402T143522.00Z, 20080402T143532.00Z</ActionTime>//operation time, the length of the time period is 10 seconds

<ActionObjectID>Program_2</ActionObjectID> //Operation access object identification: on-demand program identification

<PauseRecord> //Description format extension for "pause" operation

<MediaTime>45</MediaTime> //Additional information, the corresponding media time is the 45th second

</PauseRecord>

</ActionRecord>

…

For the third type of content operation information, one or more information collection devices obtain specific users to process IPTV content interaction information at a specific time period or time point, thereby generating relevant content operation information: interaction type, user ID, access time, Interaction object ID. The interactive operation information on the IPTV content may come from the event information generated by the user manually triggering the button of the TV remote control, or the interactive control information generated by the network according to the interaction strategy generated in advance, or the user triggering the TV remote control to request After being triggered to the network, the control information for the interactive operation of the content by the network;

Take "Comments" as an example, assuming that the user's sign-up ID is someone@somewhere.com, and a button is pressed during a certain program Program_3 to trigger the request of "comment index submission", the request time is 14:35 UTC time 2008/04/02 :22, the submitted "review" includes a preference number of 5.0, and some text description "I like the leading actor in it very much". If described in the form of an XML outline, a content operation information can be expressed as Example 4:

Example 4:

…

<ActionRecord> //Used to identify a content operation information record

<ActionType>Rate</Pause> //Interaction type, "Comment"

<UserID>someone@somewhere.com</UserID>//User ID

<ActionTime>20080402T143522.00Z, 0</ActionTime>//Interaction time, the length of the time period is 0 seconds (that is, the time point)

<ActionObjectID>Program_3</ActionObjectID> //interactive object ID: associated program ID

<RateRecord> //Description format extension for "comment" interaction

<RatingValue>5.0</RatingValue> //Additional information, the preference value of comments is 5.0

<TextualCritics> "I like the leading actor in it very much"</TextualCritics> //Additional information, text comments

</PauseRecord>

</ActionRecord>

…

Several example methods of content operation information described in this step may be described by an XML outline, or may be described in independent formats, as described above.

The function of caching the non-immediate content operation information is completed by the storage module in the information collection device. Specifically, the storage module is responsible for recording and saving the specific content operation information collected within a certain period of time, and providing the information collection device with access to the content operation information at an appropriate time. The certain period of time may be a fixed period of time, such as one month or one day; it may also be an unfixed period of time, such as from a certain point in time to another point in time, such as the time when the user goes online to the user Offline time period, time period between two on-demand programs, etc. The specific content operation information may be all content operation information collected by the information collection device, or a part of it. For example, the information collection device may collect all first-type service access information, but the storage module only records and saves the CoD Business Access Information. The appropriate time may be when the information collection device needs to report the content operation information according to the collection strategy; or when the storage period is approaching and the information collection device decides to delete all or part of the content operation information from the storage module; or During the certain period of time, when the information collection device needs to add or modify some content operation information in the storage module.

In practical applications, the storage module can record and save continuous channel switching operations in a short period of time, which are ignored in the existing reporting methods; it can also record and save continuous VCR operations in a CoD on-demand process process, so that after the CoD on-demand program ends, it is reported to the information receiving device through the information reporting device, so that the information processing device can perform subsequent data analysis and processing;

Step 102, the information reporting device acquires IPTV content operation information from the information collecting device.

In this step, the information reporting device obtains content operation information from the information collection device, and the interface for completing this step is I1, the interface between the information collection device and the information reporting device, and the information reporting device can use standard protocols or internal protocols from the information collection device. Obtain the operation information that needs to be reported. The standard protocols include and are not limited to SIP, Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP for short), Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol, HTTP for short), and Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP for short). ), DIAMETER protocol, etc. If the information reporting device and the information collecting device are co-located on the same network element, then I1 may be an internal protocol.

The operation of acquiring content operation information may be that the information collection device actively sends information to the information reporting device, or that the information reporting device sends the corresponding content operation information after requesting the information collection device.

The information reporting device can obtain operation information from the information collecting device according to a certain reporting strategy. The reporting strategy may be the reporting timing and reporting content determined by the information reporting device itself, or it may be that the information receiving device notifies the information reporting device through subscription, or it may even be a reporting notification triggered by other network elements. The reporting strategies include but are not limited to one or more of the following:

Receive information reporting notification, obtain content operation information and report it;

When the preset time or time period arrives, obtain content operation information and report it;

Match the content operation information of the set type from the collected content operation information and report it;

Match the content operation information within the set time period from the collected content operation information and report it;

Divide the collected content operation information into more than one category and report them separately.

The several reporting strategies mentioned above can be properly combined to meet more complex reporting strategies, for example: when a certain time point (moment) arrives, obtain the collected operation information of a specific type of content, and after obtaining a specific type of operation information Immediately report, when a certain time period (time period) arrives, obtain the collected content operation information of the time period, the specific combination depends on the actual situation.

For the situation of immediate reporting, it can be that the information collection device sends the content operation information to the information reporting device for reporting immediately after collecting the content operation information; for the situation of non-immediate reporting, it can be that the information collection device first saves it to the storage module according to the above-mentioned collection strategy , and then request the information reporting device to report when the collection strategy is satisfied, or the information reporting device may request the information collection device to store the content operation information when the reporting strategy is satisfied, and then report;

Step 103, the information reporting device reports the acquired content operation information to the information receiving device on the network side.

In this step, the information reporting device reports the obtained IPTV content operation information to the information receiving device on the network side through the standard protocol or internal protocol of the I2 interface. The standard protocols include and are not limited to SIP, SOAP, HTTP, RTSP, DIAMETER protocols, and the like.

The reporting method can be immediate reporting or delayed reporting, and the specific reporting strategy can be determined by the reporting strategy acquired by the information reporting device.

According to different deployments of information receiving devices in practical applications, the transmission mode on the I2 interface is described as follows:

A) Both the information reporting device and the information receiving device can recognize the SIP protocol, then the content operation information can be sent from the information reporting device to the information receiving device through SIP messages. In practical applications, the information reporting device can be an IPTV terminal device or an IPTV media function (Media Function, MF) device, and the information receiving device can be an IPTV session control function (session control function, referred to as SCF) device, and the information reporting The device encapsulates the content operation information in the SIP message and sends it to the information receiving device. The SIP message may be a PUBLISH, INFO, MESSAGE or NOTIFY message, etc. Specifically, the following can be considered:

1. When using the PUBLISH message to encapsulate content operation information, the following extensions can be made to the message header:

The Event header field in the message header can be set as ActionRecord to distinguish other events (such as Presence, etc.);

The To and From header fields can be set as the IMPU of the IPTV user to identify different IPTV user subscription relationships;

A message header can be expressed as the following example (assuming the user ID is someone@somewhere.com):

PUBLISH sip:someone@somewhere.com SIP/2.0 //User ID

…

To: <sip:someone@somewhere.com> //User ID

From: <sip:someone@somewhere.com> //User ID

…

Event: ActionRecord //The reported event is

ActionRecord, that is, content operation information

…

Note: The above message headers only list some of the header fields and parameters concerned by the embodiment of the present invention, and relevant header fields and parameters can be added or modified according to the actual application.

The PUBLISH message body is the content operation information collected by the information collection device in step 101. According to different classifications of the content operation information, the parameters in it can be expanded as follows:

Service identification parameters to adapt to various IPTV services (including IPTV enhanced services), available service identification parameters include but not limited to the following: live broadcast service (BCService), on-demand service (CoDService), network recording service (NPVRService), user upload Service (CoVService), Advertising Service (ADService), Interactive TV Service (iTVService), Parental Control Service (PCService), Instant Message Service (IMService), Emergency Service (Emergency Alert Service, EASService), Bookmark Service ( Book Mark Service, BKMKService), preview service (PreView Service, PRVService), game service (GaMingService, GMService), etc.;

Operation type parameters to adapt to each VCR operation, the available operation types include but not limited to the following: fast forward (FastForward), rewind (ReWind), pause (Pause), normal play/resume play (Play), etc.;

Interaction type parameters to adapt to each interaction operation. Available interaction types include but are not limited to the following: submit comments (Rate), trigger parental control (ParentalControl), participate in voting (Poll), join gaming (Gambling), SelectAudioChannel ( Select audio track), select subtitle language (SelectCaptionLanguage), set bookmark (BookMark), preview (Preview), perform picture-in-picture (PiP), display multi-screen (Mosaic), etc.

For the above PUBLISH message, its message body can be described as the following example:

<? xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"? >

<Record>

<ActionRecord id="xd786"> //The id of the operation information record is "xd786"

<ActionType>Rate</Pause> //Interaction type, "Comment"

<UserID>someone@somewhere.com</UserID>//User ID

<ActionTime>20080402T143522.00Z, 0</ActionTime>//Interaction time, the length of the time period is 0 seconds (that is, the time point)

<ActionObjectID>Program_3</ActionObjectID> //interaction object ID: associated program ID

<RateRecord> //Description format extension for "comment" interaction

<RatingValue>5.0</RatingValue> //Additional information, the preference value of comments is 5.0

<TextualCritics> "I like the leading actor in it very much"</TextualCritics>//Additional information, text comments

</PauseRecord>

</ActionRecord>

</Record>

In the above example, the UserID is consistent with the To and From header fields in the PUBLISH message body. In actual applications, the UserID and the To/From header fields may also be inconsistent. For example, a user A authorizes the information collection point to manipulate the content of another user B. When the information is reported, the user IDs of the two users can be different. At this time, the To and From header fields of the PUBLISH can be the user ID of A, and the UserID in the PUBLISH message body can be the user ID of B.

In the above example, <Record> can carry the user ID, such as the Entity parameter:

<Record entity="someone@somewhere.com">

…

</Record>

If the Entity parameter carries the user ID, the message body may not carry the UserID at this time.

A PUBLISH message can carry multiple pieces of content operation information, and the records of multiple pieces of content operation information are logically independent and do not affect each other.

The above PUBLISH message body uses an XML-based description format, and in practical applications, other text formats or even binary formats can also be used.

The above method of encapsulating content operation information based on PUBLISH is based on an event package, and a corresponding event package identifier needs to be defined for publishing content operation information, that is, the above-mentioned Event header field. The transmission of PUBLISH does not require the information receiving device to subscribe to the information reporting device in advance, so the information reporting device can decide the time and content of the report according to the strategy deployed in advance or other actual conditions;

2. When using the NOTIFY message to report content operation information, the message body can be similar to the PUBLISH message body, but the information receiving device needs to subscribe to the information reporting device in advance, that is, the SIP SUBSCRIBE message, and the reporting strategy is determined in the subscription message and the type of content operation information that needs to be reported;

3. When a SIP session has been established between the information reporting device and the information receiving device, the information reporting device can use the SIP INFO message to encapsulate the content operation information and submit it during the existence of the SIP session. At this time, the description format of the content operation information can be text or binary. When the encapsulation format is text, the description format of XML can be used, but it is not limited thereto;

4. In addition, using non-XML text messages, such as the SIP MESSAGE method, can also encapsulate content operation information. At this time, the text format used for the content operation information is identified in the message header of the MESSAGE message, and the application/pidf+xml value in the content-type header field is used when publishing a similar state. For the content operation information, it can be in the content-type header field Define corresponding identifiers, such as application/cidf+xml or other Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) types.

B) When the HTTP protocol can be used for communication between the information reporting device and the information receiving device, the content operation information can be reported through the HTTP protocol. In practical applications, the information reporting device may send HTTP messages such as GET, POST or PUT to the information receiving device to carry the obtained content operation information. When the content operation information is relatively simple, you can use GET. At this time, the content operation information is transmitted through a parameter on the request URL instead of in the message body; when the content operation information is relatively complicated, you can use the message body of POST or PUT For portability, the HTTP content-type header field can use the existing text/html, text/plain or other MIME types. The information receiving device extracts the operation information in the HTTP message and sends it to the information processing device designated by the network side;

C) On the basis that the HTTP protocol can be used for communication between the information collection device and the information receiving device, further, if the two can also use SOAP for XML text encapsulation, then the corresponding HTTP content-type header field can be application/soap+xml or other MIME types;

D) When RTSP can be used for communication between the information collection device and the information receiving device, the content operation information may also be transmitted through the RTSP message header or message body.

Step 104, the information processing device performs corresponding processing on the IPTV content operation information acquired from the information receiving device.

In this step, the information receiving device sends the collected content operation information to the information processing device for processing, and generates data results for use in IPTV service control.

For the first type of content operation information, that is, service access information, the information processing device may extract access information, status information, and accessed information of a specific IPTV service for a specific user from it. The information processing device uses data analysis tools such as data mining, numerical analysis, and mathematical statistics to extract specific user preference data for specific IPTV services, online status information for specific users, overall evaluation coefficients for specific IPTV services, and other information related to users. Data information associated with or associated with IPTV services. For example: among the user preference data extracted by the information processing device from user A's access and operation information on all IPTVs using data analysis tools, A is most interested in sports IPTV services (BC, CoD, N-PVR, etc.). Then the IPTV service provider can push personalized sports advertisements for A according to this preference data; the information processing device finds that the sports channel is the most popular among users through statistics on the accessed information of the specific IPTV service, and the electronic program On the Electronic Program Guide (EPG) page, the sports channel is placed in a prominent recommendation position to provide users with choices;

For the second type of content operation information, that is, the content VCR operation information, the information processing device can learn the user's current operation state, or the user's operation state in a specific period of time in history, and send the user's state information to the presence server (Presence Server) as the user's state information. , PS) release, even the information processing device can extract the user's preference information for some segments of specific IPTV content from the user's VCR operation information, as the basis for user personalized recommendation and personalized advertisement;

The third type of content operation information is content interaction information, from which the information processing device can extract user access statistics information on interactive content, such as the number of times users vote within a certain period of time, the evaluation index of a certain IPTV content, and the TV remote control information. The preferences for specific audio and video tracks, the number of multi-screen/previews, and the number of advertisement clicks are used to update the metadata of IPTV content and IPTV advertisements, and user preference information can be extracted from user interaction behaviors as IPTV service control the basis used.

For the information processing device, the user online status information, user preference data, and overall evaluation coefficient of IPTV services obtained by processing the first type of content operation information, and the state information obtained by processing the second type of content operation information, The preference information of segments in IPTV programs, and the IPTV content and advertisement metadata, user preference information, etc. obtained by processing the third type of content operation information can be collectively referred to as data results. The information processing device can obtain a combination of any number of options among the above data results from the content operation information, and provide it as an output for IPTV service control. The IPTV service control includes, but is not limited to, the release of the user's online status, the user's personalized advertisement push, the user's personalized IPTV program recommendation, the user's personalized EPG, parental control of children, etc. The specific IPTV service control process is beyond the scope of the embodiments of the present invention.

In addition, the information processing device may not analyze and count the data, but directly store it in a designated database or other data resources, then the "processing" mentioned at this time is the storage of the data, and the The "data result" mentioned above is the stored data resource.

In this embodiment, the content operation information required by the system can be reported to the network with a suitable protocol by collecting independently or in cooperation with the terminal or in the network, which solves the problem of incomplete content operation information collected in the IPTV service. The collection and reporting methods are single and the amount of interactive information is large, so that the comprehensive IPTV content operation information collected can be reported to the network according to the preset reporting strategy, reducing the amount of information interaction, thereby reducing the burden of network transmission and network equipment loads.

Figure 2 is a schematic flow diagram of the second embodiment of the information reporting method of the present invention, as shown in Figure 2, the information collection device and the information reporting device in this embodiment can be co-located on the network element 1, responsible for the collection of content operation information and reporting can also be installed on network element 1 and other network elements respectively; the information receiving device and information processing device can be jointly installed on network element 2, which is responsible for the aggregation and processing of content operation information, and can also be respectively installed on network element 2 and other network elements. The network element 1 may be an IPTV UE, IPTVMF or other network elements; the network element 2 may be an IPTV application server (Application Server, AS for short) such as an IPTV SCF. This embodiment may specifically include the following steps:

Step 201. The information receiving device, such as IPTV SCF, sends a subscription request message, such as SIP SUBSCRIBE, to the information reporting device, such as IPTV UE or IPTV MF, to subscribe to the event package related to content operation information reporting.

The above-mentioned event package includes the identification of the event package, the content operation information to be reported, and the reporting strategy that needs to be satisfied when reporting.

Furthermore, the information receiving device may not perform an explicit subscription, but the logic of the information collecting device itself determines the reporting strategy and the content operation information to be reported; or the information receiving device uses the SIP REFER method of RFC3515 to report Implicit subscription is performed at the device, and when the information reporting device obtains the content operation information, it can notify the information receiving device that sent the REFER. In both cases, step 201 can be omitted;

Step 202, the information collection device collects any combination of the first type, the second type, and the third type of content operation information according to the collection strategy obtained in advance.

In this step, the arbitrary combination may be a combination between classes, or a combination within a class, such as collecting all the content operation information of the first class and the third class, or collecting only the first class Operation information on the CoD service and N-PVR service in the category of operation information, or only collect BC service access information in the first category and suspend VCR operation information in the second category, etc., what kind of information to collect specifically depends on to be determined in actual application.

The acquisition strategy may be the same as the acquisition strategy described in step 101 of the first embodiment;

Step 203 , the information reporting device acquires qualified content operation information from the information collection device according to the reporting policy, and encapsulates it in a standard protocol or internal protocol message.

The standard protocols include and are not limited to SIP, HTTP, SOAP, RTSP, DIAMETER protocols, etc., and the messages include and are not limited to NOTIFY, PUBLISH, MESSAGE, INFO, GET, POST, PUT, etc.;

In step 204, the information reporting device reports the content operation information to the information receiving device when the reporting policy is met.

For the situation of the SIP protocol between the information reporting device and the information receiving device, the message delivered can be SIP signaling such as PUBLISH, MESSAGE, INFO or NOTIFY; for the situation of the HTTP protocol between the information reporting device and the information receiving device, The transmitted message can be GET, PUT or POST, etc.; further, the operator capability of SOAP can be enhanced on HTTP;

Step 205, the information receiving device sends the collected content operation information to the information processing device.

In this step, the IPTV AS can act as a processing device for content operation information. In addition, if the information receiving device is also completed by the IPTV AS, the sending process belongs to the internal protocol implementation of the IPTV AS. In this step, the information processing device can also be implemented by other network elements, such as a separate data processing function (Data Management Function, referred to as DMF), and the reporting of the content operation information is completed by the interface between the information receiving device and the DMF;

In step 206, the information processing device processes and processes the content operation information, and generates a data result, which is provided to the IPTV service control network element for use.

The processing and processing include but are not limited to the use of data mining, numerical analysis, mathematical statistics and other tools for the above-mentioned content operation information, as well as storage and processing of operation information, etc. The data results include, but are not limited to, user preference data, status information, IPTV content access statistics, and the like.

In this embodiment, the information receiving device may be served by an IPTV AS, or it may be a separate data aggregation function (Data Aggregation Function, DAF for short), or it may be co-located in a DMF with an information processing device.

Fig. 3 is a schematic flowchart of solution 1 in the second embodiment of the information reporting method of the present invention. As shown in Fig. 3, solution 1 in this embodiment can solve how to collect user content operation information, and perform user operation according to the content operation information. The problem of extraction of preference data. In this solution, the information collection device and the information reporting device are jointly installed on the IPTV UE, while the information receiving device and the information processing device are jointly installed on the IPTV SCF. This program may specifically include the following steps:

Step 301, the UE collects and caches the user's service access information (that is, the first type of content operation information, including current operation information and historical operation information) according to the caching policy.

The caching strategy here is the "reporting strategy" or "acquisition strategy" mentioned above, that is, which operation information the UE needs to collect and cache, when it needs to report, etc. It can be a fixed setting of the UE's business logic, or It may be completed by the user through configuration, and may also be completed by the SCF through explicit or implicit subscription on the UE.

This solution aims at the problem of extracting user preferences, and the UE collects the first type of content operation information as a preferred embodiment, but in practical applications, the content operation information that the UE can collect and cache can be the first, second, and third types of information any combination of . Here, the cache location of the historical operation information is the local memory of the UE. The explicit subscription refers to the SCF notifying the UE of the reporting policy by sending a SUBSCRIBE message to the UE; the implicit subscription refers to the subscription relationship created by the SCF on the UE by sending a REFER message to the UE, This includes the escalation policy.

Step 302, the UE detects whether the reporting policy is satisfied, and if so, executes step 303, and if not, does not initiate the reporting operation;

In step 303, the UE sends a PUBLISH message to the SCF through the Gm interface, which carries content operation information to be reported, including the identified event package (that is, the Event header field is ActionRecord).

In this solution, PUBLISH is used as a preferred embodiment. In addition to PUBLISH, the reporting method of the UE can also be completed by other SIP messages. For example: at any time, the UE can use MESSAGE to report the encapsulated content operation information text; when the UE establishes a SIP session with the SCF, the UE can notify the SCF through the INFO message; When subscribing to the event package reported by the content operation information (that is, the Event header field is ActionRecord), the UE can use NOTIFY to notify when the reporting policy is satisfied; When creating a subscription, the UE can also use NOTIFY to notify, but at this time, the event package identifier (that is, the Event header field) in the NOTIFY message header is refer, the MIME type of the message body is message/sipfrag, and the content operation information to be reported must comply with Description format of message/sipfrag.

In this solution, the SIP message of the Gm interface is used to report the operation information. In addition, the Ut interface between the UE and the SCF can also be used for reporting. At this time, the UE uses HTTP POST, PUT or GET to report the operation information to the SCF. Furthermore, if the Ut interface has SOAP enhancement, the operation information can also be encapsulated in a SOAP message, and then reported to the SCF in the form of an HTTP message;

Step 304, SCF extracts user preferences according to the received content operation information. The extraction process can use tools such as data mining, numerical analysis, and mathematical statistics. The specific process is not within the scope of the embodiments of the present invention. Some related algorithms are introduced.

Step 305, the SCF saves the extracted user preferences in a UserProfile Server Function (UPSF). The user preference here is the "data result" mentioned above.

Further, when the SCF chooses to save the user preference data locally in the SCF, this step can be omitted;

Step 306, the SCF performs IPTV program recommendation control for a specific user according to the previously extracted user preference data. The specific recommendation control process is beyond the scope of the embodiments of the present invention, and reference may be made to related enhanced business processes.

In this embodiment, the IPTV UE collects and caches the content operation information, and periodically reports the cached content operation information to the SCF via the Gm interface (via the IMS Core) in the form of a PUBLISH message in a specific period of time, and the SCF After the data is analyzed, the user's preference data is extracted and saved locally in the SCF or stored in the UPSF in the form of transparent data through the Sh interface for use by the SCF in personalized program recommendation.

Fig. 4 is a schematic flowchart of solution 2 in the second embodiment of the information reporting method of the present invention. As shown in Fig. 4, solution 2 in this embodiment can solve the content operation information for inserting advertisements when MF inserts advertisements to UE Report to SCF so that SCF can perform statistical analysis on the data of user access to advertisements and the data of advertisements visited, so as to update user preference data and advertisement metadata, and provide them for subsequent advertisement push business. The difference between this scheme and the previous scheme is that the content operation information of the previous scheme comes from the user’s operation, while the content manipulation information in this scheme comes from the content control (advertisement insertion) of the network (MF); another difference The information collection device and the information reporting device are co-located on the MF, while the information receiving device and the information processing device are co-located on the SCF.

The Content Profile Server Function (CPSF) involved in this solution is used to store data related to content description information, such as IPTV content metadata and advertisement content metadata. Furthermore, the CPSF can also store some service data related to content, such as IPTV content deployment results, advertisement deployment schedule, and so on. As a logical entity, the CPSF can be a separate network element in practical applications, or exist in other network elements, such as SCF and MF. The specific form of the CPSF is not within the scope of the embodiments of the present invention. In the embodiments of the present invention, the CPSF is only used as IPTV content metadata or advertisement metadata to describe the storage device. This program may specifically include the following steps:

Step 401, the UE enters to watch a certain IPTV program, and the MF sends the normal program stream of the program to the UE;

Step 402: Advertisements need to be inserted into the current normal program stream, and the MF obtains the advertisement media.

The obtained advertisement media may be stored in the MF itself, or may be obtained from a dedicated advertisement media server, or may be obtained from advertisement media provided by a third-party content provider. The advertisement obtained here may be distributed to all UEs, some UEs, or a single UE. MF can use personalized means when obtaining advertisements, such as selectively obtaining advertisements based on user characteristics and user preferences, and the user experience at this time is reflected in the push of personalized advertisements;

In step 403, the MF inserts advertisement media to the UE when the advertisement insertion point arrives, and simultaneously creates content operation information for advertisement insertion.

For example: using the first type of content operation information method, the service identifier is ADService representing the advertising service, the starting point of the service access time is 20080407T134536.00Z, and the end point of the access time is left blank. At this time, the MF does not report to the SCF, but waits for the end of the advertisement insertion. When the advertisement insertion ends, the MF resumes playing the normal program stream, and completes the unfinished content operation information, such as completing the end point of the access time, and completing the identifiers of the advertisement media accessed during the period (one or more advertisements);

Step 404, the MF reports the collected advertisement operation information to the SCF according to the reporting strategy.

The reporting strategy may be determined by the logic of the MF itself, or notified by the SCF to the MF when explicitly or implicitly subscribing to the event package, or triggered by other network elements.

The channel for reporting the advertising operation information can be a SIP message on the Y2 interface. For example, the SCF subscribes to the MF in advance for the reported event package (for example, the Event header field is ActionRecord), and the MF reports the content operation information that meets the reporting policy to the SCF through NOTIFY; or After the SCF implicitly subscribes on the MF through REFER, the SCF reports the NOTIFY message with the Event header field as refer and the message body MIME type as message/sipfrag to the SCF, and the content operation information is encapsulated in the NOTIFY message body; or MF collects When the content operation information meets the reporting policy, send a PUBLISH message to the SCF; or when the session of the current program is not interrupted, the MF sends an INFO message to the SCF, carrying the advertisement insertion operation information collected during the period.

In addition to the SIP message using the Y2 interface, there can be a direct TCP reporting channel between the MF and the SCF, and the MF reports the content operation information to the SCF through protocols such as HTTP, SOAP or RTSP on it. For the HTTP protocol, MF can send POST, GET, and PUT messages to carry content operation information, or encapsulate SOAP messages in HTTP messages, and carry content operation information in SOAP for reporting and submission. There can also be media between MF and SCF The control channel is used for the MF to report the carried operation information to the SCF through the RTSP message.

In addition, the reporting channel can also be from UE to service switching function (Service Switching Function, SSF), so the information receiving device can be SSF;

Step 405 , the SCF, as the location of the information receiving device and the information processing device of the content operation information, analyzes and processes the received advertisement insertion operation information to obtain the advertisement access statistics.

In addition, for personalized advertisement push, SCF can also obtain the user's preference data for advertisements by analyzing the access operation information of specific users to specific advertisements;

In step 406, the SCF sends the obtained advertisement access statistics to the CPSF, which is used to update the metadata of the specific advertisement, such as the number of hits, the coverage of the advertisement, and so on.

Here, CPSF is used as a preferred embodiment of advertising metadata storage. In addition, advertising metadata can be stored in other places, such as local SCF, a dedicated advertising service server, or a third-party advertising metadata management center, etc.;

Step 407, the SCF saves the obtained user preference data on advertisements to UPSF.

This step is optional. For example, there is no difference in advertising insertion across the entire network, and preference data may not be obtained from it, so there is no need to save and update user preferences.

Here, UPSF is used as a preferred embodiment for storing user preference data. In addition, preference data can be stored in other places, such as local SCF, a dedicated recommendation server, or a third-party user data management center.

In this solution, when delivering IPTV content to the UE, the MF can obtain the information of the advertisement that needs to be inserted in the middle of the specific IPTV content, such as the start and end time of the advertisement insertion, the logic identifier of the advertisement, or the address of the advertisement media, etc., so that the current IPTV content Insert advertising media. In terms of user experience, when a user is watching a certain program, a 30-second advertisement is inserted, and then the current program is resumed. During this process, the UE may not perceive the content switching. The MF may report the operation information of this type of content immediately or in a non-real-time manner, such as reporting at intervals, or the SCF notifies the MF of the timing and content of the report.

Fig. 5 is a schematic flow diagram of scheme 3 in the second embodiment of the information reporting method of the present invention. As shown in Fig. 5, scheme 3 in this embodiment considers all content operation information in a unified manner, and there may be various types of information in the network The information collection device and the information reporting device are responsible for reporting different content operation information respectively. The information receiving device and the information processing device are jointly installed in a special data processing center DMF, which is responsible for processing and analyzing the information. This program may specifically include the following steps:

Step 501, after the SCF obtains the first type of content operation information, that is, the operation information of the user's access service, according to the session information (BC, CoD, N-PVR, etc.) , report after buffering, etc.) to the special data processing center DMF;

Step 502, the MF collects the second type of content operation information, namely the content VCR operation information, when distributing the IPTV content, and reports it to the DMF according to the reporting strategy (immediate reporting, reporting after buffering, etc.);

Step 503, during the process of user interaction and operation, the UE collects the third type of content operation information, that is, content interaction operation information, and reports it to the DMF according to the reporting strategy (immediate reporting, buffered reporting, etc.);

In the above steps 501, 502, and 503, the division of labor of each network element takes the collection and reporting of the first type, the second type and the third type content operation information as a preferred embodiment. In addition, UE, MF, and SCF can collect any combination of the three types of information through division of labor and cooperation. The principle of collection can be that the types of content operation information collected on each network element do not overlap each other to avoid conflicts. ; It can also be that the types of information collected by each network element can conflict, but there are priority settings for reporting, such as giving priority to SCF to report all types of information, and priority to MF reporting when the information collected by SCF is incomplete. If it is not complete, consider UE reporting , there are many kinds of priority settings, which are not listed here;

In step 504, the DMF summarizes and analyzes all kinds of content operation information collected, so as to extract corresponding data results.

The data results include and are not limited to user preference data, advertisement access statistics, IPTV content access data, user instant status, and user historical status. Here DMF can be a separate network element, or it can be on other network elements such as SCF, then the interface I2 reported by SCF at this time is an internal interface; DMF can also exist in the background management entity, such as the operation support system (Operation Support System, OSS) has a data processing module to complete the work of DMF.

Step 505, update the extracted IPTV content metadata, advertisement metadata, etc. to the CPSF.

Here, CPSF is used as a preferred embodiment of advertising metadata storage. In addition, advertising metadata can be stored in other places, such as DMF local, SCF, dedicated advertising business server, third-party advertising metadata management center, etc. ;

Step 506, update the extracted user preference data to UPSF.

This step is optional. For example, there is no difference in advertisement insertion across the entire network, and preference data may not be obtained from it, so there is no need to save and update user preferences. Here, UPSF is used as a preferred embodiment for saving user preference data. In addition, preference data can be saved in other places, such as DMF local, SCF, a dedicated recommendation server, or even a third-party user data management center, etc.;

Step 507, the DMF publishes the extracted instant state information and historical state information of the specific user to the PS, so as to provide other users or network elements to subscribe and query the user state information.

In the above steps 505, 506, and 507, a preferred embodiment of using network elements with CPSF, UPSF, and PS as data results. In addition, the data results extracted by DMF can also be used by other network elements. For example, SCF can obtain user preference data from DMF to realize personalized IPTV content recommendation; SSF can obtain advertisement access statistics from DMF to realize EPG The generation of recommended advertisement list on the Internet, etc.

In this solution, UE, MF, and SCF are equipped with information collection devices and information reporting devices, which report to DMF through a unified I2 interface, and update to other network elements such as CPSF, UPSF, and PS after processing.

In the above three solutions of the second embodiment of the information reporting method of the present invention, only the information receiving device and the information processing device are co-located in the same network element as a preferred embodiment. In practical applications, the information receiving device may be an SCF, and the information processing device may be a DMF; or the information receiving device may be a DAF, and the information processing device may be a DMF, etc., which does not affect the practicability of the above solution.

Further, multiple types of information collection devices and information reporting devices in this solution can also be respectively a set-top box (Set Top Box, STB) and a content distribution network (Content Distributing Network, CDN), or a plurality of media servers in a CDN; Both the information receiving device and the information processing device are IPTV middleware. STB and CDN monitor and collect different types of content operation information from the terminal and network side respectively. Their division of labor and cooperation principle is that for different types of operation information, only one type of information collection device can collect them to avoid collection There are repetitions and conflicts in the information, which reduces the efficiency of the system; it is also possible that the collected information is repeated, but there is a priority setting when reporting, as mentioned above. The content operation information can be reported through standard SOAP or HTTP, or through a custom protocol; the IPTV middleware processes and processes the collected content operation information, and extracts various data results for subsequent IPTV services used by.

Fig. 6 is a schematic flowchart of scheme 4 in the second embodiment of the information reporting method of the present invention. As shown in Fig. 6, this scheme may specifically include the following steps:

Step 601, the UE accesses related IPTV services, such as BC, CoD, CoV, etc., by establishing a SIP session with the SCF, and the UE reports service access operation information to the SCF.

For the reporting method, refer to step 301 of the scheme 1 in the second embodiment of the above-mentioned information reporting method of the present invention;

In step 602, the MF collects content operation information.

The UE can perform VCR operations when watching programs, such as on-demand programs, advertisements, time-shifted parts of live TV, and uploaded content in CoV services. At this time, there is a media control channel (such as using RTSP) between the UE and the MF, and the MF can perceive the VCR operation of the content and collect the content VCR operation information;

In step 603, the MF reports the operation information of the content VCR according to the reporting policy.

For the reporting method, refer to step 404 of solution 2 in the second embodiment of the information reporting method of the present invention;

Step 604, the SCF sends the received content operation information to the DMF through the I3 interface for processing.

The protocols that can be run on this interface may include but are not limited to SIP, HTTP, SOAP, etc.;

Step 605, the DMF processes the collected content operation information, and extracts user status information, such as instant status information or historical status information;

In step 606, the DMF publishes the extracted data result to the PS for other users or network elements to query and subscribe to the state information of a specific user.

This solution collects and reports service access information and content VCR operation information to SCF through UE and MF, and SCF sends it to DMF for processing. Meta queries and subscriptions.

Fig. 7 is a schematic flow diagram of scheme 5 in the second embodiment of the information reporting method of the present invention. As shown in Fig. 7, scheme 5 in this embodiment is similar to scheme 3, and all content operation information is considered in a unified manner. There may be multiple types of information collection devices and information reporting devices, which are respectively responsible for reporting different content operation information. The difference is that the information receiving device and the information processing device are respectively set on different network elements, that is, DAF and DMF. This program may specifically include the following steps:

Step 701: After the SCF obtains the first type of content operation information, that is, the operation information of the user's access service, according to the session information (BC, CoD, N-PVR, etc.) , report after buffering, etc.) to DAF;

Step 702, when the MF distributes the IPTV content, it collects the second type of content operation information, that is, the content VCR operation information, and reports it to the DAF according to the reporting strategy (immediate reporting, buffered reporting, etc.);

Step 703, during the process of user interaction and operation, the UE collects the third type of content operation information, that is, content interaction operation information, and reports it to the DAF according to the reporting strategy (immediate reporting, buffered reporting, etc.);

In the above steps 701, 702, and 703, the division of labor of each network element takes the collection and reporting of the first type, the second type and the third type content operation information as a preferred embodiment. In addition, UE, MF, and SCF can collect any combination of the three types of information through division of labor and cooperation. The principle of collection can be that the types of content operation information collected on each network element do not overlap each other to avoid conflicts. ; It can also be that the types of information collected by each network element can conflict, but there are priority settings for reporting, such as giving priority to SCF to report all types of information, and priority to MF reporting when the information collected by SCF is incomplete. If it is not complete, consider UE reporting , there are many kinds of priority settings, which are not listed here;

Step 704, the DAF sends the collected content operation information to the DMF through the I3 interface, and the protocol sent may include but is not limited to SIP, HTTP, SOAP, etc.;

In step 705, the DMF collects and analyzes all kinds of content operation information, so as to extract corresponding data results.

The data results include and are not limited to user preference data, advertisement access statistics, IPTV content access data, user instant status, and user historical status;

Step 706, update the extracted IPTV content metadata, advertisement metadata, etc. to the CPSF.

Here, CPSF is used as a preferred embodiment of advertising metadata storage. In addition, advertising metadata can be stored in other places, such as DMF local, SCF, dedicated advertising business server, third-party advertising metadata management center, etc. ;

Step 707, update the extracted user preference data to UPSF.

This step is optional. For example, there is no difference in advertisement insertion across the entire network, and preference data may not be obtained from it, so there is no need to save and update user preferences. Here, UPSF is used as a preferred embodiment for saving user preference data. In addition, preference data can be saved in other places, such as DMF local, SCF, a dedicated recommendation server, or even a third-party user data management center, etc.;

In step 708, the DMF publishes the extracted instant state information and historical state information of the specific user to the PS, so as to provide other users or network elements to subscribe and query the user state information.

In the above steps 706, 707, and 708, a preferred embodiment of using network elements with CPSF, UPSF, and PS as data results. In addition, the data results extracted by DMF can also be used by other network elements to provide data results to SCF, SSF, MF and other network elements. For example, SCF can obtain user preference data from DMF to realize personalized IPTV content Recommendation; SSF can obtain advertisement access statistics from DMF, realize the generation of recommended advertisement list on EPG, etc.

There can be one STB in a family, and multiple TV remote controls can be connected to it, and the content operation information on each TV remote control can be sent to the same STB, and then reported to the receiving device by the STB. Fig. 8 is a schematic flow chart of scheme 6 in the second embodiment of the information reporting method of the present invention. As shown in Fig. 8, scheme 6 in this embodiment can solve the problem of how to collect and report user personalized content manipulation information, such as interactive questions and answers, polls, selection of specific audio and video tracks, and other questions. This program may specifically include the following steps:

Step 801, a TV remote controller 02 collects voting interactive operations for certain interactive content within a specific period of time, and sends voting operation information, such as operation time, voting object description, etc., to the STB according to the collection strategy;

Step 802: Another TV remote controller 01 collects comment information on an IPTV program within a specific time period, which may include comment level (value), text comment input, etc., and sends it to the STB according to the collection strategy.

The acquisition strategy may be the same as the acquisition strategy described in step 101 of the first embodiment;

In steps 801 and 802, it is a preferred embodiment for each TV remote control to collect content interactive operation information. In addition, different TV remote controllers can collect different types of content operation information, such as the first type, second type or third type of information, and can also collect the same type of operation information, such as all collecting the third type of information Parental control information, user comment information, selected audio and video track information, etc., the specific division of labor depends on the implementation;

Step 803, the STB reports the content interaction operation information to the SCF according to the reporting policy.

For the reporting strategy and reporting method, refer to step 102 and step 103 in the first embodiment;

Step 804, the SCF, as the host network element of the information receiving device and the information processing device, processes the content interaction operation information to obtain a data result.

The processing here can be counting the number of visits to a specific voting application, calculating the overall review rating of a specific program (such as the method of averaging all submitted evaluation ratings), extracting the preference data of a specific user for a specific audio and video track, etc., among which The number of visits mentioned above, the overall comment level, the preference data of audio and video tracks, etc. are the data results described in the previous embodiments;

Step 805, the SCF provides the generated data results to other network elements for use.

For example: update the number of visits of a specific voting application to the metadata database of the voting application (such as CPSF), update the overall comment level of a specific program to the content metadata database (such as CPSF), and update the preference of a specific user to a specific audio and video track The data is updated to the user database (such as UPSF) and so on. These data can be subsequently acquired by UE, SCF or other network elements, providing basis for IPTV service control. For example, when the voting application list is displayed in the EPG, the voting status of each voting application can be presented; the personalized EPG can be sorted according to the overall evaluation level of the program, which is convenient for users to choose programs that everyone likes; for programs with multiple audio tracks or multilingual subtitles When providing, the network can select the user's favorite channel according to the user's preference for specific audio and video tracks and specific languages (such as only providing English subtitles, only providing the voice commentary of a famous football commentator, etc.).

The information reporting method provided by the embodiment of the present invention can realize the reporting of relatively comprehensive content operation information by sending the collected content operation information of the Internet TV according to the preset reporting strategy, thereby meeting the needs of IPTV basic services and enhanced services. Through the implementation of the embodiment of the present invention, it is helpful for the IPTV system to realize the capabilities of extracting user preference data, extracting status information, extracting historical operation records, updating IPTV content metadata, and the like. The embodiment of the present invention can further reduce the amount of information interaction, thereby reducing the load of network transmission and the load of network equipment.

FIG. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of the first embodiment of the information reporting system of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 9 , this embodiment may include an information collection device 90 and an information reporting device 91 . Wherein, the information collection device 90 is used to collect the content operation information of Internet TV; the information reporting device 91 is used to send the content operation information collected by the information collection device according to a preset reporting strategy; the information collection device 90 and the information reporting device 91 There is a logical data interface I1 between them.

The information collection device is used to collect content operation information, that is, obtain content operation information from program operation information initiated by a user through a terminal device or content control information initiated by a network. For example, the VCR operation information such as fast forward and fast rewind of the program is obtained from the event triggered by the user clicking the button of the remote control.

In this embodiment, there may be one or more information collection devices. In practical applications, it may be a separate network element, or may exist in UE, IPTV MF, Resource and Admission Control Subsystem (Resource and Admission Control Subsystem, RACS), IPTV SCF and other network elements, even multiple information collection devices can coexist in one network element.

When there are multiple information collection devices, each information collection device is responsible for collecting different content operation information. The different content operation information may be the difference between the first type, the second type and the third type of content operation information, or the difference within each type of content operation information. For example: one terminal equipment UE1 can have three information collection devices, respectively collecting the first type of content operation information, the second type of content operation information and the third type of content operation information; another terminal equipment UE2 can have two information collection devices , respectively collect the N-PVR operation information in the first type of content operation information and the VCR operation information in the second type of content operation information; there may be only one information collection device on the terminal equipment UE3, which is responsible for collecting the third type of information program review information.

The data interface I1 is used by the information collection device to send the collected content operation information to the information reporting device, and the information reporting device reports it to the network side. The protocol used by I1 may be SIP, SOAP, HTTP, RTSP, DIAMETER protocol, but not limited thereto. In practical applications, the information collection device and the information reporting device may exist on the same network element, then I1 is the internal function call interface of the network element at this time, and the protocol used is the internal protocol. The same network element may be UE, IPTV MF, IPTVSCF, and is not limited thereto.

The information reporting device is used to report the content operation information collected by the information collecting device to the network side. The information reporting device can obtain the content operation information to be reported from one or more information collection devices, and report the content operation information to the network side through the I2 interface according to the reporting strategy set in advance.

In this embodiment, there may be one or more information reporting devices, which may be separate network elements in actual application, or may exist in other existing network elements. The existing network elements include but are not limited to UE, IPTV MF, IPTV SSF, IPTV SCF, RACS, etc.

As mentioned above, the information reporting device and the information collection device can coexist on the same network element in practical applications, and multiple information collection devices can send content operation information to the same information reporting device for reporting. The specific deployment situation Can be determined by the implementation. The same network element includes but is not limited to a separate information collection and reporting network element, UE, IPTV SSF, IPTV MF, IPTV SCF, RACS, etc.

The interface for reporting the content operation information is the I2 interface, and the protocol used may be SIP, SOAP, HTTP, RTSP, and DIAMETER protocols, but is not limited thereto.

Further, the above-mentioned information collection device may include a collection module and a storage module, the collection module is used to collect content operation information of Internet TV, and the storage module is used to store the content operation information collected by the collection module. The above-mentioned information reporting device may accordingly include an acquisition module and a reporting module, the acquisition module is used to obtain the content operation information from the information collection device according to a preset reporting strategy, and the report module is used to send the information obtained by the acquisition module Content manipulation information.

The information reporting system provided by the embodiment of the present invention, through the information reporting device, sends the content operation information of the Internet TV collected by the information collection device according to the preset reporting strategy, and can realize the reporting of relatively comprehensive content operation information, thereby satisfying the basic needs of IPTV. Business and business-enhancing needs. Through the implementation of the embodiment of the present invention, it is helpful for the IPTV system to realize the capabilities of extracting user preference data, extracting status information, extracting historical operation records, updating IPTV content metadata, and the like. The embodiment of the present invention can further reduce the amount of information interaction, thereby reducing the load of network transmission and the load of network equipment.

FIG. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of the second embodiment of the information reporting system of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 10 , compared with the previous embodiment, this embodiment may further include an information receiving device 92 and an information processing device 93 .

The information receiving device is used to collect content operation information from one or more information reporting devices, and send it to the information processing device for processing. In practical application, the device may be a separate network element such as DAF, or may exist in UE, IPTV MF, IPTV SCF, IPTV SSF, and is not limited thereto.

The information receiving device and the information reporting device have an I2 data interface for receiving content operation information; and an information processing device has an I3 data interface for sending the content operation information to the information processing device for processing. The protocol used by I3 can be SIP, HTTP, RTSP, SOAP, DIAMETER protocols, but not limited thereto. In practical applications, the information receiving device and the information processing device may coexist in the same network element, then I3 is an internal function calling interface of the network element at this time, and the protocol used is an internal protocol. The same network element may be a separate DMF, UE, IPTV MF, IPTV SCF, and is not limited thereto.

The information processing device is used for performing data processing according to the content operation information sent by the information receiving device, and providing the extracted data result for IPTV service use. The data processing includes but is not limited to data analysis processes such as data statistics, data mining, and numerical calculation and analysis. The specific data analysis process is beyond the scope of the embodiments of the present invention and will not be introduced here; the data results include but not It is limited to the user's preference information for IPTV content, user's historical status information, IPTV content metadata (Metadata) update information, advertising content access statistics, etc.

In this embodiment, there may be one or more information processing apparatuses, which perform unified processing on content operation information or perform different processing on different content operation information, or perform different processing on the same content operation information. In practical applications, the information processing device can be a separate network element, or exist in UE, IPTV SCF, and IPTV MF network elements, and is not limited thereto. The specific deployment can depend on the actual situation.

The IPTV services described in this embodiment may include standard-defined basic services such as BC, CoD, and N-PVR, and may also include other basic services and enhanced services such as CoV, bookmarks, previews, recommendations, and advertisements. The provision of the IPTV service for use in practical applications may be to provide different data results to different network elements, to provide different data results to the same network element, or to provide the same data results to multiple network elements. use. For example: in the recommendation business, the extracted "user preference data" can be provided to SCF and UE for access at the same time to realize the recommendation of IPTV content; in the advertising business, the extracted "advertising content access statistics data" and "preference data" can be simultaneously It is provided to UE for access to push personalized advertisements; the extracted "user's historical state information" can be published to PS to provide user's other friends to subscribe to realize the ability to enhance the presence (Presence), and can also be used by IPTV business The control function (such as SCF) access acquisition, the triggering of the Caller ID (CID) service, and how to use the specific IPTV service are beyond the scope of the embodiments of the present invention, and will not be described again.

In this embodiment, the content operation information required by the system is reported to the network with a suitable protocol by collecting independently or in cooperation with the terminal or in the network, which solves the problem of incomplete content operation information collected in the IPTV service. And the problem of single reporting method and large amount of interactive information, the comprehensive IPTV content operation information collected can be reported to the network according to the preset reporting strategy, reducing the amount of information interaction, thereby reducing the burden of network transmission and load on network devices.

In the above-mentioned embodiments of the present invention, unless otherwise specified, all SIP messages need to pass through IMSCore, especially through the Service-Call Session Control Function (Serve-Call Session Control Function, referred to as S-CSCF), although in the flowchart or steps There is no IMS Core or S-CSCF in the description, but it does not mean that the relevant SIP signaling does not pass through the S-CSCF.

It should be noted that the entities connected to the Gm, Ut, and Y2 interfaces in the embodiment of the present invention and the protocols used are respectively: the Gm interface connects the UE and the SCF, using SIP; the Ut interface connects the UE and the SCF, using HTTP; The Y2 interface connects the SCF and the MF, using SIP.

Those of ordinary skill in the art can understand that all or part of the steps for realizing the above-mentioned method embodiments can be completed by hardware related to program instructions, and the aforementioned program can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. When the program is executed, the It includes the steps of the above method embodiments; and the aforementioned storage medium includes: ROM, RAM, magnetic disk or optical disk and other various media that can store program codes.

Finally, it should be noted that: the above embodiments are only used to illustrate the technical solutions of the present invention, rather than to limit them; although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, those of ordinary skill in the art should understand that: it can still be Modifications are made to the technical solutions described in the foregoing embodiments, or equivalent replacements are made to some of the technical features; and these modifications or replacements do not make the essence of the corresponding technical solutions deviate from the spirit and scope of the technical solutions of the various embodiments of the present invention.

Claims (16)

1. An information reporting method is characterized by comprising the following steps:

collecting content operation information of the network television;

and sending the content operation information according to a preset reporting strategy.

2. The information reporting method according to claim 1, wherein the acquiring content operation information of the network television specifically comprises: and acquiring content operation information of the network television from program operation information initiated by a user through terminal equipment and/or content control information initiated by a network.

3. The information reporting method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the content operation information includes one or more of the following information: service access information, content playing control operation information and content interaction information.

4. The information reporting method of claim 3, wherein the content operation information includes a content operation type, a user identifier, a content operation time, and a content operation object identifier.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the reporting policy includes one or more of the following conditions:

receiving an information reporting notice, and sending collected content operation information;

matching the content operation information of a set type from the acquired content operation information and sending the content operation information;

and dividing the collected content operation information into more than one type and respectively sending the content operation information.

6. The information reporting method of claim 1, wherein the collecting the content operation information of the network television further comprises: and storing the content operation information.

7. The information reporting method of claim 6, wherein the sending the content operation information according to the preset reporting policy specifically comprises: and acquiring the content operation information according to a preset reporting strategy, and sending the acquired content operation information.

8. The information reporting method of claim 7, wherein the acquiring the content operation information specifically includes: the content operation information is obtained through a session initiation protocol SIP, a simple object access protocol SOAP, a hypertext transfer protocol HTTP, a real-time streaming media protocol RTSP, a DIAMETER protocol or an internal protocol.

9. The method according to claim 7, wherein the reporting policy includes one or more of the following conditions:

receiving an information reporting notification, and acquiring stored content operation information;

when a preset time or a time period is reached, acquiring stored content operation information;

matching the content operation information of a set type from the stored content operation information;

matching the content operation information within a set time period from the stored content operation information;

and dividing the stored content operation information into more than one type and respectively transmitting the content operation information.

10. The information reporting method of claim 1, wherein the sending the content operation information specifically includes: the content operation information is transmitted through a session initiation protocol SIP, a simple object access protocol SOAP, a hypertext transfer protocol HTTP, a real-time streaming media protocol RTSP, a DIAMETER protocol or an internal protocol.

11. An information reporting system, comprising:

the information acquisition device is used for acquiring content operation information of the network television;

and the information reporting device is used for sending the content operation information acquired by the information acquisition device according to a preset reporting strategy.

12. The information reporting system of claim 11, wherein the information collecting device comprises:

the acquisition module is used for acquiring content operation information of the network television;

and the storage module is used for storing the content operation information acquired by the acquisition module.

13. The information reporting system of claim 11, wherein the information reporting apparatus comprises:

the acquisition module is used for acquiring the content operation information from the information acquisition device according to a preset reporting strategy;

and the reporting module is used for sending the content operation information acquired by the acquisition module.

14. The information reporting system of claim 13, wherein the obtaining module obtains the content operation information from the information collecting device through a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), a Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), a real-time streaming media protocol (RTSP), a DIAMETER protocol, or an internal protocol.

15. The information reporting system of claim 13, wherein the reporting module sends the content operation information acquired by the acquiring module through a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), a Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), a real-time streaming media protocol (RTSP), a DIAMETER protocol, or an internal protocol.

16. The information reporting system according to any one of claims 11 to 15, wherein the information collecting device is integrated with the information reporting device.

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