On Thursdays the USPTO publishes new pending patent applications. Both of today's Spotlight Applications concern aspects of conditional access systems. Assigned to ZTE Corporation (CN), the first application discloses techniques for order relationship authentication, and mobile multimedia broadcasting-conditional access system. Apparently assigned to Sony (JP), the second application discloses a conditional access system.
20120185894, "Method and System for Order Relationship Authentication, and Mobile Multimedia Broadcasting-Conditional Access System," assigned to ZTE Corporation (CN).
Abstract
A method for order relationship authentication, including: a visited mobile multimedia broadcasting-conditional access system (MMB-CAS) acquiring operation and management information from a corresponding business operating support system (BOSS); the visited MMB-CAS receiving a request message for accessing service key from a user and triggering order relationship authentication; the visited MMB-CAS requesting the home MMB-CAS to perform order relationship authentication on the user; and the visited MMB-CAS receiving an order relationship authentication result of the user fed back from the home MMB-CAS, and performing corresponding processing. The present invention also provides an order relationship authentication system and a Mobile Multimedia Broadcasting-Conditional Access System. By the present invention, the amount of data synchronized between MMB-CASs is reduced and the overall performance and reliability of the system is improved.
20120155642, "Communication system, communication apparatus, communication method, and computer program," apparently assigned to Sony (JP).
Abstract
A source apparatus and a conditional access apparatus are disclosed. The source apparatus may transmit a command to the conditional access apparatus. The conditional access apparatus may transmit a response to the command to the source apparatus. When a time elapsed between transmission of the command by the source apparatus and reception of the response by the source apparatus does not exceed a predetermined round trip time (RTT), a first authorization signal to permit the conditional access apparatus to decrypt encrypted content may be generated. Additionally, whenever a non-RTT condition is met, a second authorization signal to permit the conditional access apparatus to decrypt the content may be generated.