Providing Interactive Services in Digital Video Broadcasting Networks

The established digital video broadcasting networks can do more than transmit the ordinary TV program to the viewer’s living room. The future of digital television will be interactive. Especially for local communities or people who are not familiar with computers, local cable networks can be an interesting alternative to the global Internet. We present a technology platform for using the traditional cable television network for an information and interactive service platform. In this paper we give an overview of an ongoing research project with focus on technologies for small and mediumsized CATV networks in cities and communities, hotels or companies. We present the overall workflow, the system architecture and its components, and some sample applications.