Networking Requirements and Solutions for a TV WWW Browser

Abstract

Most people cannot access the World Wide Web (WWW) and other Internet services because access requires a complex and expensive computer. Moreover, the bandwidth offered to the general public is mostly limited by today's analog modems through standard telephone lines. An inexpensive, easy-to-use Internet/WWW access service, able to handle bandwidth-intensive, multimedia-oriented WWW pages, is currently not available to the general public.

Some concrete proposals, and even completed products, have been provided by the computer and communications industry. Nonetheless, these solutions are either still too expensive and complex or have limited bandwidth. One service that introduces a simple and inexpensive way to access the Internet, while providing high bandwidth, is the IVDS/WWW Browser. Controlled by a central WWW Browser Server, the WWW pages are displayed on a standard television set using an IVDS (Interactive Video and Data Service) Decoder Box, an inexpensive hardware device. The user can access the WWW using a remote control device. This thesis presents the networking requirements and solutions for the IVDS/WWW Browser Server and the IVDS Decoder Box.