An extensible architecture for DTV middleware

The currently adopted specifications for Digital Television (DTV) middleware do not define the internal characteristics of their architecture. As a result, the existing middleware implementations are not as flexible, extensible and adaptable as they should be due to the adoption of a closely-coupled architecture. This paper proposes a modular architecture for DTV middleware, which allows easy extension and updating, providing a simple way to add new features to the middleware. This architecture is based on the OSGi framework and its software components, called bundles. A categorization of these bundles was proposed, based on different usage scenarios that were identified, according to industry time-to-market and innovation needs. Prototypes of the architecture and of bundles have been implemented, and tests performed with these prototypes show the feasibility of this approach.