Digital TV as a Tool to Create Multimedia Services Delivery Platform

Digital TV-based communication systems provide costeffective solutions and, in many cases, offer capabilities that are difficult to obtain by other technologies (Elbert, 1997). Hence, many books and papers on digital television (TV) and content distribution networks have been published in recent years (Burnett, 2004; Collins, 2001; Dreazen, 2002; ETR, 1996; Hulicki & Juszkiewicz, 1999; Mauthe & Thomas, 2004; Scalise, Gill, & Faria, 1999; Seffah & Javahery, 2004; Whitaker & Benson, 2003). None of them, however, provide an exhaustive analysis of the service provision aspects at the application layer. Therefore, this contribution aims to fill that gap with a comprehensive view on the provision of services on digital TV platform which can serve as the multimedia service delivery platform (MSDP) that can provide a unified tool for the optimized exchange of services between users, operators, and service and content providers.