As cable moves ahead with a digital transition plan that could involve millions of inexpensive set-tops, operators appear to be warming to the concept of downloadable conditional access (CA) systems.
The latest company to stake its claim on downloadable security for cable and IP-based video service providers is Latens Systems, a startup based in Belfast, Ireland.
The notion of a software-based CA might sound very familiar. Widevine Technologies, Laten’s prime competitor, markets a “Virtual Smart Card,” an alternative for more expensive hardware-centric approaches such as traditional smart cards and, more recently, CableCARDs, the security component of the FCC-approved Plug & Play agreement for set-top-free digital televisions. The Next Generation Network Architecture (NGNA) project, recently handed over to CableLabs, references a software-based CA in a request for information issued earlier this year.
For its part, Latens has announced deals with a Turkish satellite TV company and Lyse, a fiber-to-the-premise (FTTP) operator based in Norway. Latens has also secured integration with several primary vendors that serve the IPTV arena, including Amino Communications (set-tops), Entone Technologies (servers), i3 Micro (set-tops), BitBand (servers), nCUBE Corp. (servers), Tandberg Television (video encoding) and Kreatel (set-tops).
Latens has recently expanded into the U.S., making its first public exhibition at last month’s Telco TV show in Orlando. Although Latens replied to the NGNA RFI and is interested in domestic cable, its initial focus will be the U.S. telco IPTV market, according to company Director Andy Mathieson.
While smart cards answer the need for changeable security without having to change out the whole set-top, they can fall prey to hacking. If a smart card is defeated, swapping just one can run $20 when all organization costs are factored in, said Mathieson, an executive late of NDS Group.
A software-based CA can also cut down general management costs, because a good portion (perhaps 25 percent) of a smart card base is typically “dead” in a typical supply chain, Mathieson estimated.
“It’s not practical to run at those costs,” he added. By comparison, if a software-based system is somehow hacked, the idea is that the operator can quickly swap it out via a download without incurrent big costs.
In the Latens approach, most of the security software resides in the box’s RAM, making it tougher to compromise because the software disappears when the set-top is switched off.
“If it takes you six months to fix the smart card, [the operator] is bleeding that whole time. The recovery time has to be as short as possible,” Mathieson said. “Time to fix is important. That’s where the money is.”
Despite the potential benefits of software-based conditional access systems, implementing in the cable environment and getting the necessary buy-in appears to be anything but a slam dunk. The notion of using a system other than the CableCARD has drawn recent criticism from The Consumer Electronics Association.
The cable industry is pressing the FCC to drop a rule that would ban operators from distributing set-tops with embedded security by July 2006, arguing that set-tops with removable CableCARD capabilities would pass unnecessary costs to consumers. A software-based CA would still be removable in a sense, though not in exactly the same way a physical CableCARD is.
The CEA, meanwhile, is pushing hard for continued and uniform support of the CableCARD interface, claiming that full backing will drive costs to commodity levels.
