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Glossary

C

Conax AS

Fred. Olsens gt. 6 t: +47 22 40 52 00
NO - 0152 Oslo, Norway f: +47 22 41 70 39
e: info@conax.com www.conax.com

CA

(1) Short for Conditional Access. In a DVB context, security technology used to control the access to broadcast content (including video and audio, interactive services, etc.) through the transmission of encrypted signals and the programmable regulation of their decryption by a system such as smart cards.

(2) Short for Certificate Authority (PKI term). One or more trusted individuals, companies or organisations which are assigned the responsibility of certifying the origin of keys and adding them to a common database.

CAM

Short for CA Module: The PCMCIA/PC Card module is generally used for the DVB descrambling and includes a smart card reader. Common Interface makes MultiCrypt possible.

CI

Common Interface
An interface based on industrial standards for communicating with Conditional Access Modules.

Cryptography

The art and science of keeping messages unintelligible for all who do not have the proper key.

CW

Short for control word. The key used to encrypt the payload in a transport stream.

Copy protection

Mechanism for protecting a distributed media file all the way to the hardware device that renders the file.

Cryptoanalysis

The art and science of breaking ciphertext.

Content provider

An entity that acts as the agent for or is the prime distributor of the content.

Confidentiality

Keeping information inaccessible for everyone who does not have the proper authorisation.

Conax CAS

A complete, scalable CA system for DVB/MPEG-2 transmissions, designed for applications like satellite feeds to cable head ends, contribution links, closed user groups and large DTH operations.

Conax STB Integration Kit

A kit (collection of documents) intended for companies and institutions that wish to integrate Conax CA in STBs (or other client devices) to make these able to descramble programs and utilise other services provided by the Conax CAS Smart Card.

Chipset Pairing Module

Variant of Pairing Module for Chipset Pairing.

Churn

Churn is used to describe (usually in terms of a percentage) the amount of subscribers either unsubscribing completely from DTV services or switching from one operator to another.

COFDM

Short for Coded Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing. Modulation technique for terrestrial broadcasting. See also QPSK and QAM.

Certificate

A digital certificate consists of three things: (1) The public-key portion of the certificate holder's public and private key pair. (2) Information that identifies the holder of the certificate (the owner of the corresponding private key). (3) The digital signature of a trusted entity attesting to the validity of the certificate (i.e. that the key and the certificate
information truly go together).

Chipset pairing

Type of pairing where the pairing information stored and used within the STB is embedded in the chipset.

CA system

Conditional Access System.

CableCARD

A device that consumers can plug into their DCR TV sets that permits for the descrambling of digital programming. The card works in place of a traditional STB. See OpenCable.

CA application

CA specific software residing in the host.

Consumer

The "end-user" in a DVB or IP streaming context. Content video, audio, subtitles, images/graphics animations, webpages, text, games, software, scripts or any other information which is intended to be delivered to a consumer.

Common Interface

Commonly abbreviated CI. Standardized interface between the STB and a DVB CI/CAM module. See CAM.

CATV

Originally, short for Community Antenna TV - a cable system covering a whole community. The term is now used synonymously with cable TV.

CableLabs

Non-profit research and development consortium dedicated to pursuing new cable telecommunications technologies and to helping its cable operator members integrate those technical advancements into their business objectives. See www.cablelabs.com , CableCARD and Open-Cable.