MPEG-4 IPMP ExtensionQ-1 What do I need IPMP-X for?Many existing DRM systems in the market are likely to be broken, due to the rapidly growing computer technology. This is one of the serious problems encountered in digital content delivery business. It is therefore desirable to establish a robust flexible DRM system. Further more, the need to deliver content anytime, anywhere in the world, and at any device, demands an industry-wide standard to guarantee interoperability.
IPMP-X (Intellectual Property Management and Protection Extension) is a DRM (Digital Right Management) architecture developed by MPEG. IPMP-X provides a normative framework to support many of the requirements of DRM solution: renewability, secure communications, verification of trust, granular and flexible governance at well-defined points in the processing chain, etc. A large part of what every DRM application needs is supported normatively, allowing DRM solution providers to concentrate more on the services and features of their DRM solution as opposed to worrying about lower level functionality as well. Q-2 What are the MPEG IPMP-X’s benefits to the industry and end users?MPEG IPMP-X has been designed to provide a number of key benefits to both industry and end users: · Reduction of redundant implementation: Many different DRM solutions use similar or the same components for a number of functionalities. An example could be the use of AES for decryption. If a given terminal supports AES, any DRM solution may use the terminal implemented AES as opposed to providing its own. If two DRM solutions use AES, the algorithm need not be implemented twice yet each DRM solution would have the tool it needs. Additionally, a given DRM solution need not know whether or how a given service is provided, it may simply ask if the functionality is provided and if so, use it whether or not the Terminal provides it or a loadable module provides it. · Security: IPMP provides methods to perform mutual authentication and then use the resulting secure authenticated channel to support secure communications between components requiring it. Additionally mutual authentication can be used purely to verify existing trust relationships as they may exist or be required in a given DRM solution. · Interoperability: By clearly identifying what is provided by the architecture and what must be provided by a given DRM solution and by making what must be provided by the DRM solution as small as possible, points of non-interoperability are clearly identified allowing industry to further minimize them. · Renewability: Mutual authentication can be used to verify the validity of certificates and credentials. Additionally, means are given to support the replacement (renewability) of a tool in case of security breach, enabling content owners to safely deploy their assets. · Flexibility: One can choose whichever IPMP tool to perform decryption, watermarking, user authentication or data integrity checking, enabling systems manufacturers to maintain security of their solutions over time. · Dynamic operation: The kind of protection intended for the content (i.e. the IPMP Tools required to protect a certain content) can be specified at authoring time, enabling a variety of businesses to flourish based on IPMP-X solutions. ” in order to allow renewability of IPPM Systems and improve interoperability of protected content. Q-3 What kind of media does IPMP-X protect?IPMP-X comes in two flavors: MPEG-2 IPMP-X and MPEG-4 IPMP-X. MPEG-2 IPMP-X is designed to be applied to MPEG-2 based systems, MPEG-4 IPMP-X is designed to be applied to MPEG-4 based systems.
MPEG-4 IPMP-X can be used to host any type of media protection at a varied level of granularity and complexity as required by the specific DRM system employed to protect a given content within MPEG-4 Systems. MPEG-4 IPMP-X may protect any kind of media content included in an MPEG-4 stream, as for example video, audio, computer graphics, text, interactive contents, etc.
MPEG-2 IPMP-X is provided MPEG-2 Systems with the same functionality and support as in MPEG-4 IPMP-X. MPEG-2 IPMP-X may protect any kind of content that can be inserted in an MPEG-2 transport stream, as for example video, audio, text, private streams, etc.
IPMP-X can also be integrated in other non-MPEG based Systems easily. Q-4 What is the status of the standards of MPEG-4 IPMP-X and MPEG-2 IPMP-X?Both standards are now final, and can be purchased at ISO. Q-5 How does MPEG-4 IPMP “hooks”and MPEG-4 IPMP-X relate?MPEG-4 IPMP (version 1) is a simple “hooks” based DRM architecture standardized in ISO/IEC 14496-1:1999. The MPEG-4 IPMP eXtensions, have been more recently standardized (in 2002), as an extension to MPEG-4 IPMP “hooks. Q-6 Why MPEG moved from IPMP “hooks” to IPMP-X?IPMP “hooks” allows several IPMP systems to co-exist on the same Terminal. According to the chosen protected content, the IPMP System specified by the Content Owner at authoring time will be instantiated. The IPMP System itself is proprietary.
However, the following issues were left open by IPMP “hooks”: - There is no standard way to specify how an IPMP System can be “hooked” in a MPEG-4 player without previous agreement between MPEG-4 player manufacturers and IPMP System providers; - There is no standard mechanism to allow IPMP Systems to authenticate each other; - It does not provide easy replacement of a broken IPMP system.
IPMP-X was designed to answer the above “open questions” and to provide a more complete DRM architecture within MPEG and to do so in a secure manner. Q-7 Is there compatibility between MPEG-4 IPMP « hooks » and IPMP eXtensions?MPEG-4 IPMP eXtensions do not “break” or otherwise negatively impact existing implementations based on the original, “hooks” specifications. An identifier is defined in order to specify which IPMP solution is being used. MPEG-4 IPMP “hooks” protected content may be accessed by MPEG-4 IPMP-X terminal. MPEG-4 IPMP-X protected content will be conceived by IPMP “hooks” terminal as being protected by an unknown IPMP system. Q-8 Is it possible to use MPEG-21 REL with MPEG-4 IPMP-X?Yes. IPMP-X provides place holders for any rights language. As such, MPEG-21 REL can fit in. The current reference software demonstrates how an MPEG-4 IPMP-X terminal can use a set of IPMP tools to enable REL-License based rights management. Q-9 What are IPMP Tools?IPMP Tools are modules that perform (one or more) IPMP functions such as authentication, decryption, watermarking, etc. IPMP Tools can range from being simple processors to co-coordinating a set of IPMP modules. Q-10 Does IPMP-X specify encryption or watermarking algorithms ?No. IPMP-X specifies syntax in the system to signal and trigger various IPMP Tools. IPMP-X also specifies the architecture to plug those Tools seemlessly into IPMP-X terminal. Nevertheless, to allow the flexibility of IPMP-X, the developement of IPMP Tools including encryption and watermarking are up to the application provider. Q-11 How do IPMP Tools communicate between them? Is this communication secure?To facilitate the cooperation of multiple tools for the protection and governance of content, a message-based architecture is provided by IPMP-X. IPMP Tools communicate with each other and the terminal by using the standard messages defined in IPMP-X specifications. However, IPMP-X does not specify the interface to transfer messages. It should be done by non-MPEG standards, or by other industries that adopt IPMP-X, i.e. ISMA.
IPMP-X defines a set of mutual authentication messages that can be used to verify the trust of IPMP Tools/Terminal, and provides a secure channel for the exchange of messages between any pair of IPMP Tools or between IPMP Tools and the IPMP-X compliant terminal. Q-12 How do IPMP Tools communicate with the user?The presence of IPMP Tools within the IPMP-X terminal is supposed to be transparent to the user. However, when necessary, IPMP-X defines a set of messages allowing such communication to happen. Q-13 Does IPMP-X provide a language to program IPMP tools?The details of the design of IPMP tools are in the hands of applications developers. IPMP-X doesn’t attempt to specify any normative languages. However, IPMP-X specification provide identification schemes to identify the format (language) of the tools.
In addition to the several binary formats of MPEG-4 IPMP-X tools, one extension under development and test is called a “structural description”. Past experiences in MPEG for similar structured languages specialized for a specific class of processing algorithms (i.e. MPEG-4 Structured Audio toolset), show that a language-driven solution can provide additional functionality to the MPEG-n IPMP frameworks. Such technology is available and is currently being tested to demonstrate the range and quality of improvements in terms of interoperability, flexibility and renewability. Once the evaluation of such technology will be completed MPEG could extend the current IPMP-X standard providing the complete specification of such technology in a backward compatible way. Q-14 Is IPMP-X complex?No. IPMP-X specifies the way to signal IPMP tools in MPEG-2/4 system, and the way that a set of IPMP Tools may govern the protected content. The reference software shows that it introduces minimum burden to the original Systems reference software.
Although IPMP-X is not complicated and in fact only makes normative a number of processes that every DRM implementation needs to perform anyway, some very complicated and intricate protection schemes can be supported with no additional overhead. Q-15 Where can I find the reference software for MPEG-4 IPMP-X and MPEG-2 IPMP-X?Both reference software modules are available to MPEG members, and immediately downloadable from MPEG’s CVS server (mpeg.nist.gov/cvsweb). Q-16 Is there any profiling of IPMP-X?There is no profiling in the specifications for the time being but profiles of IPMP-X messages are being developed by MPEG. Q-17 Are there any commercial products using IPMP-X?Several companies are currently developing IPMP-X compliant commercial devices. |
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