Open protocols would allow set top boxes, PCs or other information appliances to access multiple services from multiple service providers. DSM-CC is transport layer independent. In this way any application written to use DSM-CC need not concern itself with the underlying transport layer the application will use between the Server and the Client. This article gives a synopsis of each of the protocol areas, after the following section introduces the basic reference model around which DSM-CC is built. Clients are, in general, devices such as set top boxes that consume multi-media content.
Servers are entities that provide multi-media content and services.
A Server may be a distributed system and contain multiple computing platforms, some functionally specialized e.g. video pumps to provide video on demand service. A Server thus may have multiple transport connection points to the Network. The definition of a Network is very broad, it is any collection of communicating elements that provides connections for Users. The SRM is the entity that terminates the U-N connection from a User. An SRM could be distributed over a geographical area in order to cover the spread of a global network spanning many network providers.