Patent ID: 7830910

Claim:
A method for providing an interactive broadcast service based on an Internet protocol (IP), the method comprising: registering a user equipment to a multimedia subsystem using a protocol for initiating an interactive user session that involves multimedia elements, the registration including registering performance and specification information of the user equipment; determining whether the user equipment is in a valid subscription status of the multimedia subsystem when the interactive broadcast service is requested; connecting the user equipment to the multimedia subsystem if it is determined that the user equipment is in the valid subscription status; determining whether the user equipment is in a fringe area of a broadcast service using current position information of the user equipment and fringe area information of the broadcast service; converting a multimedia stream received from a broadcasting network to a format corresponding to the performance and specification information of the user equipment if it is determined that the user equipment is in the fringe area of the broadcast service; providing the converted multimedia stream to the user equipment; determining whether a request for a relay of interaction data between the user equipment and the broadcasting network has been made; receiving first interaction data from the user equipment; receiving second interaction data from the broadcasting network, the second interaction data comprising supplementary information other than the multimedia stream; converting the first interaction data received from the user equipment to a first signal format supported by the broadcasting network if it is determined that the request for the relay of the interaction data has been made, determining a forwarding route for the converted first interaction data via a server by referring to a service profile, and relaying the converted first interaction data in the first signal format to the broadcasting network according to the determined forwarding route; converting the second interaction data received from the broadcasting network to a second signal format supported by the user equipment if it is determined that the request for the relay of the interaction data has been made and relaying the converted second interaction data in the second signal format to the user equipment; and either updating the registered performance and specification information or repeating registration of the user equipment if it is determined that the user equipment is not in the valid subscription status.