CI+

CI+ or Common Interface Plus is a specification that extends the Common Interface (DVB-CI) as found in the digital broadcasting standard DVB. It has been developed by consumer electronic firms Panasonic, Philips, Samsung and Sony, as well as pay-TV technology company SmarDTV and fabless chip maker NEOTION.The largest Dutch Cableoperator Ziggo announced that it will support CI+ based Integrated Digital Television sets (IDTV) actively.

A first draft of the specification has been put up for review early in 2008. The final version has been released end of May [2008] . CI+ implements a form of copy protection between a Conditional Access Module (CAM) and the Integrated Digital Television (IDTV).

By making use of certificates and a certification authority, a trusted channel is formed between the CAM and DTV, when scrambled content is being received. In the original CI standard, decrypted content could be sent over the PCMCIA interface unscrambled. The establishing of the Trusted Authorithy is in progress.

References

* Draft CI+ Specification. V0.8 (2007-12)
* CI+ Specification V1.00 (2008-05)

ee also

*HDCP
*DVB-CPCM