METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR THE TRANSMISSION OF DVB SERVICES OVER AN IP NETWORK

The invention relates to a method and apparatus for the transmission of DVB services over an IP network. In order to broadcast DVB services over an IP network, it is common to separate the signalling information describing the network and the services offered from the actual services. The signalling is made available to the terminals via XML files which are available on HTTP servers.However, unlike said approach, the invention comprises a method in which a terminal connected to an IP-type network discovers DVB services on the IP-type network and in which the terminal uses a first IP address and a first port number in order to receive a transport stream broadcast to said IP address via said port. The terminal extracts the signalling tables from the aforementioned stream, including the network information table (NIT). The network descriptors contained in the network information table (NIT) designate the IP broadcast addresses and the associated ports and, as a result, the terminal is connected to at least part of the transport streams broadcast to said IP addresses via said ports, such as to read the associated service description table (SDT). The terminal uses said information in order to construct an optionally unitary list of services available on the network.