13 User generated content service

26.2373GPPIP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) based Packet Switch Streaming (PSS) and Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Service (MBMS) User ServiceProtocolsRelease 17TS

This clause defines the provision and distribution procedures of user generated content (UGC) for IMS based PSS and MBMS User Services.

User generated content refers to content that is provided by an UE e.g. video or audio captured by an in-built camera or microphone. In the following this UE is noted as providing UE, and the UE receiving UGC by PSS or MBMS is noted as receiving UE.

The UGC provision procedure allows a providing UE to declare and upload/upstream UGC content to the network, which is defined in clasue 13.1. The UGC distribution procedrue allows a receiving UE to select and watch User Generated Content which is defined in clause 13.2.

13.1 UGC content provision procedure

UGC provision procecure is carried out in four steps as shown in figure 30:

Figure 30 : IMS Based UGC Provision Procedures

NOTE: The UGC reception server can be implemented independent to, or within PSS Server, or BMSC.UPF.

Step 1: Declaration of UGC:

The providing UE sends a UGC declaration request to the SCF. The SCF records the UGC information, generates a unique UGC content ID and sends a UGC declaration response with the content ID to the providing UE.

NOTE: The content ID that should be used is out of scope of this release.

Step 2: Publication of UGC information by the providing UE:

The providing UE sends to the SCF a UGC description request including a UGC description, e.g. name, type, restriction, textual description, special group users etc. together with the UGC content ID.

The SCF records the UGC description, establishes the relationship between UGC content ID and UGC description, and sends UGC description response to the providing UE.

NOTE: Step 1 is always the first step. Step 2 may happen at any time during the UGC provision procedure and can be repeated during the lifetime of the content, e.g. for updating of the UGC description.

NOTE: The messages supporting steps 1 and 2 may be embedded in the messages supporting step 3.

Step 3: Creation of UGC:

User generated content could be provided for distribution by different means i.e. uploading and upstreaming from the providing UE.

Uploading should be used for user generated content that is stored at the UE. For uploading, HTTP should be used. 3GPP file format according to [39] should be supported.

Upstreaming should be used for live content that is continuously generated during upstreaming. For upstreaming, multimedia telephony service over IMS (MTSI) as defined in [38] should be used.

The SCF should signal the address of the UGC reception server to the providing UE.

In case of uploading, a HTTP connection is established and UGC is uploaded to a UGC upload reception server. In this case the upload reception server must support HTTP.

In case of upstreaming, the providing UE initiates a MTSI session and upstreams the UGC to the UGC upstreaming reception server. In this case, the upstreaming reception server must support MTSI specifications [38].

Step 4: Publication of UGC information by the SCF:

The SCF establishes the relationship between UGC content ID, UGC description and optionally UGC location (address), and publishes the UGC description information.

Step 4 may take place before, during or after step 3. In case of upstreaming, step 4 is carried out before step 3.

The UE can modify or terminate the established UGC creation session later on.

NOTE: Updating the SSF for UGC information from the SCF is required, but the method for achieving this is out scope of this specification.

13.2 UGC distribution procedure

The UGC reception server is responsible for repackaging and/or transcoding the uploaded or upstreamed content into such a form that can be served to legacy PSS servers and BMSCs. The UGC reception server is responsible for serving received UCG to legacy PSS Servers and BMSC in live and pre-recorded forms. This interface is out of scope for this release.

Content distribution is carried out using either PSS or MBMS. In case of PSS, UGC is distributed by the PSS server. In case of MBMS, UGC is distributed via the BMSC.UPF.

Distribution of user generated content to PSS and MBMS clients (receiving UEs) uses the same procedures for service provider discovery (clause 5), user service discovery (clause 6) and description retrieval (clause 7), streaming (clause 8) and download delivery as content that is provided in a different way.