1 .. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
3 Digital TV Conditional Access Interface (CI API)
4 ================================================
9 This documentation is outdated.
11 This document describes the usage of the high level CI API as
12 in accordance to the Linux DVB API. This is a not a documentation for the,
13 existing low level CI API.
17 For the Twinhan/Twinhan clones, the dst_ca module handles the CI
18 hardware handling.This module is loaded automatically if a CI
19 (Common Interface, that holds the CAM (Conditional Access Module)
25 A userspace application, like ``ca_zap`` is required to handle encrypted
28 The ``ca_zap`` userland application is in charge of sending the
29 descrambling related information to the Conditional Access Module (CAM).
31 This application requires the following to function properly as of now.
33 a) Tune to a valid channel, with szap.
35 eg: $ szap -c channels.conf -r "TMC" -x
37 b) a channels.conf containing a valid PMT PID
39 eg: TMC:11996:h:0:27500:278:512:650:321
41 here 278 is a valid PMT PID. the rest of the values are the
42 same ones that szap uses.
44 c) after running a szap, you have to run ca_zap, for the
45 descrambler to function,
47 eg: $ ca_zap channels.conf "TMC"
49 d) Hopefully enjoy your favourite subscribed channel as you do with
54 Currently ca_zap, and dst_test, both are meant for demonstration
55 purposes only, they can become full fledged applications if necessary.
58 Cards that fall in this category
59 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
61 At present the cards that fall in this category are the Twinhan and its
62 clones, these cards are available as VVMER, Tomato, Hercules, Orange and
65 CI modules that are supported
66 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
68 The CI module support is largely dependent upon the firmware on the cards
69 Some cards do support almost all of the available CI modules. There is
70 nothing much that can be done in order to make additional CI modules
71 working with these cards.
73 Modules that have been tested by this driver at present are
75 (1) Irdeto 1 and 2 from SCM
85 With the High Level CI approach any new card with almost any random
86 architecture can be implemented with this style, the definitions
87 inside the switch statement can be easily adapted for any card, thereby
88 eliminating the need for any additional ioctls.
90 The disadvantage is that the driver/hardware has to manage the rest. For
91 the application programmer it would be as simple as sending/receiving an
92 array to/from the CI ioctls as defined in the Linux DVB API. No changes
93 have been made in the API to accommodate this feature.
96 Why the need for another CI interface?
97 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
99 This is one of the most commonly asked question. Well a nice question.
100 Strictly speaking this is not a new interface.
102 The CI interface is defined in the DVB API in ca.h as:
106 typedef struct ca_slot_info {
107 int num; /* slot number */
109 int type; /* CA interface this slot supports */
110 #define CA_CI 1 /* CI high level interface */
111 #define CA_CI_LINK 2 /* CI link layer level interface */
112 #define CA_CI_PHYS 4 /* CI physical layer level interface */
113 #define CA_DESCR 8 /* built-in descrambler */
114 #define CA_SC 128 /* simple smart card interface */
117 #define CA_CI_MODULE_PRESENT 1 /* module (or card) inserted */
118 #define CA_CI_MODULE_READY 2
121 This CI interface follows the CI high level interface, which is not
122 implemented by most applications. Hence this area is revisited.
124 This CI interface is quite different in the case that it tries to
125 accommodate all other CI based devices, that fall into the other categories.
127 This means that this CI interface handles the EN50221 style tags in the
128 Application layer only and no session management is taken care of by the
129 application. The driver/hardware will take care of all that.
131 This interface is purely an EN50221 interface exchanging APDU's. This
132 means that no session management, link layer or a transport layer do
133 exist in this case in the application to driver communication. It is
134 as simple as that. The driver/hardware has to take care of that.
136 With this High Level CI interface, the interface can be defined with the
139 All these ioctls are also valid for the High level CI interface
141 #define CA_RESET _IO('o', 128)
142 #define CA_GET_CAP _IOR('o', 129, ca_caps_t)
143 #define CA_GET_SLOT_INFO _IOR('o', 130, ca_slot_info_t)
144 #define CA_GET_DESCR_INFO _IOR('o', 131, ca_descr_info_t)
145 #define CA_GET_MSG _IOR('o', 132, ca_msg_t)
146 #define CA_SEND_MSG _IOW('o', 133, ca_msg_t)
147 #define CA_SET_DESCR _IOW('o', 134, ca_descr_t)
150 On querying the device, the device yields information thus:
155 ----------------------------
160 APP: CI High level interface
161 APP: CA/CI Module Present
164 ----------------------------
168 APP: Descrambler keys=[16]
172 ----------------------------
173 Descriptors(Program Level)=[ 09 06 06 04 05 50 ff f1]
174 Found CA descriptor @ program level
176 (20) ES type=[2] ES pid=[201] ES length =[0 (0x0)]
177 (25) ES type=[4] ES pid=[301] ES length =[0 (0x0)]
178 ca_message length is 25 (0x19) bytes
179 EN50221 CA MSG=[ 9f 80 32 19 03 01 2d d1 f0 08 01 09 06 06 04 05 50 ff f1 02 e0 c9 00 00 04 e1 2d 00 00]
182 Not all ioctl's are implemented in the driver from the API, the other
183 features of the hardware that cannot be implemented by the API are achieved
184 using the CA_GET_MSG and CA_SEND_MSG ioctls. An EN50221 style wrapper is
185 used to exchange the data to maintain compatibility with other hardware.
189 /* a message to/from a CI-CAM */
190 typedef struct ca_msg {
194 unsigned char msg[256];
198 The flow of data can be described thus,
208 en50221 APDU (package)
209 --------------------------------------
210 | | | High Level CI driver
213 | en50221 APDU (unpackage) |
222 --------------------------------------
230 The High Level CI interface uses the EN50221 DVB standard, following a
231 standard ensures futureproofness.