Apparatus and method for supporting interactive broadcasting service in broadband wireless access (BWA) system

An interactive broadcasting service receiving method of a terminal in a wireless system, the method comprising:

• receiving contents which request an interactive information transfer from a network;
• receiving an allocation of an uplink bandwidth, at a terminal interaction request time for the contents, for transmission of interactive information, wherein the terminal interaction request time indicates a time for requesting terminal interaction for the contents;
• and
• transmitting interactive information to the network over the allocated uplink bandwidth;
• wherein content information or schedule information is generated and transmitted to the terminal by the network using terminal interaction request time index information received from a content provider;
• and
• wherein the terminal interaction request time index information indicates the terminal interaction request time for requesting terminal interaction for the contents.

An interactive broadcasting service providing method of a Base Station (BS) in a wireless system, the method comprising:

• receiving a burst allocation request message, at a terminal interaction request time, which requests uplink bandwidth allocation, from a Multicast and Broadcast Service (MBS) controller to receive interactive information from a terminal, wherein the terminal interaction request time indicates a time for requesting terminal interaction for corresponding contents;
• allocating an uplink bandwidth to the terminal at the terminal interaction request time;
• and
• sending a burst allocation response message to the MBS controller;
• wherein content information or schedule information is generated and transmitted to the terminal by the MBS controller using terminal interaction request time index information received from a content provider, and
• wherein the terminal interaction request time index information indicates the terminal interaction request time for requesting terminal interaction for the corresponding contents.

An interactive broadcasting service providing apparatus of a wireless system, comprising:

• a Multicast and Broadcast Service (MBS) controller for receiving content attributes, including terminal interaction request time index information, and corresponding contents from a content provider, transmitting the contents to a terminal, allocating an uplink bandwidth for reception of interactive information to the terminal by sending a burst allocation request message to a Base Station (BS) at a terminal interaction request time, and receiving interactive information from the terminal over the allocated uplink bandwidth, wherein the terminal interaction request time index information indicates the terminal interaction request time for requesting terminal interaction for corresponding contents;
• the terminal for receiving the contents from the MBS controller, allocating an uplink bandwidth from the BS at the terminal interaction request time, and sending the interactive information to the MBS controller over the allocated uplink bandwidth;
• and
• the BS for allocating the uplink bandwidth to the terminal when the burst allocation request message for the terminal is received from the MBS controller;
• wherein content information or schedule information is generated and transmitted to the terminal by the MBS controller using the terminal interaction request time index information received from a content provider.

An interactive broadcasting service providing method of a content provider in a wireless system, the method comprising:

• generating Multicast and Broadcast Service (MBS) contents;
• and
• transmitting content attributes, including terminal interaction request time index information relating to the generated contents, to an MBS controller;
• wherein the terminal interaction request time index information indicates a terminal interaction request time for sending a burst allocation request message to a Base Station (BS) and requesting terminal interaction for corresponding contents;
• wherein content information or schedule information is generated and transmitted to a terminal by the MBS controller using the terminal interaction request time index information received from the content provider.