On the Use of Hybrid Heuristics for Providing Service to Select the Return Channel in an Interactive Digital TV Environment

The technologies used to link the end-user to a telecommunication infrastructure, has been changing over time due to the consolidation of new access technologies. Moreover, the emergence of new tools for information dissemination, such as interactive digital TV, makes the selection of access technology, factor of fundamental importance. One of the greatest advantages of using digital TV as means to disseminate information is the installation of applications. In this chapter, a load characterization of a typical application embedded in a digital TV is performed to determine its behavior. However, it is important to note that applications send information through an access technology. Therefore, this chapter, based on the study on load characterization, developed a methodology combining Bayesian networks and technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) analytical approach to provide support to service providers to opt for a technology (power line communication, PLC, wireless, wired, etc.) for the return channel