I K S and I C S are different forms with the same result.
They both use internet connections to share "keys", but these are not the keys that "autoroll", they are called Control Word "keys" or CWs, each channel on each provider has its own CW that is valid for approx. 5 minutes, this CW is an 8 byte number, this 8 byte number is used to unscramble the digital Video/audio packets for the 1 channel, so every time you change channels you need the Decrypted CW for that channel, and this is what I K S/I C S provides your receiver via the internet connection.
The way a standalone bin works is that when you select a channel to view, the bin sends the Encrypted CW packet, found in "the stream" on that channel, to the "softcam" in the bin, the softcam Decrypts the CW packet and uses the Decrypted CW to unscramble the Video/audio for that channel.
Softcam = a software duplicate of a DN smartcard, an N2 duplicate card at this time, because no one has been able to "open" an N3 card to get the information inside to make a software duplicate of it to use in a bin file.
This is why there is no "N3 fix" bin.
With I C S the receiver is connected directly to the shared N3 card, there is an interface that allows more than 1 receiver to connect to the one card, each receiver gets the Encrypted CW packet from "the stream" for the selected channel, it sends it to the shared card via the internet, then gets back the Decrypted CW via the internet to use to unscramble that channels Video/audio, so the shared card replaces the softcam in the bin file.
I C S groups must be small and VERY private, because each user has direct access to the card, any of them can get the cards CAM ID, this ID leads directly back to the subbed account holders name and address, so DN would shut this account off and prosecute the account holder if possible, these groups would usually only be 10 to 20 users.
I K S doesn't give users direct card access, they are connecting to a server that has all the channels listed by ID, with each channel ID is the latest decrypted CW for that channel, so the card is not being shared directly, the Decrypted CWs are being shared.
The receiver still sends the Encrypted CW packet via the internet to the server, the server uses that packet to ID the channel, and sends back the Decrypted CW for that channel, the card is not involved in any of this.
If the Encrypted packet has not been "seen" by the server before, so its a new CW, then the server will send that encrypted packet to another location, the card server, where it will be Decrypted by the Subbed N3 card then sent back to the User server to be saved and sent out to any user watching that channel.
I K S setups have no limit on users, just the server limits, but more servers can be added to increase port capacity.
As said above none of this is new, card sharing has been going on since the first smart cards were used in Europe.
I K S is newer since it is only used if a large sharing group is wanted, the extra cost of servers just doesn't make sense with smaller groups.
nFusion used I K S because FTA ECMs were occurring more and more often, by switching from standalone bins to an I K S setup they could use an N2 card(hacked) to avoid the "cardless" ECMs that were effecting standalone bins, it was a good selling point for their models.
Any Subbed card based setup, I C S or I K S would, of course, only be able to provide Decrypted CWs for those channels that are paid for on that subscription, which is why PPVs and PPV adult channels are not available, some I C S groups do order PPV movies or Adult channels on a preset schedule, so users can record it for future viewing, everyone pays in these groups so that is doable, once every one agrees on the cost, with I K S the cost of PPV/adult channels would fall to the I KS provider, because there is no extra way to get money from the users, the cost of the monthly subscription would come from current sales, so not sure if doing once or twice a week PPV nights would be cost effective for them, but it would be doable, problem in that would be DN could get a limited idea of which sub accounts might be being used for the I K S, and each week of ordering PPVs on specific days would narrow down the I K S sub account until there were only a few targets left, this is the problem with public I K S setups, DN has full access to all info that is public, like PPV schedules, lol.
Yes any internet use can be traced back to you, but this includes downloading bin files, the risk is always all yours, always has been.
An IP address is forever, doesn't matter if you are connected 24/7 or for 10 seconds, the IP address is logged and saved for as long as the owner of the server wants it.
You could get a legal letter 3 years from now about a file you downloaded today, or 6 months ago, lol.
Thanks Tyson!