Home gateway apparatus

• US 20030041137A1
• Filed: 03/20/2002
• Published: 02/27/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 08/24/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Socionext Inc.
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Takashima, Kazuhito, Horie, Hiromitsu, Otsu, Katsuyoshi, Tarui, Yuji
• Granted Patent: US 6,968,376 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2803 Home automation networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2807 Exchanging configuration information on appliance services in a home automation network arrangements for maintenance or administration involving network analysis for automatically determining the actual topology of a network H04L41/12; hardware or software tools for network management using graphical user interfaces H04L41/22; address allocation H04L61/50
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/283 Processing of data at an internetworking point of a home automation network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/285 Generic home appliances, e.g. refrigerators
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/00 Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/14 Multichannel or multilink protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/18 Multiprotocol handlers, e.g. single devices capable of handling multiple protocols

Abstract

A home gateway apparatus connected to intra-home terminal devices in a home network, has external interfaces to external terminals; internal interfaces to the intra-home terminal devices; a management table memory having management information to be sent and a destination address of the intra-home terminal devices; a management information memory to store the acquired management information; and a management information control unit to send the management information to the external terminal, based on the destination address stored in the management table, after acquiring the management information of the terminal device based on the management information to be sent stored in the management table. The home gateway apparatus can freely select a sending mode of the management information for every intra-home terminal devices, by setting the management table. Therefore, the gateway apparatus having an advanced versatility can be provided.

Claims

1. A home gateway apparatus connected via ports to a plurality of intra-home terminal devices installed in a home network, the home gateway apparatus comprising:

an external interface unit to a plurality of external terminals on an external network;

an internal interface unit to the plurality of intra-home terminal devices on the home network;

a management table memory for storing, corresponding to port numbers, at least target management information and a sending destination address of the intra-home terminal devices connected to the ports;

a management information memory for storing, corresponding to the port numbers and the sending destination addresses, the management information of the intra-home terminal device acquired from the intra-home terminal device, based on a management table stored in the management table memory; and

a management information control unit for acquiring the management information of the intra-home terminal device connected to each port to store the acquired management information in the management information memory, according to the target management information stored in the management table, and sending a specified management information to the external terminal, according to the sending destination address stored in the management table.

2. The home gateway apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the management table memory stores, corresponding to the port numbers, external interface information for getting access to the external terminal, and internal interface information for connecting to the intra-home terminal device.

3. The home gateway apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the management table memory stores, corresponding to the port numbers, timing information for acquiring the management information from the intra-home terminal device.

4. The home gateway apparatus according to claim 3, wherein

the timing information for acquiring differs depending on the management information to be acquired and/or the external terminal to be sent.

5. The home gateway apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the management table memory stores, corresponding to the port numbers, timing information for sending the acquired management information to the external terminal.

6. The home gateway apparatus according to claim 5, wherein

the timing information for sending differs depending on the acquired management information and/or the external terminal to be sent.

7. The home gateway apparatus according to claim 5, wherein

the timing information for sending in the management table is capable of being changed or set optionally.

8. The home gateway apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the apparatus acquires and sends the management information of the intra-home terminal device, in response to a management information acquiring request from the external terminal.

9. The home gateway apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the management table memory includes a plurality of sending destination addresses set for one port number.

10. The home gateway apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the management information includes model information of the intra-home terminal device, sending level information indicative of a sending mode, and state information of the intra-home terminal device, and wherein

the management information control unit sends the management information to the sending destination address in the management table, depending on the sending level information.

11. The home gateway apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the management information includes model information of the intra-home terminal device, sending level information indicative of a sending mode, and state information of the intra-home terminal device, and wherein

the model information, the sending level information and the state information are encoded, the codes are acquired and sent as the management information.

12. The home gateway apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

a management protocol of the management information control unit is common to different intra-home terminal devices.

13. The home gateway apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the management table sets a plurality of sending destination addresses for one intra-home terminal device.

14. The home gateway apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

depending on the management information and the sending destination address, the timing for acquiring the management information differs and the timing for sending the management information also differs.

15. A home gateway apparatus connected via ports to a plurality of intra-home terminal devices installed in a home network, the home gateway apparatus comprising:

an external interface unit to a plurality of external terminals on an external network;

an internal interface unit to the plurality of intra-home terminal devices on the home network;

a management table memory for storing, corresponding to port numbers, at least target management information and a sending destination address of the intra-home terminal devices connected to the ports;

a management information memory for storing, corresponding to the port numbers and the sending destination addresses, the management information of the intra-home terminal device acquired from the intra-home terminal device, based on a management table stored in the management table memory; and

a management information control unit for acquiring the management information of the intra-home terminal device connected to each port to store the acquired management information in the management information memory, according to the target management information stored in the management table, and sending a specified management information to the external terminal, according to the sending destination address stored in the management table, wherein

the management information memory stores sending level information indicative of sending timing, together with the management information, and the management information control unit sends the management information in accordance with the sending level information.