Device discovery application interface

• US 20040120344A1
• Filed: 12/20/2002
• Published: 06/24/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: SONY CORPORATION AND SONY ELECTRONICS, INC.
• Inventors: Lym, Kevin K., Sun, Jadie, Sato, Naoyuki
• Application Number:
  US10/327,574
• Publication Number:
  US 20040120344A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/465
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2803 Home automation networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2805 Home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/281 indicating a format for calling an appliance service function in a home automation network for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/2849 Audio/video appliances
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

A device discovery application programming interface (API) provides an interface to discover the presence of network devices. The device discovery API preferably resides within a control device, where the control device can also be a network device. Each network device preferably uses IP-based protocols for sending and receiving communications related to the discovery process. The device discovery API provides an interface for an application to receive a list of network devices discovered on a network. Preferably, the discovered network devices are SSDP-enabled devices. The device discovery API enables the control point to search for a particular network device on the network and to search for particular information associated with the network device. The device discovery API also provides a framework for defining and implementing a device discovery protocol. The device discovery protocol is preferably IP-based. The device discovery API is extensible, such that the framework for defining and implementing the device discovery protocol can also provide common functionality across multiple protocols.

Claims

1. A control device coupled to a network of devices, the control device comprising:

a. one or more applications;

b. a network layer coupled to interface with one or more network devices; and

c. an interface layer coupled to communicate with the applications and the network layer to discover the presence of appropriate network devices.

2. The control device of claim 1 wherein the network is an Internet Protocol (IP) based network.

3. The control device of claim 1 wherein the interface layer is an application programming interface (API).

4. The control device of claim 1 wherein the interface layer is protocol independent.

5. The control device of claim 1 wherein the network layer includes a Universal Plug and Play protocol stack.

6. The control device of claim 5 wherein one or more network devices are Universal Plug and Play enabled devices.

7. A network comprising:

a. one or more network devices; and

b. a control device comprising;

i. one or more applications;

ii. a network layer coupled to interface with the one or more network devices; and

iii. an interface layer coupled to communicate with the applications and the network layer to discover the presence of appropriate network devices.

8. The network of claim 7 wherein the network is an Internet Protocol (IP) based network.

9. The network of claim 7 wherein the interface layer is an application programming interface (API).

10. The network of claim 7 wherein the interface layer is protocol independent.

11. The network of claim 7 wherein the network layer includes a Universal Plug and Play protocol stack.

12. The network of claim 11 wherein one or more network devices are Universal Plug and Play enabled devices.

13. A method of providing an interface to applications resident within a control device coupled to a network of devices, the method comprising:

a. sending and receiving messages to and from the applications through an interface layer to discover the presence of network devices; and

b. generating and receiving communications at the interface layer to complete the discovery of the network devices.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein communications generated at the interface layer are sent to a network layer within the control device and communications received at the interface layer are received from the network layer.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the network layer includes a Universal Plug and Play protocol stack and one or more of the network devices are Universal Plug and Play enabled devices.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein communications received at the interface layer from the network layer include a notification from a network device that advertises the presence of the network device.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the notification includes services offered by the network device.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein the notification includes embedded devices available within the network device.

19. The method of claim 14 wherein communications generated at the interface layer and sent to the network layer include an acknowledgment request for any network device that matches a specified search criteria.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein communications received at the interface layer from the network layer include an acknowledgment from a network device that matches the specified search criteria.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein the acknowledgment includes a pointer to a location of a device description corresponding to the network device.

22. The method of claim 13 further comprising compiling a list of the discovered network devices.