Power management mechanism for a universal plug and play device

• US 20060005052A1
• Filed: 06/30/2004
• Published: 01/05/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Saint-Hilaire, Ylian, Kidd, Nelson F., Roe, Bryan Y.
• Application Number:
  US10/881,367
• Publication Number:
  US 20060005052A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/300
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3215 Monitoring of peripheral devices

Abstract

According to one embodiment, a system is disclosed. The system includes a Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) device having a power management service to indicate the power mode in which the device is operating. In addition, the system includes a monitoring system to track the power mode of the device and to power on the device whenever the device is in an Off mode.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) device having a power management service to indicate the power mode in which the device is operating; and

a monitoring system to track the power mode of the device and to power on the device whenever the device is in an Off mode.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the monitoring system transmits a Wake-On-LAN packet to the device to power up the device when the device is in the Off mode.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the device transmits an event to the monitoring system to indicate that the device is online.

4. The system of claim 2 further comprising a UPnP control point, wherein the control point transmits an On command to the monitoring system to initiate the powering up of the device.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein information about the device is transmitted with the On command.

6. The system of claim 2 wherein the control point transmits an Off command to the device causing the device to enter the Off mode.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein the monitoring system simulates the device when the device is in the Off mode.

8. The system of claim 2 wherein the monitoring system transmits an Off command to the device causing the device to enter the Off mode.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the monitoring system is implemented within a router.

10. A method comprising:

receiving a command at a monitoring station from a Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) control point indicating a request to access a UPnP device that is offline;

transmitting a Wake-On-LAN packet to the device; and

receiving an event from the device indicating that the device is online.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

receiving a command at the monitoring station from the control point indicating the device that is to go offline;

transmitting a command to the device to go offline; and

simulating the offline device at the monitoring system so that the device appears to be online.

12. The method of claim 10 further comprising transmitting a heartbeat signal from the monitoring station to the device to determine the status of the device.

13. An apparatus comprising a monitoring system to track the power mode of a Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) device, to simulate the device whenever the device is offline and to bring the device online upon receiving a request to access the device.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the monitoring system transmits a Wake-On-LAN packet to the device to bring the device online.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the monitoring system receives an event from the device to indicate that the device is online.

16. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the monitoring station transmits heartbeat signals from the monitoring station to the device to determine the status of the device.

17. A storage medium comprising content which when executed by an accessing machine, causes the accessing machine to:

receive a command at a monitoring station from a Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) control point indicating a request to access a UPnP device that is offline;

transmit a Wake-On-LAN packet to the device; and

receive an event from the device indicating that the device is online.

18. The storage medium of claim 17 further comprising content which, when executed by the accessing machine causes the accessing machine to:

receive a command at the monitoring station from the control point indicating the device that is to go offline;

transmit a command to the device to go offline; and

simulate the offline device at the monitoring system so that the device appears to be online.

19. A system comprising:

a Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) device having a power management service to indicate the power mode in which the device is operating;

UPnP control point; and

a monitoring system to track the power mode of the device and to power the device online from an offline mode upon receiving a request from the control point to access the device.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the monitoring system transmits a Wake-On-LAN packet to the device to power up the device when the device is in the Off mode.

21. The system of claim 20 wherein the device transmits an event to the monitoring system to indicate that the device is online.

22. The system of claim 19 wherein the monitoring system is implemented within a router.

23. The system of claim 19 wherein the monitoring system is implemented within a gateway.