Middleware device and method of supporting compatibility of devices in home network

• US 20070162586A1
• Filed: 01/12/2007
• Published: 07/12/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/12/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Kim, Do-heon
• Granted Patent: US 8,423,671 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2832 Interconnection of the control functionalities between home networks single bridge functionality H04L12/4625
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion

Abstract

A middleware device and a method of supporting compatibility of devices on a home network are provided, in which the compatibility of all kinds of devices based on UPnP and web service is supported by protocol conversion. The middleware device includes a discovery unit receiving discovery messages based on different protocols and converting each of the discovery messages to a message based on a protocol that can be processed by a device to which the messages are to be transmitted; a description unit creating a description file of a predetermined device requested from the UPnP and the web service and converting the created description file such that it can be processed by a device having requested the description file; and an information management unit managing service information and information on devices existing on the home network on the basis of the discovery message and the description file.

Claims

1. A middleware device for supporting compatibility of devices on a home network, the middleware device comprising:

a discovery unit which receives discovery messages based on different protocols utilized by different devices existing on the home network and converting each of the discovery messages which are received to a message based on a protocol that can be processed by a device to which each of the discovery messages is to be transmitted, wherein the different protocols include a Universal Plug-and-Play (UPnP) protocol and a web service protocol;

a description unit which creates a description file of a predetermined device which is requested using a request message based on one of the different protocols and converts the description file which is created such that the description file can be processed by a device which requested the description file; and

an information management unit which manages service information and information on devices existing on the home network based on the discovery message and the description file.

2. The middleware device of claim 1, wherein the discovery unit converts discovery messages to the web service protocol if the discovery messages which are received are based on the UPnP protocol and the discovery message is to be transmitted to a device which is capable of processing discovery messages based on the web service protocol,

wherein the discovery messages are converted to the UPnP protocol if the discovery messages which are received are based on the web service protocol and the discovery message is to be transmitted to a device which is capable of processing discovery messages based on the UPnP protocol.

3. The middleware device of claim 1, wherein the description unit creates the description file of the predetermined device in the web service protocol if the device which requested the description file is not capable of processing the description files based on the UPnP protocol,

wherein the description unit creates the description file of the predetermined device in the UPnP protocol if the device which requested the description file is not capable of processing the description files based on the web service protocol.

4. The middleware device of claim 1, wherein the discovery unit comprises:

a discovery management unit which classifies protocols of the discovery messages transmitted according to the UPnP protocol and the web service protocol and stores the transmitted discovery message in the information management unit; and

a discovery message conversion processing unit which converts the transmitted discovery messages such that the discovery messages are converted from the UPnP protocol if the discovery messages are transmitted to a device which is capable of processing discovery messages based on the web service protocol and the discovery messages are converted from the web service protocol if the discovery messages are transmitted to a device which is capable of processing discovery messages based on the UPnP protocol.

5. The middleware device of claim 1, wherein the description unit comprises:

a description management unit which creates the description file of the predetermined device which is requested using the request message and stores the created description file in the information management unit; and

a description file conversion processing unit which converts the description file which is created in accordance with one of the UPnP protocol and the web service protocol which is utilized by the device that requested the description.

6. The middleware device of claim 1, wherein the information management unit comprises:

a device and service information list which stores the service information and the information on the devices existing on the home network that have been transmitted from the discovery unit and the description unit; and

a device and service information list management unit which manages the device and service information list and updates information of the device and service information list and the discovery unit.

7. The middleware device of claim 1, further comprising a control unit which receives control messages based on one of the UPnP and web service protocols and converts each of the control messages to a message based on the other of the UPnP protocol and the web service protocol that can be processed by a device to which each of the control messages is to be transmitted.

8. The middleware device of claim 1, further comprising an eventing unit which receives eventing messages based on one of the UPnP and web service protocols and converts each of the eventing messages to a message based the other of the UPnP protocol and the web service protocol that can be processed by a device to which each of the eventing messages is to be transmitted.

9. A method of supporting compatibility of devices on a home network, the method comprising:

receiving discovery messages based on a plurality of different protocols utilized by different devices existing on the home network;

determining, for each of the discovery messages, a protocol among the plurality of different protocols which the received discovery message is based on; and

converting each of the discovery messages which are received to a message based on a protocol that can be processed by a device to which each of the discovery messages is to be transmitted, wherein the plurality of different protocols include a Universal Plug-and-Play (UPnP) protocol and a web service protocol.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the discovery messages are converted to the web service protocol if the discovery messages which are received are based on the UPnP protocol and the discovery message is to be transmitted to a device which is capable of processing discovery messages based on the web service protocol,

wherein the discovery messages are converted to the UPnP format if the discovery messages which are received are based on the web service protocol and the discovery message is to be transmitted to a device which is capable of processing discovery messages in the UPnP protocol.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the devices existing on the home network include a UPnP control point (CP) which transmits discovery messages based on the UPnP protocol and a web service CP which transmits discovery messages based on the web service protocol.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein a discovery message transmitted from the UPnP CP is converted to the web service protocol for transmission to a web service controlled device (CD) and a discovery messages transmitted from the web service CP is converted to the UPnP protocol for transmission to a UPnP CD.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

determining, for each of the discovery messages, whether a device which transmitted the discovery message is registered on the home network; and

creating and storing information on the device which transmitted the discovery message if it is determined that the device which transmitted the discovery message is not registered on the home network.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the discovery message includes an Alive or Hello message and a Search or Probe message.

15. A method of supporting compatibility of devices on a home network, the method comprising:

receiving description messages which are based on a plurality of different protocols utilized by different devices existing on the home network;

determining, for each of the description messages, a protocol among the plurality of different protocols which the received discovery message is based on; and

converting each of the description messages which are received to a message based on a protocol that can be processed by a device to which each of the discovery messages is to be transmitted, wherein the plurality of different protocols include a Universal Plug-and-Play (UPnP) protocol and a web service protocol.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the description messages are converted to the web service protocol if the description messages which are received are based on the UPnP protocol and the description messages are converted to the UPnP protocol if the description messages which are received are based on received in the web service protocol.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the devices existing on the home network include a UPnP control point (CP) which transmits description messages based on the UPnP protocol and a web service CP which transmits description messages according to the web service protocol.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

searching information on a predetermined control device (CD) to which a description message is to be transmitted,

wherein the description message is converted to the message which is based on the protocol that can be processed by the predetermined control device based on a result of the searching.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein if a control message is transmitted from the UPnP CP or the web service CP existing on the home network,

determining whether the transmitted control message is based on the UPnP protocol or the web service protocol;

searching information on a predetermined control device (CD) to which the control message is to be transmitted; and

converting the transmitted control message to a control message based on the web service protocol if the transmitted control message is determined to be based on the UPnP protocol as a result of the determining and the CD is determined to be based on the web service protocol as a result of the searching.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein if an eventing message is transmitted from the UPnP CP or the web service CP existing on the home network,

determining whether the transmitted eventing message is based on the UPnP protocol or the web service protocol;

searching information on a predetermined control device (CD) to which the eventing message is transmitted; and

converting the transmitted eventing message to an eventing message based on the web service protocol if the transmitted eventing message is determined to be based on the UPnP protocol as a result of the determining and the CD is determined to be based on the web service protocol as a result of the searching.