Remote control device transaction setup in a home network

• US 20100162328A1
• Filed: 12/24/2008
• Published: 06/24/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/24/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies General IP PTE Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Chen, Xuemin, Karaoguz, Jeyhan, Palm, Stephen Ray
• Application Number:
  US12/343,599
• Publication Number:
  US 20100162328A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/80
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2805 Home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2838 Distribution of signals within a home automation network, e.g. involving splitting/multiplexing signals to/from different paths adaptations of television systems for transmission by electric cable for domestic distribution H04N7/106; hybrid transport H04L12/6418; home network arrangements specially adapted for distribution of digital video signals H04N7/24
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/025 for remote control or remote monitoring of applications
• 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: H04N 21/2143 located in a single building, e.g. hotel, hospital or museum arrangements specially adapted for plural spots in a confined site in broadcast systems H04H20/63; adaptations for transmission by electric cable for domestic distribution in television systems H04N7/106
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41265 having a remote control device for bidirectional communication between the remote control device and client device unidirectional remote control device H04N21/42204
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/436 Interfacing a local distribution network, e.g. communicating with another STB or one or more peripheral devices inside the home
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43615 Interfacing a Home Network, e.g. for connecting the client to a plurality of peripherals home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] data switching networks H04L12/2805
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4363 Adapting the video stream to a specific local network, e.g. a Bluetooth® network
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43632 involving a wired protocol, e.g. IEEE 1394 high-speed IEEE 1394 serial bus H04L12/40052
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43637 involving a wireless protocol, e.g. Bluetooth, RF or wireless LAN [IEEE 802.11] arrangements for wireless networking or broadcasting of information in indoor or near-field type systems H04B10/114
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/106 for domestic distribution

Abstract

A technique of using a remote control device to identify a source for transferring content on a home network, a renderer for rendering the content and a pathway within a home network to couple the source to the renderer to transfer the content. The remote control device then transmits control information to the source to set a control parameter value within the source to send the content and transmits control information to the renderer to set a control parameter value within the renderer to receive the content. The commands from the remote configure parameter values associated with a media layer in the source and/or the renderer to initiate a hand-shake to effect the content transfer, so that the source and the renderer need not initiate the hand-shake between themselves.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

using a remote control device to identify a source of a transaction for transferring content on a home network;

using the remote control device to identify a renderer for rendering the content when transferred;

using the remote control device to identify a pathway within the home network to couple the source to the renderer to transfer the content;

transmitting first control information from the remote control device to the source to set a first control parameter value within the source to send the content to the renderer through the pathway;

transmitting second control information from the remote control device to the renderer to set a second control parameter value within the renderer to receive the content;

sending the content from the source to the renderer, wherein the content is to be transferred by first and second control parameter values established by the remote control device and wherein the first and second control parameter values are set by the remote control device based on the content being transferred and the pathway taken in the home network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein using the remote control device to identify the source of the transaction includes identifying multiple sources for transferring the content.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein using the remote control device to identify the renderer for the transaction includes identifying multiple renderers for transferring the content.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein identifying the multiple renderers includes listing the multiple renderers for user selection of one or more of the multiple renderers to receive the content.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein using the remote control device to identify the source of the transaction includes identifying multiple sources for transferring the content and using the remote control device to identify the renderer for the transaction includes identifying multiple renderers for transferring the content.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein using the remote control device to identify a pathway within the home network includes identifying multiple pathways and selecting at least one pathway as an optimum pathway to transfer the content.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting first and second control information include transmitting media transport commands to the source and the renderer.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting first and second control information include transmitting media transport commands to at least one of the source and the renderer.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein transmitting the media transport commands include transmitting media access control (MAC) layer commands to at least one of the source and the renderer.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein transmitting the media transport commands include transmitting physical (PHY) layer commands to at least one of the source and the renderer.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting first and second control information include transmitting media transport commands to both the source and the renderer, in which parameter values set in media layers of the source and the renderer are determined by characterizing the content and the pathway selected for the content.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein transmitting first and second control information include transmitting media transport commands to both the source and the renderer, in which parameter values set in media layers of the source and the renderer also include acceptable bit error rate (BER) tolerated for transfer of the content.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting first and second control information include transmitting media transport commands to both the source and the renderer, in which parameter values set in media layers of the source and the renderer are determined by characterizing one or more of slot assignment, channel assignment, transmit power allocation, beam forming, multiple-input-multiple-output, modulation and coding.

14. An apparatus comprising:

a radio frequency (RF) front end to wirelessly communicate with a source and a renderer, in which content is sent from the source to the renderer through a pathway of a home network;

a baseband processor coupled to provide control signal input to the RF front end for conversion and wireless transmission from the RF front end; and

an application processor coupled to the baseband processor to execute a program set of instructions and to generate control signals to the source and the renderer in response to the program set of instructions, in which the application processor is to execute the program set of instructions to identify and characterize the source, the renderer and the pathway, transmit a first control signal to the source to set a first control parameter value within the source to send the content to the renderer through the pathway, transmit a second control signal to the renderer to set a second control parameter value within the renderer to receive the content, and when sending the content from the source to the renderer, the content is to be transferred by first and second control parameter values established by the first and second control signals, in which the first and second control parameter values are set based on the content being transferred and the pathway taken in the home network.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the application processor is to identify the pathway within the home network for content transfer by identifying multiple pathways and selecting at least one pathway as an optimum pathway to transfer the content.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the first and second control signals include transmitting media transport commands to at least one of the source and the renderer.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the media transport commands include a media access control (MAC) layer command to at least one of the source and the renderer.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the media transport commands include a physical (PHY) layer command to at least one of the source and the renderer.

19. A machine-readable medium embodying a program of instructions thereon for execution by a machine, in which when the program is executed by the machine performs a process comprising:

identifying a source of a transaction for transferring content on a home network;

identifying a renderer for rendering the content when transferred;

identifying a pathway within the home network to couple the source to the renderer to transfer the content;

transmitting first control information from the remote control device to the source to set a first control parameter value within the source to send the content to the renderer through the pathway;

transmitting second control information from the remote control device to the renderer to set a second control parameter value within the renderer to receive the content;

sending the content from the source to the renderer, wherein the content is to be transferred by first and second control parameter values established by the remote control and wherein the first and second control parameter values are set by the remote control based on the content being transferred and the pathway taken in the home network.

20. The machine-readable medium of claim 19, wherein when the executed process transmits the first and second control information, the first and second control information include media transport commands to at least one of the source and the renderer.