Communication device and software for operating multimedia applications

• US 7,516,201 B2
• Filed: 12/01/2000
• Issued: 04/07/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sony Deutschland GmbH (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Deutschland GmbH (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Kovacs, Erno, Mandato, Davide
• Primary Examiner(s): Winder; Patrice
• Assistant Examiner(s): Choudhury; Azizul
• Application Number:
  US09/728,018
• Publication Number:
  US 20010003191A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,049 Days
• Field of Search: 709/223, 709/224, 707/200
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/40 using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1046 Call controllers; Call servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

The present invention relates to a communication device and a software for operating multimedia applications in one or more communication networks, with a computing manager unit (52) for managing and providing multimedia applications on the basis of a communication with one or more communication devices in the one or more communication networks, whereby the computing manager unit (52) controls a device discovery manager unit (58) for detecting the availability of one or more devices and/or one or more communication networks, a service discovery manager unit (56) for providing available services from and/or for said one or more communication networks, and a virtual device manager unit (60) providing a graphical user interface for controlling devices and/or services of the one or more communication networks.

The present invention particularly enables mobile multimedia applications to effectively use mobile ad-hoc networks in a simple and effective way.

Claims

1. A communication device for operating multimedia applications in a mobile ad-hoc communication network, the communication device comprising:

transmitting and receiving means for transmitting and receiving information in said mobile ad-hoc communication network;

an ad-hoc computing manager unit for managing and providing multimedia applications on the basis of a communication with one or more other devices in the mobile ad-hoc communication network, said ad-hoc computing manager unit comprising,

a device discovery manager unit for detecting the availability of one or more devices and/or one or more communication networks;

a service discovery manager unit for providing available services from and/or for said mobile ad-hoc communication network; and

a virtual device manager unit for providing a graphical user interface for controlling devices and/or services of said mobile ad-hoc network,

said communication device further comprising,

a tuple space manager unit for providing multimedia applications within said mobile ad-hoc communication network with the functionality of activation, management and deactivation of a tuple space within said mobile ad-hoc communication network, wherein said tuple space manager unit includes a tuple space manager factory sub-unit which is in charge of dynamically activating tuple space manager sub-units during runtime of the device, each tuple space manager sub-unit providing access to a vendor-specific tuple space technology, said vendor-specific tuple space technology including a vendor specific tuple space which includes a plurality of tuples, and said tuple space is a virtual shared associative memory and said vendor specific tuple space is a virtual shared associative memory.

2. A communication device according to claim 1, wherein said service discovery manager unit is adapted for making services available for said mobile ad-hoc communication network.

3. A communication device according to claim 1, wherein said service discovery manager unit is adapted for obtaining knowledge about available services from said mobile ad-hoc communication network.

4. A communication device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a daemon manager unit providing a platform independent functionality to control a further set of server sub-units, provided by a respective multimedia application and making available different services in the mobile ad-hoc communication network.

5. A communication device according to claim 1, wherein said computing manager unit further controls a protocol mapping manager unit providing a protocol inter-working mechanism in order to offer multimedia applications a seamless communication network architecture.

6. A communication device according to claim 5, wherein said protocol mapping manager unit comprises a configurating sub-unit for downloading protocol stack variants form a communication network and a routing sub-unit for routing messages across different protocol stack implementations.

7. A communication device according to claim 1, wherein said computing manager unit further controls a quality based routing manager unit for delivering information to a remote device or network along paths that meet the quality of service requirements of the respective multimedia application best.

15. A communication device according to claim 1, wherein said tuple space manager unit is configured to notify said multimedia applications of newly discovered or deleted tuple spaces in said mobile ad-hoc network.

16. A communication device according to claim 1, wherein said tuple space manager unit is configured to write a tuple to the tuple space and to delete a tuple from the tuple space.

17. A communication device according to claim 1, wherein said mobile ad-hoc network is a logical mobile ad-hoc network corresponding to a set of different physical mobile ad-hoc networks of different vendor specific network technologies integrated together.

8. A computer readable medium including computer executable instructions, wherein the instructions, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to operate multimedia applications in a mobile ad-hoc communication network, with

an ad-hoc computing manager unit for managing and providing multimedia applications on the basis of a communication with one or more communication devices in the mobile ad-hoc communication network, said computing manager unit comprising:

a device discovery manager unit for detecting the availability of one or more devices and/or one or more communication networks;

a service discovery manager unit for providing available services from and/or for said one or more communication networks; and

a virtual device manager unit for providing a graphical user interface for controlling devices and/or services of said mobile ad-hoc network, said software further comprising a tuple space manager unit for providing multimedia applications within said mobile ad-hoc communication network with the functionality of activation, management and deactivation of a tuple space within said mobile ad-hoc communication network,

wherein said tuple space manager unit includes a tuple space manager factory sub-unit which is in charge of dynamically activating tuple space manager sub-units during runtime of the device, each tuple space manager sub-unit providing access to a vendor-specific tuple space technology, said vendor-specific tuple space technology including a vendor specific tuple space which includes a plurality of tuples, and said tuple space is a virtual shared associative memory and said vendor specific tuple space is a virtual shared associative memory.

9. The computer readable medium according to claim 8, wherein said service discovery manager unit is adapted for making services available for said mobile ad-hoc communication network.

10. The computer readable medium according to claim 8, wherein said service discovery manager unit is adapted for obtaining knowledge about available services from said mobile ad-hoc communication network.

11. The computer readable medium according to claim 8, further comprising:

a daemon manager unit providing a platform independent functionality to control a further set of server sub-units provided by a respective multimedia application and making available different services in the mobile ad-hoc communication networks.

12. The computer readable medium according to claim 8, wherein said computing manager unit further controls a protocol mapping manager unit providing a protocol inter-working mechanism in order to offer multimedia applications a seamless communication network architecture.

13. The computer readable medium according to claim 12, wherein said protocol mapping manager unit comprises a configurating sub-unit for downloading protocol stack variants form a communication network and a routing subunit for routing messages across different protocol stack implementations.

14. The computer readable medium according to claim 8, wherein said computing manager unit further controls a quality based routing manager unit for delivering information to a remote device or network along paths that meet the quality of service requirements of the respective multimedia application best.