SIP service for home network device and service mobility

• US 7,761,571 B2
• Filed: 07/19/2004
• Issued: 07/20/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/25/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Lin, Wanrong, Kaplan, Alan, Bushmitch, Dennis
• Primary Examiner(s): Vaughn, Jr.; William C
• Assistant Examiner(s): Shingles; Kristie D
• Application Number:
  US10/894,469
• Publication Number:
  US 20050114491A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,192 Days
• Field of Search: 709/224, 709/226, 709/230, 709/246, 709/227
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2803 Home automation networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1026 at the edge
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1036 at the edge
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1104 Session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

An improved services gateway environment is provided within a gateway framework. The improvement comprising a SIP service architecture that enables SIP entities to register with itself and translates such registrations into gateway aware registrations.

Claims

1. A services gateway environment having a plurality of available services within a gateway defined in accordance with a service gateway specification, comprising:

a SIP service defined in accordance with Session Initiation Protocol that instantiates a registration server on a computer device in the gateway, where the registration server registers SIP entities with itself and translates such registrations into registrations with a service registry of the gateway defined in accordance with the service gateway specification, where the SIP service is embodied as computer executable instructions in a memory of the computing device and the service registry provides a directory for the plurality of available services.

2. The services gateway environment of claim 1 wherein said SIP service exposes at least one of device discovery, service discovery, device control, service control, device event notification and service event notification to gateway-enabled devices and services.

3. The services gateway environment of claim 1 wherein said SIP service instantiates an instance of a SIP registration/proxy server, said SIP registration/proxy server offering registration to SIP entities.

4. The services gateway environment of claim 3 wherein said SIP service automatically instantiates an instance of the SIP registration/proxy server.

5. The services gateway environment of claim 1 wherein said SIP service instantiates an instance of a SIP registration/proxy server, said SIP registration/proxy server operable to proxy messages between mobile SIP devices and SIP entities associated with the gateway environment.

6. The services gateway environment of claim 3 wherein an execution bundle instantiates a SIP User Agent using an interface provided by said SIP service architecture, thereby enabling the execution bundle to act as a SIP capable entity.

7. The services gateway environment of claim 6 wherein the SIP registration/proxy server automatically registers the SIP User Agent with itself and with the service registry.

8. The services gateway environment of claim 1 wherein a given device registers with the SIP service architecture as a SIP-enabled device.

9. The services gateway environment of claim 1 wherein the gateway is further defined in accordance with an Open Services Gateway Initiative (OSGi) specification, such that the SIP service is registered with and discoverable via an OSGi service registry.

10. The services gateway environment of claim 1 wherein the gateway is further defined in accordance with an Open Services Gateway Initiative (OSGi) specification, such that SIP service architecture enables registration of SIP-enabled entities with an OSGi service registry.

11. The services gateway environment of claim 1 wherein a SIP capable entity is accessible to one of the available services via a gateway service discovery and inter-service communication framework.

12. The services gateway environment of claim 3 wherein a mobile SIP device registers with the SIP registration/proxy server and provides its location information to an originating SIP registration/proxy server association with its originating gateway environment, so that messages received by the originating SIP registration/proxy server are redirected to the mobile SIP device.

13. A services gateway environment having a plurality of available services associated with a home gateway defined in accordance with a service gateway specification, comprising:

a SIP service having an interface for instantiating SIP User Agents and operable to instantiate a SIP registration server within the services gateway environment;

wherein the SIP registration server automatically registers the SIP User Agents with itself and translates said registrations of the SIP User Agents into registrations with a service registry for the home gateway, where the SIP service is defined in accordance with Session Initiation Protocol and embodied as computer executable instructions on a memory of a computing device in the home gateway.

14. The services gateway environment of claim 13 wherein a SIP capable entity is accessible to one of the available services via a gateway service discovery and inter-service communication framework.

15. The services gateway environment of claim 13 wherein the home gateway is further defined in accordance with an Open Services Gateway Initiative (OSGi) specification, such that the SIP capable entity is registered with an OSGi service registry.

16. A computer-implemented method for supporting device mobility between at least two service gateway environments, each gateway environment having a plurality of available services defined in accordance with a service gateway specification, comprising:

registering a SIP registration/proxy server with a service registry defined in accordance with a service gateway specification;

registering a SIP-enabled device with the SIP registration/proxy server instantiated in a first gateway environment;

registering the SIP-enabled device with a SIP registration/proxy server instantiated in a second gateway environment upon the device moving from the first gateway environment to the second gateway environment;

obtaining location information for the SIP-enabled device at the second gateway environment; and

registering the location information for the SIP-enabled device with the SIP registration/proxy server in the first gateway environment.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprises redirecting messages received at the SIP registration/proxy server in the first gateway environment to the SIP-enabled device in the second gateway environment.

18. A device access system for communicating between entities residing on different gateways, comprising:

an application bundle residing in a first gateway;

a SIP service defined in accordance with Session Initiation Protocol that is accessible to the application bundle and associated with the first gateway;

a registration server on a computing device in the first gateway instantiated by the SIP service, where the registration server registers SIP entities with itself and translates such registrations into registrations with a service registry of the first gateway;

a device driver service residing in a second gateway;

another SIP service defined in accordance with Session Initiation Protocol that is accessible to the device driver service and associated with the second gateway, wherein each of the SIP services expose an interface which allows messages to be carried automatically between the application bundle and the device driver service.

19. The device access system of claim 18 wherein messages are formatted in accordance with session initiation protocol (SIP).

20. A device access system for communicating between entities residing on different gateways, comprising:

a device driver service residing in a first gateway;

a SIP service defined in accordance with Session Initiation Protocol that is accessible to the application bundle and associated with the first gateway;

a registration server on a computing device in the first gateway instantiated by the SIP service, where the registration server registers SIP entities with itself and translates such registrations into registrations with a service registry of the first gateway;

a device residing in a second gateway;

another SIP service defined in accordance with Session Initiation Protocol that is accessible to the device and associated with the second gateway, wherein each of the SIP services expose an interface which allows messages to be carried automatically between the device driver service and the device.

21. The device access system of claim 20 wherein messages are formatted in accordance with session initiation protocol (SIP).