Registering access device multimedia content via a broadband access gateway

• US 8,159,985 B2
• Filed: 04/21/2009
• Issued: 04/17/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/16/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Karaoguz, Jeyhan, Abrams, Marc, Seshadri, Nambirajan
• Primary Examiner(s): Rutkowski, Jeffrey M
• Application Number:
  US12/427,533
• Publication Number:
  US 20090215388A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,092 Days
• Field of Search: 370/310, 370/310.2, 370/349, 370351-356, 370/389, 370/398, 370401-403, 370/312, 709/238, 709/244, 709/249, 709/250, 709/223, 709/229, 386/46, 386/125, 725 38- 59, 725 78- 80, 725114-117, 725135-142, 455/432.3
• US Class Current: 370/312
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2805 Home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2809 indicating that an appliance service is present in a home automation network monitoring functionality H04L43/0817; discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services, H04L67/51
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2812 describing content present in a home automation network, e.g. audio video content retrieval from the Internet G06F16/95
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4126 The peripheral being portable, e.g. PDAs or mobile phones

Abstract

A system and method of registering or exchanging information about the availability of multimedia information and services is disclosed. Access devices in a wireless local area network (WLAN) and/or personal area network (PAN) may register, with a wireless broadband access gateway, selected information about multimedia information and services that they have and may share. Information about the available multimedia information and services may be shared by the wireless broadband access gateway with other access devices within the coverage area of the WLAN or PAN. Access devices may then access the multimedia information and services of other access devices via the wireless broadband access gateway, based upon information identifying and authenticating the recipient. A broadband connection permits the gateway to pass multimedia information and service activity to and from the access devices within the coverage area of the WLAN or PAN.

Claims

1. One or more circuits for use in a system that supports sharing of one or both of multimedia information and media-related services among a plurality of access devices, the one or more circuits comprising:

at least one processor operably coupled to interface circuitry for communicating over a broadband network and to at least one wireless interface for communicating over a wireless network, to enable selective communication of multimedia information between and/or among the at least one wireless interface and the broadband network, and wireless communication with the plurality of access devices using the at least one wireless interface, the at least one processor configured to, at least;

receive identification information from each of the plurality of access devices;

collect, from a first of the plurality of access devices, information descriptive of one or both of multimedia information and media-related services available on the first of the plurality of access devices;

select at least a portion of the information descriptive of one or both of the multimedia information and the media-related services available on the first of the plurality of access devices and collected from the first of the plurality of access devices based upon the identification information received from a second of the plurality of access devices; and

distribute to the second of the plurality of access devices the selected portion of the collected information.

2. The one or more circuits according to claim 1, wherein multimedia information comprises one or more of streaming video, broadcast video, voice, digital data, text, digitized audio, digitized still images, digitized video, and/or digitized music.

3. The one or more circuits according to claim 1, wherein media-related services comprise one or more of accessing, recording, playing, exchanging, transmitting, receiving, converting, and/or translating of multimedia information.

4. The one or more circuits according to claim 1, wherein the identification information comprises one or more of an identifier of an access device, a user identifier, a member identifier, an electronic serial number, a media access control (MAC) address, an administrative identifier, a password, a commercial credit card number, a personal identification number, and/or a digital certificate.

5. The one or more circuits according to claim 1, wherein the at least one wireless interface is compliant with the BLUETOOTH V1.2 or compatible personal area network (PAN) specification.

6. The one or more circuits according to claim 1, wherein the at least one wireless interface communicates using an unlicensed frequency band.

7. The one or more circuits according to claim 1, wherein the at least one wireless interface communicates at a frequency of approximately 2.4 gigahertz.

8. The one or more circuits according to claim 1, wherein the at least one wireless interface is compliant with one or more of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, and/or 802.11n standards.

9. The one or more circuits according to claim 1, wherein the broadband network comprises one or more of a digital subscriber line (DSL) network, a cable network, a satellite network, a cellular network, and the Internet.

10. The one or more circuits according to claim 9, wherein the cellular network comprises one or more of a global system for mobile communications (GSM) network, a time division multiple access (TDMA) network, a code division multiple access (CDMA) network, and/or a universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) network.

11. The one or more circuits according to claim 1, wherein the information descriptive of multimedia information comprises at least one of a file name, a file type, a media type, a file size, a duration, a playback time, a member number, an administrative ID, an electronic serial number, an Internet protocol (IP) address, a media access control (MAC) address, information identifying a make of an access device, and/or information identifying a model of an access device.

12. The one or more circuits according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of access devices comprises one or more of a mobile multimedia handset, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a personal computer (PC), a digital scanner, a digital camera, a printer, headphones, and/or a pointing device.

13. One or more circuits for use in a gateway device that supports sharing of one or both of multimedia information and media-related services among a plurality of access devices, the one or more circuits comprising:

at least one processor operably coupled to interface circuitry for communicating over a broadband network and to at least one wireless interface for communicating over a wireless network, to enable selective communication of multimedia information between and/or among the plurality of access devices, using the at least one wireless interface and the broadband network, the at least one processor configured to, at least;

receive identifying information from a first of the plurality of access devices;

collect, from the first of the plurality of access devices, information descriptive of one or both of multimedia information and media-related services available on the first access device;

select at least a portion of the collected information, based upon identification information received from a second of the plurality of access devices; and

distribute to the second of the plurality of access devices the selected portion of the collected information, based upon the identification information received from the second access device.

14. The one or more circuits according to claim 13, wherein multimedia information comprises one or more of streaming video, broadcast video, voice, digital data, text, digitized audio, digitized still images, digitized video, and/or digitized music.

15. The one or more circuits according to claim 13, wherein media-related services comprise one or more of accessing, recording, playing, exchanging, transmitting, receiving, converting, and/or translating of multimedia information.

16. The one or more circuits according to claim 13, wherein the identification information comprises one or more of an identifier of an access device, a user identifier, a member identifier, an electronic serial number, a media access control (MAC) address, an administrative identifier, a password, a commercial credit card number, a personal identification number, and/or a digital certificate.

17. The one or more circuits according to claim 13, wherein the at least one wireless interface is compliant with the BLUETOOTH V1.2 or compatible personal area network (PAN) specification.

18. The one or more circuits according to claim 13, wherein the at least one wireless interface communicates using an unlicensed frequency band.

19. The one or more circuits according to claim 13, wherein the at least one wireless interface communicates at a frequency of approximately 2.4 gigahertz.

20. The one or more circuits according to claim 13, wherein the at least one wireless interface is compliant with one or more of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, and/or 802.11n standards.

21. The one or more circuits according to claim 13, wherein the broadband network comprises one or more of a digital subscriber line (DSL) network, a cable network, a satellite network, a cellular network, and/or the Internet.

22. The one or more circuits according to claim 21, wherein the cellular network comprises one or more of a global system for mobile communications (GSM) network, a time division multiple access (TDMA) network, a code division multiple access (CDMA) network, and/or a universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) network.

23. The one or more circuits according to claim 13, wherein the information descriptive of multimedia information comprises at least one of a file name, a file type, a media type, a file size, a duration, a playback time, a member number, an administrative ID, an electronic serial number, an Internet protocol (IP) address, a media access control (MAC) address, information identifying a make of an access device, and/or information identifying a model of an access device.

24. The one or more circuits according to claim 13, wherein the plurality of access devices comprises one or more of a mobile multimedia handset, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a personal computer (PC), a digital scanner, a digital camera, a printer, headphones, and/or a pointing device.

25. The one or more circuits according to claim 13, wherein the at least one processor is configured to, at least:

authenticate the gateway device to the first access device; and

wherein the information descriptive of one or both of multimedia information and media-related services available on the first access device is shared with the gateway device by the first access device only after successful authentication of the gateway device to the first access device.

26. The one or more circuits according to claim 13, wherein the at least one processor is configured to, at least:

maintain a database which associates the identifying information from the first of the plurality of access devices with the information descriptive of one or both of multimedia information and/or media-related services available on the first access device.

27. One or more circuits for use in an access device that supports sharing of one or both of multimedia information and media-related services among a plurality of access devices, the one or more circuits comprising:

at least one processor arranged to communicate with a gateway device using one or both of a broadband network and/or a wireless network, the at least one processor configured to, at least;

transmit identification information for the access device to the gateway device, upon determining that communication with the gateway device is possible using at least one of the broadband network and the wireless network;

selectively share information descriptive of one or both of multimedia information and media-related services available on the access device with the gateway device; and

receive, from a database in the gateway device, information collected from one or more of the plurality of access devices that is descriptive of one or both of multimedia information and media-related services available for sharing by the one or more of the plurality of access devices and that identifies each corresponding sharing access device.

28. The one or more circuits according to claim 27, wherein the at least one processor is configured to, at least:

perform an authentication of the gateway device before sharing; and

selecting what to share, based upon the authentication.

29. The one or more circuits according to claim 27, wherein the at least one processor is configured to, at least:

access one or both of multimedia information and media related services from the one or more of the plurality of access devices, based upon the received information descriptive of one or both of multimedia information and/or media-related services available for sharing by the plurality of access devices.

30. The one or more circuits according to claim 27, wherein multimedia information comprises one or more of streaming video, broadcast video, voice, digital data, text, digitized audio, digitized still images, digitized video, and/or digitized music.

31. The one or more circuits according to claim 27, wherein media-related services comprise one or more of accessing, recording, playing, exchanging, transmitting, receiving, converting, and/or translating of multimedia information.

32. The one or more circuits according to claim 27, wherein the identification information comprises one or more of an identifier of an access device, a user identifier, a member identifier, an electronic serial number, a media access control (MAC) address, an administrative identifier, a password, a commercial credit card number, a personal identification number, and/or a digital certificate.

33. The one or more circuits according to claim 27, wherein the wireless network operates according to the BLUETOOTH V1.2 or compatible personal area network (PAN) specification.

34. The one or more circuits according to claim 27, wherein the wireless network operates using an unlicensed frequency band.

35. The one or more circuits according to claim 27, wherein the wireless network operates at a frequency of approximately 2.4 gigahertz.

36. The one or more circuits according to claim 27, wherein the wireless network operates according to one or more of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, and/or 802.11n standards.

37. The one or more circuits according to claim 27, wherein the broadband network comprises one or more of a digital subscriber line (DSL) network, a cable network, a satellite network, a cellular network, and the Internet.

38. The one or more circuits according to claim 37, wherein the cellular network comprises one or more of a global system for mobile communications (GSM) network, a time division multiple access (TDMA) network, a code division multiple access (CDMA) network, and/or a universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) network.

39. The one or more circuits according to claim 27, wherein the information descriptive of multimedia information comprises at least one of a file name, a file type, a media type, a file size, a duration, a playback time, a member number, an administrative ID, an electronic serial number, an Internet protocol (IP) address, a media access control (MAC) address, information identifying a make of an access device, and/or information identifying a model of an access device.

40. The one or more circuits according to claim 27, wherein the plurality of access devices comprises one or more of a mobile multimedia handset, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a personal computer (PC), a digital scanner, a digital camera, a printer, headphones, and/or a pointing device.