Extensible system and method to bridge SIP and UPnP devices

• US 8,873,570 B2
• Filed: 01/04/2008
• Issued: 10/28/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola Mobility LLC (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Inventors: P, Sethuramalingam, Goffin, Glen P., Chintada, Suresh Kumar
• Primary Examiner(s): LAMONT, BENJAMIN S
• Application Number:
  US11/969,648
• Publication Number:
  US 20090175296A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,489 Days
• Field of Search: 370/401
• US Class Current: 370/401
• 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 12/282 based on user interaction within the home receiver circuitry for displaying additional information being controlled by a remote control apparatus H04N21/42204
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2832 Interconnection of the control functionalities between home networks single bridge functionality H04L12/4625
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/102 Gateways arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways, H04L12/66
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1045 Proxies, e.g. for 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 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/59 Providing operational support to end devices by off-loading in the network or by emulation, e.g. when they are unavailable

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention generally provide a method and apparatus for bridging session initiation protocol and universal plug and play devices. One embodiment of the invention specifies a method that enables legacy session initiation protocol and universal plug and play devices to communicate with each other (i.e., to access services), where the term “legacy” is defined to mean IETF RFC 3261-compliant for session initiation protocol devices, and DLNA 1.0-compliant for universal plug and play devices. The method enables inter-working between the session initiation protocol and universal plug and play devices without requiring changes to the legacy devices. One embodiment of the invention is a transparent software bridge that enables these features.

Claims

1. A method for bridging a session initiation protocol (SIP) device and a universal plug and play (UPnP) device, the method comprising:

receiving a command from the SIP device to access the UPnP device, wherein the command includes bridging an address format that reuses a format of a SIP URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) to address a service associated with the universal plug and play UPnP device, wherein the address format comprises a SIP domain of the SIP device (“

Domain”

), a device identifier of the UPnP device (“

deviceID”

), and a service identifier of the service associated with the UPnP device that is requested by the command (“

serviceID”

), wherein the address format arranges the Domain, the deviceID, and the serviceID using a syntax that includes each of the deviceID, the serviceID, and the Domain;

mapping the command to a series of actions to be executed by the UPnP device;

transmitting one or more UPnP commands corresponding to the series of actions to the UPnP device; and

receiving a response from the UPnP device based on the one or more UPnP commands.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

discovering at least one UPnP device, including one or more services associated with the at least one UPnP device; and

associating a user service request address with each discovered UPnP device and the discovered UPnP device'"'"'s associated services, wherein each user service request address is an address format that reuses a format of a SIP URI.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein each user service request address reuses a format of a SIP URI.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

registering at least one UPnP service using semantics of a SIP URI.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein a “

To”

field of a SIP header is used in a REGISTER method to specify a UPnP service for registration in a SIP domain.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

locating the at least one UPnP service using the semantics of the SIP URI.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein a “

To”

field of a SIP header is used in an INVITE method to enable the SIP device to locate the at least one UPnP service.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

invoking the least one UPnP service using the semantics of the SIP URI.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein a “

To”

field of a SIP header is used in an INVITE method to enable the SIP device to call at least one media item.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

representing the SIP device to a UPnP network as a UPnP audio/visual renderer device; and

mapping at least one operation of the UPnP device to at least one SIP message.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein a UPnP GetProtocolInfo( ) message is used to obtain a protocol/format list of the SIP device.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the syntax of the address format comprises “

deviceID.serviceID@Domain”

.

13. A non-transitory computer readable medium containing an executable program for bridging a session initiation protocol (SIP) device and a universal plug and play (UPnP) device, where the executable program comprises instructions for:

receiving a command from the SIP device to access the UPnP device, wherein the command includes an address format that reuses a format of a SIP URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) to address a service associated with the UPnP device, wherein the address format comprises a SIP domain of the SIP device (“

Domain”

), a device identifier of the UPnP device (“

deviceID”

), and a service identifier of the service associated with the UPnP device that is requested by the command (“

serviceID”

), wherein the address format arranges the Domain, the deviceID, and the serviceID using a syntax that includes each of the deviceID, the serviceID, and the Domain;

mapping the command to a series of actions to be executed by the UPnP device;

transmitting one or more UPnP commands corresponding to the series of actions to the UPnP device; and

receiving a response from the UPnP device based on the one or more UPnP commands.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the bridging allows the SIP device to access at least one UPnP service.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein the executable program further comprises instructions for:

discovering at least one UPnP device, including one or more services associated with the at least one UPnP device; and

associating a user service request address with each discovered UPnP device and the discovered UPnP device'"'"'s associated services, wherein each user service request address is an address format that reuses a format of an identifier of a SIP URI.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein each user service request address reuses a format of a SIP URI.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein the executable program further comprises instructions for:

registering at least one UPnP service using semantics of a SIP URI;

locating the at least one UPnP service using the semantics of the SIP URI; and

invoking the least one UPnP service using the semantics of the SIP URI.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the bridging allows the UPnP device to access at least one session-based service offered by the SIP device.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the syntax of the address format comprises “

deviceID.serviceID@Domain”

.

20. A system comprising:

a session initiation protocol (SIP) device; and

a universal plug and play (UPnP) device; and

a computing device executing a software bridge configured to;

receive a command from the SIP device to access the UPnP device, wherein the command includes an address format that reuses a format of a SIP URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) to address a service associated with the UPnP device, wherein the address format comprises a SIP domain of the SIP device (“

Domain”

), a device identifier of the UPnP device (“

deviceID”

), and a service identifier of the service associated with the UPnP device that is requested by the command (“

serviceID”

), wherein the address format arranges the Domain, the deviceID, and the serviceID using a syntax that includes each of the deviceID, the serviceID, and the Domain;

map the command to a series of actions to be executed by the UPnP device;

transmit one or more UPnP commands corresponding to the series of actions to the UPnP device; and

receive a response from the UPnP device based on the one or more UPnP commands.