Method and apparatus for accessing home storage or internet storage

• US 9,110,606 B2
• Filed: 01/04/2007
• Issued: 08/18/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/04/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Yoon, Hyun-sik, Cho, Joon-ho, Yi, Kyoung-hoon, Choi, Sang-hoon
• Primary Examiner(s): WON, MICHAEL YOUNG
• Application Number:
  US11/649,258
• Publication Number:
  US 20070156899A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,148 Days
• Field of Search: 709217-219, 709/224, 709/229, 709/208, 709/212
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0617 in relation to availability
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0664 at device level, e.g. emulation of a storage device or system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2816 Controlling appliance services of a home automation network by calling their functionalities arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station; in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom H04Q9/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2836 Protocol conversion between an external network and a home network controlling appliance services of a home automation network from a device located outside the home and the home network H04L12/2818; protocol conversion H04L69/08; adaptation of digital video signals for transport over a specific home network H04N7/24

Abstract

A method and apparatus are provided for accessing an Internet storage. In the method, access to a home storage is controlled, and an internet storage which has higher access reliability than the home storage is accessed, if the access to the home storage is not available. Accordingly, even when the home storage is not in operation, it is possible to obtain content and meta data of the content.

Claims

1. A method of accessing storage comprising:

controlling, by a device, access to a first storage;

transforming access control format related to first standards used for the first storage into an access control format related to second standards used for a second storage in response to determination that the access to the first storage is not available; and

accessing a second storage having higher access reliability than the first storage by proxy of a server module included in the device, in response to failure of the access of the server module to the first storage, based on the determination, using the transformed access control format,

wherein the first storage is implemented in a server located in a home network, and the second storage is located in a network outside the home network.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising controlling access of the server proxy to the second storage instead of the first storage, if it is detected that the access of the server module to the first storage is not available.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein during the controlling the access to the first storage, the access to the first storage is controlled by calling an application program interface (API) which performs an operation to gain access to the first storage, and during the accessing the second storage, the second storage is accessed by executing the API for the second storage instead of the first storage, in response to the calling the API.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the API is a universal plug and play (UPnP) action.

5. A storage access apparatus comprising:

a control module which controls access to a first storage;

a transformer which transforms an access control format related to first standards used for the first storage into an access control format related to second standards used for the second storage in response to a determination that the access to the first storage is not available; and

a server proxy which accesses a second storage having the higher access reliability than the first storage, in response to failure of the access of a server module to the first storage, based on the determination, using the transformed access control format,

wherein the first storage is implemented in a server located in a home network, and the second storage is located in a network outside the home network.

6. A non-transitory computer readable medium having recorded thereon a computer program for executing a method of accessing storage, the method comprising:

controlling, by a device, access to a first storage;

transforming an access control format related to first standards used for the first storage into an access control format related to second standards used for the second storage in response to a determination that the access to the first storage is not available; and

accessing a second storage having higher access reliability than the first storage by a server proxy, included in the device, in response to failure of the access of a server module to the first storage, based on the determination, using the transformed access control format,

wherein the first storage is implemented in a server located in a home network, and the second storage is located in a network outside the home network.

7. A method of accessing storage comprising:

performing an operation of a server proxy included in a device as a server accessing a first storage in place of a server module accessing the first storage;

transforming in response to a determination that access to the first storage is not available an access control format related to first standards used for the first storage into an access control format related to second standards used for the second storage, corresponding to the operation performed by the server proxy; and

accessing a second storage having higher access reliability than the first storage by the server proxy, in response to failure of the server module accessing the first storage, based on the determination, using the transformed access control format,

wherein the first storage is implemented in a server located in a home network, and the second storage is located in a network outside the home network.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein during the transforming the access control format, an application program interface (API) for gaining access to the first storage in the access control format related to the first standards is transformed into the access control format related to the second standards for gaining access to the second storage, and

during the accessing the second storage, the second storage is accessed by executing the API in the access control format related to the second standards.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

obtaining a result of the accessing the second storage; and

transforming the result of the accessing the second storage from the access control format related to the second standards into the access control format related to the first standards of accessing the first storage.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the first standards are universal plug and play (UPnP) standards, and the second standards are Distributed Hash Table (DHT) standards.

11. A storage access apparatus comprising:

a first server module which acts as a server accessing a first storage in place of an existing server module accessing the first storage;

a transformer which in response to a determination that access to the first storage is not available transforms an access control format related to first standards used for the first storage into an access control format related to second standards used for the second storage, corresponding to the operation performed by the server proxy; and

a second server module which accesses a second storage having higher access reliability than the first storage, response to failure of the existing server module accessing the first storage, based on the determination, using the transformed access control format,

wherein the first storage is implemented in a server located in a home network, and the second storage is located in a network outside the home network.

12. A non-transitory computer readable medium having recorded thereon a computer program for executing a method of accessing storage, the method comprising:

performing an operation of a server proxy as a server accessing a first storage in place of a server module accessing the first storage;

transforming in response to a determination that access to the first storage is not available an access control format related to first standards used for the first storage into an access control format related to second standards used for the second storage, corresponding to the operation performed by the server proxy; and

accessing a second storage having higher access reliability than the first storage, corresponding to the operation performed by the server proxy, in response to failure of the server module accessing the first storage, based on the determination, using the transformed access control format,

wherein the first storage is implemented in a server located in a home network, and the second storage is located in a network outside the home network.

13. A method of accessing storage comprising:

receiving a request for accessing a first storage from a control module in a device;

accessing a first storage in response to the request,

wherein a server module delegates a server proxy included in the device to access a second storage having higher access reliability than the first storage, in response to failure of accessing the first storage, by using an access control format transformed for accessing the second storage in response to determining that the accessing to the first storage is not available,

wherein the first storage is implemented in a server located in a home network, and the second storage is located in a network outside the home network.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising, accessing to the second storage instead of the first storage, if it is detected that the access of the server module to the first storage is not available.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising, transmitting a request for accessing the first storage to a server proxy or the control module if the accessing of the server module to the first storage is not available.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein during the controlling the access to the first storage, the access to the first storage is controlled by calling an application program interface (API) which performs an operation to gain access to the first storage, and

during the accessing the second storage, the second storage is accessed by executing the API for the second storage instead of the first storage, in response to the calling the API.

17. A home server apparatus comprising:

a first storage which stores content and provide the content to a device; and

a server module configured to receive a request for accessing a first storage from a control module in the device, access to the first storage in response to the request, and delegate a server proxy to access a second storage having higher access reliability than the first storage, in response to failure of accessing the first storage, by using an access control format transformed for accessing the second storage in response to a determination that the access to the first storage is not available.

18. A method of accessing an internet storage comprising:

receiving a request for accessing the internet storage from a device in response to a determination that access to a home storage is not available; and

retrieving the internet storage having higher access reliability than the home storage by a server proxy, in response to failure of retrieving the home storage by a server module, based on the determination, using an access control format transformed for accessing the second storage in response to the request; and

providing the retrieved content corresponding to the request to the device,

wherein the home storage is implemented in a server located in a home network, and the second storage is located in a network outside the home network.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the internet storage stores copies of content and meta data of the content stored in the home storage.

20. An Internet storage apparatus comprising:

a storage which stores copies of content and meta data of the content stored in a home storage; and

a central server configured to receive a request for accessing the internet storage from a device in response to a determination that access to the home storage is not available, retrieve the internet storage having higher access reliability than the first storage by a server proxy in response to failure of, retrieving the home storage by a server module, by using an access control format transformed for accessing the second storage in response to the request, and provide the retrieved content corresponding to the request to the device,

wherein the home storage is implemented in a server located in a home network, and the second storage is located in a network outside the home network.