System, method, mobile station and gateway for communicating with a universal plug and play network
First Claim
1. A system for linking home and visited universal plug and play (“
- UPnP”
) networks comprising;
a home UPnP network comprising one or more home UPnP devices;
a visited UPnP network comprising one or more visited UPnP devices;
a home network gateway in communication with said home UPnP network; and
a mobile station in communication with said visited UPnP network and configured to concurrently communicate with said home network gateway and to cooperate with said home network gateway to identify said one or more home UPnP devices to said one or more visited UPnP devices such that said one or more visited UPnP devices are capable of communicating with said one or more home UPnP devices via said mobile station and said home network gateway.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Methods and systems are provided to link two Universal Plug and Play (“UPnP”) networks to enable the devices in one to communicate directly with the devices in the other. Specifically, a mobile station visiting a first UPnP network may establish communication with a second UPnP network via Web Services (“WS”) protocol with a network gateway of the second UPnP network. The UPnP devices in the first UPnP network can then communicate with those in the second. According to another aspect, a secure communication link is provided between the UPnP network and the remotely located mobile station. Specifically, a network gateway acts as an entry point to the UPnP network and authenticates and authorizes messages from the mobile station. According to yet another aspect, a mobile station lacking UPnP capabilities can communicate with UPnP devices using a network gateway that converts between WS messages and UPnP commands.
187 Citations
46 Claims
-
1. A system for linking home and visited universal plug and play (“
- UPnP”
) networks comprising;
a home UPnP network comprising one or more home UPnP devices;
a visited UPnP network comprising one or more visited UPnP devices;
a home network gateway in communication with said home UPnP network; and
a mobile station in communication with said visited UPnP network and configured to concurrently communicate with said home network gateway and to cooperate with said home network gateway to identify said one or more home UPnP devices to said one or more visited UPnP devices such that said one or more visited UPnP devices are capable of communicating with said one or more home UPnP devices via said mobile station and said home network gateway. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
- UPnP”
-
5. A system for linking two universal plug and play (“
- UPnP”
) networks remotely located comprising;
a first UPnP network comprising one or more first UPnP devices;
a first network gateway configured to communicate with and control said one or more first UPnP devices;
a second UPnP network comprising one or more second UPnP devices; and
a mobile station gateway configured to communicate with said one or more second UPnP devices, wherein said first network gateway and said mobile station gateway communicate according to Web Services (“
WS”
) protocol, and wherein said first network gateway converts messages from said mobile station gateway in accordance with WS protocol to corresponding UPnP commands for communicating to at least one of said one or more first UPnP devices. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7)
- UPnP”
-
8. A mobile station configured to make one or more home UPnP devices in a home universal plug and play (“
- UPnP”
) network available to one or more visited UPnP devices in a visited UPnP network comprising;
a processing device capable of communicating with a home network gateway in communication with said home UPnP network to identify said one or more home UPnP devices, said processing device also capable of communicating with said visited UPnP network to identify said home UPnP devices to said one or more visited UPnP devices, and said processing device further capable of supporting communication between said home and visited UPnP devices. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11)
- UPnP”
-
12. A method of linking home and visited universal plug and play (“
- UPnP”
) networks comprising;
establishing communication with said visited UPnP network using a mobile station;
contacting a home network gateway in communication with said home UPnP network using said mobile station;
receiving from said home network gateway identities of one or more home UPnP devices in said home UPnP network; and
creating a UPnP device in said visited UPnP network for each UPnP device identified to be in said home UPnP network. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16)
- UPnP”
-
17. A system for communicating with a universal plug and play (“
- UPnP”
) network from a remote location over a secure channel comprising;
a mobile station;
a web proxy gateway configured to communicate with said mobile station over a secure channel and to authenticate and authorize messages communicated there between; and
a UPnP network comprising one or more UPnP devices, said UPnP network configured to communicate with said web proxy gateway. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
- UPnP”
-
25. A gateway device configured to establish a secure communication link between a universal plug and play (“
- UPnP”
) network and a mobile station comprising;
a processing device capable of separate communication with one or more UPnP devices in said UPnP network and with said mobile station, and also capable of supporting secure communication there between by authentication and authorization of messages. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
- UPnP”
-
31. A method of accessing a universal plug and play (“
- UPnP”
) network from a remote location over a secure communication link comprising;
receiving a signal transmitted in accordance with Web Services (“
WS”
) protocol from a mobile station at a web proxy gateway on behalf of a UPnP network;
authenticating said signal;
converting said authenticated signal into a UPnP command; and
transmitting said UPnP command via said UPnP network. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33, 34, 35)
- UPnP”
-
36. A system for providing a connection between a mobile station and a universal plug and play (“
- UPnP”
) network comprising;
a mobile station configured to transmit and receive messages in accordance with Web Services (“
WS”
) protocol;
a UPnP network comprising one or more UPnP devices configured to transmit and receive UPnP commands; and
a network gateway, configured to convert between messages in accordance with WS protocol and UPnP commands to enable said mobile station and said one or more UPnP devices to communicate via said network gateway. - View Dependent Claims (37)
- UPnP”
-
38. A gateway device comprising:
a processing device capable of communicating with a mobile station using messages in accordance with Web Services (“
WS”
) protocol, said processing device also capable of communicating with UPnP devices in a UPnP network using UPnP commands, and said processing device further capable of converting between messages in accordance with WS protocol and UPnP commands.- View Dependent Claims (39, 40, 41)
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42. A method of communicating with a universal plug and play (“
- UPnP”
) network via a remote mobile station comprising;
transmitting messages between a gateway device and a mobile station in accordance with Web Services (“
WS”
) protocol;
transmitting UPnP commands between said gateway device and one or more UPnP devices in said UPnP network; and
converting between said messages in accordance with WS protocol and UPnP commands.
- UPnP”
-
43. A method of enabling secure communications between one or more universal plug and play (“
- UPnP”
) devices in a UPnP network comprising;
automatically generating a unique security certificate for each of said one or more UPnP devices upon entrance of said UPnP device into said UPnP network, such that a unique security certificate corresponds to each of said one or more UPnP devices, wherein generating the unique security certificate comprises generating the unique security certificate for each UPnP device based upon a secret token issued to the respective UPnP device; and
verifying that said UPnP device is part of said UPnP network based upon the unique security certificate associated with said UPnP device. - View Dependent Claims (44, 45, 46)
- UPnP”
Specification