Dynamic self-configuration for ad hoc peer networking

• US 20060291434A1
• Filed: 03/02/2005
• Published: 12/28/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/11/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ROVI Product Corporation (Xperi Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Leach, Paul J., Knight, Holly, Ford, Peter S., Goland, Yaron Y., Gu, Ye
• Granted Patent: US 7,602,756 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/338
• 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 12/2856 Access arrangements, e.g. Internet access asynchronous transfer mode networks H04L12/5601; broadband local area networks H04L12/2801; optical access or distribution networks H04Q11/0067; access to open networks H04L12/5691; digital subscriber line end-user equipment and bit-level processing of data on a PSTN-based network H04M11/00; home network gateways H04L12/2834; wireless access networks H04W
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2898 Subscriber equipments DSL modems H04M11/062; cable modems H04L12/2801
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4633 Interconnection of networks using encapsulation techniques, e.g. tunneling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/30 Types of network names
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2408 for supporting different services, e.g. a differentiated services [DiffServ] type of service
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/30 Managing network names, e.g. use of aliases or nicknames name-to-address mapping H04L61/45
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5014 using dynamic host configuration protocol [DHCP] or bootstrap protocol [BOOTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5092 by self-assignment, e.g. picking addresses at random and testing if they are already in use
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/025 for remote control or remote monitoring of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

A device control model provides an integrated set of addressing, naming, discovery and description processes that enables automatic, dynamic and ad-hoc self-setup by devices to interoperate with other devices on a network. This permits a computing device when introduced into a network to automatically configure so as to connect and interact with other computing devices available on the network, without a user installation experience and without downloading driver software or persisting a configuration setup for connecting and interacting with such other computing devices. Upon completing interaction with such other devices, the computing device automatically releases the setup for such other devices so as to avoid persistent device configurations that might create a configuration maintenance and management burden.

Claims

1. A process of automatically introducing a computing device into an ad hoc network of other computing devices, the process having an address phase, an announce phase, a discovery phase, a discovery response phase, and a device description phase, the process comprising:

at the address phase, selecting by the computing device an address from a reserved range of addresses, pinging the selected address on the ad hoc network, and assigning the selected address to the computing device if there is no response to said pinging the selected address;

at the announce phase, sending a multi-cast message by the computing device to said other computing devices on the ad hoc network announcing the address assigned to the computing device;

at the discovery phase, listening by the computing device for a discovery message from a discovery client among said other computing devices;

at the discovery response phase, upon receiving a discovery message specifying a device type of the computing device and having a discovery message identifier, sending a response message by the computing device identifying the address assigned to the computing device and the discovery message identifier;

at the device description phase, responding by the computing device to a description request from another computer device on the ad hoc network with a description message defining computing device-specific protocol of data messages for interacting with the computing device to control operational functions of the computing device.

4. The process of claim 1 wherein the description message is formatted according to a mark-up language.

5. The process of claim 1 wherein the response message comprises a link to the description message.

6. The process of claim 1 wherein the response message comprises a device type identifier of the computing device.

7. The process of claim 1 wherein the computing device has a predetermined name, said sending a multi-cast message at the announce phase further comprising sending the predetermined name in the multi-cast message.

8. The process of claim 1 wherein said listening for a discovery message from a discovery client at the discovery phase comprises listening for the discovery message sent via multi-cast from the discovery client.

2. The process of claim 2 wherein the description message further contains presentation data defining a user interface to be presented on said other description-requesting computing device for a user to control operational functions of the computing device from the description-requesting computing device.

3. The process of claim 2 wherein the description message further contains a link to style sheet data for defining separate views of the presentation data on the description-requesting computing device.

9. A computer-readable data-carrying medium having encoded thereon a computer-executable software program for automatically introducing a computing device into an ad hoc network, the software program comprising:

an addressing module operating upon introduction of a computing device to the ad hoc network to select an address from a predetermined range of addresses, to ping the selected address on the ad hoc network, and absent any response to said pinging the selected address to assign the selected address to the computing device;

an announce module operating after the computing device has an assigned address to send an announcement message via multi-cast on the ad hoc network, where the announcement message specifies the computing device'"'"'s assigned address;

a discovery module operating after the announcement message is sent to listen for a discovery message sent from a discovery client via multi-cast on the ad hoc network relating to a device type of the computing device, the discovery message having a message identifier;

a discovery response module operating upon receipt of the discovery message to send a response message identifying the assigned address of the computing device and the message identifier; and

a description module operating upon receipt of a description request message to send a description message defining a protocol for interaction via data messages by another computing device on the ad hoc network with the computing device to operate the computing device.

10. The computer-readable data-carrying medium of claim 9 wherein the description message further contains presentation data defining a user interface to be presented on said other computing device for a user to control operation of the computing device from the other computing device.

11. The computer-readable data-carrying medium of claim 10 wherein the description message further contains a link to style sheet data for defining separate views of the presentation data on the description-requesting computing device.

12. The computer-readable data-carrying medium of claim 9 wherein the description message is formatted according to a mark-up language.

13. The computer-readable data-carrying medium of claim 9 wherein the response message comprises a link to the description message.

14. The computer-readable data-carrying medium of claim 9 wherein the response message comprises a device type identifier of the computing device.

15. The computer-readable data-carrying medium of claim 9 wherein the computing device has a predetermined name, and the announcement message contains the predetermined name.

16. In a computing device, a method of dynamically configuring the computing device for peer networking, comprising:

on introduction of the computing device on an ad hoc network, obtaining a dynamically assigned address for the computing device;

announcing the dynamically assigned address to other computing devices by sending an announcement message;

responding to a discovery request initiated by one of said other computing devices, wherein the discovery request utilizes a discovery protocol to discover the computing device in accordance with device type or capability; and

in response to the discovery request, sending a description message to define a device description protocol to allow said one of said other computing devices to invoke operational functions of the computing device, whereby the computing device interacts with said one of said other computing devices using the device description protocol for invoking said operational functions.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the announcing the dynamically assigned address comprises sending the announcement message via multi-cast on the ad hoc network, where the announcement message specifies the computing device'"'"'s assigned address.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein the description message contains presentation data defining a user interface to be presented on the other computing devices for a user to control operation of said computing device.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein the description message is formatted according to a mark-up language.