METHOD FOR MANAGING LOGICAL ADDRESS AND DEVICE THEREOF

• US 20080270632A1
• Filed: 10/30/2007
• Published: 10/30/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/24/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: SHIM, Seung-seop, BAE, Dae-gyu, HONG, Jin-woo
• Granted Patent: US 8,180,929 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 710/4
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4147 PVR [Personal Video Recorder] H04N5/76 takes precedence ; arrangements for broadcast with accumulation-type receivers H04H20/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43615 Interfacing a Home Network, e.g. for connecting the client to a plurality of peripherals home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] data switching networks H04L12/2805

Abstract

An address management method and a device thereof are provided. The address management method includes checking by a device whether logical addresses are currently being used by external devices; and setting by the device a non-use logical address as a logical address of the device regardless of the type of the device, if the device determines that the non-use logical address exists. Therefore, a device may use all logical addresses regardless of its device type, and may also have a logical address even though all logical addresses corresponding to its device type are currently being used.

Claims

1. An address management method comprising:

checking whether logical addresses are currently being used by external devices associated with a first device; and

if a non-use logical address is identified during the checking, setting the non-use logical address as a logical address of the first device regardless of a type of the first device.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of the external devices is allocated a unique logical address.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the external devices are connected to the first device according to a high definition multimedia interface (HDMI) consumer electronics control (CEC) specification.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising transmitting by the first device a message comprising a physical address field and a device type field, after setting the logical address.

5. The method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the first device is identified as a plurality of different device types according to the HDMI SEC specification, and

wherein the plurality of device types are identified in the device type field.

6. The method as claimed in claim 5, wherein each of the plurality of device types is identified by using one of plural bits constituting the device type field.

7. The method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the device type field has a data structure capable of storing device type data in various formats.

8. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the data structure comprises a bitmap structure.

9. The method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the device type field comprises:

a device type subfield which stores device type information; and

an internal address subfield which stores identifications (IDs) in order to distinguish several devices of a same type.

10. The method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the device type field further comprises a device name field which stores device names.

11. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the checking is repeated sequentially with respect to a first logical address having a logical address number “

0”

to a predetermined-numbered logical address, or until the non-use logical address is identified.

12. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the predetermined-logical address is a sixteenth logical address having a logical address number “

15”

.

13. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the checking comprises:

transmitting a polling message to at least one of the external devices with respect to the logical address; and

determining whether the logical address is currently being used by any one of the external devices based on whether an acknowledge (ACK) packet is received from one of the external devices as a response to the polling message.

14. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first device is identified as a plurality of device types according to the HDMI SEC specification, and

wherein the logical address is configured to define the plurality of device types.

16. The first device as claimed in claim 12, wherein the external devices are connected according to a high definition multimedia interface (HDMI) consumer electronics control (CEC) specification.

15. A first device comprising:

an interface which enables the first device to be connected to an external device; and

a controller which checks whether logical addresses are currently being used by external devices, and which, if a non-use logical address is identified during the checking, sets the non-use logical address as a logical address of the first device regardless of a type of the first device.