CN117319981A

CN117319981A - Equipment discovery method, device and system

Info

Publication number: CN117319981A
Application number: CN202210698383.9A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 张亮
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2022-06-20
Filing date: 2022-06-20
Publication date: 2023-12-29
Also published as: WO2023246601A1

Abstract

The embodiment of the application provides a device discovery method, a device and a system, and the communication method can solve the problems of longer device discovery time delay and larger power consumption in the prior art. The device discovery method provided by the embodiment of the application comprises the following steps: a first device sending a first request message to at least one second device; the first request message includes a characteristic value of the target device; the characteristic value of the target device is used for matching the characteristic value of the local device with the characteristic value of the target device by the device which receives the first request message. A second device that receives a first request message from the first device; if the characteristic value of the target equipment is successfully matched with the characteristic value of the local equipment, a first response message is sent to the first equipment; the first response message includes second device information of the target device. The device discovery method, the device and the system provided by the embodiment of the invention can reduce the time delay in the device discovery process and can be applied to the device discovery process of the distributed networking.

Description

Equipment discovery method, device and system

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to the field of communications, and in particular, to a device discovery method, apparatus, and system.

Background

With the development of terminal technology, a plurality of terminal devices can realize multi-device interconnection through a distributed networking, and perform distributed services so as to provide various services. The distributed networking is to establish communication connection among a plurality of devices through standard bluetooth, wireless fidelity (wireless fidelity, wiFi), ethernet and the like. An important element of distributed networking is device discovery, which can be quickly implemented based on short-range communication techniques, thereby establishing a connection between devices.

The current device discovery method is: the first device obtains connection information of the target device, determines that the device cannot be directly connected with the target device according to the connection information, and then sends a device discovery request message to other devices (for convenience of description, the first device is described as a second device) in the distributed network. Each second device establishes a secure channel with the first device in response to broadcasting back to the first device. The first device exchanges device information with the corresponding second device through each secure channel. The first device matches the acquired device information of each second device with the connection information (such as device identification) of the target device, and determines the target device from the second devices. And the first equipment further obtains the connection address of the target equipment from the equipment information fed back by the target equipment, and establishes connection with the target equipment through the connection address.

As the number of terminal devices involved in device discovery increases, in the existing device discovery process, a process of establishing connection, requesting device information, and matching between a first device and surrounding devices is performed one by one, which takes longer and longer. In addition, the process has high energy consumption, and is difficult to adapt to the current situation that the number of distributed networking equipment is rapidly increased.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a device discovery method, device and system, which are used for solving the problems of long time consumption and high energy consumption in a device discovery process.

In order to achieve the above purpose, the embodiments of the present application adopt the following technical solutions:

in a first aspect, a device discovery method is provided for use in a system (which may also be described herein as a distributed cluster) comprising a first device and at least one second device. The method comprises the following steps: the first device sends a first request message to at least one second device; the first request message includes a characteristic value of a target device, and the characteristic value of the target device is used for matching the characteristic value of the local device with the characteristic value of the target device by the device receiving the first request message. Thereafter, the first device receives a response message from the target device. The response message is sent by the target equipment after the characteristic value in the first request message is successfully matched with the characteristic value of the target equipment; the response message includes second device information of the target device.

Illustratively, the characteristic value is first device information; the first device information includes one or more of a device identification, a device type, a device name, user information logged into the device, and a service identification. Alternatively, the first device information may be encrypted as the feature value.

Alternatively, the feature value may be obtained from an electronic tag of the target device by the first device or input by a user, and may be part of device information of the target device, such as a device identifier of the target, and so on. The second device information may be more detailed information of the target device, such as information other than information contained in the electronic tag, such as connection information of the target device, and the like.

In this way, the first request message sent by the first device carries the characteristic value of the target device. The device receiving the request message matches the characteristic value of the target device with the characteristic value of the local device, and only the target device which is successfully matched sends out a response message to the first device, so that the first device and the non-target device can be prevented from being connected. In the prior art, for each second device receiving the discovery request broadcast, the first device needs to exchange device information with the second device and perform device information matching so as to determine the target device from the second devices, which takes a long time. The method provided by the application can reduce the time consumption of device discovery.

In one possible design, the number of second devices is a plurality. Then, the first device sends a first request message to at least one second device, which may be implemented as: the first device sends broadcast messages to a plurality of second devices, wherein the broadcast messages are used for bearing first request messages.

Illustratively, the broadcast message is a bluetooth broadcast message.

In one possible design, the target device is one of the at least one second device.

In one possible design, the first request message includes connection information for the first device. By way of example, the connection information may be a bluetooth address, a network interconnection protocol (Internet protocol, IP), an ip+ port number, a media access control (media access control, MAC) address, etc. The manner of replying to the first device with the response message after the target device receives the first request message may include the following two ways:

first, the first device receives a connection request sent by the target device according to the connection information of the first device, and establishes a first connection with the target device according to the connection request. Further, the first device receives a first response message sent by the target device through the first connection; the first response message includes second device information of the target device.

In this implementation, the target device connects back to the first device according to the connection information of the first device, and then sends its own device information to the first device through the connection.

Second, the first device receives a first response message from the target device. The first response message is a connection request sent by the target device according to the connection information of the first device. The first response message includes second device information of the target device.

In the implementation manner, the target device is connected back to the first device according to the connection information of the first device and directly carries the device information of the target device in the connection request, so that the target device directly carries the device information of the target device in the connection request without establishing connection and then sending the device information of the target device through the connection, the interaction between the first device and the target device can be reduced, and the time delay is further reduced.

In some cases, the system further comprises at least one third device; the third device cannot communicate directly with the first setting, and the first device communicates with the third device located in the subnet through the second device. That is, the second device, acting as a proxy device, may forward messages between the first device and the third device. The second device and the third device capable of communicating directly with the second device are described herein as a subnet. At least one subnet is included in the system.

In this scenario, the target device may be a third device, i.e. the first device cannot communicate directly with the target device.

Then, in a scenario that the target device is the third device, the first device receives the response message from the target device, which mainly means that the first device receives the device information of the target device forwarded by the target second device, where the target second device is the second device in the subnet where the target device is located. Thus, the first device receiving the response message from the target device may be implemented as:

the first equipment receives a third response message sent by the target second equipment; the third response message includes second device information of the target device.

In one possible design, there may be two implementations where the first device receives the third response sent by the target second device. Optionally, in one implementation manner, the first device receives a connection request sent by the target second device according to the connection information of the first device, and establishes connection with the target second device according to the connection request. Further, the first device receives a third response message sent by the target second device through the connection; the third response message includes second device information of the target device. In this implementation, the target second device connects back to the first device according to the connection information of the first device, and then sends the device information of the target device to the first device through the connection. Alternatively, in another implementation, the first device receives a connection request from the target second device, and the connection request may be regarded as third response information, and further includes the second device information of the target device in the connection request. In the implementation manner, the target second device is connected back to the first device according to the connection information of the first device, and directly carries the device information of the target device in the connection request, so that the target second device directly carries the device information of the target device in the connection request, and the interaction between the first device and the target second device can be reduced without establishing connection and then retransmitting the device information of the target device through the connection, thereby further reducing the time delay.

Aiming at the scene that the first equipment and the target equipment to be discovered cannot directly communicate, in the method, the first equipment can discover service through the proxy of the second equipment, the range of the discovered equipment is enlarged, the target equipment which is located in different subnets with the first equipment is discovered, the equipment discovery technical scheme can cope with more realistic and complex networking environments, and the equipment discovery capability with more universality is realized.

In one possible design, to implement the above method, the first device is configured with a first preset protocol; wherein, a first field in the first preset protocol includes a broadcast type and a feature code. Specifically, the broadcast type is device discovery; the feature code is used to represent the type of feature value. The second field of the first preset protocol includes a value of the characteristic value.

In a second aspect, a device discovery method is provided and applied to a system, where the system includes a first device and at least one second device. The method comprises the following steps: the second device receives a first request message from the first device, the first request message including a characteristic value of the target device. If the characteristic value of the target equipment is successfully matched with the characteristic value of the local equipment, the second equipment sends a first response message to the first equipment; the first response message includes second device information of the target device.

In one possible design, the number of second devices is a plurality. Accordingly, the second device receives a first request message from the first device, including: the second device receives a broadcast message from the first device, where the broadcast message carries a first request message.

In one possible design, the first request message includes connection information of the first device. Then, the second device sending the first response message to the first device may include two ways:

First, the second device establishes a first connection with the first device according to the connection information of the first device, and sends the first response message to the first device through the first connection.

In this implementation, the second device, as the target device, connects back to the first device according to the connection information of the first device, and then sends its own device information to the first device through the connection.

Second, the second device sends the first response message to the first device according to the connection information of the first device, where the first response message is used to establish a first connection with the first device. That is, the first response message may be understood as a callback request.

In the implementation manner, the second device serves as the target device to be connected with the first device according to the connection information of the first device, and the second device directly carries the local device information of the first device in the connection request, so that the target device directly carries the local device information in the connection request, and the interaction between the first device and the target device can be reduced without establishing connection and then sending the local device information through the connection, and further time delay is reduced.

In one possible design, then, after the second device receives the first request message from the first device, the method further includes:

and the second device sends a second request message to a third device which is positioned in the same subnet as the second device under the condition that the second device determines to start the proxy function, wherein the second request message comprises the characteristic value of the target device. And if the second device information of the target device is acquired, the second device sends a third response message to the first device. Wherein the third response message includes second device information of the target device. And the second equipment information of the target equipment is the characteristic value of the local equipment which is determined by a third equipment positioned in the same subnet as the second equipment and is matched with the characteristic value of the target equipment, and then the second equipment information is sent to the second equipment by the target equipment.

Optionally, the second device executes the scheme under the condition that the characteristic value of the target device carried in the first request message is not matched with the characteristic value of the local device.

In one possible design, the number of third devices located within the same subnet as the second device is multiple. Correspondingly, sending a second request message to the at least one third device located in the same subnet as the second device, including:

And sending a broadcast message to at least one third device which is positioned in the same subnet as the second device, wherein the broadcast message is used for bearing the second request message.

In one possible design, the second request message includes connection information of the second device. If the second device information of the target device is acquired, the second device sends the third response message to the first device, which may be implemented as:

if a second response message from the target device is received, the second device establishes a first connection with the first device and establishes a second connection with the target device. The second response message is a connection response message sent by the target device according to the connection information of the second device, and is used for establishing connection with the second device.

The second device then receives a third request message of the first device over the first connection, the third request message being for requesting information of the target device. And forwarding the third request message to the target equipment through the second connection and receiving second equipment information of the target equipment sent by the target equipment. Finally, the second device sends the third response message to the first device through the first connection.

In this implementation, after determining the target device, the second device establishes a connection with the target device and the first device, respectively, and then transmits second device information of the target device through the established connection.

Optionally, in other implementations, the target device may send a reconnection request to the second device, where the reconnection request carries its device information; accordingly, the second device may send a reconnection request to the first device, where the reconnection request carries device information of the target device.

In one possible design, the second device includes a low power device therein; and the low-power consumption device stores the characteristic value of the machine.

In the implementation manner, the characteristic value matching by the low-power-consumption device under the condition that the second equipment is free from waking up the processor can be realized, so that the time consumption is reduced, and the power consumption is reduced.

In one possible design, the characteristic value is first device information; the first device information includes one or more of a device identification, a device type, a device name, user information logged into the device, and a service identification.

In one possible design, the second device is configured with a second preset protocol; wherein, the first field in the second preset protocol comprises whether to start the proxy function; the second field includes the value of the characteristic value.

In a third aspect, a device discovery method is provided and applied to a system, where the system includes a first device, at least one second device, and at least one third device; wherein the system comprises at least one subnet; each subnet comprises a second device and a third device; the first device communicates with a third device located within the subnet via the second device.

The method comprises the following steps:

the third device receives a second request message from a second device in the same subnet; the second request message includes the characteristic value of the target device. If the characteristic value of the target device is successfully matched with the characteristic value of the local device, the third device sends second device information of the target device to the second device.

In one possible design, the number of third devices is a plurality. A third device receives a second request message from the second device within the same subnet, comprising: a third device receives a broadcast message from the second device in the same subnet, wherein the broadcast message is used for bearing the second request message;

in one possible design, the second request message includes connection information for the second device. If the characteristic value of the target device is successfully matched with the characteristic value of the local device, the third device sends second device information of the target device to the second device, including:

if the characteristic value of the target device is successfully matched with the characteristic value of the local device, the third device sends a second response message to the second device according to the connection information of the second device. The second response message is a connection response message sent by the target device according to the connection information of the second device, and is used for establishing connection with the second device. And then, the third device establishes a second connection with the second device, and then, the third device receives a third request message sent by the second device through the second connection, wherein the third request message is used for acquiring second device information of the third device. Then, the third device transmits second device information of the third device to the second device through the second connection.

In a fourth aspect, an electronic device is provided. The electronic device includes: a processor and a memory coupled to the processor, the memory for storing computer readable instructions that, when read from the memory by the processor, cause the electronic device to perform the first aspect and any one of the possible implementations of the first aspect.

The technical effects corresponding to the fourth aspect and any implementation manner of the fourth aspect may be referred to the technical effects corresponding to the first aspect and any implementation manner of the first aspect, which are not described herein.

In a fifth aspect, an electronic device is provided. The electronic device includes: a processor and a memory coupled to the processor, the memory for storing computer readable instructions that, when read from the memory by the processor, cause the electronic device to perform the second aspect and any one of the possible implementations of the second aspect.

The technical effects corresponding to the fifth aspect and any implementation manner of the fifth aspect may be referred to the technical effects corresponding to the above any implementation manner of the second aspect and the second aspect, and are not described herein again.

In a sixth aspect, an electronic device is provided. The electronic device includes: a processor and a memory coupled to the processor, the memory for storing computer readable instructions that, when read from the memory by the processor, cause the electronic device to perform the third aspect and any one of the possible implementations of the third aspect.

The technical effects corresponding to the sixth aspect and any implementation manner of the sixth aspect may refer to the technical effects corresponding to the above third aspect and any implementation manner of the third aspect, and are not described herein again.

In a seventh aspect, a device discovery system is provided, the system comprising a first device and at least one second device; wherein,

the first device is configured to send a first request message to the at least one second device; the first request message comprises a characteristic value of the target device; and the characteristic value of the target device is used for matching the characteristic value of the local device with the characteristic value of the target device by the device receiving the first request message.

The second device is configured to receive a first request message from the first device; the method is also used for sending a first response message to the first device if the characteristic value of the target device is successfully matched with the characteristic value of the local device; the first response message includes second device information of the target device.

In one possible design, the system further comprises at least one third device; the system includes at least one subnet; each subnet comprises a second device and a third device; the first device communicates with a third device located within a subnet through the second device.

The second device is further configured to send a second request message to a third device located in the same subnet as the second device, where the second request message includes a feature value of the target device, where the second request message is determined to turn on a proxy function;

the second device is further configured to send a third response message to the first device if second device information of the target device is obtained; wherein the third response message includes second device information of the target device; and the second equipment information of the target equipment is the characteristic value of the local equipment, which is determined by a third equipment positioned in the same subnet as the second equipment, is matched with the characteristic value of the target equipment, and then the second equipment information is sent to the second equipment by the target equipment.

The technical effects corresponding to the seventh aspect and any implementation manner of the seventh aspect may be referred to the first aspect, the second aspect, the third aspect, and the technical effects corresponding to any implementation manner of the first aspect, the second aspect, and the third aspect, which are not described herein.

In an eighth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides an electronic device, where the electronic device has a function of implementing the device discovery method as described in the first aspect and any one of possible implementation manners of the first aspect. The functions may be implemented by hardware, or by corresponding software executed by hardware. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the functions described above.

The technical effects corresponding to the eighth aspect and any implementation manner of the eighth aspect may be referred to the technical effects corresponding to the first aspect and any implementation manner of the first aspect, which are not described herein again.

In a ninth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide an electronic device having a function of implementing the device discovery method as described in the second aspect and any one of possible implementation manners. The functions may be implemented by hardware, or by corresponding software executed by hardware. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the functions described above.

The technical effects corresponding to the ninth aspect and any implementation manner of the ninth aspect may refer to the technical effects corresponding to the second aspect and any implementation manner of the second aspect, which are not described herein.

In a tenth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide an electronic device having a function of implementing the device discovery method as described in the third aspect and any one of possible implementations thereof. The functions may be implemented by hardware, or by corresponding software executed by hardware. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the functions described above.

The technical effects corresponding to the tenth aspect and any implementation manner of the tenth aspect may be referred to the technical effects corresponding to the above third aspect and any implementation manner of the third aspect, and are not described herein again.

An eleventh aspect provides a computer readable storage medium. The computer readable storage medium stores a computer program (which may also be referred to as instructions or code) which, when executed by an electronic device, causes the electronic device to perform the method of the first aspect or any implementation of the first aspect; or cause the electronic device to perform the second aspect or the method of any one of the embodiments of the second aspect; or cause the electronic device to perform the method of the third aspect or any of the embodiments of the third aspect.

The technical effects corresponding to any implementation manner of the eleventh aspect may be referred to the technical effects corresponding to any implementation manner of the first aspect and the first aspect, or the technical effects corresponding to any implementation manner of the second aspect and the second aspect, or the technical effects corresponding to any implementation manner of the third aspect and the third aspect, which are not described herein again.

In a twelfth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer program product for, when run on an electronic device, causing the electronic device to perform the method of the first aspect or any of the embodiments of the first aspect; or cause the electronic device to perform the second aspect or the method of any one of the embodiments of the second aspect; or cause the electronic device to perform the method of the third aspect or any of the embodiments of the third aspect.

The technical effects corresponding to any implementation manner of the twelfth aspect may be referred to the technical effects corresponding to any implementation manner of the first aspect and the first aspect, or the technical effects corresponding to any implementation manner of the second aspect and the second aspect, or the technical effects corresponding to any implementation manner of the third aspect and the third aspect, which are not described herein again.

In a thirteenth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide circuitry comprising processing circuitry configured to perform the first aspect or a method of any one of the embodiments of the first aspect; alternatively, the processing circuitry is configured to perform the second aspect or a method of any one of the embodiments of the second aspect; alternatively, the processing circuit is configured to perform the method of the third aspect or any of the embodiments of the third aspect.

The technical effects corresponding to any implementation manner of the thirteenth aspect may be referred to the technical effects corresponding to any implementation manner of the first aspect and the first aspect, or the technical effects corresponding to any implementation manner of the second aspect and the second aspect, or the technical effects corresponding to any implementation manner of the third aspect and the third aspect, which are not repeated herein.

In a fourteenth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a chip system, including at least one processor and at least one interface circuit, where the at least one interface circuit is configured to perform a transceiver function and send an instruction to the at least one processor, and when the at least one processor executes the instruction, the at least one processor performs the method of the first aspect or any implementation manner of the first aspect; alternatively, at least one processor performs the method of the second aspect or any of the embodiments of the second aspect; alternatively, at least one processor performs the method of the third aspect or any of the embodiments of the third aspect.

The technical effects corresponding to any implementation manner of the fourteenth aspect may be referred to the technical effects corresponding to any implementation manner of the first aspect and the first aspect, or the technical effects corresponding to any implementation manner of the second aspect and the second aspect, or the technical effects corresponding to any implementation manner of the third aspect and the third aspect, which are not repeated herein.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a conventional device discovery method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a static tag of a device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a schematic view of a scenario provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a software system of a device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a flowchart of a device discovery method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of a device discovery method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8 is a flowchart of another device discovery method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 9 is a flowchart of another device discovery method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of a first device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of a second device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of a third device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

For the convenience of understanding the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, a brief description or definition of the related technologies of the present application is given below.

In the description of the embodiments of the present application, unless otherwise indicated, "/" means or, for example, a/B may represent a or B; "and/or" herein is merely an association relationship describing an association object, and means that three relationships may exist, for example, a and/or B may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist together, and B exists alone. The terms "first" and "second" are used below for descriptive purposes only and are not to be construed as indicating or implying relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of technical features indicated. Thus, a feature defining "a first" or "a second" may explicitly or implicitly include one or more such feature. In the description of the embodiments of the present application, unless otherwise indicated, the meaning of "a plurality" is two or more. In addition, the words "exemplary" or "such as" are used to mean serving as an example, instance, or illustration. Any embodiment or design described herein as "exemplary" or "for example" should not be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments or designs. Rather, the use of words such as "exemplary" or "such as" is intended to present related concepts in a concrete fashion.

As shown in fig. 1, the process of the device discovery method provided in the prior art specifically includes the following steps:

s101, the first device acquires connection information of the target device in advance.

Illustratively, the target device has a static tag thereon as shown in fig. 2, where the static tag contains connection information of the target device. The connection information may be a first type of information, for example: network interconnection protocol (Internet protocol, IP), ip+ port number, media access control (media access control, MAC) address, etc. The connection information may also be a second type of information, such as some attribute information, for example: serial Number (SN) of the device or unique device identification code (unique device identifier, UDID), etc. The first device can read the connection information of the target device in the static tag through short-distance communication technologies such as near field communication (near field communication, NFC) bump-bump, two-dimension code scanning, bluetooth approaching and the like.

For the first type of information, the first device may be directly connected to the target device according to the connection information, that is, direct connection is achieved. For the second type of information, the first device cannot be directly connected with the target device, and a matching process of the device information is further required, namely the following steps are performed:

s102, the first device sends a device discovery request message to surrounding devices including the target device (for convenience of description, these devices are described as second devices), where the device discovery request message is used to request discovery of the target device.

S103, after receiving the broadcast, each second device sends a first response message to the first device, wherein the first response message is used for establishing connection with the first device.

S104, the first device establishes connection with the second device according to the first response message.

S105, the first device sends a request message to the second device through the connection established with the second device, where the request message is used to request device information of the second device, such as a device identifier, etc.

S106, the second device sends a second response message to the first device after receiving the request message, wherein the second response message contains the device information of the second device.

And S107, the first device matches the device information in the second response message sent by each second device with the device information read to the target device through S101, and confirms that the successfully matched device is the target device.

S108, the first device reads the connection information contained in the second response message sent by the target device.

S109, establishing direct connection with the target equipment according to the connection information.

In fig. 1, the device a is only exemplified as a first device (first device a in the drawing), the device B, C, D is exemplified as a second device, and the device C is exemplified as a target device.

In the method provided by the prior art, the first device needs to establish connection with surrounding devices respectively, and respectively performs interaction with the devices to request device information, and matches the received information of the devices with the information of the target device one by one. With the increase of the number of devices, the existing device discovery mode faces the problems of poor discovery performance, overlong time delay, larger power consumption and the like. For example: with ecological expansion of the hong-and-Monte Operating System (OS), the distributed networking is used as a base of the hong-and-Monte distributed service, and faces many challenges such as more and more complex use scenarios, increasingly more device types and numbers, and instability of a base communication protocol. The current scheme cannot meet the core requirements of large-scale deployment of the hong-Monte distributed capacity on low power consumption, low load and high reliability and availability.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present application provides a device discovery method, which is applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices (the embodiment of the present application may also describe the system as a distributed device cluster), where the plurality of devices cooperate in a process of serving a user.

In the distributed device cluster, a plurality of devices are connected by WiFi, standard bluetooth, ethernet, power line communication (power line communication, PLC) or the like.

By way of example, the distributed device cluster may include a smart phone, a television, a wireless headset, a smart watch, a smart bracelet, a sound, a personal computer (personal computer, PC) (e.g., notebook, desktop, ultra-mobile personal computer (UMPC), etc.), a tablet, an augmented reality (augmented reality, AR)/Virtual Reality (VR) device, an internet of things (internet of things, ioT) device (e.g., smart home device), as shown in fig. 3. The IoT device is an important component of future information technology development, and is mainly technically characterized in that the article is connected with a network through a communication technology, so that man-machine interconnection and an intelligent network for the interconnection of the article are realized.

For example, ioT devices may include, but are not limited to, alarms for security, smart door locks, and the like; intelligent desk lamp and other devices for illumination; the device is used for equipment such as a healthy fresh air system, an air conditioner, a refrigerator, an air purifier, an air quality sensor and the like; a dishwasher, a sterilizing cabinet and other devices for kitchen electricity; electric curtains and other devices for home decoration; or a sweeping robot for cleaning, etc.

It should be noted that fig. 3 is merely an example of a distributed device cluster architecture, and the present application is not limited to a specific architecture of a distributed device cluster.

For example, a "1+8+N" end product may be included in a distributed device cluster. Among them, the "1+8+n" terminal product is used to create the follow-up mobile communication technology of the fifth generation mobile communication technology (5G) for the whole field Jing Zhihui life and the next generation. By way of example, "1" refers to a smart phone, i.e., an entry into future smart life; "8" refers to tablet computers, PCs, wearable devices, high-definition (HD) devices, artificial intelligence (artificial intelligence, AI) speakers, headphones, AR/VR devices, car equipment; "N" broadly refers to IoT devices, such as smart home devices.

In this embodiment of the present application, multi-device cooperation refers to that multiple devices (such as terminal devices in a distributed device cluster) provide cross-platform and cross-system services through cooperation.

For example, multi-device collaboration may provide a multi-screen collaboration (multi-screen collaboration) service. By way of example, the multi-screen collaboration service may be such as a screen (e.g., video screen, picture screen, etc.), remote screen control, and so forth. As an example, the multi-screen collaborative screen projection manner may include, but is not limited to, a homologous screen projection manner, a heterologous screen projection manner, and the like, which are not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

As another example, multi-device collaboration may provide file sharing. For example, any sharing of pictures, video, audio, etc. files between multiple devices may be achieved through a device sharing service. As another example, sharing of movement data (such as speed, movement time, etc.), physical indexes (such as heart rate, blood pressure, etc.), sleep indexes (such as time to sleep, total sleep time, deep sleep time, etc.) and the like between a wearable device (such as a smart watch, a smart bracelet, etc.) and a portable device (such as a smart phone, a tablet computer, etc.) can be achieved through a device sharing service such as a movement health service.

In the embodiment of the application, a necessary link of multi-device cooperation is device discovery. For example, device discovery is initiated by a discovery device, which discovers a device (i.e., a discovered device) for discovery of a specified device (i.e., a device identified by a particular device, a device capable of providing a particular service, a device logged into the same account, so that the discovered device can cooperate with the discovery device to provide services such as screen casting (e.g., video screen casting, picture screen casting, etc.), remote screen control, voice casting, file sharing, etc.

Wherein the discovered device and the discovered device may be any device in a distributed device cluster. For example, the discovery device and discovered device may include, but are not limited to, desktop devices, laptop devices, handheld devices, wearable devices, smart home devices, computing devices, vehicle-mounted devices, on-board devices, industrial devices, and the like. For example, smart phones, netbooks, tablet computers, smart watches, smart bracelets, phone watches, PCs, wireless headsets, televisions, stereos, smart cameras, motion sensing gaming machines, personal digital assistants (personal digital assistant, PDAs), portable multimedia players (portable multimedia player, PMPs), AR/VR devices, session initiation protocol (session initiation protocol, SIP) phones, IOT terminal devices, wireless devices in smart cities (smart cities), wireless devices in smart homes (smart home), and the like, without limitation.

Taking the distributed device cluster architecture shown in fig. 3 as an example, the discovered device and the discovered device may be any device such as a smart phone, a tablet computer, and a PC in the distributed device cluster shown in fig. 3.

Since there may be a plurality of devices capable of providing a specified service in the distributed device cluster, taking the distributed device cluster architecture shown in fig. 3 as an example, the discovered device discovers through a device, and the discovered device capable of being discovered may include any one or more devices such as a smart phone, a tablet computer, and a PC in the distributed device cluster shown in fig. 3. That is, the discovery device is capable of discovering one or more specified discovered devices through device discovery.

The device discovery method provided in the embodiments of the present application may be used in any communication system, which may be a short-range communication system, a cellular communication system (e.g., a long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) system, a new air interface (new radio access technology, NR)), a worldwide interoperability for microwave access (worldwide interoperability for microwave access, wiMAX) communication system, and various types of next-generation communication systems (e.g., a sixth generation (the sixth generation, 6G) mobile communication system), etc., without limitation. Among them, the short-range communication system may be a bluetooth communication system, a bluetooth low energy communication system, a wireless-fidelity (Wi-Fi) communication system, various types of next-generation short-range communication systems, and the like, without limitation.

Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a composition of a device 400 provided in an embodiment of the present application, where the device 400 may be any device in a distributed device cluster or a chip or a system on a chip in the device. As shown in fig. 4, the device 400 includes a processor 401, a transceiver 402, and a communication line 403.

Further, the device 400 may also include a memory 404. The processor 401, the memory 404, and the transceiver 402 may be connected by a communication line 403.

The processor 401 is a central processing unit (central processing unit, CPU), a general purpose processor network processor (network processor, NP), a digital signal processor (digital signal processing, DSP), a microprocessor, a microcontroller, a programmable logic device (programmable logic device, PLD), or any combination thereof. The processor 401 may also be any other device having a processing function, such as a circuit, a device, or a software module, without limitation.

A transceiver 402 for communicating with other devices or other communication networks. The other communication network may be an ethernet, a radio access network (radio access network, RAN), a wireless local area network (wireless local area networks, WLAN), etc. The transceiver 402 may be a module, circuitry, transceiver, or any device capable of enabling communications.

Communication lines 403 for conveying information between the various components included in device 400.

Memory 404 for storing instructions. Wherein the instructions may be computer programs.

The memory 404 may be, but is not limited to, a read-only memory (ROM) or other type of static storage device capable of storing static information and/or instructions, a random access memory (random access memory, RAM) or other type of dynamic storage device capable of storing information and/or instructions, an EEPROM, a CD-ROM (compact disc read-only memory) or other optical disk storage, an optical disk storage (including compact disk, laser disk, optical disk, digital versatile disk, blu-ray disk, etc.), a magnetic disk storage medium or other magnetic storage device, etc.

It is noted that the memory 404 may exist separately from the processor 401 or may be integrated with the processor 401. Memory 404 may be used to store instructions or program code or some data, etc. Memory 404 may be located within device 400 or external to device 400, without limitation. The processor 401 is configured to execute instructions stored in the memory 404, so as to implement a device discovery method provided in the following embodiments of the present application.

In one example, processor 401 may include one or more CPUs, such as CPU0 and CPU1 in fig. 4.

As an alternative implementation, device 400 includes multiple processors, e.g., processor 407 may be included in addition to processor 401 in fig. 4.

As an alternative implementation, device 400 also includes an output device 405 and an input device 406. Illustratively, the input device 406 is a keyboard, mouse, microphone, or joystick device, and the output device 405 is a display screen, speaker (spaker), or the like.

It is noted that the device 400 may be a desktop, a laptop, a web server, a mobile handset, a tablet, a wireless terminal, an embedded device, a chip system, or a device having a similar structure as in fig. 4. Furthermore, the constituent structures shown in fig. 4 do not constitute limitations of the apparatus, and the apparatus may include more or less components than those shown in fig. 4, or may combine some components, or may be arranged in different components, in addition to those shown in fig. 4.

In the embodiment of the application, the chip system may be formed by a chip, and may also include a chip and other discrete devices.

Further, actions, terms, etc. referred to between embodiments of the present application may be referred to each other without limitation. In the embodiment of the present application, the name of the message or the name of the parameter in the message, etc. interacted between the devices are only an example, and other names may also be adopted in the specific implementation, and are not limited.

The embodiment of the application also provides a software system architecture. As shown in fig. 5, the software system architecture includes an Application (APP) layer 501, a Device Management (DM) module 502, a communication module 503, and a storage module 504.

The application layer 501 includes a series of application packages, such as applications for cameras, gallery, calendar, talk, map, navigation, bluetooth, music, video, short messages, etc.

The application layer 501 communicates with the device management module 502 via a device management interface (device manage application interface, DM API) 505.

A communication module 503, through which the device interacts with other devices. The communication module 503 may be embodied as a distributed soft bus (distributed softbus), for example. Devices may interact with other devices through a distributed soft bus, for example: and exchanging messages with other devices through the distributed soft bus. Illustratively, the message is a user data protocol (user datagram protocol, UDP) message. The communication module may also be a bluetooth module or the like.

A storage module 504 for storing some data and programs of the device. Wherein the data includes device information, user information, etc., and may be stored in a specific file. Illustratively, the device information includes a device identifier, a device manufacturer, a device model, etc., and the device information may be stored in a file such as a boot-up file; the user information using the device includes user account information for logging into the device, etc., and may also be stored in a specific file.

In this embodiment of the present application, when a device is used as a discovery device (i.e., a device that needs to discover other devices, a first device as described above), an application of the device application layer 501 designates information of a target device to be discovered as a feature value. Such as: for example, an application may read the value of the static tag, read the SN from the static tag, and call the DM to discover the second device of the SN. For another example, the application may also configure the UDID of the peripheral device (configurable by an administrator of the application) and then the APP initiates discovery for the particular UDID. The application of the application layer may then send the feature value to the device management module 502 through the DM API. The device management module 502 then sends the feature value to other devices via the communication module 503 (e.g., bluetooth). When the device is used as a discovered device (the second device described above), the device management module 502 can receive the discovery request message sent by the first device through the communication module, read the local information such as the device information and the user information from the storage module 504, and then compare the read local information with the feature value carried in the discovery request message to determine whether the device is the target device to be discovered by the first device. If the local machine is determined to be the target device, the local machine extracts a connection address (the connection address can be any one of Bluetooth, IP and MAC addresses) of the first device from a broadcasting head (header) sent by the first device, and establishes connection with the first device according to the connection address; or if the local device is determined to be the target device, the local device replies a response broadcast to the first device, wherein the broadcast carries the local device information, so that the local device information is transmitted back to the first device.

Alternatively, if a low-power device is included in the apparatus, a memory module may be disposed in the low-power device. In this way, after receiving the discovery request message of the other device, the device management module 502 may not need to be awakened, but the low-power device matches the characteristic value of the target device carried in the discovery request message with the local characteristic value.

In order to implement the method provided by the embodiment of the present application, the device in the embodiment of the present application may configure the first preset protocol and the second preset protocol in advance. Wherein when a certain device is a discovery device (the first device described above), the device may be preconfigured with a first preset protocol in order to support its functionality. When a certain device is a discovered device (the second device described above), the device may be preconfigured with a second preset protocol in order to support its functionality. In practical applications, a device is a discovery device in some scenarios and a discovered device in other scenarios. Thus, it is generally possible to configure the first preset protocol and the second preset protocol simultaneously in advance.

Optionally, in the embodiment of the present application, the first preset protocol is described as a short-path device discovery (short-path device discovery, SPDD) based protocol, which is an improvement on the existing discovery protocol, and some custom fields in the existing protocol are set. The existing discovery protocol may be, for example, bluetooth-low-energy (BLE) or constrained application protocol (constrained application protocol, coAP) or the like. The specific implementation of the protocols of BLE, coAP, etc. may refer to the prior art, and will not be described herein.

In one possible implementation, the first field in the first preset protocol includes a broadcast type and a feature code; the broadcast type is device discovery; the feature code is used for representing the type of the feature value; the second field of the first preset protocol includes the value of the characteristic value.

Illustratively, taking the example that the SPDD protocol is modified based on the BLE protocol, the capability (capability) field of the BLE protocol is set as follows:

TABLE 1

As shown in table 1, the SPDD protocol includes a capability filter field, where the value of the upper 2 bits of the field indicates a specific broadcast mode under a specific extension (in this case, device discovery) broadcast type, and only one specific mode can be sent at a time, where, for example, 00 indicates that a default discovery mode (for example, a discovery mode in the prior art) is adopted, and 01 indicates that a discovery mode provided by an embodiment of the present application is adopted; the lower 6 bits of the field indicate which feature is used to determine the device to be discovered (the feature code is described in the application), for example 000010 indicates that the device discovery is performed with the sn as the feature value, and the corresponding spdd serial number field is a specific value of the feature value; 000100 indicates that device discovery is performed by using the characteristic value of the udid, and the corresponding spdd udid number field is a specific value of the characteristic value; 001000 indicates that the device discovery is performed by using the feature value of account, and the corresponding spdd account number field is a specific value of the feature value. In addition, the characteristic value can be a device type, a device name, a login account, a service identifier and the like, and the discovery request message carried in the broadcast sent by the first device meets the format requirement of the protocol, wherein the characteristic value indicates that the matching is performed according to the characteristic value.

In some embodiments of the present application, some devices may forward a request message sent by a first device to other devices as proxy devices. These devices implement this function on the premise that they are specifically proxy functions, and therefore the protocol also provides a field for indicating whether the device is to turn on the proxy function. Illustratively, as shown in Table 1, the value of the spdd_discover_proxy field is used to indicate whether to initiate the proxy discovery function; when the value of the field is 0, the function of closing the proxy is represented, and when the value of the field is 1, the function of opening the proxy is represented.

The TLV field may be obtained by encrypting the device type, the device identifier, the device name, the service identifier, etc. by using an encryption algorithm such as hash.

In one possible implementation, the second device is configured with a second preset protocol; wherein, the first field in the second preset protocol comprises whether to start the proxy function; the second field includes the value of the characteristic value.

Illustratively, still taking the example that the SPDD protocol is an improvement over the BLE protocol, the second device needs to configure the following information:

TABLE 2

The descriptions of the various fields in table 2 are described above and will not be repeated here.

Note that each field in this table 2 is configured locally for the device.

The following describes a device discovery method provided in the embodiments of the present application in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. As shown in fig. 6, a device discovery method provided in an embodiment of the present application may include the following S601-S603.

S601, the first device sends a discovery request message to at least one second device. Accordingly, the second device receives the discovery request message from the first device.

Optionally, the number of the second devices is multiple, and then the first device sends a broadcast message to the multiple second devices, where the broadcast message is used to carry the request message.

The discovery request message includes a characteristic value of the target device acquired in advance by the first device. The feature value of the target device is used to represent a feature of a device (target device) to be discovered by the first device, for example, the device identifier is a certain identifier, the logged-in user account is a certain account, the vendor is a certain vendor, and the like. The device receiving the request message may match the local characteristic value with the characteristic value of the target device. The target device that matches the characteristic value may be one or more.

In some embodiments, the characteristic value is first device information; the first device information includes one or more of a device identification, a device type, a device name, user information logged into the device, and a service identification. Such as a Serial Number (SN) or unique device identification code (unique device identifier, UDID) of the device.

Illustratively, the target device has a static tag thereon that contains its characteristic value. The first device can read the characteristic value of the target device in the static tag through NFC (near field communication) bump, two-dimension code scanning, bluetooth approaching and other short-distance communication technologies.

The first device may obtain the feature value of the target device, or may directly input the feature value into the first device by the user. For example: the first device is provided with a multi-device collaborative application, a user opens the application, and a characteristic value of a target device to be found is input in an interface provided by the application, for example: the login account is account a. The embodiment of the application is not limited to a specific implementation manner that the first device obtains the characteristic value of the target device.

Note that, the method of the first device acquiring the feature value of the target device in advance is not limited to the above example, and the present application is not limited thereto.

Optionally, in the embodiment of the present application, a preset encryption algorithm may be used to encrypt a feature value of a device (for example, a Serial Number (SN) of the device, an international mobile equipment identification code (international mobile equipment identity, IMEI), etc.). The preset encryption algorithm may be, for example, encryption algorithms such as RSA3072, hmacSHA256, and the like. For example, when encryption is performed by using a certain encryption algorithm, a hash value (hash code) may be calculated for the SN of the device using the public key and the first X bytes of the public key provided by the encryption algorithm as parameters, and the first Y bytes of the calculated hash value may be taken as the unique identifier of the device. Because the hash value is not easy to identify and difficult to reversely analyze, the hash value is used as the unique identifier of the equipment, and the safety problems in the equipment discovery process and the connection process are improved.

S602, the second device matches the characteristic value of the target device in the received discovery request message with the characteristic value of the local device.

The second device reads the local characteristic value stored in the local file, and matches the characteristic value of the target device in the discovery request message with the local characteristic value. If the matching is successful, the second device is indicated to be the device which the first device wants to find, namely the target device. Then the second device performs S603 described below.

In some embodiments of the present application, the second device discards the discovery request message if the match fails.

Optionally, the second device is configured with a low power device, and then the local characteristic value may be stored in the low power device, and the step S602 and the subsequent steps are performed by the low power device. Therefore, the characteristic value matching by the low-power-consumption device can be realized under the condition that the equipment is free from waking up the processor, the time consumption is reduced, and the power consumption is reduced.

It should be noted that, as described above, the feature value in the embodiment of the present application may be device information, or may be obtained by encrypting the device information.

S603, the second device sends a response message to the first device. Accordingly, the first device receives a response message from the second device.

Wherein the response message includes second device information of the target device, i.e. the successfully matched second device. The second device that is successfully matched may directly reply to the response message, where the response message carries the device information of the local device, and the device information may include a device identifier and connection information, such as an IP address, a MAC address, and the like, which is not limited in this application.

In some embodiments of the present application, the second device may also establish a connection with the first device as the target device, and then exchange device information between the second device and the first device through the connection.

Specifically, the first request message includes connection information of the first device. By way of example, the connection information may be a bluetooth address, a network interconnection protocol (Internet protocol, IP), an ip+ port number, a media access control (media access control, MAC) address, etc. The manner of replying to the first device with the response message after the target device receives the first request message may include the following two ways:

first, the second device as a target device sends a connection request to the first device according to connection information of the first device. Correspondingly, the first device receives a connection request sent by the target device, and establishes a first connection with the target device according to the connection request. Further, the first device receives a first response message sent by the target device through the first connection; the first response message includes second device information of the target device.

Second, the second device sends a first response message to the first device as a target device according to the connection information of the first device, and the first device receives the first response message from the target device. The first response message is a connection request sent by the target device according to the connection information of the first device. The first response message includes second device information of the target device.

Through S602 and S603 described above, among the one or more second devices that receive the device discovery request message from the first device, only the second device that is successfully matched sends a response message to the first device, and the second device that is successfully matched is the target device to be discovered by the first device.

After that, the first device may read the device information, such as the connection information, in the response message, and the first device establishes a connection with the target device according to the connection information, and the specific implementation of the first device may refer to the prior art, which is not described herein.

It should be noted that, for convenience of description, the discovery request message in S601-S603 may also be described as the first request message in this application; wherein the response message is described as a first response message.

For example, as shown in fig. 7, the device a sends a device discovery request message (dashed line in the figure) to the surrounding devices, where the device discovery request message carries the characteristic value of the target device. After receiving the broadcast, the device B, the device C, the device D, the device E and the device F respectively match the received characteristic values of the target device with the characteristic values of the local device. Device B, device C, device D and device F match unsuccessfully and the broadcast is discarded. The successfully matched device E exchanges device information with device a (solid line in the figure).

Exemplary distributed clusters include mobile phones, intelligent refrigerators, televisions, PCs, intelligent air conditioners, intelligent speakers, and the like. The intelligent sound box is provided with a static tag, after the mobile phone scans the static tag, the mobile phone reads the equipment information contained in the tag on the intelligent sound box, wherein the equipment information is the SN of the intelligent sound box and does not contain the connection address of the intelligent sound box. Then, the mobile phone cannot be directly connected with the intelligent sound box, and then the mobile phone sends a broadcast to each device in the distributed cluster, wherein the broadcast carries the SN of the intelligent sound box. After each device receives the broadcast, the SN in the broadcast is matched with the SN of the local device. After matching, the intelligent refrigerator, television, PC all fail to match, and these devices discard the broadcast. Only the intelligent sound box is successfully matched, the intelligent sound box sends a response message to the mobile phone, and the response message carries the equipment information of the mobile phone, such as a connection address and the like. After receiving the response message, the mobile phone establishes connection with the intelligent sound box only to complete the equipment discovery process.

Exemplary distributed clusters include mobile phones, intelligent refrigerators, televisions, PCs, intelligent air conditioners, intelligent speakers, and the like. The login accounts of the mobile phone, the PC and the television are all account A, the login account of the intelligent air conditioner is account B, and the login account of the intelligent sound box is account C. If user a wants to interact with other devices that the user is logged on to through the handset, the handset needs to discover the PC and television first. By adopting the method of the embodiment of the application, the mobile phone sends the broadcast to all the devices in the distributed cluster, and the characteristic value carried in the broadcast is account A. After each device receives the broadcast, the broadcast is discarded because the login account of the intelligent air conditioner and the intelligent sound box is not account A. The television and the PC send response information to the mobile phone, wherein the response information comprises equipment information of the mobile phone, the mobile phone can read the equipment information and respectively establish connection with the television and the PC, and the equipment discovery process is completed.

In the embodiment of the present application, the device discovery request message sent by the first device carries the characteristic value of the target device, the second device matches the characteristic value of the target device with the characteristic value of the local device, and only the second device that is successfully matched sends a response message to the first device, so that the first device can be prevented from establishing connection with the non-target device. In the prior art, for each device receiving the broadcast, the first device needs to exchange device information with the first device and establish a connection, which takes a long time. The method provided by the application can reduce the time consumption of device discovery.

In addition, as described above, if the second device has a low power device, the matching process can be performed on the low power device, so that the processor of the device is not awakened, which can further reduce the time consumption and reduce the power consumption.

In some scenarios, the first device and the target device cannot be directly connected, that is, the discovery request message sent by the first device cannot directly reach the target device, and proxy forwarding is required through the proxy device. In this scenario, a distributed device cluster includes a first device, a second device, and a third device. The first device and the third device cannot be directly connected, the first device and the second device, and the second device and the third device located in the same subnet can be directly connected, and the connection mode comprises Bluetooth connection, WIFI connection, ethernet connection, PLC and the like. In this scenario, some or all of the second devices may act as proxy devices, and the second devices acting as proxy devices may forward the discovery request message sent by the first device to a third device that is located within the same subnet as the second device. For example, devices A, B, C, D, E, F, G are included in a distributed cluster, where devices B, C and D are located on the same subnet and E, F, G are located on the same subnet. A. B, E may be in communication with each other. Then, if a wants to discover device C as the first device, a cannot directly send a discovery request message sent in a broadcast manner to C, but a sends the discovery request message to B, which forwards the discovery request message to C and D as proxy devices.

Based on this scenario, as shown in fig. 8, the device discovery method provided in the embodiment of the present application specifically includes the following steps:

s801, the first device sends a first request message to the second device. Accordingly, the second device receives the first request message from the first device,

wherein the first request message includes a characteristic value of the target device.

The specific implementation of this step may refer to S601, which is not described herein.

S802, the second device matches the characteristic value of the target device with the characteristic value of the local device.

Specific implementation of this step may refer to S602 described above, and will not be described here again.

The second device performs S803 if the match is successful.

Further, if the first request message indicates that the first request message is forwarded through the proxy, the second device turns on the proxy function, and the second device acts as a proxy device, forwarding the discovery request message to the other device (described herein as a third device). After the second device receives the first request message sent by the first device, the second device directly forwards the first request message to a third device located in the same subnet as the second device when the first request message indicates that the request message is forwarded to other devices through the proxy and the second device determines to start the proxy function. I.e. the second device also performs S804-S807 described below.

S803, the second device sends a first response message to the first device; the first response message includes second device information of the target device.

The specific implementation process of this step may refer to S603, which is not described herein.

S804, the second device sends a second request message to a third device which is positioned in the same subnet as the second device under the condition that the second device determines to start the proxy function.

Wherein the second request message also includes the characteristic value of the target device. Optionally, the second request message may further include connection information of the second device, and the like.

The second device may send the second request message by broadcasting, for example.

Wherein the second device checks locally whether the proxy discovery configuration item is configured and whether the proxy discovery service is in an on state. The started proxy function is determined in a state where the proxy discovery service of the second device is started.

And S805, the third device matches the characteristic value of the target device in the received second request message with the characteristic value of the local device.

If the match is successful, the third device is the target device, and thus S806 described below is performed, and if the match fails, the third device discards the second request message.

S806, the third device sends the second device information to the second device. Accordingly, the second device receives second device information of the third device.

In this embodiment, the second device referred to in this step may also be described as the target second device. The target second device refers to a second device that is located within the same subnet as the target device.

And in the one or more third devices in the first request message received from the second device, only the third device which is successfully matched sends out a response message to the second device, and the third device which is successfully matched is the target device to be found by the first device.

S807, the second device transmits a third response message to the first device. Accordingly, the first device receives a third response message from the second device.

Wherein the third response message comprises second device information of the target device, such as a device identification, a connection address, etc.

In some embodiments, the third device that successfully matches may directly reply to the third response message (including the second device information of the third device) and be directly forwarded by the second device to the first device; or after a connection is established between the second device and the first device, the connection is forwarded to the first device.

In other embodiments, the third device that is successfully matched may also establish a connection with the second device as the target device, where the second device establishes a connection with the first device. The third device exchanges device information with the first device via the second device. That is, as shown in fig. 9, S806 and S807 can be implemented as the following steps:

and S901, the target equipment sends a second response message to the second equipment, and correspondingly, the second equipment receives the second response message.

The second response message is a connection response message sent by the target device according to the connection information of the second device, and is used for establishing connection with the second device.

S902, the second device establishes a first connection with the first device and establishes a second connection with the target device.

S903, the second device receives a third request message of the first device through the first connection, and forwards the third request message to the target device through the second connection; wherein the second request message is used for requesting information of the target device.

S904, the second device receives, through the second connection, second device information (described as device information in the figure) sent by the target device.

S905, the second device sends a third response message to the first device through the first connection.

It should be noted that, the present application does not limit the sequence of the process of executing the feature value matching by the second device and the process of executing the feature value matching by the third device. That is, the present application does not limit the order in which the processes of S804-S807 are performed and the process of S802 is performed.

The second device replies a response message to the first device if the second device successfully matches its own characteristic value and/or if the characteristic value of one or more third devices located in the same subnet as the second device successfully matches the characteristic value of the target device.

In other embodiments of the present application, if the feature value is an identifier of a specific device, such as a device identifier, and the like, the second device executes S802, after matching the local feature value with the feature value of the target device, which indicates that the second device is the target device, and does not need to forward to other devices in the subnet, that is, S804-S807 may be executed when the second device fails to match the local feature value with the feature value of the target device.

In fig. 8 and fig. 9, 1 second device and 1 subnet composed of three third devices are taken as an example. In practical applications, there may be a plurality of second devices, some of which may be located in the same subnet as the third device as the proxy device, and some of which are not connected to the third device. The second device, acting as a proxy device, then performs the above-described procedure.

The mobile phone and the tablet are in a network a, and the tablet and the bluetooth headset are directly connected through bluetooth (network B), so if the mobile phone needs to access the bluetooth headset, the mobile phone and the bluetooth headset cannot be directly connected, at this time, the mobile phone can be used as an intermediate proxy device through the tablet, namely, the mobile phone establishes connection with the tablet first, and the tablet and the bluetooth headset establish connection again, so that the tablet proxy forwards the discovery broadcast of the mobile phone, forwards and returns the broadcast message, and forwards and returns the connection transmission, thereby realizing the penetration of the subnet, and enabling the mobile phone to discover the bluetooth headset not in the same subnet.

In the method provided in the second embodiment of the present application, the first device may discover the service through the proxy of the second device, so as to expand the range of discovering the device, and discover the target device located in a different subnet with the first device, so that the device discovery technical scheme may cope with a more realistic and complex networking environment, and implement a more universal device discovery capability.

The device discovery method provided by the embodiment of the application is described in detail above. The screen projection device provided by the embodiment of the application is described in detail below.

In one possible design, fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of a first device according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 10, the first device 1000 may include: a transceiver unit 1001 and a processing unit 1002.

Alternatively, the transceiver unit 1001 is configured to support the first device 1000 to execute S601 and S603 in fig. 6; s801 and S803 in fig. 8. A processing unit 1002, configured to support the first device 1000 to execute S902 in fig. 9.

The transceiver unit may include a receiving unit and a transmitting unit, may be implemented by a transceiver or a transceiver related circuit component, and may be a transceiver or a transceiver module. The operations and/or functions of each unit in the first device 1000 are respectively for implementing the corresponding flow of the device discovery method described in the above method embodiment, and all relevant contents of each step related to the above method embodiment may be referred to the functional description of the corresponding functional unit, which is not repeated herein for brevity.

Alternatively, the first device 1000 shown in fig. 10 may further include a storage unit (not shown in fig. 10) in which a program or instructions are stored. When the transceiver unit 1001 and the processing unit 1002 execute the program or instructions, the first device 1000 shown in fig. 10 is enabled to execute the device discovery method described in the above-described method embodiment.

The technical effects of the first device 1000 shown in fig. 10 may refer to the technical effects of the device discovery method described in the above method embodiment, and will not be described herein.

In addition to the form of the first device 1000, the technical solution provided in the present application may also be a functional unit or a chip in the first device, or a device used in cooperation with the first device.

In one possible design, fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of a second apparatus according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 11, the second device 1100 may include: a transceiving unit 1101 and a processing unit 1102.

Optionally, the transceiver 1101 is configured to support the second device 1100 to perform S601 and S603 in fig. 6, S801, S803, S804, S806, S807 in fig. 8, and S901, S903, S904 in fig. 9.

Optionally, the processing unit 1102 is configured to support the second device 1100 to perform S602 in fig. 6, S802 in fig. 8, and S902 in fig. 9.

The transceiver unit may include a receiving unit and a transmitting unit, may be implemented by a transceiver or a transceiver related circuit component, and may be a transceiver or a transceiver module. The operations and/or functions of each unit in the second device 1100 are respectively for implementing the corresponding flow of the device discovery method described in the above method embodiment, and all relevant contents of each step related to the above method embodiment may be referred to the functional description of the corresponding functional unit, which is not repeated herein for brevity.

Optionally, the second device 1100 shown in fig. 11 may further include a storage unit (not shown in fig. 11) in which a program or instructions are stored. The transceiver unit 1101 and the processing unit 1102, when executing the program or instructions, enable the second device 1100 shown in fig. 11 to perform the device discovery method described in the above-described method embodiment.

The technical effects of the second device 1100 shown in fig. 11 may refer to the technical effects of the device discovery method described in the above method embodiment, and will not be described herein.

In addition to the form of the second device 1100, the technical solution provided in the present application may also be a functional unit or a chip in the second device, or a device used in cooperation with the second device.

In one possible design, fig. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of a third apparatus according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 12, the third device 1200 may include: a transceiver unit 1201 and a processing unit 1202. The third device 1200 may be used to implement the functionality of the devices in the trusted group that have established a screen-drop connection with the peer device as referred to in the method embodiments described above.

Alternatively, the transceiver unit 1201 is configured to support the third device 1200 to perform S804 and S806 in fig. 8, and S901 and S904 in fig. 9.

Optionally, the processing unit 1202 is configured to support the third device 1200 to execute S805 in fig. 8.

The transceiver unit may include a receiving unit and a transmitting unit, may be implemented by a transceiver or a transceiver related circuit component, and may be a transceiver or a transceiver module. The operations and/or functions of each unit in the third device 1200 may be referred to as a functional description of a corresponding functional unit for brevity, so that corresponding flows of the device discovery method described in the above method embodiments are implemented, and details of all relevant steps related to the above method embodiments are not repeated herein.

Optionally, the third device 1200 shown in fig. 12 may further include a storage unit (not shown in fig. 12) in which a program or instructions are stored. When the transceiving unit 1201 and the processing unit 1202 execute the program or instructions, the third device 1200 shown in fig. 12 is enabled to execute the device discovery method described in the above-described method embodiment.

The technical effects of the third device 1200 shown in fig. 12 may refer to the technical effects of the device discovery method described in the above method embodiment, and will not be described herein.

In addition to the form of the third device 1200, the technical solution provided in the present application may also be a functional unit or a chip in the third device, or a device matched with the third device for use.

The embodiment of the application also provides a chip system, which comprises: a processor coupled to a memory for storing programs or instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the system-on-a-chip to implement the method of any of the method embodiments described above.

Alternatively, the processor in the system-on-chip may be one or more. The processor may be implemented in hardware or in software. When implemented in hardware, the processor may be a logic circuit, an integrated circuit, or the like. When implemented in software, the processor may be a general purpose processor, implemented by reading software code stored in a memory.

Alternatively, the memory in the system-on-chip may be one or more. The memory may be integrated with the processor or may be separate from the processor, and embodiments of the present application are not limited. For example, the memory may be a non-transitory processor, such as a ROM, which may be integrated on the same chip as the processor, or may be separately disposed on different chips, and the type of memory and the manner of disposing the memory and the processor in the embodiments of the present application are not specifically limited.

Illustratively, the chip system may be a field programmable gate array (field programmable gate array, FPGA), an application specific integrated chip (AP device plication specific integrated circuit, ASIC), a system on chip (SoC), a central processor (central processor unit, CPU), a network processor (network processor, NP), a digital signal processing circuit (digital signal processor, DSP), a microcontroller (micro controller unit, MCU), a programmable controller (programmable logic device, PLD) or other integrated chip.

It should be understood that the steps in the above-described method embodiments may be accomplished by integrated logic circuitry in hardware in a processor or instructions in the form of software. The steps of a method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present application may be embodied directly in a hardware processor or in a combination of hardware and software modules in a processor.

The present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium having a computer program stored therein, which when run on a computer causes the computer to perform the above-described related steps to implement the device discovery method in the above-described embodiments.

The present application also provides a computer program product which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the above-mentioned related steps to implement the device discovery method in the above-mentioned embodiments.

In addition, the embodiment of the application also provides a device. The apparatus may be a component or module in particular, and may comprise one or more processors and memory coupled. Wherein the memory is for storing a computer program. The computer program, when executed by one or more processors, causes an apparatus to perform the device discovery method in the method embodiments described above.

Wherein an apparatus, a computer-readable storage medium, a computer program product, or a chip provided by embodiments of the present application are each configured to perform the corresponding method provided above. Therefore, the advantages achieved by the method can be referred to as the advantages in the corresponding method provided above, and will not be described herein.

The steps of a method or algorithm described in connection with the disclosure of the embodiments disclosed herein may be embodied in hardware, or may be embodied in software instructions executed by a processor. The software instructions may be comprised of corresponding software modules that may be stored in random access memory (random access memory, RAM), flash memory, read Only Memory (ROM), erasable programmable read only memory (erasable programmable ROM), electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM), registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a compact disc read only memory (CD-ROM), or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor such the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integral to the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an application specific integrated circuit (AP device plication specific integrated circuit, ASIC).

From the foregoing description of the embodiments, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the foregoing functional block divisions are merely illustrative for convenience and brevity of description. In practical application, the above functions can be allocated by different functional modules according to the need; i.e. the internal structure of the device is divided into different functional modules to perform all or part of the functions described above. The specific working processes of the above-described systems, devices and units may refer to the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments, which are not described herein.

In the several embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed methods may be implemented in other ways. The device embodiments described above are merely illustrative. For example, the division of the modules or units is only one logic function division, and other division modes can be adopted when the modules or units are actually implemented; for example, multiple units or components may be combined or may be integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not performed. In addition, the coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed with each other may be through some interface, module or unit indirect coupling or communication connection, which may be electrical, mechanical or other form.

In addition, each functional unit in each embodiment of the present application may be integrated in one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units may be integrated in one unit. The integrated units may be implemented in hardware or in software functional units.

Computer readable storage media include, but are not limited to, any of the following: a U-disk, a removable hard disk, a read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (random access memory, RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk, or other various media capable of storing program codes.

The foregoing is merely a specific embodiment of the present application, but the protection scope of the present application is not limited thereto, and any changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the present disclosure should be covered in the protection scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A device discovery method, characterized by being applied in a system comprising a first device and at least one second device; the method comprises the following steps:

the first device sending a first request message to the at least one second device; the first request message comprises a characteristic value of the target device; the characteristic value of the target device is used for matching the characteristic value of the local device with the characteristic value of the target device by the device receiving the first request message;

The first device receives a response message from the target device; the response message is sent by the target device after the characteristic value in the first request message is successfully matched with the characteristic value of the target device; the response message includes second device information of the target device.

2. The device discovery method of claim 1, wherein the number of second devices is a plurality; the first device sending a first request message to the at least one second device, comprising:

the first device sends broadcast messages to the plurality of second devices, wherein the broadcast messages are used for bearing the first request messages.

3. The device discovery method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the target device is one of the at least one second device.

4. The device discovery method according to claim 3, wherein the first request message includes connection information of the first device; the first device receiving a response message from the target device, comprising:

the first equipment receives a connection request sent by the target equipment according to the connection information of the first equipment;

The first device establishes a first connection with the target device according to the connection request;

the first device receives a first response message sent by the target device through the first connection; the first response message includes second device information of the target device;

or,

the first device receives a first response message from the target device; the first response message is a connection request sent by the target device according to the connection information of the first device; the first response message includes second device information of the target device.

5. The device discovery method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the system further comprises at least one third device; the system includes at least one subnet; each subnet comprises a second device and a third device; the first device communicates with a third device located in a subnet through the second device; the target device is a third device;

the first device receiving a response message from the target device, comprising:

the first equipment receives a third response message sent by the target second equipment; the target second device is a second device in a subnet where the target device is located; the third response message includes second device information of the target device.

6. The device discovery method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the characteristic value is first device information; the first device information includes one or more of a device identification, a device type, a device name, user information logged into the device, and a service identification.

7. The device discovery method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the first device is configured with a first preset protocol; wherein, a first field in the first preset protocol comprises a broadcast type and a feature code; the broadcast type is device discovery; the feature code is used for representing the type of the feature value; the second field of the first preset protocol includes the value of the characteristic value.

8. A device discovery method, characterized by being applied in a system comprising a first device and at least one second device; the method comprises the following steps:

the second device receives a first request message from the first device, wherein the first request message comprises a characteristic value of a target device;

if the characteristic value of the target equipment is successfully matched with the characteristic value of the local equipment, the second equipment sends a first response message to the first equipment; the first response message includes second device information of the target device.

9. The device discovery method of claim 8, wherein the number of second devices is a plurality; the second device receiving a first request message from the first device, comprising:

the second device receives a broadcast message from the first device, wherein the broadcast message carries the first request message.

10. The device discovery method according to claim 9, wherein the first request message includes connection information of the first device; the second device sending a first response message to the first device, comprising:

the second device establishes a first connection with the first device according to the connection information of the first device;

the second device sends the first response message to the first device through the first connection;

or,

the second device sends the first response message to the first device according to the connection information of the first device, wherein the first response message is used for establishing first connection with the first device.

11. The device discovery method according to claim 8 or 9, wherein the system further comprises at least one third device; the system includes at least one subnet; each subnet comprises a second device and a third device; the first device communicates with a third device located in a subnet through the second device; after the second device receives the first request message from the first device, the method further comprises:

The second device sends a second request message to a third device which is positioned in the same subnet as the second device under the condition that the second device determines to start the proxy function, wherein the second request message comprises the characteristic value of the target device;

if the second equipment information of the target equipment is acquired, the second equipment sends a third response message to the first equipment; wherein the third response message includes second device information of the target device; and the second equipment information of the target equipment is the characteristic value of the local equipment, which is determined by a third equipment positioned in the same subnet as the second equipment, is matched with the characteristic value of the target equipment, and then the second equipment information is sent to the second equipment by the target equipment.

12. The device discovery method of claim 11, wherein the number of third devices located within the same subnet as the second device is a plurality; the sending a second request message to the at least one third device located within the same subnet as the second device includes:

13. The device discovery method according to claim 12, wherein the second request message includes connection information of the second device; and if the second device information of the target device is acquired, the second device sends the third response message to the first device, including:

if a second response message from the target equipment is received, the second equipment establishes a first connection with the first equipment and establishes a second connection with the target equipment; the second response message is a connection response message sent by the target device according to the connection information of the second device, and is used for establishing connection with the second device;

receiving a third request message of the first device through the first connection, wherein the third request message is used for requesting information of the target device;

forwarding the third request message to the target device through the second connection and receiving second device information of the target device, which is sent by the target device;

and sending the third response message to the first device through the first connection.

14. The device discovery method according to any one of claims 8 to 13, wherein the second device includes a low power consumption device therein; and the low-power consumption device stores the characteristic value of the machine.

15. The device discovery method according to any one of claims 8 to 14, wherein the characteristic value is first device information; the first device information includes one or more of a device identification, a device type, a device name, user information logged into the device, and a service identification.

16. The device discovery method according to any one of claims 8 to 15, wherein the second device is configured with a second preset protocol; wherein, the first field in the second preset protocol comprises whether to start the proxy function; the second field includes the value of the characteristic value.

17. A device discovery method, characterized by being applied in a system comprising a first device, at least one second device and at least one third device; wherein the system comprises at least one subnet; each subnet comprises a second device and a third device; the first device communicates with a third device located in a subnet through the second device; the method comprises the following steps:

a third device receives a second request message from the second device in the same subnet; the second request message includes a characteristic value of the target device;

And if the characteristic value of the target equipment is successfully matched with the characteristic value of the local equipment, the third equipment sends second equipment information of the target equipment to the second equipment.

18. The device discovery method of claim 17, wherein the number of third devices is a plurality; the third device receiving a second request message from the second device within the same subnet, comprising:

and the third device receives a broadcast message from the second device in the same subnet, wherein the broadcast message is used for bearing the second request message.

19. The device discovery method according to claim 17 or 18, wherein the second request message includes connection information of the second device; and if the characteristic value of the target device is successfully matched with the characteristic value of the local device, the third device sends second device information of the target device to the second device, including:

if the characteristic value of the target device is successfully matched with the characteristic value of the local device, the third device sends a second response message to the second device according to the connection information of the second device; the second response message is a connection response message sent by the target device according to the connection information of the second device, and is used for establishing connection with the second device;

The third device establishes a second connection with the second device;

the third device receives a third request message sent by the second device through the second connection, wherein the third request message is used for acquiring second device information of the third device;

and the third device sends second device information of the third device to the second device through the second connection.

20. A device discovery system comprising a first device and at least one second device; wherein,

the first device is configured to send a first request message to the at least one second device; the first request message comprises a characteristic value of the target device; the characteristic value of the target device is used for matching the characteristic value of the local device with the characteristic value of the target device by the device receiving the first request message;

the second device is configured to receive a first request message from the first device;

the second device is further configured to send a first response message to the first device if the characteristic value of the target device matches the characteristic value of the local device successfully; the first response message includes second device information of the target device.

21. The device discovery system of claim 20, further comprising at least one third device therein; the system includes at least one subnet; each subnet comprises a second device and a third device; the first device communicates with a third device located in a subnet through the second device;

the second device is further configured to send a second request message to a third device that is located in the same subnet as the second device, where the second request message includes a feature value of the target device, where the second request message is determined to open a proxy function;

22. An electronic device, comprising: a processor and a memory coupled to the processor, the memory for storing computer readable instructions that, when read from the memory by the processor, cause the electronic device to perform the method of any of claims 1-7.

23. An electronic device, comprising: a processor and a memory coupled to the processor, the memory for storing computer readable instructions that, when read from the memory by the processor, cause the electronic device to perform the method of any of claims 8-16.

24. An electronic device, comprising: a processor and a memory coupled to the processor, the memory for storing computer readable instructions that, when read from the memory by the processor, cause the electronic device to perform the method of any of claims 17-19.

25. A computer readable storage medium, characterized in that the computer readable storage medium comprises a computer program which, when run on an electronic device, causes the electronic device to perform the method of any one of claims 1-7; or cause the electronic device to perform the method of any one of claims 8-16; or cause the electronic device to perform the method of any one of claims 17-19.

26. A computer program product, characterized in that the computer program product, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method according to any of claims 1-7; alternatively, the computer is caused to perform the method of any of claims 8-16; alternatively, the computer is caused to perform the method of any of claims 17-19.