Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L67/00—Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications
  • H04L67/50—Network services
  • H04L67/51—Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
  • G06F1/00—Details not covered by groups G06F3/00 - G06F13/00 and G06F21/00
  • G06F1/26—Power supply means, e.g. regulation thereof
  • G06F1/32—Means for saving power
  • G06F1/3203—Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
  • G06F1/3206—Monitoring of events, devices or parameters that trigger a change in power modality
  • G06F1/3209—Monitoring remote activity, e.g. over telephone lines or network connections
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L12/00—Data switching networks
  • H04L12/28—Data switching networks characterised by path configuration, e.g. LAN [Local Area Networks] or WAN [Wide Area Networks]
  • H04L12/2803—Home automation networks
  • H04L12/2807—Exchanging configuration information on appliance services in a home automation network
  • H04L12/2812—Exchanging configuration information on appliance services in a home automation network describing content present in a home automation network, e.g. audio video content
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L67/00—Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications
  • H04L67/01—Protocols
  • H04L67/10—Protocols in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network
  • H04L67/1097—Protocols in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L67/00—Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications
  • H04L67/50—Network services
  • H04L67/56—Provisioning of proxy services
  • H04L67/59—Providing operational support to end devices by off-loading in the network or by emulation, e.g. when they are unavailable
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
  • H04N21/20—Servers specifically adapted for the distribution of content, e.g. VOD servers; Operations thereof
  • H04N21/23—Processing of content or additional data; Elementary server operations; Server middleware
  • H04N21/24—Monitoring of processes or resources, e.g. monitoring of server load, available bandwidth, upstream requests
  • H04N21/2408—Monitoring of the upstream path of the transmission network, e.g. client requests
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
  • H04N21/20—Servers specifically adapted for the distribution of content, e.g. VOD servers; Operations thereof
  • H04N21/23—Processing of content or additional data; Elementary server operations; Server middleware
  • H04N21/241—Operating system [OS] processes, e.g. server setup

Definitions

• Method and device for providing content stored on a server in energy saver mode.
• the present invention relates to a method for making content available, stored on a server in energy saver mode.
• Equipment and content servers including multimedia, communicate, today, through communication networks allowing a user to access these contents without having to intervene directly on these servers.
• the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) standard provides interoperability between equipment from different vendors to implement content availability features on these networks. on multimedia servers, content playback (reader and content viewer), or discovery and control of lists of equipment connected to the network and contents stored on these servers, by control points of these networks.
• DLNA Digital Living Network Alliance
• the DLNA standard allows the deployment of a distributed networked system in which it is necessary for each equipment to signal itself.
• any server, carrier of UPnP services that leaves the network sees its services deleted from the lists managed by the control points of the network, either because a time limit occurs, or because this server leaving the network has generated a start message, related to UPnP or not, or because a message to this server does not receive a response.
• the system loses all traces of the existence of this server and the contents it stores.
• the continuity of distributed multimedia services is therefore based on the permanent availability of the servers, thus preventing any deep standby mode of these servers and generating a significant power consumption, even if the multimedia service is not used.
• TwonkyServer allows a server to present the content of other servers in the same subnet.
• This solution presents contents to a user by masking the presence of the different servers via the use of an aggregator, which is only one of the servers of the network which is in charge of presenting to the user his own contents but also those of other servers.
• This role of aggregator is maintained by making either a copy of the contents or a copy of the references on the server designated as aggregator.
• the physical copy of the contents on the aggregator makes it possible to offer a high availability to the contents but with an important additional cost in storage space because the aggregator is mirror for all the other servers.
• the role of aggregator can also be held by presenting to the user references, said original of these contents. These original references make it possible to identify the servers of the network on which these contents are stored and make it possible to access these contents on these servers thus identified.
• the aggregation of the references of the contents on the aggregator avoids a copy of the contents on the aggregator.
• Such a method of referencing follows the functioning of the DLNA standard, that is to say that the original references of the contents which are stored on servers disconnected from the network are erased from the aggregator, either because these servers leave the network, either because a time limit expires, or because these servers leaving the network have generated a start message (related to UPnP or not), or because a message to these servers does not receive a response.
• This method of referencing is not suitable for servers to operate in a standby mode because in this case their contents are no longer available.
• the problem solved by the present invention is to allow continuity of access to content referenced and stored on servers of a server network while allowing these servers to operate in sleep mode.
• the original reference of each content likely to be made available to a device of this network is associated information, called local reference.
• These local and original references are stored by one of the servers of this network, said aggregator, which allows the servers that host the referenced content, to stand by and not be awakened by another element of the network, which can be the aggregator itself, only when access to one of its contents is requested.
• a device makes a request to list the contents stored by all the servers connected to this network as well as their associated local references. This list of contents can then be presented to a user of this equipment: each of these contents is then associated with an association between an original reference and a local reference and regardless of the state of operation of these servers (awake or in Eve).
• a request is formed which contains a local reference and the equipment sends this request to the aggregator.
• This aggregator receives the request from which it extracts the local reference of the required content, finds the original reference of this content from this local reference, wakes up the server identified by this original reference and transmits the original reference to the equipment for this equipment is redirected to the server that stores the requested content.
• the present invention relates to a method of making available content stored on a server of a server network in which one of these servers, said aggregator, presents to an equipment contents which are stored on servers of this network, each content being accessible by the equipment from information stored by the aggregator, called original reference, which identifies the server on which this content is stored and which allows to access this content on this server thus identified.
• the method is characterized in that it comprises the following steps:
• the original reference which is associated with a local reference present in a content request sent by a device and received by the aggregator
• the wake-up message is sent either directly to the server which stores the content associated with the original reference thus obtained, or to an entity of the network capable of transmitting, in its turn, a message of wake up to the server that stores the content associated with the original reference thus obtained.
• the original reference thus obtained is sent by the aggregator to the equipment only once the server which stores the required content responds to the message sent by the aggregator during the wake up step.
• the original reference thus obtained is sent by the aggregator to the equipment only once the server, which stores the required content, responds to the message sent by the aggregator during the waking step. . Indeed, the method then ensures that the equipment that required the content can access it because the server that stores it is no longer in standby.
• the step of storing the process is preceded by a step of discovering the equipment on the network during which the equipment connected to the network, those leaving this network and those who are newly connected to the network.
• network are signaled to the other equipment of the network, equipment discovery step which is followed by the storage step so that is memorized an association between the original reference of each multimedia content of each server thus discovered and a local reference.
• the step of storing the process is preceded by a step of discovering services specific to the management of the energy states of the equipment of the network, during which it is established which servers have the capacity to change the operating mode when they are connected, and during which the wakeup methods of each of these servers are stored by the aggregator or other equipment of the network in charge of the alarm clock, these methods of waking being then used during the waking stage.
• an association is memorized between the original reference of each multimedia content of a server thus discovered and a local reference only if this server has the capacity to change the operating mode.
• the invention also relates to a computer program, which can be stored on a medium and / or downloaded from a communication network, in order to be read by a computer system or a processor.
• This computer program includes instructions for implementing the method mentioned above, when said program is executed by the computer system or processor.
• the invention also relates to storage means comprising such a computer program and a device comprising means for implementing the method above.
• Fig. 1 shows an example of a schematic of a communication system that implements a content delivery method according to the present invention.
• Fig. 2 is a diagram of a variant of the method of FIG. 1.
• FIG. 3 is a diagram of another variant of the method of FIG. 1.
• FIG. 4 schematically illustrates the architecture of a device which implements, at least partially, the method of FIG. 1.
• the system comprises at least one multimedia content server, in this case SI and S2.
• the server SI stores multimedia contents COI and C02 while the server S2 stores multimedia content C03.
• the system also includes a device P, typically equipment used by a user to view multimedia content such as a computer or a smartphone.
• This equipment in a mode involving UPnP / DLNA, is a control point that can be hosted by any network entity including one of the servers or the equipment that the user uses to request a multimedia content stored on one of the servers SI or S2.
• the system also includes a server A, which is subsequently called the aggregator, to indicate that in addition to being able to perform the conventional functions of a multimedia content server, it includes particular means for implementing the present invention.
• the aggregator A comprises means for presenting to a user the contents stored by the servers S1 and S2. When these contents are multimedia type, they are presented in the form, for example, of a list of titles of these contents or illustrations representing the covers of these contents. Whatever its visual representation and the means used by the user to select a content from its representation visual, each visual representation, once selected, allows the aggregator A to know the original reference of this requested content.
• the servers S1, S2, the aggregator A and the equipment P communicate with each other via a communication network NET or a local wireless or wireless network.
• This system is only an example given for illustrative purposes and does not limit the scope of the invention which extends to networks having more than two content servers, several P equipment or any type of local network or not.
• Each content is associated with information memorized by the aggregator A, referred to as the original reference, which identifies the server on which this content is stored and which makes it possible to access this content on this server thus identified.
• an original reference RI is associated with the content COI, an original reference R2 to C02 and an original reference R3 to C03.
• protocol indicates the communication protocol used to access the content
• addresslP _MD is the address or the machine name and optionally the port
• server on which the content is stored and the path specifies the access on the server to the server. content.
• the method of providing multimedia content stored on a server, in this case S2 of the network of servers NET, comprises a step 1 of storage, by the aggregator A, for each content stored on a server of the network, information, called local reference, in association with the original reference of this content.
• the aggregator stores a local reference for each content stored on the same server.
• content stored on some servers in the network may not be associated with local references.
• the content C03, stored on the server S2 can be associated with a local reference RL3, then stored in association with the original reference R3 and the contents CO1 and C02, stored on the server SI are not associated with references local.
• a local reference is, for example, a URL of the protocol ty pe: // addresslP _ML / fruct.aggregated.
• protocol indicates the communication protocol used to access the content
• addresselP _ML indicates that the content is stored locally
• path specifies access on the server to content
• .aggregated is a flag that distinguishes a local reference from an original reference.
• this local reference has a form or has an indicator (a flag) that allows the aggregator to distinguish it from an original reference.
• the associations between the original references and the local references are stored in a table T1, illustrated in FIG. 1, and the associations between local references and the IP and MAC addresses of the servers SI and S2 are stored in a table T2.
• the tables T1 and T2 may possibly be combined together to form a single table.
• Each content stored on servers is thus associated with its original reference and a local reference.
• the aggregator returns the list of content stored by all servers connected to this network and their associated local references.
• This list of contents can then be presented to a user of this equipment. This user can then request one of these contents, for example the content C03.
• the request which then comprises the local reference relating to this required content, in this case RL3, is sent by the equipment P to the aggregator A (step 2).
• the method then continues with a step of obtaining 3 among the original references stored by the aggregator A of the original reference, in this case R3, which is associated with the local reference RL3.
• the method continues with a step 4 of waking up this server by the aggregator A during which the aggregator sends a message called wake up to the server which stores the content associated with the original reference thus obtained.
• this wake-up message is sent directly to the server which stores the content associated with the original reference thus obtained, and according to another variant, this wake-up message is sent to an entity of the network capable of transmitting, in turn, a wake-up message to the server that stores the content associated with the original reference thus obtained.
• a so-called wake-up packet such as the "ethernet packet magic" protocol called Wake On Lan (WOL)
• WOL Wake On Lan
• Aggregator A retrieves the IP address and / or MAC of this server from the table T2 then referenced by the local reference associated with the required content.
• the awakening step is followed by a transmission step 5, by the aggregator A and to the equipment P, of the original reference R3 thus obtained.
• HTTP REDIRECT method standardized by the W3C organization in RFC2616 entitled "Hypertext Transfer Protocol - HTTP / 1.1" can be used. This method makes it possible, in general, during a request by a device on an entity, to redirect this equipment to another entity.
• the equipment P then considers this original reference R3 and is thus redirected to the server S2 which stores the required content C03.
• the original reference is issued by the aggregator A to the equipment P following the wakeup step.
• the original reference is sent by the aggregator A to the equipment P only once the server that stores the required content responds to a message sent by the aggregator following the wakeup step.
• an ICMP echo request (PING) is issued by the aggregator A and an ICMP response echo reply of the server is expected by the aggregator to indicate that this server is awake.
• Figs. 2 and 3 show diagrams of two variants of the method illustrated in FIG. 1 in the case where the UPnP / DLNA standards (www.upnp.org and www.dlna.org) are implemented on the different equipment and servers of the NET network to offer specific services such as the discovery of equipment connected to the network NET or the management of the energy states of the equipment of this network.
• at least one PC control point is present in the network.
• This PC control point may be hosted by the aggregator A or by any other equipment then in relation with the equipment P and the aggregator A, including a server of this network. It will be considered later that the control point PC is hosted by the aggregator A and we will speak only of the aggregator A.
• this PC control point can be deported to another entity and then communicate with the aggregator A without departing from the scope of the invention.
• Fig. 2 is a diagram of a first variant of the method of FIG. 1.
• the step 1 of storing the process is preceded by a step of discovering the different equipment of the network, such as the equipment P and the servers S1 and S2.
• Discovery of devices connected to the NET network allows each piece of equipment in this network to signal itself to other equipment in the network, either periodically, or as soon as this equipment is newly connected to this network or when it leaves this network.
• the aggregator A permanently knows the servers that are connected to the network.
• This discovery step is implemented, for example, by the PC control point.
• each discovered server is then browsed to establish a list of the contents it stores and an association is then stored between the original reference of each content of each server thus discovered and a local reference.
• the aggregator A when an equipment makes a request to list the contents available to the aggregator from the equipment P, the aggregator A returns the list of contents stored by all the servers connected to this network and their local references. associated. This list of contents can then be presented to a user of this equipment P: each of these contents is then associated with an association between an original reference and a local reference and this regardless of the operating state of these servers (awake or Standby).
• a request is formed which contains a local reference, in this case RL3, and the equipment P sends this request to the aggregator.
• the method then continues with the step 3 of obtaining from the original references stored by the aggregator A, the original reference which is associated with a local reference present in a content request sent by the equipment P and received by Aggregator A.
• the obtaining step then continues with step 4 of awakening as described above.
• the awakening step is continued by the emission step, by the aggregator A and to the equipment P, of the original reference thus obtained.
• Fig. 3 is a diagram of another variant of the method of FIG. 1.
• the step 1 of storing the process is preceded by a step of discovering services specific to the management of the energy states of the equipment of the network.
• the signaling at the middleware level of the energy states of the equipment of a network has been addressed by different standardization groups.
• UPnP Forum www.upnp.org
• UPnP Low Power a set of services and commands for remotely knowing and modifying standby states.
• this type of service consists in that each equipment connected to the network signals to the other equipment, including the aggregator A, its changes of state (woken / standby) so that the knowledge of each of the equipment connected to the network concerning the other equipment connected to this network is updated.
• the aggregator A, or other equipment of the network in charge of the alarm clock knows permanently whether each server of the network is awake or in standby and consequently if each server has the capacity to change mode of operation (awake / in Eve).
• the aggregator or other equipment of the network in charge of the alarm, obtains, moreover, the methods of waking these servers and memorizes these methods of awakening which are then used during the 'waking step of these servers.
• the discovery steps of equipment and services specific to the management of the energy states of these equipment are performed in parallel.
• each server connected to the network is browsed to establish a list of the contents it stores and an association is stored between the original reference of each multimedia content of a server thus discovered and a local reference only if this server has the ability to change operating mode, that is to say the ability to switch from a standby mode to a waking mode and vice versa.
• the server S2 has the ability to change operating mode and the server SI does not have it.
• the association between RL3 and R3 is stored in the table T1 and the IP and / or MAC addresses of the server S2 are stored in the table T2 in relation with RL3.
• each multimedia content that is presented to the user is associated either with its original reference if this server has not signaled that it has the ability to change operating mode, or to an association between its original reference and a local reference if this server has reported that it has the ability to change the mode of operation.
• the request then comprises either an original reference, thus indicating that the server is awake, a local reference, thus indicating that the server is in standby.
• a server connected to the NET network when a server connected to the NET network is woken up, an association between the original reference of each content stored on this server and a local reference is memorized by the aggregator A and the aggregator transmits then a signal to this server telling him that he can go to sleep.
• UPnP Low Power signaling can be used for this purpose.
• This variant makes it possible to minimize the energy consumption of the servers of the network.
• the process then continues with a step of testing the content of this request.
• the process continues with the step of sending, by the aggregator A and to the equipment P, the original reference thus obtained.
• This equipment can then access the required content because the server that stores it is not idle.
• step 3 the process then continues with step 3 of obtaining the original reference followed by the awakening step 4 during which the server is woken up using the one or one of its alarm methods stored by the aggregator A.
• step 4 is followed by the step 5 of issuing the original reference to the equipment P as described above. It is only then that the equipment P can then access the required content because the server that stores it is not in standby.
• Fig. 4 schematically illustrates the architecture of a device which implements, at least partially, the method of FIG. 1.
• the device 400 comprises, connected by a communication bus 401:
• processors micro-processor, microcontroller (denoted ⁇ ) or CPU (Central Processing Unit in English or Central Processing Unit in French) 402; a volatile memory (Random Access Memory in English or Random Access Memory in French) 403;
• non-volatile memory Read Only Memory in English or Memory to Read Only in French
• a 405 medium storage drive such as an SD card reader (Secure
• interface means 406 with the communication network NET such as for example a cellular radio network, the Internet or a WiFi network;
• man-machine interface means 407 allowing, for example, to manage a touch screen and / or a set of keys.
• the microcontroller 402 is capable of executing instructions loaded into the memory 403 from the memory 404, an external memory (not shown), a storage medium, such as an SD card or the like, or a communication network. When the device 400 is turned on, the microcontroller 402 is able to read from the memory 403 of the instructions and execute them. These instructions form a computer program which causes the implementation by the microcontroller 402 of all or some of the algorithms described above in relation to FIGS. 1, 2 and 3.
• All or part of the algorithms described below in relation to FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 can be implemented in software form by executing a set of instructions by a programmable machine, such as a DSP (Digital Signal Processor in English), a CPU or a SoC device, or a microcontroller, such as the microcontroller 402, or be implemented in hardware form by a machine or a dedicated component, such as an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) or Programmable Gate Matrix on Field in French) or ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit).
• a programmable machine such as a DSP (Digital Signal Processor in English)
• a CPU or a SoC device or a microcontroller, such as the microcontroller 402
• a machine or a dedicated component such as an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) or Programmable Gate Matrix on Field in French) or ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit).

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Signal Processing (AREA)
• Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
• Multimedia (AREA)
• Automation & Control Theory (AREA)
• Theoretical Computer Science (AREA)
• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Information Transfer Between Computers (AREA)
• Computer And Data Communications (AREA)
• Power Sources (AREA)

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• 2011
  • 2011-12-20 FR FR1162009A patent/FR2984666B1/fr not_active Expired - Fee Related
• 2012
  • 2012-12-18 US US14/367,469 patent/US20150113099A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2012-12-18 CN CN201280070253.5A patent/CN104137515A/zh active Pending
  • 2012-12-18 WO PCT/EP2012/075896 patent/WO2013092549A1/fr active Application Filing
  • 2012-12-18 BR BR112014014851A patent/BR112014014851A2/pt not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 2012-12-18 EP EP12801760.5A patent/EP2795877A1/de not_active Withdrawn

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