JP2007142723A - Network device management system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a network device management system capable of easily accessing a network device, flexibly being adapted to device expansion and reducing a network device cost without the need of an authentication function on the network device side. <P>SOLUTION: The network device management system includes a management server having a device discovery means for discovering the network device in an identical subnet, a management means for managing the discovered device, and an HTTP server means for providing information for selecting and operating the discovered device from a WWW browser; and a network device connected to the management server via a network, and operated by control information from the management server. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a network device management system, and more particularly to a network device management apparatus and a network device for centrally managing and controlling a plurality of devices connected to a network.

  Some conventional network devices have a WWW server function within the device and can be easily set and operated via a network using a WWW browser from a PC. In addition, some devices such as a scanner that have an image capturing function can perform an image capturing operation from a WWW browser and display the image on the WWW browser.

Furthermore, there are devices that can display a list of devices on a page on a WWW server when a connected device is detected, and can be moved from there to a device operation screen (for example, see Patent Document 1 below).
JP 2001-53779 A

  However, in the above conventional example, when a plurality of network devices having the same function are installed on the network, even if they have the same function, since each device operates independently, the WWW browser on the PC is used. In order to operate these devices, it is necessary to input the URL or IP address for each network device into the WWW browser or register it in the browser in advance.

  In addition, in the case of network devices that handle moving images, such as network cameras, normal WWW browsers themselves do not have a function to display moving images, so moving images that run on a PC are displayed from the WWW server in the network device via the WWW browser. Software such as a JAVA (registered trademark) applet for downloading is downloaded to a PC and video data is processed using this software. However, in this case, since each network camera is operating independently, software for displaying a video each time the camera is switched is downloaded from each camera to the PC on which the WWW browser is operating, and this download is performed. Since the camera video is displayed using software, the software for displaying the video is downloaded every time the network camera is switched.

  Furthermore, in recent years, with the spread of broadband connection services such as ADSL and CATV, it has become common to connect home networks to the Internet. When these services are used, since usually only one global IP address is given, in order to connect a plurality of terminals and network devices to the network in the home, a private IP address is assigned to the network device in the home by the DHCP server. By allocating addresses and associating a plurality of private addresses with a single global IP address + port number using IP masquerade, it is possible to connect to the Internet from a plurality of terminals in the home. This can be achieved relatively easily by installing a device such as a broadband router. However, when accessing the terminal or device connected to the home network from the Internet side, there is only a way to distinguish the connection request that seems to be a connection request by the port number. It was necessary to set in advance in the router whether to connect to the device. In order to perform this setting, it is necessary to be familiar with the network settings of broadband routers, network devices, etc., and it is very difficult for general users to do, and when there are multiple devices that use a specific port number the only I had to connect to choose the one any order to distinguish can not be of the equipment. In addition, it is necessary to add a broadband router setting every time a new network device is connected.

  In the present invention, if one management server is accessed from a WWW browser, it is possible to easily access a network device connected to the management server. It is an object of the present invention to provide a network device management system that can easily increase the number of network devices in the home without changing.

  As means for solving the above problems, the present invention intends to provide the following network device management apparatus and network device.

Device discovery means for discovering network devices in the same subnet, management means for managing discovered devices, and HTTP server means for providing information for selecting and operating discovered devices from a WWW browser; A management server with
A network device that is connected to the management server via a network and operates according to instructions from the management server;
A terminal device that executes a WWW browser and downloads information for selecting and operating a network device from a management server, and is executable.
Control information from the WWW browser is sent to the network device via the management server, and data from the network device is sent directly to the terminal device according to an instruction from the management server.

  In the device, the network device management unit performs user authentication, and selects a device to be displayed in accordance with the access right of the user.

  In the network device management apparatus and the network device of the present invention, control information from the WWW browser is sent to the network device via the management server, and data from the network device is transmitted directly to the terminal device according to an instruction from the management server. By accessing one management server from a WWW browser, you can easily access the network device connected to it, and change the settings of the ADSL modem etc. when accessing network devices in the home from the outside You can easily increase the number of network devices in your home.

  Also, by controlling the access rights to the network device based on the user authentication information, it can be managed by the management server at the same time, and there is no need for a function for authentication on the network device side. It can be kept low.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 shows a management server 100 for managing network devices connected to a network in the present invention. 101 is a network I / F unit for connecting the management server 100 to a network to perform data communication with other network devices, 102 is a device management unit for managing network devices, 103 is an HTTP server unit, 104 Is a web page creation unit for dynamically creating a web page based on information from the device management unit 102 and the HTTP server unit 103, 105 is a device discovery unit for discovering network devices connected on the network, 106 is a software storage unit for storing software for operating on a WWW browser to control network devices, 107 is a device registration unit for registering device information found on the network, and 108 is Network device managed by the management server 100 A user authentication unit for performing authentication of access rights to.

  FIG. 2 shows a network camera 200 as an example of a network device. 201 is a camera unit for photographing a subject, 202 is a cloud unit for performing pan / tilt operation to change the photographing direction of the camera unit 201, 203 is a microphone unit for collecting sound, 204 Is a central control unit for controlling the entire network camera 200, 205 is an encoder unit for compressing and encoding video from the camera unit 201 and audio from the audio unit, and 206 is connected to the network and mainly managed A network I / F unit for communicating with the server 100.

  In the network camera 200, the central control unit 204 interprets the control command received from the network I / F unit 206, and controls the camera unit 201, the pan head unit 202, and the encoder unit 205 according to the command.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a connection form of devices in a general home, 100 is a management server, 200-1 and 200-2 are network cameras, 301 is a PC equipped with an operation unit, a display unit, and a WWW browser, Reference numeral 302 denotes a hub which is a line concentrator for connecting each network device, and 303 is an ADSL modem for connecting a home network to the Internet.

  Hereinafter, the operation will be described in order. The management server 100 periodically sends a broadcast packet for inquiring whether an unregistered network device is connected to the network from the device discovery unit 105 via the network I / F 101. When a network device not registered in the management server 100 newly connected to the network or turned on receives the inquiry broadcast packet, the network device receives the network address information of its own device from the management server 100. A response packet including the response is returned (see FIG. 4). Upon receiving this response packet, the device discovery unit 105 notifies the device management unit 102 that an unregistered network device has been discovered along with information received by the device discovery unit such as network address information of the network device. Then, the device management unit 102 inquires about the capability of the discovered network device based on the information from the device discovery unit 105, and obtains information on the network device obtained here from the device registration unit. 107 is registered. The device management unit 102 classifies the registered devices according to the device type (camera, scanner, etc.), and notifies the web page creation unit 103 of software that operates on the browser to control the devices. The web page creation unit 103 is requested to create a page for each classified device.

  Next, an example in which the Web page created by the Web page creation unit 103 is accessed by the WWW browser of the PC 301-1 will be described. When the network address of the management server 100 is specified from the WWW browser and a connection request is sent, a user authentication screen is displayed first, and a user name and password are input and sent to the management server 100. The management server 100 collates the user name and password sent to the user information registered in the user authentication unit 108, and if the user has an access right, the management server 100 shows how to manage the management server as shown in FIG. Displays a page that shows if a network device is connected. In the example of FIG. 5A, two types of “camera” and “scanner” are displayed as a device list on the screen. When a camera is selected from this list, a command indicating that the camera has been selected is transmitted from the PC 301 to the management server 100 and sent to the device management unit 102 via the network I / F unit 101 and the HTTP server unit 104. It is done. Here, the device management unit 102 reads a viewer application for performing camera control from the software storage unit 106 and transmits it to the WWW browser on the PC 301-1 via the HTTP server unit 104, thereby starting the viewer application. The viewer application displays an operation screen for camera control, communicates with the device management unit 102 in the management server 100, and inquires about what network camera is registered in the management server 100. The camera switching menu is displayed based on the information (in the example of FIG. 5B, the names of the two cameras “entrance camera” and “living camera” are displayed and selected, but a drop-down list is displayed. There is no problem even if it is a method of selecting by etc.). When a camera is selected from the camera selection menu, camera selection information is transmitted to the management server 100, and preparations for receiving video from the selected camera are made. At this time, the management server 100 transmits a video transmission start command to the viewer application of the PC 301-1 to the camera selected by the viewer application, and the network camera 200-1 transmits the video to the WWW browser on the PC 301-1. Start sending. FIG. 6 shows examples of commands from the viewer application to the management server 100 and from the management server 100 to the network camera 200 in this case. As shown in FIG. 6a, the management application from the viewer application includes identification information of the selected camera, information on the video format desired by the viewer, and the like. As shown in FIG. 6b, the command from the management server to the network camera includes address information of the PC 301-1 on which the viewer application is executed, video format information, and the like. The network camera 200-1 transmits video data to the viewer application on the PC 301-1 according to the command received from the management server 100, and the viewer application decodes this to display the video from the network camera on the display unit. .

  Next, the flow of the camera control command will be described. When a camera control button displayed on the viewer app, for example, a pan / tilt button for controlling the pan head is pressed, the viewer app sends a device management unit 102 in the management server 100 to the device management unit 102. The camera control command is sent. The device management unit 102 transmits the received camera command again to the currently selected camera 200-1.

  Next, a procedure for selecting another network camera from the currently displayed network cameras will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 7A, when another camera name is selected on the camera operation screen displayed on the viewer application on the PC 301-1, a camera selection command is transmitted from the viewer application on the PC 301-1 to the management server 100. Is done. In accordance with the received camera switching command, the management server 100 instructs the network camera 200-1 that has been transmitting video until now to stop video transmission as shown in FIG. 7b. Then, after confirming that the video transmission of the network camera 200-1 has stopped, as shown in FIG. 7c, the network camera 200-2 is instructed to start transmission of the video to the PC 301-1. . Thereby, the viewer application starts display of the network camera 200-2. When the camera control button is subsequently pressed, a camera control command is sent from the viewer application to the management server 100, and the management server 100 transmits the camera control command to the selected network camera 200-2.

  When the selected camera is changed, the camera control command sent from the viewer app operates in the same way until it is received by the device management unit 102 in the management server 100, but the network camera selected from here 200-2 will be sent.

  Until now, the PC 301-1 has been connected to the same network as the management server 100 and the network cameras 200-1 and 200-2 and can communicate directly. In the case of FIG. An example of accessing a network device from the connected PC 301-2 via the management server 100 will be described. FIG. 8 is an internal block diagram of the ADSL modem 303, in which 801 is a modem unit for demodulating an ADSL signal coming from the telephone line and modulating a signal sent to the telephone line, and 802 is a global IP address given by the provider. Reference numeral 803 denotes a DHCP server for automatically assigning a private IP address to a network device used in the home. The address conversion unit 802 uses a method called IP masquerade to connect a plurality of devices to the Internet using one global IP address. This is because when a device on the Internet is accessed from a home device, when a source address is converted from a private IP address to a global IP address, a pair of the private IP address and the port number is changed to a port number. By registering in the conversion table, one global IP address can be shared by a plurality of devices. However, the explanation here is for the case where communication is started from the private IP address side in the home to the global IP address. In order to connect to the home device from the global IP address side, the home network is connected to the address conversion unit in advance. It is necessary to set which device to connect to. In this embodiment, when accessing from a WWW browser on a PC on the Internet, more specifically, an ADSL modem 303 is connected in advance so that access to the port number 80 used in HTTP is connected to the management server 100 at least. Set the address translation table. When a connection request is issued to the global IP address of the ADSL modem 303 from the WWW browser of the PC 301-2 on the Internet, the ADSL modem 303 is a management server in which the transmission destination IP address of the connection having the port number 80 is set in advance. This connection is connected to the management server 100 by converting it into a private IP address in 100 homes and sending it to the home network. The following operations are performed in the same connection procedure as when accessing the management server from the home PC 301-1.

  In the present embodiment, the user authentication is authentication as to whether access is possible. However, by associating the device managed by the device management unit 102 and the user information managed by the user authentication unit 108 in advance, By changing the device information for the Web page creation unit 103, it is possible to select a device that can be accessed for each user.

Configuration diagram of network device management device Configuration diagram of network camera as one form of network device A diagram showing a connection configuration example of a home network Diagram showing the procedure for the management server to discover network devices The figure which shows the example of the screen at the time of selecting and controlling the network device from the WWW browser The figure which shows the example of the camera control command at the time of camera selection The figure which shows the example of the camera control command at the time of camera switching ADSL modem block diagram

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 Management server 101 Network I / F part 102 Device management part 103 Web page creation part 104 HTTP server part 105 Device discovery part 106 Software storage part 107 Device registration part 108 User authentication part 200 Network camera (network device)
201 camera unit 202 pan head unit 203 microphone unit 204 central control unit 205 encoder unit 206 network I / F unit 301 PC
302 Hub 303 ADSL modem

Claims (3)

Device discovery means for discovering network devices in the same subnet, management means for managing discovered devices, and HTTP server means for providing information for selecting and operating discovered devices from a WWW browser; A management server with
A network device that is connected to the management server via a network and that operates with control information from the management server;
A terminal device that executes a WWW browser and downloads information for selecting and operating a network device from a management server, and is executable.
A network device management system, wherein control information from a WWW browser is sent to a network device via a management server, and data from the network device is sent directly to a terminal device in accordance with an instruction from the management server.   The network device management system according to claim 1, further comprising a user authentication unit, wherein the network device management unit collectively performs user authentication.   3. The network device management system according to claim 2, wherein devices that can be accessed are limited in accordance with the access right of the authenticated user.

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