KR100429816B1 - Method of recognizing the information of In-home device for managing sever and apparatus thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for managing devices located in a home network by dynamically recognizing various types of home device management information generated from home network management unlike standard office network management. The method of managing home device management information according to the present invention comprises the steps of: (a) providing a DIB server for storing DIB information, which is management information about a predetermined device, in association with an ID of the device; Requesting DIB information using ID information of a device, (c) generating the received DIB information as a management information object for the device, and (d) a user interface including an icon and the management information object. Combining to create a device management object. According to the present invention, there is no need to excessively standardize the management information of various types of in-home devices and distribute them to the management server. Rather, the manufacturer who produces the in-home device effectively expresses and manages the management information according to the device characteristics. It provides a foundation for developing device agents that correspond to servers.

Description

Method of recognizing the information of In-home device for managing server and apparatus

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for managing devices located in a home network by dynamically recognizing various types of home device management information generated from home network management unlike standard office network management.

The prior art can be described by the management model and techniques shown in Figs. 1 is a diagram illustrating a general network management model. The management model basically consists of a management protocol 120 according to the characteristics of the manager 110, the device agents 111, and the network 100. Therefore, the manager uses the management protocol 120 to collect or manage various management information of each device agent and to maintain the best network and devices currently managed by the manager.

This conventional network management technology has been mainly developed around the office network. The devices 111 using the networking equipment or the network in the network have a client / server relationship model that provides the management information required by the manager 110 as a manager as shown in FIG. 1 for network management. Through this management model, the network manager maintains the network in its site in the best state through statistical information such as network equipment abnormality or network traffic.

FIG. 2 is a simple network management protocol (SNMP) model, which is a network management model most commonly used based on the management model of FIG. 1. The SNMP model also includes a device agent that is an administrator 200 and an administrator 210. And the management communication protocol uses the SNMP protocol which is the application layer of the OSI7layer (250). SNMP uses UDP protocol which is in charge of session layer and transport layer of OSI7Layer 250 in order to manage information such as traffic condition or traffic of networking equipment in a site. The basic operation of SNMP is that the administrator simply operates the device agent 220 through the standard MIB 210 at the request 230 and the corresponding response 235 of the administrator using the SNMP protocol. The basic configuration of such an SNMP model is the manager 200, the manager 220, and the network management protocols 230 and 240. In order to use the SNMP model, since both the manager 200 and the manager 220 operate on the IP base, they need to have an IP address. OSI7layer is mainly used when the manager 200 and the manager 220 are in one site. User datagram protocol (UDP) is used as a transport layer of 250. Depending on the purpose of use, TCP may be used. The managed person 220 needs to define management information of a device for network management, which is a management information base (MIB). In order for the SNMP model to work properly, the administrator must implement access functions of the standard MIB 210, which is management information standardized according to RFC-1213. Therefore, the manager 200 refers to the standard MIB 210 to manage such devices and manages the network using the request 230 of the administrator, which is an SNMP protocol, and the response 240 of the corresponding device. When the manager's request 230 is transmitted from the manager 200 to the corresponding device, the device interprets the SNMP protocols 230 and 240, and a function corresponding to the management information of the MIB requested by the manager is called to answer the result 240. Do it.

3 is a basic software structure required for a management server when several devices in the management network use the extension MIB in addition to the standard MIB. In the case of network management of the SNMP model, the management is based on the standard MIB, but if the management is to be performed through specific management information of a specific device, the device must define an extended MIB in addition to the standard MIB. If the management server 310 is to manage in a site 300 that is the intranet management server 310, the management server first obtains the MIB 311 of the device 320, MIB compiler 312, which is a management tool in the management server Create a MIB module 313 that can be loaded in the MIB browser 314 through. The MIB browser loads the compiled MIB information of the device and manages the traffic in the device and site using the SNMP protocol. In this way, if there are several different device models in the site, the management server must have each MIB module compiled to manage the device. The management server 310 can easily manage the network through the standard MIB according to the characteristics of the SNMP model, but if the management information of a specific device is to be used, the management server 310 must use the extended MIB of the corresponding device. Therefore, the management server 310 obtains the MIB 311 and compiles the extension MIB of the corresponding device using the MIB compiler 312, which is a management tool suitable for its own platform. The MIB browser 314 loads the compiled MIB module 313 to provide a basis for network management using the SNMP protocols 230 and 240. Basically, the management server 310 should always be loading the standard MIB module for network management, and has a structure to take the MIB of a specific device, compile and reload and manage as needed. Therefore, if there are several types of device models that implement the extended MIB in a site 300, the management server 310 must have all the MIBs of that model and compile for the manager application running on the MIB browser 314. It must always have the MIB 313.

The network management technology of the SNMP model, which is a conventional technology, differs from the goals of the SNMP model and home network management in integrating the home network management technology, and the management server stores various types of management information that are not standardized due to the characteristics of the in-home device. A comprehensive problem is that managing devices in the home using the SNMP model is difficult. In addition, the home network management in the present invention refers to the management of pure in-home devices, but the management of the SNMP model is directed to determining the abnormality of the networking device and the network network managed by using the state variables of the device. To make.

Thus, SNMP manages devices and networks by implementing standard MIBs on networking devices. If you need to manage the network using specific management information of a device, the device must implement an extension MIB in addition to the standard MIB, and the management server must obtain the extension MIB and compile it into memory for use by the management application. Bringing it to home network management, in-home devices are not managed by standard MIBs, and even though extended MIBs are used, the management server has to load extended MIBs of various types of devices in many homes into memory. . Moreover, there is a problem that static user intervention occurs that the operator of the management server obtains the extension MIB, compiles it, and loads it into memory because the method of distributing various types of extension MIBs to the management server is not unified.

The technical problem to be achieved by the present invention is a method for managing devices in a home network, and in particular, management information of various types of in-home devices is defined by a manufacturer, exported to a DIB server, and dynamically recognized by an administrator HMS. The present invention provides a method and apparatus for managing the same.

1 shows a management model of a typical office network.

2 shows a management architecture model of SNMP,

Figure 3 shows the basic structure of the management server in the SNMP model,

4 shows an overview of a system for home network management,

5 shows management information of an in-home device.

6 is an XML representation of a DIB that a manufacturer exports to a DIB server.

7 shows the module configuration of the main part in the home network management system,

8 shows a module configuration for the Device Manager 700 in the HMS 410,

9 to 11 are flowcharts for dynamically recognizing management information of an in-home device in home network management.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of managing home device management information, comprising: (a) providing a DIB server storing DIB information, which is management information about a predetermined device, in association with an ID of the device, and (b) Requesting DIB information from the DIB server using ID information of a predetermined device, (c) generating the provided DIB information as a management information object for the device, and (d) a user interface including an icon And generating the device management object by combining the management information object.

Wherein the step (a) includes (a1) the DIB server receiving a connection from a device provider, and (a2) checking whether the DIB information conforms to the DIB grammar after receiving the DIB information and storing the DIB information. It can be characterized by.

Also, the step (a) stores some of the management information in the DIB cache, and the step (b) searches for the DIB cache before requesting the DIB information from the DIB server, if the DIB information exists. The method may not include requesting the DIB information from a DIB server, and the home device management information management method may further include (e) a predetermined application program accessing the device management object through a DIB API. It can be characterized by.

The DIB server according to the present invention for solving the above problems is a web server that allows a user to access the web, the DIB information that is the management information of a predetermined device from the user is input, the DIB in conjunction with the web It comprises a DIB CGI unit for creating a DIB which is a template for the information, a DIB grammar checking unit for checking whether the template created in the DIB CGI unit conforms to the grammar, and a database unit for receiving and storing the created template from the DIB CGI It is done.

The home device management apparatus according to the present invention for solving the above problems is provided with the DIB by accessing a web server unit for allowing a user to access through the web, a DIB server storing DIB information which is management information of a predetermined device. A device management unit for providing the DIB to a predetermined application program, a DIB management API unit for accessing the application program to the device management unit, and a communication between the DIB API unit and the device management unit in conjunction with the web server unit; It characterized in that it comprises a DIB CGI unit to provide.

Wherein the device manager is a DIB FETCHER unit for reading the DIB information by accessing the DIB server, a DIB / XML DOMPARSER unit for making the DIB information a management information object, a DIB cache unit for storing and managing the DIB information in a cache; On the basis of the management information object may include a DIB VIEW CONTROLLER for generating a device management object that can be recognized as a device by the administrator.

A feature of the present invention is how a manufacturer producing various types of in-home devices describes the management information of a device agent for management and how to export it to an external management information server, and how the management server sends the management information server. It consists of a technique for managing in-home devices by dynamically recognizing various kinds of stored management information.

In the present invention, the management information of the in-home device according to the device characteristics by the manufacturer expressed in the Internet standard specification XML and distributed to the device management information server, the management server to bring the management information expressed in XML (eXtensible Markup Language) It manages the in-home device in the home network after dynamic recognition without any intervention.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

4 shows an overview of a system for home network management according to the present invention. The system includes a device independent bitmap (DIB) server 400 that stores management information templates 420 for various in-home devices, and a home management server (HMS) that is a home management server serving as an administrator of home network management. 410, a device agent 440 existing for each device in the home, and a device manufacturer 430 for exporting 450 the device management information DIB 420 to the DIB server 400.

The operation of managing the home network device by dynamically recognizing management information of the n-home device will be described below.

In the first operation, the in-home device manufacturer 430 must first define 921 management information of the device. In this case, as shown in FIG. 5, management information is divided into functional units to assign IDs to the management information. Management information is largely divided into two types. There are common information of in-home devices necessary for home network management and specific management information that is unique to the device. Therefore, the manufacturer must define common management information as mandatory, and define specific management information so that the manufacturer can easily assign ID as long as the manufacturer has device characteristics. In order to make the DIB expressed in XML with the management information of the in-home device defined as described above, the terminal first accesses the DIB server 400 using the web (922). In order to facilitate the manufacturer's DIB production and export 450 to HMS 410, DIB server 400 provides a web service. Thus, the manufacturer accesses through the web server 402 of the DIB server 400 and creates a DIB of the device (924) through the DIB CGI 404 and the DIB Grammar Checker 403 (924). The created DIB is stored in the database 401 through the DIB CGI (Common Gateway Interface) 404.

twice?? The operation is an interaction with the HMS 410. When receiving the DIB request of the HMS 410, the DIB server 400 finds the requesting DIB and transmits the error to the HMS 410 (913). (914)

In a third operation, if the HMS 410 intends to manage a specific in-home device, the DIB server 400 is accessed through the model number of the corresponding device (901), or the DIB expressed in XML is obtained before the DIB Cache ( 840, if it is a frequently used DIB, block access to the DIB server 400 through the network to obtain the DIB (902). If the desired DIB does not exist in the DIB Cache 840, the DIB server can be connected (903) to retrieve the DIB (904). Of course, it is the DIB Manager 700 of the HMS 410 that does all the work related to the DIB. . The DIB Fetcher 810, which is a component of the DIB Manager 700, accesses the DIB server 400 and performs a function 905 of importing the corresponding DIB using the model number as an index. The imported DIB creates a management information object through the DIB XML DOM Parser (906), and the management information object is managed by the management application directly accessed through the DIB Management API (411) or transmitted to the DIB View Controller (820). Resources such as icons, such as information objects and user interfaces, are combined device management objects (907) to be accessed by applications through the DIB Management API (Aplication Programming Interface) (411).

Based on this operation, the administrator who operates the HMS 410 creates an application for management using the DIB Management API 411 of the HMS 410 and uses an in-home device through a management protocol defined in the home network management model. Or manages a web application by using the DIB CGI 413 of the HMS 410 using the DIB Management API 411. The detailed configuration of this system is shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a template that helps manufacturers define management information suitable for In-home device characteristics by dividing management information of a device functionally for management of the present invention. The template is defined by the device manufacturer, and the description language for implementing the template is XML, an Internet standard. An example of use is described in FIG. 6. Management information having a characteristic of Common Information having an ID of 1.X in FIG. 5 is essential management information that should be defined in common for all devices, and management information having an ID of 2.X to 5.X, which is a characteristic of the device, is used. It is management information that is differentiated from other devices. Therefore, device-specific information varies by device model.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of management information in XML by the in-home device manufacturer 430 according to the functional definition of FIG. 5. This XML document is for each In-home device model and exported 450 by the manufacturer 430 to the DIB server 400.

FIG. 7 is a detailed diagram illustrating functional blocks of each device required to operate the system of FIG. 4. The manufacturer 430 making the in-home device 440 uses the DIB server 400 to make the DIB 420 expressing the management information of the device in XML format. DIB server 400 is composed of the following modules.

First, the Web Server 402 is a module that helps the manufacturer use the web to access the DIB server 400, and the DIB CGI 404 creates a DIB 420 in conjunction with the Web to create a database 401. The DIB Grammar checker 403 is a module that checks whether a DIB expression written using the DIB CGI 404 is valid.

In addition, the HMS 410 is configured with the following modules to enable the device DIB server 400 to manage in-home devices.

First, the DIB Management API 411 is a module that helps the management application to access the Device Manager, and the Web Server 412 is a module that helps the administrator to access the HMS 410 on the web. The CGI 413 is a module that can use the DIB Management API 411 in conjunction with the web. This allows you to write administrative web applications.

In addition, the Device Manager 700 is a module that makes the foundation for managing the in-home device by actually accessing the DIB server 400 to obtain and analyze related DIBs, and is the subject of the HMS 410. Detailed components for this are written in FIG.

8 is a diagram showing the functional blocks of the DIB Manager 700, which is the core of the HMS 410, and is composed of the following functional modules.

First, the DIB Fetcher 810 is a module for bringing related DIBs from the DIB server 400 through a network, and the DIB / XML DOM Parser 830 is a module for making imported DIBs into management information objects, and the DIB Cache 840 Is a module for caching imported DIB, and DIB View Controller 820 can combine several management information objects and device control operations expressed as one element in DIB with UI (User Interface) so that administrator can recognize them as one device. This module consists of device management objects.

9 to 10 show the control flow of each device shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 to show how the management information of the in-home device is dynamically recognized by the HMS 410 that is the management server to manage home network. .

Referring to FIG. 9, the HMS first receives information (for example, device ID, etc.) for designating an in-home device to be managed from a user to determine a device to be managed (901). In addition, it is checked whether DIB, which is management information about the device, is stored in the DIB cache (902). If it is not stored as a result of the inspection, the DIB server that stores DIB, which is management information of the device, is stored in the DIB cache. The connection is made 903. The DIB server then requests 904 DIB information of the device. The above DIB information is provided (905). In the DIB information, the management information is objectified (906), and a device management object is created (907).

On the other hand, if the above DIB information is present in the DIB cache in step 902 to step 905.

Referring to FIG. 10, after the DIB server receives the DIB information of a predetermined device from the HMS (Manager of the DIB) and accepts the request (911), whether the DIB corresponding to the request exists in the database. Search (912) and, if there is information corresponding to the search result, transmit the information to the HMS (913). Otherwise, request rejection information or error information is transmitted to the HMS (914).

Referring to FIG. 11, the DIB server first receives DIB information, that is, management information of an in-home device defined by a manufacturer of a device, (921, 922, 923), and checks whether the DIB information received above conforms to the DIB grammar. It is checked (924). If the check result does not match the grammar, go to step 923. If the grammar is correct, the DIB information is stored in the database (925).

Meanwhile, the above-described embodiments of the present invention can be written as a program that can be executed in a computer, and can be implemented in a general-purpose digital computer that operates the program using a computer-readable recording medium.

In addition, the structure of the data used in the above-described embodiment of the present invention can be recorded on the computer-readable recording medium through various means.

The computer-readable recording medium may be a magnetic storage medium (for example, a ROM, a floppy disk, a hard disk, etc.), an optical reading medium (for example, a CD-ROM, DVD, etc.) and a carrier wave (for example, the Internet). Storage medium).

So far I looked at the center of the preferred embodiment for the present invention. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention can be implemented in a modified form without departing from the essential features of the present invention. Therefore, the disclosed embodiments should be considered in descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation. The scope of the present invention is shown in the claims rather than the foregoing description, and all differences within the scope will be construed as being included in the present invention.

According to the present invention, there is no need to excessively standardize the management information of various types of in-home devices and distribute them to the management server. Rather, the manufacturer who produces the in-home device effectively expresses and manages the management information according to the device characteristics. It provides a foundation for developing device agents that correspond to servers.

In addition, the present invention can effectively manage the in-home devices of the home network, and the combination of information between the device manufacturer and the management server for such management is lowered, which helps in producing a management application.

The present invention solves the following technical aspects that occur when applying to home network management, rather than the existing office network management-oriented SNMP management method, the competitiveness of home network management, the production of management applications and the in-home device Helps increase the value of the product.

1. Unlike the SNMP model, in the model of the present invention, the management information distribution of the manufacturer's in-home device can be easily exported (450) to the HMS 410 using standard Internet technology.

2. In case of the SNMP model, the management server takes a static form of management method in which the management server must have the MIB modules by compiling the MIBs of the model with the MIB compiler in order to manage various types of devices. When using DIB of the model, it is possible to take dynamic form of management method to get DIB from DIB server whenever the model is needed, which is excellent in terms of efficiency of server operation ability. In addition, it is possible to effectively reduce the network delay rate to access the DIB server 400 by having a DIB cache.

3. It is easy to develop in-home device management operation and management tool because the coupling of management information between manager, manufacturer and device is low.

4. When there is a modification of the DIB of the device, the manufacturer can directly modify the DIB of the desired model by accessing the DIB server 400, it is possible to easily apply the changed DIB to many locally distributed management servers.

Claims (8)

(a) providing a DIB server storing DIB information, which is management information about a predetermined device, in association with an ID of the device; (b) requesting DIB information from the DIB server using ID information of a predetermined device; (c) generating the received DIB information as a management information object for the device; (d) combining the user interface including the icon with the management information object to create a device management object. The method of claim 1, wherein step (a) (a1) the DIB server receiving a connection from a device provider; and (a2) storing the DIB information after receiving the DIB information and checking whether the DIB information conforms to the DIB grammar. The method of claim 1, Step (a) stores some of the management information in the DIB cache, In the step (b), before the DIB server requests the DIB information, the DIB cache is searched, and the device management information management method does not request the DIB information when the DIB information exists. . The method of claim 1, (e) a predetermined application program, further comprising the step of accessing the device management object through a DIB API. A web server unit for allowing a user to access the web; A DIB CGI unit for receiving DIB information, which is management information of a predetermined device, from the user and creating a DIB, which is a template related to the DIB information, in cooperation with the web; A DIB grammar checker for checking whether a template written in the DIB CGI unit is grammatical; And And a database unit for receiving and storing the created template from the DIB CGI. A web server unit allowing a user to access through the web; A device manager which receives the DIB and connects the DIB server to store DIB information, which is management information of a predetermined device, and provides the DIB to a predetermined application program; A DIB management API unit for allowing the application program to access the device manager; And And a DIB CGI unit providing communication between the DIB API unit and the device manager in association with the web server unit. The method of claim 6, wherein the device manager A DIB FETCHER unit which accesses the DIB server and reads the DIB information; A DIB / XML DOM PARSER unit which makes the DIB information a management information object; A DIB cache unit storing and managing the DIB information in a cache; And a DIB VIEW CONTROLLER unit for generating a device management object based on the management information object. A computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for executing the method of any one of claims 1 to 4.