KR101659574B1 - Method and apparatus for managing software lifecycle in home network - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for efficiently managing a software life cycle of a controlled device in a home network, and in accordance with the present invention, a control device controls a controlled device to change a software life cycle only when a specific condition is satisfied By request, the control device in the home network can efficiently utilize the software according to the characteristics of the software.

Description

[0001] The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for managing a software life cycle in a home network,

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a home network, and more particularly, to a method of managing a software lifecycle in a device of a home network.

Generally, communication of home network devices is a state in which a control device controls a controlled device to induce a specific operation. For example, in a home network based on UPnP (Universal Plug and Play), a control point included in a control device calls an action defined in a service provided by the controlled device, .

As the functions and types of devices operating in the home network have diversified and the interaction between the home network devices has increased, there has been a need to install or execute appropriate software in the home network device under certain circumstances. For example, when a mobile device in a home network tries to perform a task that requires a large number of resources, a relatively resource-rich PC may perform the task instead if the resource is insufficient to perform the task on its own It is efficient to return to the mobile device.

If the controlled device requires specific software to perform a task at the request of the controlling device, the controlling device must install and execute the corresponding software in the controlled device. You should also be able to upgrade or delete it in some cases. Thus, the control device needs to change the state of the software installed in the controlled device efficiently according to the situation. That is, a mechanism is required for the control device to manage the software lifecycle of the controlled device according to a specific condition.

The present invention provides a mechanism for allowing a control device in a home network to efficiently manage a software life cycle of a controlled device.

A method of controlling a controlled device in a home network, the method comprising: generating a message requesting to manage a software lifecycle according to a predetermined condition; And transmitting the generated message to the controlled device.

The message may be a message for controlling the controlled device to perform at least one of installing, executing, uninstalling, and upgrading the software when the condition is satisfied.

The message may include location information of the software required to download the software from the control device or a server outside the home network.

The home network is based on Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), and the message is a control message for calling an action for managing the software life cycle, and the control message may include information on the condition.

The present invention also provides a recording medium on which a computer program for executing the control method is recorded.

Further, the present invention provides a control device for controlling a controlled device in a home network, the control device comprising: a message generator for generating a message requesting to manage a software lifecycle according to a predetermined condition; And a transmitter for transmitting the generated message to the controlled device.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for performing a task requested by a controlled device from a control device in a home network, the method comprising: receiving a message requesting management of lifecycle of software according to a predetermined condition from the control device step; And changing the software lifecycle according to the message based on whether or not the condition is satisfied.

The selectively modifying step performs at least one of installing, executing, deleting and upgrading the software according to the message when the condition is satisfied.

The message may include location information of the software required to download the software from the control device or a server outside the home network.

Preferably, the selectively changing step includes continuously monitoring whether or not the condition is satisfied.

The present invention also provides a recording medium on which a computer program for executing the above-described method is recorded.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a controlled device for performing a task requested from a control device in a home network, the device comprising: a message receiver for receiving a message requesting the control device to manage a software lifecycle according to a predetermined condition; And a software manager for changing the software life cycle according to the message based on whether or not the condition is satisfied.

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

1 is a flowchart illustrating a process in which a controller and a controlled device communicate with each other according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In step 101, the control apparatus 100 connected to the home network recognizes the controlled apparatus 150 (101). Step 101 corresponds to a process of discovering the capabilities of the device and the discovery process in which the control point discovers the UPnP device through the SSDP in UPnP.

In step 102, the control device 100 transmits a message requesting the controlled device 150 to install specific software. Such a message can be a control message according to Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) in UPnP.

This message may include location information of the software required to download the software. The downloadable software may be stored in the control device 100 or may be stored in the server 180 outside the home network. In this embodiment, since the software that can be downloaded is assumed to be stored in the external server 180, the URL of the software file stored in the external server 180 will be included in the message.

On the other hand, this message includes information (hereinafter referred to as condition information) about the condition to be referred to in installing the software. That is, the control device 100 requests the controlled device 150 to perform software installation only when a specific condition is satisfied. For example, the control device 100 may request the controlled device 150 to start the installation of the software from 9 o'clock in the evening. The condition indicated by the condition information may be plural.

This condition information may be included in the message requesting the controlled device 150 to install the software or may be transmitted to the controlled device 150 through a message separate from the message requesting the installation of the software.

In step 103, the controlled device 150 downloads the software from the external server 180.

In step 104, the controlled device 150 installs the downloaded software when the conditions provided by the control device 100 in connection with the installation of the software are satisfied.

In step 105, the control device 100 requests the controlled device 150 to execute the installed software.

At this time, the control apparatus 100 also provides the controlled apparatus 150 with condition information on the execution of the software, as in step 102. [ For example, it is possible to execute the software only when the available resources are 60% or more of the total resources.

In step 106, the controlled device 150 executes the downloaded software when the condition provided by the control device 100 in connection with the execution of the software is satisfied.

In step 107, the controlled device 150 notifies the control device 100 of the execution result of the software.

In step 108, the control device 100 requests the controlled device 150 to uninstall the installed software.

At this time, the control device 100 provides the controlled device 150 with the condition information about the deletion of the software through the control message requesting deletion of the software or a separate message.

In step 109, the controlled device 150 deletes the downloaded software when the condition provided by the control device 100 in association with the deletion of the software is satisfied.

According to the embodiment of the present invention, the control device 100 can manage the software life cycle of the controlled device 150 according to a specific condition. Therefore, the control device in the home network can effectively utilize the software according to the characteristics of the software.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a process of controlling a software life cycle of a controlled device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In step 210, the control device generates a message requesting to manage the software life cycle according to a predetermined condition.

Such a message may include an identifier of the software, location information of the software, condition information, and the like. For example, such a message may be a SOAP message that invokes a predetermined action of a service that manages the software life cycle of the controlled device in the UPnP network.

As described above, the message for managing the software life cycle and the message for transferring the condition information may be implemented as one message, or may be separate messages.

In step 220, the control device transmits the message generated in step 210 to the controlled device.

The process of FIG. 2 describes a single operation between a series of control points and a controlled device. The process of receiving information on a state change of the software installed by the control point as an event message and performing an additional operation corresponding thereto Can be described as shown in FIG.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating the steps 220 and subsequent steps of FIG. 2. Referring to FIG. 6, the control point receiving the software status information as an event notifies the user of the installation of additional software to be performed when the software enters a specific operation state, An additional operation is performed.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a process performed by a controlled device from a control device according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

In step 310, the controlled device receives a message requesting to manage the life cycle of the predetermined software according to a predetermined condition. For example, if there is more than 60% of available resources between 11 pm and 6 am, you will receive a message asking you to run the system diagnostics software.

In step 320, the controlled device refers to the condition information provided by the controller to determine whether the condition is satisfied.

In step 325, if the condition is not satisfied, it is continuously monitored whether or not the condition is satisfied. For example, if the control device requests the system diagnostic software to run when the available resources reach 60% or more between 11 pm and 6 am, if the current time is 11:30 pm but the available resources are 50% , And continuously monitors whether or not the available resources are 60%.

In step 330, when the condition is satisfied, the controlled device changes the software life cycle according to the received message. For example, the controller executes the requested software.

FIG. 7 shows a series of operations when the operation of the controlled device described in FIG. 3 is extended.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a method for controlling an access point according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 7, after the completion of step 330 of FIG. 3, a series of steps for transmitting an event to control points, , It is possible to provide information to a control point (for example, a service provider or the like) who desires to know a specific software status in addition to the control point where the software is installed.

8 shows a series of processes in which an arbitrary control point is provided with status information of software installed in the controlled device.

In Fig. 8, the control point may be a third control point other than a control point that changes the state of the software, such as installing or executing software. Therefore, the control point shown in this figure makes an explicit event subscription request to the controlled device to know the specific software status information.

When the control point performs the original control point operation and the received event exists, the control point can perform an additional operation according to the contents of the event. For example, when the control point controls the IGD or the like, when the game software is installed in the controlled device, the specific port mapping information of the gateway may be automatically changed.

4 is a diagram illustrating the structure of a control apparatus and a controlled apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4, the control device 400 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a storage unit 401, a message generation unit 402, and a transmission unit 403. [

The storage unit 401 stores downloadable software.

The message generating unit 402 generates a message requesting to manage the software life cycle. Such a message may be a SOAP message according to UPnP.

The transmitting unit 403 transmits the message generated by the message generating unit 402 to the controlled device 450. [

The controlled device 450 includes a software downloading unit 451, a software managing unit 452, a receiving unit 453, and a storage unit 454.

The software download unit 451 downloads the software when the installation of the software is requested from the control device 400. [ Although it is assumed that software is downloaded from the control device 400 in FIG. 4, it may be downloaded from a server outside the home network. The location information of the software necessary for downloading the software may be provided from the control device 400. [

The software management unit 452 changes the software life cycle at the request of the control device 400. [ At this time, the software management unit 452 continuously monitors whether the condition is satisfied by referring to the condition information provided by the control device 400, and changes the software life cycle only when the condition is satisfied.

For example, when the condition provided by the control device 400 is satisfied, the software management unit 452 performs installation, execution, deletion, and upgrade of the software.

The receiving unit 453 receives a message requesting the software life cycle from the control device 400. [

The storage unit 454 stores various data related to the software.

5 is a diagram illustrating condition information according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 5, in the present embodiment, condition information can be generated using XML or String, and such condition information can be embedded in a SOAP message of UPnP. Also, as shown in FIG. 9, the conditions shown in the XML may be configured to include a given Logical Operator (logical operation), and may be expressed in a general text (String) form as in FIG. Conditions constructed through logical operations enable arbitrary combinations based on And, Or, XOR, and so on.

The present embodiment shown in FIG. 5 shows a process in which the control device requests the controlled device to execute predetermined software, that is, the JDK 1.5 software is installed and executed only within the time period of 23: 00-24: 00.

10 illustrates a method of representing a condition based on a text rather than a specific XML form. In this method, a filter, a condition, a parameter name, an operation (including a logical operation) .

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a method of changing a software state based on a predetermined condition described above, in which information about a condition of a certain software is explicitly taken and checked or a changed condition is updated. We can use both the method of processing through UPnP arbitrary action invocation and response and the method of utilizing event message.

Further, as described with reference to FIG. 11, it may be utilized to process a series of operations of binding arbitrary condition information to a specific software and changing or deleting the condition.

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

The computer readable recording medium may be a magnetic storage medium such as a ROM, a floppy disk, a hard disk, etc., an optical reading medium such as a CD-ROM or a DVD and a carrier wave such as the Internet Lt; / RTI > transmission).

The present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. Therefore, the disclosed embodiments should be considered in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense. The scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description, and all differences within the scope of equivalents thereof should be construed as being included in the present invention.

1 is a flowchart illustrating a process in which a controller and a controlled device communicate with each other according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a process of a control device managing a software life cycle of a controlled device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

3 is a flowchart illustrating a process of a controlled device performing a requested operation from a control device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

4 is a diagram illustrating a structure of a control device and a controlled device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

5 is a diagram illustrating condition information according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Claims (19)

A method for controlling a controlled device in a home network, The controlled device is configured to monitor whether the controlled device satisfies a predetermined condition in the controlled device and to manage the software based on a result of the monitoring, Generating, at the control device, a message requesting the control device; And And transmitting the generated message from the control device to the controlled device, Wherein the message includes condition information regarding the predetermined condition. The method according to claim 1, Wherein the message is for controlling the controlled device to perform at least one of installing, executing, uninstalling and upgrading the software when the condition is satisfied. The method according to claim 1, Wherein the message includes location information of the software required to download the software from the control device or from a server outside the home network. The method according to claim 1, Wherein the home network is based on Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), the message is a control message that calls an action for managing the software, and the control message includes information about the condition. 1. A control device for controlling a controlled device in a home network, The controlled device is configured to monitor whether the controlled device satisfies a predetermined condition in the controlled device and to manage the software based on a result of the monitoring, A message generator for generating a message requesting the control device; And And a transmitting unit for transmitting the generated message from the control device to the controlled device, Wherein the message includes condition information regarding the predetermined condition. 6. The method of claim 5, Wherein the message is for controlling the controlled device to perform at least one of installing, executing, uninstalling and upgrading the software when the condition is satisfied. 6. The method of claim 5, Wherein the message includes location information of the software required to download the software from the control device or a server outside the home network. 6. The method of claim 5, Wherein the home network is based on Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), the message is a control message that calls an action for managing the software, and the control message includes information on the condition. A method for a controlled device to perform a requested operation from a control device in a home network, Receiving, from the control device, a message requesting the controlled device to manage software according to a predetermined condition in the controlled device; And Monitoring by the controlled device whether or not the predetermined condition is satisfied and managing the software in accordance with the message at the controlled device based on a result of the monitoring, Wherein the message includes condition information regarding the predetermined condition. 10. The method of claim 9, Wherein the managing comprises: Executing at least one of installing, executing, deleting and upgrading the software according to the message when the condition is satisfied. 10. The method of claim 9, Wherein the message includes location information of the software required to download the software from the control device or from a server outside the home network. 10. The method of claim 9, Wherein the managing comprises: And continuously monitoring whether or not the condition is satisfied. 10. The method of claim 9, Wherein the home network is based on Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), the message is a control message for calling an action for managing the software life cycle, and the control message includes information on the condition Way. 1. A controlled device for performing a requested operation from a control device in a home network, A message receiving unit receiving, from the control device, a message requesting the controlled device to manage software according to a predetermined condition in the controlled device; And And a software management unit that monitors whether the predetermined condition is satisfied by the controlled device and manages the software in accordance with the message in the controlled device based on a result of the monitoring, Wherein the message includes condition information regarding the predetermined condition. 15. The method of claim 14, Wherein the software management unit performs at least one of installing, executing, deleting, and upgrading the software according to the message when the condition is satisfied. 15. The method of claim 14, Wherein the message includes location information of the software required to download the software from the control device or a server outside the home network. 15. The method of claim 14, Wherein the software management unit continuously monitors whether or not the condition is satisfied. 15. The method of claim 14, Wherein the home network is based on Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), the message is a control message that calls an action for managing the software, and the control message includes information on the condition. A recording medium on which a computer program for executing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 4 and 9 to 13 is recorded.

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