KR20030038924A - Proxy Apparatus and the Method for Homenetwork device control - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A proxy apparatus and method for controlling a home network system are provided to allow a web browser user of OS environment that does not support universal plug and play(UPnP) to control a UPnP device of a home network. CONSTITUTION: A proxy apparatus for controlling a home network system includes an instruction processor(241), a UCP interface(242), a universal control pointer(243), and an event processor(244). The instruction processor interprets and processes HTTP instructions received from a web server(25). The UCP interface delivers a user's request transmitted through the instruction processor to the universal control pointer. The universal control pointer controls all of UPnP devices in the home network. The event processor processes events generated through the universal control pointer.

Description

Proxy Apparatus and the Method for Homenetwork Device Control

The present invention relates to a proxy device for controlling a home network device (UPnP device) and a method and a computer readable recording medium recording a program for realizing the method, in particular a user outside the home network or in the home network. A proxy device for controlling a UPnP device of a home network by a terminal that does not support Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), and a computer readable recording medium having recorded thereon a method and a program for implementing the method. It is about.

Computer operating systems are evolving to make it easier to install or add peripherals to your computer through Plug and Play (PNP) functionality. Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) extends this simplicity to the network, allowing you to automatically discover and control network devices such as printers, Internet gateways, and information appliances connected to the network and the services they provide. Middleware protocol. That is, a device actively connects to a network through UPnP, obtains an Internet Protocol (IP) address, communicates its capabilities, and learns about the existence and capabilities of other devices.

The UPnP network consists of a control point that serves as a controller that can discover and control other devices, a device that is controlled, and a service that is the smallest control unit. If the UPnP is supported for the devices in the home network, the user can automatically discover the device through the control point and control the services provided by the device.

UPnP is originally intended for home networks, and provides a mechanism to ensure interoperability between devices within a subnet. At the moment a new UPnP device connects to the home network, it announces its presence to the network via multicast.

Similarly, when the control point is connected to the network, the multipoint message is sent to find a UPnP device connected to the network, and the responding device is added to the device list of the control point, and the user selects and controls the device to control. .

Therefore, a method for controlling UPnP devices in a home network outside the home network is not possible due to the regional limitations of the UPnP network. Currently, UPnP multicast is limited to one subnet, and since the Internet does not support multicast, notification of devices using multicast on the Internet and device discovery of control points cannot be performed.

In addition, an Internet user or a user in a home network may not control a UPnP device in a home network through a web browser in an operating system (OS) environment that does not support UPnP.

Therefore, to solve these shortcomings, a separate device is required to act as a control point of UPnP in the home network, and a function for delivering a message between the UPnP control point and the device to an external user is required. do. That is, after an external user connects to a UPnP proxy device, it should behave as if it is in a home network.

The present invention has been proposed to meet the above-mentioned requirements, and the web browser user of the OS environment that does not support Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) controls the UPnP device of the home network outside the home network or within the home network. It is an object of the present invention to provide a proxy device and a method thereof, and a computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for realizing the method.

1 is an exemplary configuration diagram of a home network system to which the present invention is applied.

2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a proxy device for controlling a home network device according to the present invention;

3 is a flowchart illustrating an embodiment of a proxy method for controlling a home network device according to the present invention;

* Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings

21: Internet user 22: terminal that does not support UPnP

23: home gateway 24: UPnP proxy device

241: HTTP command processing unit 242: UCP interface unit

243: universal control pointer (UCP) 244: UCP event processing unit

245: HTML document conversion and generation unit

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a proxy device for controlling a home network device, comprising: command processing means for interpreting and processing a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) command received from a web server; UCP interfacing means for transmitting a user request transmitted through the command processing means to a universal control pointing (UCP) means to perform a corresponding function; The universal control pointing means for controlling all Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) devices in a home network; And event processing means for processing an event occurring through the universal control pointing means. The present invention further provides document converting means for converting a device control presentation document into an HTML (HyperText Markup Language) document so that a user terminal that does not support UPnP can control the UPnP devices in the home network. Characterized in that the made up.

In addition, the present invention provides a proxy method for controlling a home network device applied to a home network system, comprising: a first step of interpreting and processing a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) command received from a web server through an HTTP command processor; A second step of transmitting a user request transmitted through the HTTP command processor to a universal control pointer (UCP) to perform a corresponding function; A third step of controlling all Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) devices in a home network through the universal control pointer; And a fourth step of processing an event occurring through the universal control pointer. The present invention further includes a fifth step of converting a device control presentation document into a HyperText Markup Language (HTML) document so that a user terminal that does not support UPnP can control the UPnP devices in the home network. Characterized in that made

The present invention also provides a home network system including a processor, comprising: a first function of interpreting and processing a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) command received from a web server through an HTTP command processor; A second function of transmitting a user request transmitted through the HTTP command processor to a universal control pointer (UCP) to perform a corresponding function; A third function of controlling all Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) devices in a home network through the universal control pointer; And a computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for realizing a fourth function of processing an event occurring through the universal control pointer. The present invention further realizes a fifth function of converting a device control presentation document into a HyperText Markup Language (HTML) document so that a user terminal not supporting UPnP can control the UPnP devices in the home network. A computer readable recording medium having a program recorded thereon is provided.

The above objects, features and advantages will become more apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is an exemplary configuration diagram of a home network system to which the present invention is applied.

As shown in FIG. 1, in a PC connected to the Internet, a user passes through the UPnP proxy device 13 in the middle to control the UPnP device 14 of the home network through the Internet user (web browser) 11. In addition, a terminal (Non-UPnP terminal) 15 that does not support UPnP in the home network may control the UPnP device 14 after connecting to the UPnP proxy device 13. In general, the UPnP proxy device 13 is located in the home gateway 12 that connects the home network with the external network and manages the home network.

2 is a block diagram of a proxy device for controlling a home network device (UPnP device) according to the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 2, the UPnP proxy device 24 includes an HTTP command processor 241 and an HTTP command processor 241 for analyzing and processing a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) command received from the web server 25. UCP interface unit 242 for passing the user request from the UCP (Universal Control Point) to perform the function, and a universal control pointer (UCP) for controlling all UPnP devices in the home network (243). ), UCP event processing unit 244 for processing events occurring in universal control pointer 243, and HyperText Markup Language (HTML) for converting device control presentation documents for use in an environment that does not support UPnP. A document conversion and generation unit 245 is provided.

The operation of the proxy device for controlling the home network device (UPnP device) of the present invention having the structure as described above will be described in detail as follows.

First, the HTTP command processing unit 241 is a module for analyzing and processing the HTTP command received from the web server 25. Communication is performed between the web browser of the Internet user 21 and the web server 25 using the http protocol. Parse the user's request data passed with the http header.

Next, the UCP interface unit 242 is a module that allows the user request from the HTTP command processing unit 241 to be passed to the UCP to perform the corresponding function. That is, it serves as an interface with the universal control pointer (UCP) 243. Communication with the UCP 243 is achieved by calling an API (Application Programming Interface) function provided by the UCP 243.

The universal control pointer (UCP) 243 is a universal control point module capable of controlling all UPnP devices in the home network. It is a control point that can accommodate all devices without being limited to specific devices. There are several functions. The description is as follows.

First, the device search function finds a UPnP device that is operating by multicasting a discovery message on a home network. If there is a UPnP device running on the home network, it responds to this message to announce its presence and service capability.

Second, the description processing function obtains an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) document from the device's technical document URL (Uniform Resource Locator) obtained through the device search function, and then parses it to obtain detailed information about the device.

Third, the device list management function maintains and manages information about the type, name, device description document URL, service list, etc. of the device obtained through the description processing function. When a new device is connected to the network, the device is added to the device list. On the contrary, when a device is disconnected from the network, the device is deleted from the device list. As such, the list of devices is managed in real time.

Fourth, the event handling function generates an event indicating that the service is changed when the service is changed. The control point then receives the event and performs the corresponding procedure.

Fifth, the action driving function makes an action request to control a service provided by the device. For example, an action called ON may be requested to control an ON / OFF service of a device called a TV.

Sixth, the user command processing function is a module that receives and processes a command for a user to control a device.

Next, the UCP event processing unit 244 is a module for processing an event occurring in the UCP (243). The UCP interface unit 242 is for transferring data from the outside of the UCP to the UCP, whereas the UCP event processing unit 244 is a module for receiving and processing data going out of the UCP from the UCP. In order to deliver the same message between the UCP and the UPnP device to the Internet user, the information is obtained through this module, and the information is transmitted to the user in the form of HTML document through the HTML document conversion and generation unit 245.

Finally, the HTML document conversion and generation unit 245 is a module for converting the device control presentation document to be used even in an environment that does not support UPnP. Internet users use device control presentation documents provided by UPnP devices to control UPnP devices in a home network. This document is an HTML document, and typically contains scripts that call the UPnP API as well as HTML. For example, by implementing an action in the form of a button, when the user presses the button, a script that calls the UPnP API is executed. Therefore, in an environment that does not support UPnP, a device control presentation document can be viewed, but when a user presses a button that drives an action, a script error occurs because the system does not have the UPnP API. Therefore, the device control presentation document displayed on the web browser screen of the Internet user cannot be used as it is provided by the UPnP device. Therefore, the document should be converted into a document that does not make UPnP API calls. In the present invention, instead of the UPnP API call, html <FORM> .. </ FORM> and <INPUT> .. </ INPUT> tags are used to accommodate the user's request. When the universal control pointer 243 obtains the device control presentation document from the UPnP device, it is converted in this module and forwarded to the Internet user. In addition, after taking an action, the presentation document is changed even when an event occurs due to a change in reaction and service state, and the same is converted and delivered.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a proxy method for controlling a home network device (UPnP device) according to the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 3, when an Internet user first inputs a UPnP proxy address and a device list document path in a URL address, a device list document request is generated and transmitted to the UPnP proxy device (301). When the HTTP command processing unit 241 of the UPnP proxy device interprets the device list document request to the UCP interface unit 242, the UCP interface unit 242 calls a device list request function among the UCP API functions. The universal control pointer 243 returns previously created device list information, and the information is generated as a device list document through the HTML document conversion and generation unit 245 (302) and transferred to the Internet user 11. (303)

The Internet user views the delivered device list and selects a device to control (304). This means to get the control presentation document provided by the device. The UPnP proxy device receives this request (305) and passes it to the UPnP device as it is (306), and obtains a device control presentation document of the UPnP API calling method from the UPnP device (37). This document is not immediately delivered to the Internet user, but is converted into a FORM document through a UPnP proxy device and then delivered to the Internet user (308, 309).

The Internet user views the device control presentation document and takes action of the service to control (310). The action is usually performed by clicking on the button, the ID (ID) and the value of the button are interpreted by the UPnP proxy device, converted into the corresponding UPnP message (311), and transmitted to the UPnP device in the form of an XML message (312). The UPnP device responds to this action (313), and the result of this response is reflected in the HTML document, so the UPnP proxy device modifies the device control presentation document and forwards it to the Internet user (314, 315).

At this time, when a new device is connected to the home network or the state of the device is changed (316), an event is generated (317). This means that the device list document or the device control presentation document is changed. The HTML document is converted by the UPnP proxy device and transmitted to the Internet user (318 and 319).

Meanwhile, in order to control UPnP devices using only a web browser, a terminal (non-UPnp terminal) that does not support UPnP in the home network may follow the procedure of FIG. 3 as in the Internet user.

However, an Internet user using a terminal supporting UPnP is slightly different from the procedure of FIG. 3. The procedure for requesting the device list document from the UPnP proxy device to obtain the control presentation document of the UPnP device to be controlled is the same, but the subsequent steps are performed directly with the UPnP device without the help of the UPnP proxy device. Because the terminal supports UPnP, the control presentation document of the UPnP device can be used as it is without modification, and it is transmitted to the UPnP device as it is even if an action is requested. In addition, the service state of the UPnP device may be changed to receive information on an event generated.

However, status information on network connection and termination of UPnP devices can be obtained only through the UPnP proxy device. This is because discovery of the UPnP network uses a multicast method, so that discovery messages are not delivered to Internet users beyond one subnet.

The method of the present invention as described above may be implemented as a program and stored in a computer-readable recording medium (CD-ROM, RAM, ROM, floppy disk, hard disk, magneto-optical disk, etc.).

The present invention described above is not limited to the above-described embodiments and the accompanying drawings, and various substitutions, modifications, and changes are possible in the art without departing from the technical spirit of the present invention. It will be apparent to those of ordinary knowledge.

As described above, the present invention has an effect that a web browser user of an OS environment that does not support Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) can control a UPnP device of a home network outside or within a home network.

That is, it is possible to control the devices in the home network from outside the home network, and it is possible to solve the limitation that the web browser and the UPnP control pointer must exist on one computer of the user.

Claims (9)

In the proxy device for controlling the home network device, Command processing means for interpreting and processing a HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) command received from a web server; UCP interfacing means for transmitting a user request transmitted through the command processing means to a universal control pointing (UCP) means to perform a corresponding function; The universal control pointing means for controlling all Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) devices in a home network; And Event processing means for processing an event occurring through the universal control pointing means Proxy device for controlling a home network device comprising a. The method of claim 1, Document conversion means for converting a device control presentation document into an HTML (HyperText Markup Language) document so that a user terminal that does not support UPnP can control the UPnP devices in the home network. Proxy device for controlling the home network device further comprising. The method of claim 2, The HTML document conversion means, Instead of using UPnP application programming interface (API) calls, using the <FORM> .. </ FORM> and <INPUT> .. </ INPUT> tags in HyperText Markup Language (HTML) to convert the document to accommodate your needs A proxy device for controlling the home network device, characterized in that. The method of claim 1, The UCP interface means, Proxy device for controlling the home network device, characterized in that for communicating with the UCP by calling an API (Application Programming Interface) function provided by the UCP. In the proxy method for controlling a home network device applied to a home network system, A first step of interpreting and processing a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) command received from a web server through an HTTP command processor; A second step of transmitting a user request transmitted through the HTTP command processor to a universal control pointer (UCP) to perform a corresponding function; A third step of controlling all Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) devices in a home network through the universal control pointer; And A fourth step of processing an event occurring through the universal control pointer Proxy method for controlling a home network device comprising a. The method of claim 5, A fifth step of converting a device control presentation document into a HyperText Markup Language (HTML) document so that a user terminal that does not support UPnP can control the UPnP devices in the home network; Proxy method for controlling the home network device further comprising. The method of claim 6, The fifth step, Instead of using UPnP application programming interface (API) calls, using the <FORM> .. </ FORM> and <INPUT> .. </ INPUT> tags in HyperText Markup Language (HTML) to convert the document to accommodate your needs A proxy method for controlling a home network device. In a home network system having a processor, A first function of interpreting and processing a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) command received from a web server through an HTTP command processor; A second function of transmitting a user request transmitted through the HTTP command processor to a universal control pointer (UCP) to perform a corresponding function; A third function of controlling all Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) devices in a home network through the universal control pointer; And A fourth function for handling events occurring through the universal control pointer A computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for realizing this. The method of claim 8, A fifth function of converting a device control presentation document into a HyperText Markup Language (HTML) document so that a user terminal that does not support UPnP can control the UPnP devices in the home network; A computer-readable recording medium that records a program for further realization.