KR20050027500A - Remote controlling method and system for device in home network - Google Patents

Abstract

A method and system for remotely controlling a device of a home network are provided to allow a user to control a home device by using a familiar domain name by providing URL information within an UPnP device specification document with the domain name, not with an IP address. A device of a home network is discovered and specification information is extracted(S401,S402). Address information of the specification information is changed into a corresponding domain name according to each device(S404,S405). A Web server is connected to transmit the specification information, and then, the connection to the Web server is released(S406,S407). A corresponding device in the home network is directly connected through a domain name-based presentation URL of the device included in the specification information stored in the Web server, so as to be remotely controlled.

Description

REMOTE CONTROLLING METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DEVICE IN HOME NETWORK}

The present invention relates to UPnP ^™ technology, and more particularly, to a method and system for remotely controlling a device in a home network.

The communication between two or more devices in a home is called a home network.

The proliferation of home networking has transformed the existing PC-oriented network environment from home to the environment where various sub-network technologies are used, and the necessity of a technology that can network these home appliances in an independent and unified manner using IP protocol. UPnP ^™ (hereinafter, abbreviated as UPnP) technology has been proposed by MS.

UPnP technology is based on distributed and open networking architectures, enabling each appliance in a home network to be seamlessly peer-to-peer without management.

In this case, the UPnP technology adopts standard networking technologies such as IP and HTTP as components of distributed and open networking structures, so that the UPnP technology can operate independently of an operating system, a platform, and a transmission medium.

Currently, UPnP devices based on UPnP device architecture 1.0 can be divided into six categories: Plug & Address, Address, Discovery, Description, Control, Event, and Presentation. It can be operated by Play method.

The discovery step allows discovery of the desired UPnP device to occur distributed and independent using IP multicast without a centralized database (DB) with only information on the network.

The specification step stipulates that the user and the other device provide the information in an XML (eXtensible Markup Language) manner so that detailed product information and service information can be queried.

In the control step, the user can control the device using the information obtained in the specification step.

However, since the discovery structure of UPnP devices using IP multicast cannot guarantee that IP multicast services are normally performed in the Internet range, the control of UPnP devices using information obtained through the discovery of UPnP devices is also possible through the Internet. You will not.

Accordingly, the UDCOWEB (UPnP Device Control Over WEB) structure enables the UPnP device to be controlled through the Internet by establishing a connection between an agent existing in a home network and a server existing on the Internet to perform a device discovery interworking function. Was proposed.

An example of such a prior art is 2003 Patent Application No. 25185 (application date April 21, 2003).

The conventional UPnP device control service technology through the Internet discovers UPnP devices on a network through a device discovery interworking function between a UDCOWEB agent in a home network and a UDCOWEB server existing on the Internet, and establishes a connection between an agent and a server to authenticate a user. If successful, it transmits the description information of the device found in the home network to the server, and the user connects to the server and controls the corresponding UPnP device in the home network by using the presentation URL in the specification information after authentication. To perform the operation.

However, in the related art, discovered device description information is expressed as a URL based on an IP address, so that whenever the public address is changed in the home network, the UDCOWEB agent changes the device description information to the UDCOWEB server. As a transmission, the server processing capacity is limited because the UDCOWEB server must cope with a network environment in which an address in the home network is dynamically changed frequently.

Accordingly, the present invention provides the URL information used to control the device as a domain name in order to improve the conventional problem, so that the UDCOWEB server can independently describe the device even in a network environment where the address is dynamically changed in the home network. It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and a system for remotely controlling a device in a home network, which can be used to manage information and improve processing capability.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a method for controlling a UPnP home network, comprising: a first step of discovering a device in a home network and extracting specification information from the domain name and a home gateway; Converting to an authorized port value, connecting to a web server to transmit the specification information, and disconnecting from the web server; and through a domain name of a device included in the specification information stored in the web server. And performing a fourth step of directly connecting to a corresponding device in a home network and remotely controlling the device.

In the address information converting step, when the address information in the specification information is a private address, the process of converting a private address and a port number into a public port number received from a corresponding domain name and a home gateway is performed.

In addition, the present invention provides a remote control UPnP home network control method by directly connecting to the corresponding device in the home network through the domain name of the device included in the specification information stored in the web server to achieve the above object, from the home gateway When the public address change event is confirmed, the UDCOWEB agent includes a step of transmitting a newly changed public address for each domain name to the DNS server to change the public address for each domain name maintained by the DNS server. .

That is, the present invention maintains the connection only when necessary between the home agent and the web server, the process of checking whether the public address information given to the service provider for the home network is released (release), the home gateway for servicing the home network Assumes the UPnP Internet Gateway Device (IGD) to inform the UPnP event of the newly granted public address value, and the home agent receives the changed public address value and transmits the changed public address value for each domain name to the DNS server. Characterized in that configured to perform.

The present invention having such a configuration features a UDCOWEB agent that provides discovery information of devices in a home network to an external server including domain names for each device in order to provide a UPnP device control service through the Internet. It is characterized by including a UDCOWEB (UPnP Device Control Over WEB) server operating as an access server to control the home device through.

The UDCOWEB agent is configured to generate a domain name in an external DNS server or a UDCOWEB server for each UPnP device of a home network, and to update a corresponding entry in a server having a DNS function when an IP address is changed.

That is, in the UDCOWEB agent of the present invention, in the home network, UPnP devices are discovered, the device description document is corrected, and the function is transmitted to the UDCOWEB server. If not, request and set the public address entry available to the network address translation (NAT) function of the home gateway, convert the private address information to the domain name previously created by the UDCOWEB agent and the public port value assigned from the home gateway, and the UDCOWEB server. It establishes the connection with the server, sends the device specification document through the authentication process, and then releases the connection.

The UDCOWEB server maintains HomeNetBind table information for managing home network identification information between a home agent and an external server based on user authentication information based on a search key, and when the user authentication is successful, UPnP in the home network. The device specification document can be inquired and operated as an access server to control a corresponding UPnP device in a home network through a presentation URL composed of a domain name in the specification document.

Accordingly, the present invention provides a network in which an UDCOWEB server dynamically changes an IP address in a home network by using a domain name rather than an IP address in a range that conforms to the UPnP Device Architecture version 1.0 specification to provide a UPnP device control service through the Internet. This allows users to control home devices using domain names while maintaining device specification information independent of the environment.

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

1 is a block diagram of a system for an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, detailed information of devices 213 and 214 in a home network is stored and the detailed information is provided when a user accesses and authenticates on the web. UDCOWEB (UPnP Device Control Over WEB) server 220 that provides a, and the devices 213, 214 in the home network to find the specification information of the device 213, 214 and then extracts the specification information in the extracted specification information When the address information is changed to a domain name and connected to the UDCOWEB server 220, the UDCOWEB server 220 transmits the changed specification information to the UDCOWEB server 220 and stores it, and then releases the connection with the UDCOWEB server 220. The UDCOWEB agent 212 and the UDCOWEB agent 212 connected to the UDCOWEB server 220 at the request of the UDCOWEB agent 212 to confirm the device from the UDCOWEB server 220. When using the name-based presentation (presentation), which is connected from the URL of the remote device 230 is configured by including a home gateway (211) connecting to the device in the home network.

The operation and effect of the embodiment of the present invention configured as described above will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 to 5.

In FIG. 1, the remote device 230 may be configured as a portable terminal such as a desktop PC, a notebook PC, a PDA, and a mobile communication terminal. In the embodiment of the present invention, a laptop PC will be described.

First, the UDCOWEB agent 212 is present in the home network, and the UPnP device in the home network advertises its presence or directly searches for the UPnP device in the discovery phase of the UPnP device architecture 1.0. Discovers UPnP device 213 (214).

At this time, if the URL-based address information in the description information is private address information due to the use of NAT, the UDCOWEB agent 212 obtains public address information from the NAT module of the home gateway 211 to obtain address information in the specification information. Replace with public address information. That is, when the URL-based address information in the specification information is an IP address, particularly when the private address information is due to the use of NAT, the UDCOWEB agent 212 receives public address information (authorized address, port number) from the NAT module of the home gateway 211. ) And change the IP address and port number in the specification information into a domain name for the corresponding device and an authorized port number assigned from the home gateway 211, respectively. Here, the domain name includes an identifier identifying the device model and the home network.

Subsequently, the UDCOWEB agent 212 establishes a connection to the UDCOWEB server 220 and authenticates based on the home agent authentication information, and then specifies the specification information of the UPnP devices 213 and 214 found in the home network. To send).

Thereafter, the UDCOWEB agent 212 transmits the specification information to the UDCOWEB server 220 and releases the connection with the UDCOWEB server 220. At this time, the UDCOWEB agent 212 may maintain the connection with the UDCOWEB server 220 if there is no problem in server resources and performance for maintaining the connection.

Accordingly, the UDCOWEB server 220 classifies and manages device specification information transmitted from the UDCOWEB agent 212 based on HomeNetBind table information using the user authentication information as a search key. Here, the homenet bind table includes user authentication information to a web server, home agent authentication information to a web server, and device specification information. The homenet bind table is managed using an insert, delete, and retrieve function. .

Thereafter, the user accesses the UDCOWEB server 220 using the notebook PC 230 and performs user authentication. At this time, the user authentication information (username) used when accessing the UDCOWEB server 220 is used as a search key of the homenet bind table in the UDCOWEB 220 so that the UDCOWEB agent 212 passes through the authentication step with the UDCOWEB server 220. It is used to retrieve device specification information together with the authentication information to be transmitted.

Subsequently, if the user authentication is successful, the user checks the presentation URL based on the domain name in the specification information and controls the device by connecting to the corresponding UPnP device in the home network through the corresponding domain name of the device to be controlled currently. .

In other words, in the exemplary embodiment of the present invention, as shown in the example diagram of FIG. 2, the UDCOWEB agent 212 has a client function of a dynamic domain name service to provide domain names for devices existing in the home network. The UDCOWEB server 220 provides the DNS server function and the domain name generation interface directly to process the client function of the dynamic domain name service of the UDCOWEB agent 212. However, depending on the implementation, the DNS server function and domain name generation interface provided by the external service may be used.

That is, in the embodiment of the present invention, the networking process between the UDCOWEB agent 212 and the UDCOWEB server 220 is shown in Figure 3, the description (Description), home network connection (HomeNetworkBind), remote control (RemoteControl) It is operated in steps, which will be described in detail for each step as follows.

The description step is a step of informing the UDCOWEB server 220 of the specification information of the UPnP device 213 and 214 in the home network discovered by the UDCOWEB agent 212, and whether the UPnP device uses a private address. It checks whether or not and performs the same operation as the operation flowchart of FIG.

When the UPnP device 213 or 214 is using a private address, the UDCOWEB agent 212 obtains a public address from the NAT module of the home gateway 211 and converts address information (IP address and port number) in the specification information. In this case, the private address is converted into a domain name assigned to the device, and the port number is converted into an authorized port number obtained from the home gateway 211. At this time, if the home gateway 211 is a UPnP IGD (Internwt Gateway Device), the public address is granted using the AddPortMapping action. If the home gateway 211 is a general gateway other than the UPnP IGD, the public gateway is given a public address using telnet communication.

The home network connection step may include specification information of a device corresponding to a home network to which a user belongs based on information on a HomeNetBind table whose user authentication information is a search key among device specification information provided by the UDCOWEB agent 212. It is a step of finding them separately. This means that a user remotely located outside the home network successfully completes user authentication after accessing the UDCOWEB server 220 using the notebook PC 230, thereby obtaining device specification information in the home network classified based on user identification. It means to inquire.

The remote control step is to directly control a device by accessing a corresponding UPnP device in a home network by using a presentation URL based on a domain name in a device specification retrieved remotely.

However, when a service provider provides a home network, the user releases an address in order to alleviate the IPv4 address shortage problem if the user does not use the network connection for a certain period of time.

If the public address used by the home gateway has been assigned a new public address after a certain idle period has been released, the UDCOWEB agent 212 should inform the DNS server of the changed address for each domain name of each device. That is, when using the private address of the UPnP device in the home network, the UDCOWEB agent 212 converts the domain name and the public port value, but if it is changed to a new address after the address is released, the public address changed by the domain name in the DNS server. The address needs to be retransmitted. This will be described with reference to the operation flowchart of FIG. 5.

First, when the public address is released, if the home gateway 211 serving the home network is UPnP IGD, the newly provided public address value is notified to the UDCOWEB agent 212 using the UPnP event.

At this time, when the UDCOWEB agent 212 receives the changed public address value from the home gateway 211 as an event, the UDCOWEB agent 212 transmits the changed public address value for each domain name to the DNS server.

In addition, in the above, when the new public address is allocated after the UDCOWEB agent 212 is disconnected from the UDCOWEB server 220, only the process of changing the public address value for each domain name in the DNS server is described. Even when the information is changed, after connecting to the UDCOWEB server 220 to authenticate the changed device specification information.

As described in detail above, the present invention provides a user access to a UDCOWEB server through the Internet by interworking a UDCOWEB agent existing in a home network and a UDCOWEB server existing on the Internet so that discovery of a UPnP device can be made through the Internet. Then, in controlling UPnP devices in the home network to which they belong, the device discovery interworking function is performed without requiring resources for maintaining the connection between the UDCOWEB agent and the UDCOWEB server, thereby saving the resources of the server by saving the resources of the UDCOWEB server. There is an effect to improve.

In particular, the present invention provides the URL information in the UPnP device specification document used when the user controls the device as a domain name rather than an IP address, so that the user can control the home device using a user-friendly domain name, and also in the home network. Even in a network environment where the address changes dynamically, the UDCOWEB server can manage the device description information independently to improve processing power.

1 is a block diagram of a system for an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 2 is an exemplary view showing a dynamic domain name service structure in the embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a signal flow diagram illustrating a UDCOWEB networking process in an embodiment of the invention.

4 is an operational flowchart of a UDCOWEB specification transmission step in an embodiment of the present invention.

5 is an operational flowchart of a new UDCOWEB specification transmission step after address release in an embodiment of the present invention.

Explanation of symbols on the main parts of the drawings

211: home gateway 212: UDCOWEB agent

220: UDCOWEB server

Claims (10)

In the UPnP home network control method for remote control by directly connecting to the corresponding device in the home network through the URL of the device included in the specification information stored in the web server, And changing the address information in the specification information of the device found in the home network to a URL based on a corresponding domain name for each device and transmitting the same to a web server. The method of claim 1, further comprising remotely connecting to a corresponding device in a home network through a domain name-based presentation URL of a device included in specification information stored in a web server. Remote control method of device in home network. 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining whether to maintain a connection with the web server according to server resources and capabilities for maintaining the connection in the web server. In the UPnP home network control method, A first step of discovering devices in a home network and extracting specification information; A second step of changing address information in the specification information to a corresponding domain name for each device; Connecting to a web server to transmit the specification information and disconnecting from the web server; And performing a fourth step of directly connecting to a corresponding device in a home network and remotely controlling it through a domain name based presentation URL of a device included in the specification information stored in the web server. Remote control method of device in home network. The method of claim 1 or 4, wherein the step for address information conversion is And converting a private address and a port number into a public port number received from a corresponding domain name and a home gateway when the address information in the specification information is a private address. 5. The method of claim 1 or 4, wherein the domain name comprises a device model and a home network identifier. In the UPnP home network control method for remote control by directly connecting to the corresponding device in the home network through the domain name of the device included in the specification information stored in the web server, And transmitting the changed public address information for each domain name to a DNS server when the public address change is confirmed. The method of claim 7, wherein when the home gateway is a UPnP Internet Gateway Device (IGD), recognizing the change of the public address, a method of remotely controlling the device in the home network, comprising notifying the newly authorized public address value as an UPnP event. . A web server storing device specification information including a presentation URL based on domain domains of each device in a home network in a home net bind table, and providing the corresponding specification information when a user is connected and authenticated on the web; A home agent for accessing and authenticating the web server, transmitting device specification information in a home network to update the home net bind table, and to determine whether to maintain or disconnect the web server; The home agent connects the home agent to the web server at the request of the home agent and maintains / disconnects the connection between the home agent and the web server by the determination of the home agent, and the device domain of the device specification information confirmed from the web server. And a home gateway configured to connect to a corresponding device in a home network when connected from a remote terminal using a name-based presentation URL. 10. The agent of claim 9, wherein the home agent If the specification information of the device includes private address information, change the private address information to the corresponding domain name, and change the port number to a public port number through the home gateway to transmit the specification information to the web server. A device remote control system in a home network.