KR20100132271A - Apparatus and method for providing united contents list of home network - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: An apparatus and a method for providing a united contents list of a home network are provided to efficiently reduce the unnecessary packet transfer of a network and the unnecessary action of a user by providing a united list for all contents lists in a home network. CONSTITUTION: A collection module(110) collects a contents list from media servers(200) providing contents to a home network system. A CP(Control Point)(300) which is a device for controlling the multimedia sharing in the home network system provides the CP with the collected contents list. The collection module transfers a contents list providing command to the media servers based on an UPnP(Universal Plug & Play) protocol.

Description

Apparatus and method for providing united contents list of home network

The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for providing an integrated content list for a home network, and more particularly, to an apparatus and a method for providing an integrated content list for a home network to enable searching and browsing of all content lists in the home network.

As the spread of multimedia home appliances or IT products is activated, the demand for sharing multimedia is continuously increasing. Such multimedia sharing can be divided into sharing through a server of the Internet or sharing through a home network, and the sharing through a home network is largely activated by support of various home network standards. Among them, UPnP (Universal Plug and Play), which is supported by leading companies such as Microsoft, is rapidly growing, and mass-produced products are also produced and sold for supporting terminals or servers.

UPnP is a standard established by the UPnP Forum and defines a method of communication and control between home appliances in a home network. Standards are defined through IP-based networks, IP-based protocols and XML, and contain a number of technical documents. Among them, the UPnP AV architecture defines communication between media servers and players (Media Server, Media Renderer) in the home network to enable multimedia sharing within the home network.

UPnP uses five functions to define home network communications. This includes discovery to inform the home network that the user has entered, description to convey his information, control to control the external device, and event to notify the external device of the change of status of the user. Eventing, a presentation that informs external devices of their status, each of which is closely related to the IP protocols established by the IETF. Key technologies include HTTP for transport, Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) for IPC functionality, and XML for the definition of each device / service profile.

UPnP classifies devices in the home network into three groups according to their functions. First, a media server that can provide multimedia to a home network, a media renderer that can play multimedia, and a control point that can control them. The media server and media renderer have four service profiles that use the service profiles to provide their respective functions to the control point.

The media server has a Contents Directory Service (hereinafter referred to as CDS) to transmit its own content list. The control point can request the commands of Browse (), Search (), etc. by using the media server's CDS. As a result, the control point receives a list of contents owned by the device.

The control point receives the content list through the CDS of the media server, and can request the media server to transmit a specific multimedia file based on the received list. The requested multimedia file is transmitted to the media renderer. The media renderer is responsible for playing the transmitted multimedia file. The control point enables the media renderer to play the received file and controls the playback related characteristics. For example, the control point may instruct the media renderer to start / stop playback or trick play, and control playback related characteristics such as volume control, screen brightness control, and audio muting.

As described above, UPnP defines a good framework / middleware that can share and control multimedia within a home network.

However, the UPnP AV architecture does not define how the control point searches the list of content for multiple media servers. This lack of functionality prevents a user from performing a consolidated search for media servers if there are multiple media servers in the home network. For example, if three contents servers A, B, and C have contents a0 to a9, b0 to b9, and c0 to c9, respectively, the user can select the media server A to view ten multimedia contents. However, in order to view the multimedia contents in the B media server, it is necessary to disconnect from the A device and select the B device. That is, only server-based content search is possible.

Due to this functional limitation, the user must repeatedly select and search multiple media servers to find the desired content, which is not only a difficult scenario for the user but also an unnecessary use of unused metadata. Repeated network transmissions result in inefficient use of network resources. To summarize these shortcomings:

UPnP supports content lists for a single media server rather than the entire home network.

2. The user cannot create or access the entire home network content list.

3. Users must access each media server sequentially, which creates unnecessary network packets and inefficient use scenarios.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide an integrated content list providing apparatus and method for a home network that enables searching and browsing of all content lists in a home network.

In order to achieve the above object, the integrated content list providing apparatus for a home network according to the present invention includes a collection module for collecting a content list from a plurality of media servers, the apparatus for providing contents to a home network system; And a providing module for providing the control point with a list of contents collected from the plurality of media servers by a control point, which is a device for controlling multimedia sharing in a home network system. It is made to include.

The collection module issues a content list provision command to the plurality of media servers based on the Universal Plug & Play (UPnP) protocol.

Specifically, the collection module sends a query for checking whether there is a media server that has updated the content list, and sends a command to provide the content list to the media server that has updated the content list by checking the result value of the query. .

In addition, the collection module issues a content list providing instruction to the new media server that broadcasts its presence to the home network system.

The integrated content list providing method of the present invention is performed by an integrated content list providing apparatus for a home network, the method comprising: collecting a content list from a plurality of media servers, the apparatus providing content to a home network system; And providing a list of contents collected from the plurality of media servers to the control point as a control point, which is a device for controlling multimedia sharing in a home network system, requests a list of contents.

The integrated content list providing method of the present invention includes the steps of: sending a query to check whether there is a media server that has updated the content list; And checking a result value of the query to give a content list providing command to the media server that updated the content list.

The integrated content list providing method of the present invention may further comprise the step of giving a content list providing command to a new media server that broadcasts its presence to a home network system.

According to the apparatus and method for providing a unified content list for a home network of the present invention, by providing an unified list of all content lists on a home network, unnecessary action of a user and unnecessary transmission of unnecessary packets of a network can be efficiently reduced. . In addition, by fully ensuring compatibility with existing UPnP devices, the user can use existing devices without modification, and according to the situation, there is an advantage in that the content list of the device or the content list of the entire network can be checked as desired.

In summary, the advantages of the present invention are as follows.

-Provide a unified list of all the contents existing in the UPnP home network

-Guarantee backward compatibility with existing UPnP equipment

-Efficient use of network resources by preventing redundant transmission of unnecessary network packets

The present invention eliminates the problem of UPnP, which has not been able to view all the content list on the conventional home network, so that a user can access all the content lists on the home network from one media server, thereby increasing the efficiency and user usability of network usage. Can contribute.

 Features of the present invention are as follows.

 1. Access a list of all the content on your home network from a single device.

2. With respect to (1), the function is implemented without modification of existing home network devices.

3. With respect to (1), the user can select an existing device-specific content list or integrated content list.

 4. The integrated list essentially blocks unnecessary browsing to maximize user usability and network resource efficiency.

The technology proposed in the present invention has the following components.

-Control Point and Media Server Integration

-Create, modify, and change Contents List in Media Server

Integrated browsing for users

-Ensure compatibility without modification of existing technology.

Hereinafter, an apparatus and method for providing a list of integrated contents for a home network according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

UPnP technology is a home network protocol proposed by the UPnP forum, and defines how home appliances and IT devices form a home network, and how each device controls each other in a home network. UPnP technology is basically designed to work on IP networks. In other words, each device has an independent IP address and communication between devices is based on the IP protocol. For communication between devices, UPnP borrows various IETF-based protocols, including the HTTP protocol, and uses XML to describe its contents. The configuration of the UPnP protocol stack can be seen in FIG.

1 is a block diagram of a UPnP AV architecture.

The UPnP standard includes a variety of technical documents, among which the UPnP AV architecture defines how to share multimedia within a home network. The UPnP AV architecture provides a multimedia provider as a Media Server or Media Source (hereinafter referred to as Media Server), a multimedia player as a Media Renderer, and equipment to control both. Each is defined as a Control Point. The media server and media renderer have four services for providing or receiving multimedia, and the control point combines these four services to play the multimedia files from the media server in the media renderer. .

As such, the UPnP AV architecture defines three families based on their function, which is a logical family, and can be configured as a combination of each family in the actual product configuration. For example, one device may include a media server function or a combination of a control point and a media renderer.

In order for a control point to play multimedia content on a media server, it must first obtain a list of content from the media server, which is done through the Browse () action defined in the media server's CDS. This command allows the control point to obtain a list of multimedia content on one media server.

However, the Browse () action of the CDS can't show the contents list of the whole home network because it receives the list of one media server. To retrieve a list of content across the home network, you must repeatedly run the Browse () command for each media server, which is bad for your usage scenarios and can create unnecessary extra packets for your network.

The present invention defines a method of providing a unified list of all contents in a home network through a combination of a control point and a media server. Hereinafter, such a control point + media server will be referred to as an integrated content list providing apparatus.

The integrated content list providing apparatus according to the present invention comprises a combination of a control point and a media server. The control point (hereinafter, referred to as a 'gathering module') built in the integrated content list providing device sequentially executes Browse () commands to all media servers on the home network according to the UPnP protocol standard. For the content list values obtained as a result of each Browse () command, the collection module uses the CreateObject () command defined in the CDS of the media server (hereinafter referred to as 'provision module') embedded in the integrated content list providing device. Create a separate content list in the provided module. Thereafter, the collection module updates the content list read from each media server through the Browse () command to the providing module through the UpdateObject () command.

2 is a block diagram of an integrated content list providing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 2, the integrated content list providing apparatus 100 according to the present invention includes a collection module 110 for collecting content lists from a plurality of media servers 200, and the control point 300 controls the content list. Upon request, the collection module 110 includes a providing module 120 for providing the control point 300 with a list of contents collected from the plurality of media servers 200.

As mentioned above, the collection module 110 issues a content list provision command to the plurality of media servers 200 based on the UPnP protocol. In detail, the collection module 110 sends a query for checking whether there is a media server that has updated the content list, and checks the result of the query to provide the content list to the media server that has updated the content list. Down. In addition, the collection module 110 issues a content list provision command to a new media server that broadcasts its presence on a home network.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a method of providing an integrated content list according to an embodiment of the present invention.

First, the Aggregator 100 performs discovery based on the standard protocol defined in UPnP (step S101).

Then, the Aggregator 100 performs a description based on the standard protocol defined in UPnP (step S103).

Next, the Aggregator 100 checks whether there is a new media server (step S105). Then, it is checked whether there is a media server that has updated the content list (step S107).

As a result of the check, if there is a new media server or an updated media server, a browse () command is issued to the media server (step S109). In this case, in the case of a plurality of media servers, the Browse () command is sequentially executed.

Next, the Aggregator 100 generates or updates the content list read through the Browse () command from each media server (step S111).

Thereafter, as the control point 300 requests the content list, the Aggregator 100 provides the collected content list to the control point 300 (step S113).

4 is an example of a home network configuration diagram using an integrated content list providing apparatus according to the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 4, in step 1, the Aggregator 100 performs Browse () for all the media servers 300 and 400 except for the Aggregator 100 on the home network. In (2), the Aggregator 100 generates an integrated content list. In (3), the control point 200 (notebook) performs Browse () on all media servers (including an Aggregator) on the home network.

The control point 200 obtains a total of three content lists as a result of (3). The content list of the PC 400, the content list of the NAS 300 (network storage device), and the content list of the Aggregator 100, where the content list of the Aggregator 100 is an integrated content list for the home network. If the user knows exactly which server the desired file is located on, the user can find the desired file by selecting the desired device (PC or NAS) in the UI (user interface) of the control point 200. If the user wants to find a specific file for the entire home network, the user may select the Aggregator 100 to open the content list of the Aggregator 100 and then search for the content list of the entire home network.

As such, by configuring the Aggregator 100 in a combination of a control point and a media server, compatibility with existing UPnP devices can be guaranteed. The user can check which device performs the aggregator function from the name of each device, and can select an aggregator or a media server directly according to the purpose.

The apparatus and method for providing a list of integrated contents for a home network according to the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments and can be modified in various ways within the scope of the technical idea of the present invention.

1 is a block diagram of a UPnP AV architecture.

2 is a block diagram of an integrated content list providing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a method of providing an integrated content list according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 is an example of a home network configuration diagram using an integrated content list providing apparatus according to the present invention.

*** Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawing ***

100: integrated content list providing apparatus (Aggregator)

110: Aggregator Control Point

120: provision module (Aggregator Media Server)

200: control point

300, 400: media server

Claims (8)

A collection module for collecting a content list from a plurality of media servers, the device providing content to a home network system; And The control module, which is a device for controlling multimedia sharing in a home network system, requests a content list, and the collection module includes a providing module for providing the control point with a content list collected from the plurality of media servers. Integrated content list providing device made by. The method of claim 1, wherein the collection module, Apparatus for providing a content list, characterized in that to issue a content list providing command to the plurality of media servers based on the Universal Plug & Play (UPnP) protocol. The method of claim 2, wherein the collection module, Sending a query to check whether there is a media server that has updated the content list, and checking the result value of the query to issue a content list providing command to the media server that updated the content list. Provision device. The method of claim 2, wherein the collection module, And a content list providing command to a new media server broadcasting its presence to a home network system. Performed by the integrated content list providing apparatus for the home network, Collecting a list of content from a plurality of media servers, the device providing content to a home network system; And The integrated content list comprising the step of providing the control point with a list of content collected from the plurality of media servers, when a control point, which is a device for controlling multimedia sharing in a home network system, requests the content list How to Provide. The method of claim 5, Sending a query to check if there is a media server that updated the content list; And And confirming a result value of the query and giving a content list providing command to a media server that has updated the content list. The method of claim 5, And providing a content list providing command to a new media server that broadcasts its presence to a home network system. A computer-readable medium having recorded thereon a program for executing the method for providing an integrated content list according to any one of claims 5 to 7.

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