Remote control method of home network and system thereof

Remote control method and system for home network

Technical field

The present invention relates to a home network, and in particular to a remote control method and system for a home network.

Background technique

Recently, with the widespread distribution of high-speed Internet and the digitization of home appliances, there have been attempts to construct a home PC (personal computer), network gateway unit, audio/video equipment, electronic appliances, and controllers into a home network.

UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) defined by the standard network structure protocol is one of the influential standard technologies in the home network field. The home network field is being formed by multiple companies in various countries through the organization of a UPnP forum. A UPnP-based network system includes multiple UPnP devices that provide services and CPs (control points) that control the multiple UPnP devices.

CP, a unit that controls various devices such as UPnP devices, discovers various UPnP devices according to the user's keyboard input, describes the functions of the discovered UPnP devices, and controls the UPnP devices.

A UPnP device is a device connected to a home network such as a PC (personal computer), network equipment, peripheral equipment such as printers, audio/video equipment, and electronic appliances. The UPnP device uses a web page to notify the CP of an event by providing a display page for the CP and can control a device and detect the status of the device. Hereinafter, the UPnP protocol stack based on the UPnP device structure version 1.0 will be described with reference to FIG. 1.

Fig. 1 is a diagram showing the UPnP protocol stack.

As shown in Figure 1, the UPnP protocol stack based on the traditional UPnP device structure version 1.0 includes: a network layer 114 including IP (Internet Protocol); a transmission including UDP (User Datagram Protocol) and TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) Layer 113; a protocol including HTTP, XML (Extensible Markup Language) (not shown), SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) and SSDP (Simple Service Discovery Protocol), and a protocol such as GENA (Generic Event Notification Structure) The structure of the display/dialog layer 112; and an application layer 111 that includes related information such as UPnP devices, forums, and vendors.

In a UPnP network system using the UPnP protocol, the communication method between the CP and the device (UPnP device) includes an addressing step for assigning an IP address to the device; a discovery step for the CP to discover the existence of the device; the CP describes the function of the device and The description step of the service supported by the device; the control step of the CP invoking the service of the device; the event step of the device notifying the CP of its own state change; and the characterizing step of the device displaying its own state and control information. These contents will be described with reference to Figure 2, which is a diagram showing the operating state of the UPnP network discovery process.

2 is a diagram showing the state in which the UPnP device 221 multicasts advertising information to the UPnP CPs 211 and 212 and the state in which the UPnP device 222 responds when the CP 213 transmits search information to the UPnP devices 221 and 222.

In the first method, the CP discovers UPnP devices by using SSDP (Simple Service Discovery Protocol). At this time, when the discovered device 221 is connected to the UPnP network, the device 221 multicasts the advertisement information to the CP, whereby CPs 211 and 212 determine the existence of the UPnP device based on the multicast information from the device 221 .

In the second method, when the CP 213 is connected to the UPnP network, the CP 213 multicasts the search information to the device. The device 222 receiving the search information transmits its information to the CP 213 through unicast. Also, SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) is used to control devices connected to the UPnP network, and GENA is used to receive device status events.

In the traditional UPnP device structure version 1.0, it is assumed that each unit of the home network is located in the local network, so the connection service in the remote area is not considered. In the case where the CP exists in the external network and tries to access the home network, the CP should be able to use the UPnP protocol mechanism even in the external network. If the terminal connected in the remote area is a wireless terminal, the limited computing power, storage unit, display capability, and network environment of the wireless terminal should be considered. That is, in the traditional UPnP standard technology, although the ALIVE, M-SEARCH information of UPnP search, and the BYE-BYE information of the event are based on IP multicast, if the CP exists in the remote area, the multicast is also impossible. of. Therefore, when the CP is not in the local network, the Internet should support IP multicast, so that device search can be performed normally.

However, the traditional IP network cannot discover the UPnP device of the home network through UPnP search in the remote area, because the IP network will not effectively support multicast. Similarly, in the traditional UPnP device architecture version 1.0, in order to prevent network confusion caused by multicast packets, the TTL (expiration date) value of the IP header of the multicast packet is limited to 4. In addition, because the traditional UPnP structure version 1.0 has no special consideration for the wireless terminal environment, the frequent event information transmission in the wireless environment is inconsistent.

Therefore, due to the limitations of the display unit, the presentation page used in the wired environment needs to be reconstructed in consideration of the radio environment. In the case where the remote access CP is loaded on the wireless terminal, since the stack of TCP/IP and HTTP may not be used depending on the type of the terminal, a solution to this situation is needed. In short, in the UPnP home network connection in the remote area, in order to solve the above problems, the proxy operation of each function of the CP and the appropriate information conversion are required in the home network.

Summary of the invention

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a remote control method and system for a home network, which can control devices connected to the home network in a remote area.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a remote control method and system for a home network, which can set the CP provided to the home network system at the home agent and the remote control point of the remote terminal in the home network system. The remote area controls the devices connected to the home network system.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a remote control method and system for a home network, which can be provided to the home network system based on UPnP by setting the home agent and the remote CP of the remote terminal in the UPnP home network system. UPnP CP easily and remotely control devices connected to a home network based on UPnP (Universal Plug and Play), and connect the UPnP CP set at the home agent and the UPnP CP set at the remote control point through a specific channel stand up.

In order to achieve these objectives, a remote control method of a home network is provided, which includes the following steps: respectively setting CPs that control devices connected to the home network system at the home agent of the home network system and the remote CP of the remote terminal; and The CP set at the home agent and the CP set at the remote CP are connected through a specific channel.

In order to achieve these objectives, a remote control system for a home network is provided, including: a home network; a home agent that communicates with devices connected to the home network and has the function of a CP used in the home network; and is installed in a remote terminal And has a remote CP with CP function. Here, the CP of the home agent and the CP of the remote CP are connected together through a specific channel.

In order to achieve these objectives, a remote control system for a home network is provided, including a home network based on UPnP (Universal Plug and Play); it communicates with UPnP devices in the home network and has a home network based on UPnP. Home agent with UPnP CP function; remote CP with UPnP CP function installed at the remote terminal; and user interface unit installed at the remote terminal and providing an interface for the user. Here, the UPnP CP of the home agent and the UPnP CP of the remote CP are connected through a specific channel.

Description of the drawings

Fig. 1 is a diagram showing the UPnP protocol stack.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a state in which the UPnP device multicasts advertisement information to the UPnP CP and the state in which the UPnP device responds when the CP transmits search information to the UPnP device.

Fig. 3 is a block diagram showing the structure of a UPnP-based home network remote control system according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 4 is a structural diagram showing a home network remote control system to which a UPnP CP stack with TCP/IP and HTTP stacks is applied according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 5 is a signal flow diagram of a home network remote control system using the same UPnP CP stack as in Fig. 4.

6 is a diagram showing a home network remote control system to which a UPnP CP stack having a WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) stack instead of the TCP/IP and HTTP stacks is applied according to the third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a signal flow diagram of a home network remote control system applying the same UPnP CP stack as in FIG. 6.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing that the functions of the home agent and the remote CP are allocated so that the home agent performs most of the functions of the UPnP CP and only displays one interface to the remote CP.

detailed description

Next, referring to Figures 3 to 8, the UPnP CP is set at the home agent and the remote CP of the remote terminal respectively, and the UPnP CP set at the home agent and the UPnP CP set at the remote CP are connected through a specific channel. Therefore, the home network remote control method and the system thereof for easily and remotely controlling devices connected to the UPnP-based home network in the remote area will be described in detail.

Fig. 3 is a block diagram showing the structure of a UPnP-based home network remote control system according to the first embodiment of the present invention. Here, the function of the UPnP CP used in the UPnP-based home network is allocated to the home agent (HA) and the remote CP 331.

For example, for a local CP used in a UPnP-based home network, the UPnP CP monitors whether the remote CP is enabled, and determines whether the local CP transfers its authority for controlling UPnP devices to the remote CP according to the monitoring result. That is, the local CP receives the status information of the remote CP, and determines the scope of authority transfer based on the received status information. Here, the status information means information about the processing capability of the remote terminal.

The remote CP checks whether it is possible to connect to the local home network, and then combines with the home network based on the check result, and transmits its status information to the local home network when the remote CP is connected to the home network. That is, the remote CP controls the device through the local CP.

As shown in FIG. 3, the remote control system for a home network based on UPnP according to the present invention includes: a home network 310 based on UPnP; including the function of UPnPCP (local CP) used at the home network 310, and becomes the same as the home network 310 The home agent 320 of the UPnP protocol processing unit of the UPnP device communication in the UPnP device; the remote CP 331 that includes the function of the UPnP CP and is set at the remote terminal (for example, the mobile terminal device); and the remote CP 331 is set at the remote terminal and provides users with A user interface unit 332 of an interface. Here, the remote terminal means a device in a remote area (for example, a wireless terminal or a located mobile terminal), which is not connected to the local network to which the UPnP device is connected.

Hereinafter, the operation of the remote control system for a home network based on UPnP according to the present invention will be described in detail.

First, preferably, in the UPnP protocol process at the home agent 320, device search and events are processed in the local home network by using IP multicast. Similarly, the user interface output should be performed on the remote terminal.

Then, the functions of the UPnP CP are allocated to the home agent 320 (HA) and the remote CP. For example, the functions of the UPnP CP are allocated to the home agent 320 and the external remote CP 331 in the home network, and then the UPnP CP allocated to the HA 320 and the UPnPCP allocated to the remote CP 331 are constituted by a specific channel (for example, a secure channel) One-to-one connection. Here, UPnP event information is transmitted by IP unicast using GENA.

When UPnP information is transmitted through IP unicast, the event information is not directly transmitted to the remote CP, but the HA 320 receives the information and adjusts the received event information. The HA 320 may transmit the adjusted event information to the remote CP 331 or may be constructed so that the remote CP 331 can obtain the event information from the HA 320 through polling. This is useful when an event message is frequently generated.

As shown in FIG. 1 of the prior art, the UPnP protocol stack includes basic Internet protocols 112 to 114, parts defined at the structure of the UPnP device, and parts 111 defined specifically according to the type of each device and vendor. . Therefore, the HA 320 and the remote CP 331 can receive basic services of the UPnP device through the UPnP API defined in each device structure.

However, the UPnP service (for example, UPnP API) defined in the UPnP device structure is not sufficient to use the functions defined by the device and the manufacturer. Therefore, when constructing a UPnP CP, each UPnP device is specifically designated, or the specific function of the UPnP device is separately constructed as a component, so as to be installed and used whenever necessary. Therefore, the optimized UPnP control point function can be realized, and the minimum storage space of the remote terminal can also be used. For example, as shown in FIG. 4, in the case where the remote terminal has both TCP/IP and HTTP stacks, the functions of the home agent and the remote terminal can be allocated.

Fig. 4 is a structural diagram showing a home network remote control system to which a UPnP CP stack with TCP/IP and HTTP stacks is applied according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 4, the home agent 410 uses IP multicast to perform functions, which are part of the SSDP and GENA functions. The remote CP 420 executes a series of SOAP, GENA, and user interface functions including device/vendor specific components 421 and UPnP API (application program interface) 422 functions.

In addition, the functions of the home agent 410 are transferred to the remote CP 420 through a defined vendor-specific protocol. Therefore, the remote CP 420 performs device search and event functions through the HA 410, which is a part of the remote CP function, and the remote CP 420 also performs other functions by directly accessing the device. That is, if the distributed environment technology is used, the UPnP API of the remote CP 420 processes the function executed at the home agent as if the function was processed locally.

Therefore, the application program made by using the UPnP API operates without considering the allocation process of the UPnP stacks 112 to 114 of FIG. 1 implemented to provide the API. That is, the remote terminal controls the UPnP device with the same function as the UPnP CP in the home network through the UPnP CP set at the remote CP in the remote area.

Hereinafter, the operation of the home network remote control system to which the UPnP control point stack including both TCP/IP and HTTP stacks is applied according to the second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 5.

Fig. 5 is a signal flow diagram of a home network remote control system using the same UPnP CP stack as in Fig. 4.

First, the home agent 410 discovers UPnP devices in the home network through UPnP devices and a UPnP search process, and stores information related to the discovered devices.

When the remote CP 420 is connected to the home agent 410, the home agent 410 transmits the stored information to the remote CP 420.

The remote CP 420 directly requests the related UPnP device for the display page of the device to be controlled based on the device list of the stored information. At this time, the relevant UPnP device transmits the HTLM page corresponding to the request to the remote CP 420.

Then, in order to receive the event information of the UPnP device, the remote CP 420 sends a UPnP event subscription request. At this time, the home agent 410 receives the event information transmitted from the related UPnP device by transmitting the UPnP event subscription request to the related UPnP device. In addition, the home agent summarizes the event information.

The remote CP 420 receives summary event information from the HA 410 by performing periodic polling. Accordingly, when the remote CP 420 attempts to control the related UPnP device, the remote CP 420 writes SOAP information, directly requests the related UPnP device and receives response information.

6 is a diagram showing a home network remote control system to which a UPnP control point stack with a WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) stack 521 instead of the TCP/IP and HTTP stacks is applied according to the third embodiment of the present invention.

First, the home agent 510 uses IP multicast to perform functions, which are SSDP and GENA, and the SOAP* and GENA* information defined in WML (Wireless Markup Language) is converted into existing XML (Extensible Markup Language) The SOAP and GENA information is part of the WAP gateway function 511 that transmits the information over HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol). At this time, because the remote terminal supports the same UPnP API as if the remote terminal has TCP/IP and HTTP stacks, the remote terminal can share an application between itself and the WAP phone. Here, the SOAP* and GENA*522 are SOAP and GENA included in the WAP stack.

Similarly, the WAP gateway function can exist in the external network. That is, by separating the WAP gateway from the home agent 510 to the outside, the WAP gateway function can exist between the home agent 510 and the remote CP 520.

The operation of the home network remote control system to which the UPnP CP stack including the WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) stack 421 instead of the TCP/IP and HTTP stacks is applied according to the third embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG. 7.

FIG. 7 is a signal flow diagram of a home network remote control system applying the same UPnP CP stack as in FIG. 6.

First, the home agent 510 discovers UPnP devices in the home network through the UPnP device and UPnP search process, and stores information related to the discovered UPnP devices.

Then, when the remote CP 520 is connected to the home agent 510, the home agent 510 transmits the stored information to the remote CP 520.

The remote CP 520 requests the home agent 510 for the display page of the device to be controlled based on the device list of the received information. At this time, the home agent 510 requests the device to be controlled by the remote CP 520 to display a page.

The UPnP device to be controlled by the remote CP 520 transmits the HTML page to the home agent 510 according to the request of the home agent 510.

The home agent 510 receives the HTML page from the UPnP device, converts the received HTML page into a WML file, and transmits the converted WML file to the remote CP 520.

Then, in order to receive the event information of the UPnP device, the remote CP 520 transmits an event subscription request signal to the home agent 510.

The home agent 510 requests a UPnP event subscription from the relevant UPnP device. At this time, the home agent 510 receives the event information transmitted from the UPnP device according to the UPnP event subscription request.

Then, the home agent 510 summarizes the received event information, and transmits the summarized event information to the remote CP 520 at a predetermined time interval. At this time, in order to control the UPnP device, the remote CP 520 writes the WML version of the SOAP* information and transmits the written information to the home agent.

The home agent 510 converts the SOAP* information defined in the WML version into XML (Extensible Markup Language) SOAP information, and transmits the converted SOAP information to the UPnP device. Thus, the UPnP device transmits the response information to the home agent 510. The home agent 510 converts the response information transmitted from the UPnP device into the WML format, and transmits the converted response information to the remote CP 520.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing an example in which the assignment function of the home agent 610 and the remote CP 620 causes the home agent 610 to perform most of the CP functions 611 and 612 and only displays one interface to the remote CP 620. That is, the home agent 610 generates its operation result in WML, provides the result to the remote CP 620, and receives related commands in the form of WML. In this case, the home agent 610 works as a UPnP CP proxy server.

As described so far, in order to make it possible to access the home network from the outside, the present invention allocates the functions of the UPnP CP to the remote CP in the mobile terminal and the home agent in the home network, so it may interact with various UPnP devices and remote terminals. Flexible communication, so the present invention can achieve the following effects.

First, according to the performance level of the remote terminal, the operation of the remote terminal can be optimized through different corresponding implementation methods.

Second, by dynamically downloading specific components to each determined UPnP device, the latest service can be provided to each UPnP device.

Third, by using the adjustment function of event information, the bandwidth of the wireless network can be reserved.

Fourth, even if various implementation methods are provided, by setting the UPnP CP function at the home agent and the remote CP respectively, the existing UPnP device structure version 1.0 standard can still be maintained.

Therefore, in the present invention, the UPnP CP function supporting various service control according to the UPnP device structure version 1.0 standard and not subject to various limitations of the mobile communication environment can be implemented in a remote terminal (mobile terminal) located in a remote area. That is, the remote control method and system for a home network according to the present invention can be provided by setting UPnP CP provided to the UPnP-based home network system at the home agent of the UPnP home network system and at the remote control point of the remote terminal, respectively. Control the devices connected to the home network system.

It is obvious to those skilled in the art that various modifications and changes can be made without departing from the essence or scope of the present invention. Therefore, the present invention is intended to cover those modifications and changes made to the present invention that fall within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.