Network establishment and management protocol
AssigneeKoninklijke Philips Electronics N.V.
InventorsRobin J. Blackwell, Neil A. Hankin, Peter J. Lanigan, Nicoll B. Shepherd, Philip A. Rudland
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Abstract
The invention relates to a protocol for communications between networked devices. The devices are logically arranged as a hierarchy of device types including a controller device type (52) from which no other device type depends and a basic device type (54) from which a number of other device types depend. The devices implement a simple device description message of fixed length and format which includes the device type, and some devices further implement an extended device description message including additional information.
Claims22
A method of operation of a networked device in a network having at least one other device, the method including:
- sending (104) a simple device description query message to at least one other device requesting a simple device description;
- receiving (106) from the other device a simple device description message of defined length including a device type value representing the type of the other device;
- sending (108) an extended device description query message to the other device requesting an extended device description from the other device;
- and
- receiving (110) from the other device an extended device description of variable length.
A method of operation of a networked device, including:
- receiving (104) a simple device description query message from one of the other devices requesting a simple device description;
- sending (106) to the other device a simple device description message of defined length including a device type value representing the type of the networked device;
- receiving (108) an extended device description query message from the other device requesting an extended device description from the networked device;
- and
- sending (110) to the other device an extended device description of variable length.
A networked device, including:
- a transceiver (8) for sending and receiving messages:
- and
- a message handier (26,182) arranged to carry out the steps of:
- on receiving (104) a simple device description query message from one of the other devices, sending (106) to the other device a simple device description message of defined length including a device type value representing the type of the networked device;
- and
- on receiving (108) an extended device description query message from another device sending (110) to the other device an extended device description of variable length.
A networked device, including:
- a transceiver (8) for sending and receiving messages:
- a message handler (26,182) arranged to carry out the steps of:
- sending a simple device description query message to another device requesting a simple device description;
- receiving from the other device a simple device description message of fixed length including a device type value representing the type of the other device and a field indicating whether an extended device description is available;
- and further arranged to optionally carry out the steps of:
- testing the simple device description message to determine whether an extended device description is available;
- sending an extended device description query message to the other device requesting an extended device description from the other device;
- and
- receiving from the other device an extended device description of variable length.
A system, comprising
- a plurality of networked devices each having a transceiver for sending and receiving network messages;
- at least one networked device arranged to send a simple device query message to other devices and to receive and interpret simple device description messages subsequently received from the other devices;
- at least one networked device arranged to send an extended device query message to other devices and to receive and interpret extended device description messages subsequently received from the other devices;
- each of the networked devices being arranged to respond to an incoming simple device query message from another of the devices by sending a simple device description message of defined length including a device type value representing the type of the device;
- and
- at least one of the networked devices is arranged to respond to an incoming extended device query message from another of the devices by sending an extended device description message.
A computer program for controlling a networked device, the networked device having a transport stack and an application, the computer program comprising:
- code implementing a transport adaption layer (180) for interfacing with the transport stack;
- code implementing an application programming interface (186) for interfacing with the application;
- and
- code implementing a messaging layer (182) including the capabilities of sending and receiving messages in a token-encoded human readable messaging format, the code being arranged to cause the networked device:
- to recognise incoming device query messages requiring a simple device description response and to provide a simple device description response including a device type;
- and
- to recognise incoming device query messages requiring an extending device description and to respond with an extended device description.
A network establishment and management protocol for controlling electronic devices, the protocol being recorded on a record medium, the protocol comprising:
- a compression algorithm (210) defining the mechanism for compression of said messages
- a definition (200) of a generic message format, the messages being compressed XML compliant messages;
- and
- a definition (204) of message sequencing requirements.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.