Context-Aware UPnP-AV Services for Adaptive Home Multimedia Systems

Recommended by Harald Kosch One possibility to provide mobile multimedia in domestic multimedia systems is the use of Universal Plug and Play Audio Visual (UPnP-AV) devices. In a standard UPnP-AV scenario, multimedia content provided by a Media Server device is streamed to Media Renderer devices by the initiation of a Control Point. However, there is no provisioning of context-aware multimedia content customization. This paper presents an enhancement of standard UPnP-AV services for home multimedia environments regarding context awareness. It comes up with context profile definitions, shows how this context information can be queried from the Media Renderers, and illustrates how a Control Point can use this information to tailor a media stream from the Media Server to one or more Media Renderers. Moreover, since a standard Control Point implementation only queries one Media Server at a time, there is no global view on the content of all Media Servers in the UPnP-AV network. This paper also presents an approach of multimedia content integration on the Media Server side that provides fast search for content on the network. Finally, a number of performance measurements show the overhead costs of our enhancements to UPnP-AV in order to achieve the benefits

An SNMP-based audio distribution service architecture

Dissertação de mestrado em Engenharia de Redes e Serviços TelemáticosThe constant growth of integration and popularity of “Internet of Things” devices is affecting home automation systems, where new technologies were introduced, in the recent years for this particular sector. These automation systems integrate devices that can be anywhere in the house, connected to a home network, either through a wire or wireless connection. A home automation system can be used to control air conditioning, lighting, pool control systems, home-entertainment systems and much more. Within the field of home-entertainment systems, the best known technologies are the Digital Living Network Alliance and the Digital Audio Access Protocol, which provide interoperability to allow sharing of digital media content between devices across a home network. However, these technologies have the disadvantage of being proprietary, maintaining restrict documentation access, complex architectures and concepts and not optimal to specific purposes, like audio distribution. The main goal of this project was to prove that is possible to use standardized protocols, such as the Simple Network Manager Protocol and open source tools in order to develop a music distribution service that allows the implementation of similar features than the ones already existing proprietary technologies. As such, the implementation prototype system allows a user to manage and play audio from a music collection that is stored in a single home audio server. The system architecture enables audio streaming between the server and the various devices in the same local network. Further more, the music collection, can integrate virtual audio files that are available from external music sources, like iTunes, etc.O constante crescimento de integração e popularidade da “Internet das coisas” tem atualmente afetado sistemas de domótica, onde cada vez mais tecnologias têm vindo a ser desenvolvidas nos últimos anos para este sector em particular. Estes sistemas de domótica integram dispositivos que podem estar em qualquer parte de uma casa, ligados à rede seja através de um cabo ou por wireless. Um sistema de domótica pode ser usado para controlar: ar condicionado, iluminação, sistemas de controlo de piscinas, sistemas de entretenimento, entre outros. Na área de sistemas de entretenimento, as tecnologias mais conhecidas são Digital Living Network Alliance e Digital Audio Access Protocol, que fornecem interoperabilidade de modo a permitir a partilha de conteúdos digitais multimédia entre dispositivos que se encontram na mesma rede local. Contudo, possuem a desvantagem de serem tecnologias proprietárias, com documentação e manuais restritos, arquiteturas e conceitos complexos, e não otimizados para fins específicos, tal distribuição de áudio. O principal objetivo deste projeto foi provar que é possível usar protocolos normalizados, como o Simple Network Manager Protocol e ferramentas open source de forma a desenvolver um serviço de distribuição de música que permite a implementação de funcionalidades semelhantes às tecnologias proprietárias já existentes. Assim, o protótipo implementado permite a um utilizador gerir e reproduzir áudio de uma coleção de música que se esteja armazenada num servidor de áudio domestico. A arquitetura permite streaming de áudio entre o servidor e os diferentes dispositivos que se encontram na mesma rede local. Consequentemente, a coleção de música pode integrar ficheiros de áudio visuais que estejam acessíveis através de fontes externas de música, como por exemplo: iTunes, etc

The SATIN component system - a metamodel for engineering adaptable mobile systems

Mobile computing devices, such as personal digital assistants and mobile phones, are becoming increasingly popular, smaller, and more capable. We argue that mobile systems should be able to adapt to changing requirements and execution environments. Adaptation requires the ability-to reconfigure the deployed code base on a mobile device. Such reconfiguration is considerably simplified if mobile applications are component-oriented rather than monolithic blocks of code. We present the SATIN (system adaptation targeting integrated networks) component metamodel, a lightweight local component metamodel that offers the flexible use of logical mobility primitives to reconfigure the software system by dynamically transferring code. The metamodel is implemented in the SATIN middleware system, a component-based mobile computing middleware that uses the mobility primitives defined in the metamodel to reconfigure both itself and applications that it hosts. We demonstrate the suitability of SATIN in terms of lightweightedness, flexibility, and reusability for the creation of adaptable mobile systems by using it to implement, port, and evaluate a number of existing and new applications, including an active network platform developed for satellite communication at the European space agency. These applications exhibit different aspects of adaptation and demonstrate the flexibility of the approach and the advantages gaine

Development and standardization of an embedded Linux based triple-play IP settop box

Thesis (Master)--Izmir Institute of Technology, Electronics and Communication Engineering, Izmir, 2007Includes bibliographical references (leaves: 46-48)Text in English; Abstract: Turkish and Englishix, 57 leavesWith the recent enhancements to the delivery of IP services and of the video codecs such as h.264, transmission of television through IP-based communication systems has been a viable option. An IP settop box (IPSTB) constructs a bridge between a television set and a broadband IP network such as DSL, cable modem, powerline or wireless broadband. IPSTB brings new challenges for the system designers, especially in the areas of inherently organized home networking systems, protocols, and architectures. Future IPSTB products are candidate to converge the information and entertainment technologies. This thesis suggests newly developed device and service discovery methods for the design of an IPSTB software structure that is compatible with the Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) audio video (AV) device descriptions. At the design process, it suggests optimized communication schemes between the servers that are in the control of service providers, and the consumer IPSTBs. As a newly developed technology, since there is not any standardization for most parts of the overall IPTV system, this thesis takes proven mechanisms as basis and adapts them to the overall design that consists of the hardware drivers, middleware, and the additional programs which helps the middleware to handle the external components of the system connected via USB or serial interfaces. Being an innovative idea, we have used a control system called Virtual Bus Manager so as to communicate between the aforementioned system components. Some system components such as web browser is based on the X Windows architecture, so cross compiling the X system for the embedded platform has also been a challenge for the feasibility of the final design. Being the second part of the Triple-Play system, Voice over IP application has also been included and based on the compilation of open source software for the corresponding embedded system. Finally, the web browser itself has been based on the popular Gecko web-core that is derived from Firefox

DLNA test suite

Mestrado em Engenharia Electrónica e TelecomunicaçõesH a uma tendencia para o crescimento da inteleg^encia nas nossas casas. Normas como UPnP e DLNA prop^oem automatizar a forma como os nossos dispositivos interagem. No quadro actual, os dispositivos de media dominam a intelig^encia das nossas casas. O f orum UPnP e uma iniciativa industrial criada para permitir a conectividade f acil e robusta entre dispositivos auto-su cientes e PC's de diferentes fabricantes. O objectivo deste f orum e desenvolver normas para descrever os protocolos de comunica c~ao entre dispositivos e esquemas XML, e permitir a opera c~ao entre dispositivos numa rede escal avel. O DLNA foi criado em Junho de 2003 com o nome Digital Home Working Group (DHWG), em Junho de 2004 foi alterado para Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA). A alian ca DLNA e liderada por 23 companhias (Access, Awox, Broadcom, Cisco, Comcast, HP, Huawei, IBM, Intel, Kenwood, LG Electronics, Macrovision, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, NXP Semiconductors, Panasonic, Philips, Pioneer, Samsung, Sharp, Sony e Toshiba) e tem mais de 245 membros. Hoje em dia os consumidores est~ao a adquirir, ver e gerir uma grande quantidade de informa c~ao digital (fotos, m usica e v deos) nos seus PCs, dispositivos electr onicos e dispositivos m oveis. Estes pretendem aceder de forma f acil a partir de qualquer dispositivo em qualquer parte da sua casa aos seus conte udos de outros dispositivos. Esta ideia e poss vel atrav es da cria c~ao de uma rede com dispositivos certi cados pela alian ca DLNA. Uma rede DLNA oferece aos consumidores inter-conectividade autom atica entre equipamentos dom esticos, e aos fabricantes uma oportunidade de inovar e de diferenciar os seus produtos. Do ponto de vista do operador, aumenta a capacidade de diagn ostico e gest~ao remota da rede de cliente.The world we live on is becoming more and more digital, our homes are growing in intelligence. Standards like DLNA and UPnP AV propose to exchange our digital media (photos, audio, video) in an automatic way. The UPnP forum is a industrial initiative created to allow easy connectivity and robustness between independent devices from di erent fabricators. The objective of this forum is to develop templates to discriminate the protocols and XML schemes involved in the process of interoperability in a scalable network. The DLNA alliance was created in July 2003 by the name Digital Home Working Group (DHWG), later changed to Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) in June 2004. The DLNA alliance is commanded by 23 companies (Access, Awox, Broadcom, Cisco, Comcast, HP, Huawei, IBM, Intel, Kenwood, LG Electronics, Macrovision, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, NXP Semiconductors, Panasonic, Philips, Pioneer, Samsung, Sharp, Sony e Toshiba) and have more then 245 members. Today consumers are acquiring, viewing and managing a big amount of digital information (images, audio, video) in their PCs, electronics devices and mobile devices. They want to access easily from any device in any part of the home to their information present in other devices. This idea is possible through a creation of a network with DLNA certi cated devices. A DLNA network o ers automatic inter-connectivity between devices to the consumers. It is an opportunity to innovate an di erentiate the products of their fabricators. From the operator point of view, increases the diagnose capability and remote management of the client network