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Encyclopedia > UPnP

Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) is a set of computer network protocols promulgated by the UPnP Forum. The goals of UPnP are to allow devices to connect seamlessly and to simplify the implementation of networks in the home and corporate environments. UPnP achieves this by defining and publishing UPnP device control protocols built upon open, Internet-based communication standards. A computer network is a system for communication among two or more computers. ... In computing, a protocol is a convention or standard that controls or enables the connection, communication, and data transfer between two computing endpoints. ... Plug and Play is a term used in the computer field to describe a computers ability to have new devices, normally peripherals, added to it without having to restart the computer. ... A Device can be taken to mean: an electrical device designed to carry power, but not use it. ... A wide variety of systems of interconnected components are called networks. ... The word standard has several meanings: Originally, standard referred to a conspicuous object used as a rallying point in battle. ...


UPnP is distinct from Plug-and-play, a technology for dynamically attaching devices to a computer directly. Plug and Play is a term used in the computer field to describe a computers ability to have new devices, normally peripherals, added to it without having to restart the computer. ...

Contents


Overview

The UPnP architecture [1] offers pervasive peer-to-peer network connectivity of PCs, intelligent appliances, and wireless devices. The UPnP architecture is a distributed, open networking architecture that leverages TCP/IP and the World Wide Web to enable seamless proximity networking in addition to control and data transfer among networked devices in the home, office, and everywhere in between. A peer-to-peer (or P2P) computer network is a network that relies on the computing power and bandwidth of the participants in the network rather than concentrating it in a relatively few servers. ... The tower of a personal computer. ... The word appliance has several different areas of meaning, all usually referring to a device with a narrow function: One class of objects includes items that are custom-fitted to an individual for the purpose of correction of a physical problem, such as prosthetic and orthotic appliances. ... Wireless was an old-fashioned term for a radio receiver, referring to its use as a wireless telegraph. ... The Internet protocol suite is the set of communications protocols that implement the protocol stack on which the Internet runs. ... Graphic representation of the World Wide Web around Wikipedia The World Wide Web (WWW, W3, or simply Web) is an information space in which the items of interest, referred to as resources, are identified by global identifiers called Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs). ...


It enables data communication between any two devices under the command of any control device on the network.

  • Common base protocols. Base protocol sets are used, on a per-device basis.
  • User interface (UI) Control. UPnP architecture enables vendor control over device user interface and interaction using the web browser.
  • Operating system and programming language independence. Any operating system and any programming language can be used to build UPnP products. UPnP does not specify or constrain the design of an API for applications running on control points; OS vendors may create APIs that suit their customer's needs. UPnP enables vendor control over device UI and interaction using the browser as well as conventional application programmatic control.
  • Internet-based technologies. UPnP technology is built upon IP, TCP, UDP, HTTP, and XML, among others.
  • Programmatic control. UPnP architecture also enables conventional application programmatic control.
  • Extendable. Each UPnP product can have value-added services layered on top of the basic device architecture by the individual manufacturers.

The UPnP architecture supports zero-configuration, invisible networking and automatic discovery for a breadth of device categories from a wide range of vendors, whereby a device can dynamically join a network, obtain an IP address, announce its name, convey its capabilities upon request, and learn about the presence and capabilities of other devices. DHCP and DNS servers are optional and are only used if they are available on the network. A device can leave a network smoothly and automatically without leaving any unwanted state information behind. This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Ethernet is a frame-based computer networking technology for local area networks (LANs). ... The initials IRDA can refer to various things: In Information Technology and Communications, IrDA refers to Infrared Data Association, a standard for communication between devices (such as computers, PDAs and mobile phones) over short distances using infrared signals. ... Wi-Fi (sometimes written Wi-fi, WiFi, Wifi, wifi) is a trademark for sets of product compatibility standards for wireless local area networks (WLANs). ... This article is about the Bluetooth wireless specification. ... A 6-Pin Firewire 400 connector FireWire (also known as i. ... A device driver, often called a driver for short, is a computer program that enables another program, typically, an operating system (e. ... The user interface is the part of a system exposed to users. ... Web browser shortcuts on an Apple computer A web browser is a software application that enables a user to display and interact with HTML documents hosted by web servers or held in a file system. ... In computing, an operating system (OS) is the system software responsible for the direct control and management of hardware and basic system operations. ... A programming language or computer language is a standardized communication technique for expressing instructions to a computer. ... API redirects here. ... Internet protocol may refer to: The Internet_Protocol, a data-oriented protocol used for communicating data across a packet-switched internetwork. ... The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is one of the core protocols of the Internet protocol suite. ... The User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is one of the core protocols of the Internet protocol suite. ... HTTP (for HyperText Transfer Protocol) is the primary method used to convey information on the World Wide Web. ... The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a W3C-recommended general-purpose markup language for creating special-purpose markup languages. ... Zeroconf or Zero Configuration Networking is a planned IETF protocol for dynamic configuration of network nodes in an IP network. ... A computer network is a system for communication among two or more computers. ... A vendor is one who sells something. ... DHCP in the context of computing can stand for: Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (To do with conputer networks) Decentralized Hospital Computer Program of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs Categories: Disambiguation ... The Domain Name System or DNS is a system that stores information about host names and domain names in a kind of distributed database on networks, such as the Internet. ... In information processing, a state is the complete set of properties (for example, its energy level, etc. ...


The foundation for UPnP networking is IP addressing. Each device must have a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) client and search for a DHCP server when the device is first connected to the network. If no DHCP server is available, i.e., the network is unmanaged, the device must assign itself an address. If during the DHCP transaction, the device obtains a domain name, e.g., through a DNS server or via DNS forwarding, the device should use that name in subsequent network operations; otherwise, the device should use its IP address. Wiktionary has a definition of: Foundation This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...


Protocol

Discovery

Given an IP address, the first step in UPnP networking is discovery. When a device is added to the network, the UPnP discovery protocol allows that device to advertise its services to control points on the network. Similarly, when a control point is added to the network, the UPnP discovery protocol allows that control point to search for devices of interest on the network. The fundamental exchange in both cases is a discovery message containing a few, essential specifics about the device or one of its services, e.g., its type, identifier, and a pointer to more detailed information. The UPnP discovery protocol is based on the Simple Service Discovery Protocol (SSDP). Simple Service Discovery Protocol (SSDP) is an expired IETF Internet draft by Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard. ...


Description

The next step in UPnP networking is description. After a control point has discovered a device, the control point still knows very little about the device. For the control point to learn more about the device and its capabilities, or to interact with the device, the control point must retrieve the device's description from the URL provided by the device in the discovery message. The UPnP description for a device is expressed in XML and includes vendor-specific, manufacturer information like the model name and number, serial number, manufacturer name, URLs to vendor-specific web sites, etc. The description also includes a list of any embedded devices or services, as well as URLs for control, eventing, and presentation. For each service, the description includes a list of the commands, or actions, to which the service responds, and parameters, or arguments, for each action; the description for a service also includes a list of variables; these variables model the state of the service at run time, and are described in terms of their data type, range, and event characteristics. The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a W3C-recommended general-purpose markup language for creating special-purpose markup languages. ... A Serial Number is unique number that that is one of a series assigned for identification which varies from its successor or predecessor by a fixed discreet integer value. ... A website, Web site or WWW site (often shortened to just site) is a collection of webpages, that is, HTML/XHTML documents accessible via HTTP on the Internet; all publicly accessible websites in existence comprise the World Wide Web. ... An embedded system is a special-purpose computer system, which is completely encapsulated by the device it controls. ... Command has multiple meanings: An order. ... Look up Action in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Action can be used in different contexts: Action movie Action game Action Comics, an American comic book series featuring Superman Action, a British comics anthology of the 1970s In physics, the action is a crucial concept in Lagrangian mechanics In philosophy, action... In computer science and mathematics, a variable is a symbol denoting a quantity or symbolic representation. ... In computer science, runtime describes the operation of a computer program, the duration of its execution, from beginning to termination (compare compile time). ...


Control

The next step in UPnP networking is control. After a control point has retrieved a description of the device, the control point can send actions to a device's service. To do this, a control point sends a suitable control message to the control URL for the service (provided in the device description). Control messages are also expressed in XML using the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). Like function calls, in response to the control message, the service returns any action-specific values. The effects of the action, if any, are modeled by changes in the variables that describe the run-time state of the service. This article is about a computer protocol. ... In computer science, a subroutine (function, procedure, or subprogram) is a sequence of code which performs a specific task, as part of a larger program, and is grouped as one or more statement blocks; such code is sometimes collected into software libraries. ...


Event notification

The next step in UPnP networking is event notification, or "eventing". A UPnP description for a service includes a list of actions the service responds to and a list of variables that model the state of the service at run time. The service publishes updates when these variables change, and a control point may subscribe to receive this information. The service publishes updates by sending event messages. Event messages contain the names of one of more state variables and the current value of those variables. These messages are also expressed in XML and formatted using the General Event Notification Architecture (GENA). A special initial event message is sent when a control point first subscribes; this event message contains the names and values for all evented variables and allows the subscriber to initialize its model of the state of the service. To support scenarios with multiple control points, eventing is designed to keep all control points equally informed about the effects of any action. Therefore, all subscribers are sent all event messages, subscribers receive event messages for all "evented" variables that have changed, and event messages are sent no matter why the state variable changed (either in response to a requested action or because the state the service is modeling changed). GENA stands for General Event Notification Architecture. ... A Scenario (from the Italian, that which is pinned to the scenery) is a brief description of an event. ...


Presentation

The final step in UPnP networking is presentation. If a device has a URL for presentation, then the control point can retrieve a page from this URL, load the page into a web browser, and depending on the capabilities of the page, allow a user to control the device and/or view device status. The degree to which each of these can be accomplished depends on the specific capabilities of the presentation page and device. A Uniform Resource Locator, URL (spelled out as an acronym, not pronounced as earl), or Web address, is a standardized address name layout for resources (such as documents or images) on the Internet (or elsewhere). ... Web browser shortcuts on an Apple computer A web browser is a software application that enables a user to display and interact with HTML documents hosted by web servers or held in a file system. ...


See also

Domotics is the application of computer and robot technologies to domestic appliances. ... Zeroconf or Zero Configuration Networking or in Microsoft language Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA) is a set of techniques that automatically create a usable IP network without configuration or special servers. ... JINIâ„¢ (pronounced like genie, a pseudo-acronym: Jini Is Not Initials) is a network architecture for the construction of distributed systems where scale, rate of change and complexity of interactions within and between networks are extremely important and cannot be satisfactorily addressed by existing technologies. ... The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) forms part of the internet protocol suite as defined by the Internet Engineering Task Force. ... The OSGi Alliance is an open standards organization formed by Sun Microsystems, IBM, Ericsson and others in March 1999 (after it was first called the Connected Alliance). ... The Service Location Protocol (SLP) allows computers and other devices to find services in a local area network without prior configuration. ... Salutation can have several meanings. ... In computing, Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA), is a standard for software componentry. ...

References

  • Golden G. Richard: Service and Device Discovery : Protocols and Programming, McGraw-Hill Professional, ISBN 0071379592
  • Michael Jeronimo, Jack Weast: UPnP Design by Example: A Software Developer's Guide to Universal Plug and Play, Intel Press, ISBN 0971786119

External links


  Results from FactBites:
 
UPnP Sharing - XBMC (2569 words)
UPnP media sharing is an extremely easy method of sharing your media (pictures/video/audio) on your network as it features automatic-discovery and does not require any configuration.
UPnP (short for "Universal Plug and Play") is a set of computer network protocols from the UPnP Forum.
Another profile which is not to be confused with the previous one is UPnP AV (for audio/video) which defines a set of functionalities to share/control and render content on a local-network.
Universal Plug and Play - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (1740 words)
The goals of UPnP are to allow devices to connect seamlessly and to simplify the implementation of networks in the home (data sharing, communications, and entertainment) and corporate environments.
The UPnP architecture is a distributed, open networking architecture that uses TCP/IP and HTTP to enable seamless proximity networking in addition to control and data transfer among networked devices in the home, office, and everywhere in between.
UPnP uses HTTP over UDP (known as HTTPU and HTTPMU for unicast and multicast), even though this is not standardized and is specified only in an Internet-Draft that expired in 2001.
  More results at FactBites »


 

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