upnp and dlna in the home network v2

IP multimedia in home networks – DLNA and UPnP

Chien-Cheng Lai - ID 665452

Melbourne School of Engineering The University of Melbourne

ELEN90014 Multimedia Content Delivery Project

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Table of Contents

Executive Summary .......................................................................................... 3

1. Introduction ................................................................................................ 5

2. Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) ................................................................ 6 2.1. UPnP Audio and Video (AV) architecture ...................................................... 6 2.2. UPnP AV operation and communication ....................................................... 7 2.3. The challenge of UPnP .................................................................................. 8

3. Digital Living Network Alliances (DLNA) .................................................... 9

4. CPE Wan Management Protocol (CWMP) .............................................. 11

5. Advanced applications on UPnP AV and DLNA ...................................... 13 5.1. Media Distribution controlled by operators .................................................. 13 5.2. Integrated DLNA media libraries with cloud services .................................. 14 5.3. Seamless Internet-to-DLNA streaming for media services .......................... 15

6. Social web of Things (SoT) collaboration system for interworking with

smart home devices ........................................................................................ 16

7. Conclusion ............................................................................................... 18

8. References ............................................................................................... 19


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Figure List Figure 1 UPnP AV architecture ......................................................................... 6

Figure 2 UPnP AV operation and communication ............................................ 8

Figure 3 DLNA architecture .............................................................................. 9

Figure 4 Delivering media streaming on broadband networks by UPnP AV

services ................................................................................................... 11

Figure 5 The operation model of CWMP bridging mechanism ....................... 12

Figure 6 Operator-Controlled Media Distribution and Cloud-service media

library ....................................................................................................... 14

Figure 7 Home interworking based on Proxy .................................................. 16

Figure 8 Home interworking based on SoT .................................................... 17


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Executive Summary Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) is a protocol stack that provides mutual data

sharing services and allows electronic deices to interconnect each other for

communication in the home network. The UPnP Audio and Video (AV)

architecture allows home media devices to support media streaming in any

format by any media transport protocol. Furthermore, the architecture

comprises three stages of operation and communication. The first stage is

UPnP device discovery that can recognize all of the connected UPnP devices.

Device description is the second stage that obtains the information of devices

via the Uniform Resource Locator (URL). Content management, control and

eventing are the third stage that allows users to conduct the interface and

select which the media content will be played on UPnP AV server.

On the other hand, the UPnP is unable to guarantee the security for storing

multimedia content. Hence, the Digital Living Network Alliances (DLNA) is

developed to support UPnP. The DLNA allows sharing media streaming

among interoperable digital media devices in the home network via Ethernet

or Wi-Fi. The DLNA architecture integrates the UPnP AV devices and

architecture for more robust support on network connectivity, media transport

and link protection.

The CPE Wan Management Protocol (CWMP) is designed to solve the home

network limitations on UPnP AV and DLNA standards, enabling operators to

remotely control home-networked devices on broadband environment with

secure configuration without any extra protocol stack or particular device in

the Local Area Network (LAN).

Furthermore, there are three advanced applications for facilitating media

content management based on UPnP AV and DLNA. The Media Distribution

controlled by operators is the first application that the domestic gateway can

be regarded as a distribution hub for media content provided by operators or

specific media content providers and offer additional security and traffic

separation via a Virtual Private Network (VPN) or Virtual Circuit Interface (VCI)


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tunnel with the CWMP standard. Another application is the integrated DLNA

media library with cloud services that allows subscribers to access the media

content between cloud storages and user premises via the media server

especially for the synchronization service. The Internet-to-DLNA streaming for

the media service is a further application that users can retrieve and play

media content on their DLNA-compliant devices directly from the Internet

without the requirement of software installations on the home-networked

devices.

Finally, The Social web of Things (SoT) is proposed to support device-to-

device collaboration services based on social relationship information of

subscribers to manage and share web-based home network devices for

media content. It is believed that cloud services will integrate the home

networking to manage high volumes of multimedia content and the SoT may

become a new trend for the home network environment in the future.


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1. Introduction The digital lifestyle is going to our lives and becomes a major change which

users manage high volumes of digital content including videos, photos and

music with electronic devices such as smartphones, tablets and personal

computers, allowing interoperability among heterogeneous devices. With the

advanced technology of the home multimedia service, more and more

multimedia becomes accessible via the home network-sharing environment.

This result enables more devices to be able to share and access media

content by the home interworking. Many different types of multimedia and

electronic devices currently support Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) and

Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) standards for sharing media content in

home network environments.


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2. Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) is a set of Internet protocols that enables

network devices such as personal computers, Internet gateway and electric

portable devices and home appliance to create a mutual network environment

for data sharing and communication. The UPnP technology is designed to

make home networking more simpler and affordable with minimum user

intervention. Hence, the UPnP devices can share and control service function

synchronously. Furthermore, The UPnP allows remote devices to

communicate with UPnP devices in the home network [1].

2.1. UPnP Audio and Video (AV) architecture UPnP AV architecture is a multimedia architecture, which shares media

content among different devices. It is comprised of the Control Point (CP),

Media Server (MS) and Media Render (MR). The CP manages MS and MR,

the MS stores media content, offers media streaming services and helps MR

play media content illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1 UPnP AV architecture [2]

Moreover, the UPnP AV architecture enables devices to support media

streaming in any format by any media transport protocol [2]. UPnP AV media

servers and renders are defined as two types of UPnP devices in the home

network and four services are hosted by them. The content directory service


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is used to list available media content. The connection manger service can

determine the transmission of the content from the UPnP AV media server to

the UPnP AV media render devices. The AV transport service copes with the

flow of the content. The rendering control service manages the play of the

content [3].

2.2. UPnP AV operation and communication UPnP AV operation and communication consist of three stages shown in

Figure 2. Device discovery is the first stage. When a multimedia control points

such as an UPnP AV is conducted, it sends a multicast or unicast message to

media server and renders. When the UPnP devices receive the message,

they respond to the control point requester. Therefore, the UPnP control point

can recognize all of the connected UPnP devices.

Device description is the second stage. When a control point wants to know

more information about the device, it will retrieve the description and

capability of the device from the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) in the

discovery message. The description of UPnP services includes commands

like service responds and parameters for instance, and specific characteristics

such as data types, scopes and event properties.

Content management, control and eventing are the third stage. The control

point enables users to utilize the interface and choose a list of media content

on the UPnP server. After selection is executed, a media renderer will play the

selected multimedia stream transmitted by the media server. Likewise, in

order to receive messages to monitor and track media content, the control

point subscribes the service event [4].


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Figure 2 UPnP AV operation and communication [4]

2.3. The challenge of UPnP The UPnP is designed for small-sized Local Area Networks (LANs) that

indicate the scalability and protocol traffic are limited because of constrained

bandwidth and number of devices. It is incompatible with the Wide Area

Network (WAN) environment when running the Simple Service Discovery

Protocol (SSDP), which offers information related to devices, services and

descriptions of Uniform Resource Location (URL) over multicast User

Diagram Protocol (UDP) for UPnP devices because of exceeding the

overhead of capacity. Moreover, the UPnP cannot guarantee the security for

storing multimedia content if there is a malicious attack in the home network.

Therefore, Digital Living Network Alliances (DLNA) is developed to support

the UPnP [5].


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3. Digital Living Network Alliances (DLNA) The Digital Living Network Alliances (DLNA) was proposed in 2003 by the

consortium, allowing sharing media streaming among interoperable digital

media devices in the home network. Any device can easily access the media

content stored by different brand devices. The DLNA also enables devices to

connect either via Ethernet or Wi-Fi directly rather than conducting installation

and configuration procedures by end users [6].

The DLNA architecture defines interoperability requirements of eight

functional components including UPnP services to ensure interoperability

among devices shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3 DLNA architecture [7]

In connectivity, Ethernet and Wi-Fi are incorporated in the DLNA

Interoperability Guidelines for wired and wireless connections. In IP

networking, UPnP uses both UDP and Transmission Control Protocol (TCP).

Moreover, the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is also used to multicast

over UDP or TCP for the device discovery and notifies the presence of

devices by control points [7]. The device discovery and control allow home-

networked devices to automatically conduct self-configure networking

properties such as IP addresses, presence discovery and capabilities of other


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devices. Finally, the DLNA defines the Digital Transmission Content

Protection over IP (DTCP-IP) as the link protection [8].

The media management allows home-networked devices to identify, control

and allocate media content together. The media transport is required to

support the HTTP for media streaming and defines how the content transfers

across the home network. The media formats describe encoded and

formatted content for transmission and rendering in the home network. They

are a set of attributes, parameters and system information, and enable

interoperability among DLNA devices [9].


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4. CPE Wan Management Protocol (CWMP) In order to deal with UPnP AV limitations of network scalability, the CPE Wan

Management Protocol (CWMP) is designed to enable operators to remotely

control home-networked devices on the broadband environment with secure

auto-configuration, dynamic services support, monitoring and diagnosis of

devices. By doing so, the UPnP AV service can send media content over

broadband networks without an extra protocol stack or a specific device in the

LAN illustrated in Figure 4. The domestic gateway retrieve media content

offered by outside resources and a DLNA-compliant interface is embedded in

the UPnP AV media server which can send a wide range of contents and

services by plugins [10].

Figure 4 Delivering media streaming on broadband networks by UPnP AV services [10]

The CWMP is used to deal with the UPnP media server embedded on the

gateway, enabling the service providers to define the availability of the

specific backend.

To activate media server configuration, the CWMP requires conducting

bridging mechanism for the context translation. The CWMP bridging subagent

is located on the domestic gateway and works as a bridge that maps the

configuration of the UPnP AV media server. The related plugins and existing


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instances are shown in Figure 5. The CWMP bridging mechanism also allows

the Auto Configuration Server (ACS) to remotely access and configure all

existing media parameters and associated backend plugins [10].

Figure 5 The operation model of CWMP bridging mechanism [10]


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5. Advanced applications on UPnP AV and DLNA There are three further applications proposed for facilitating media delivery

management based on UPnP AV and DLNA.

5.1. Media Distribution controlled by operators Through the approach of media distribution controlled by operators, the

domestic gateway can be viewed as a distribution hub for the media content

offered by operators or particular content providers with establishment of the

Service Level Agreement (SLA). The distribution hub can be available to all

UPnP AV and DLNA media devices in the user premises illustrated in Figure

6. When the media server plugin is accessed and found not deployed yet or

the old version on the domestic gateway, the operator will update the new

version for the broadband subscribers. When the updated is executed, the

embedded media server will reload configuration parameters on the CWMP

management agent. Similarly, operators can configure remotely and allow the

new plugin from the ACS. By using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) or Virtual

Circuit Interface (VCI) tunnel with CWMP standardized data models, it can not

only provide additional security and traffic separation, but also differentiate

traffic at the gateway level for the Quality of Service (QoS). In the same way,

the application enables operators to deliver media content directly to all of

UPnP AV and DLNA media devices inside the user premises [11].


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Figure 6 Operator-Controlled Media Distribution and Cloud-service media library [12]

5.2. Integrated DLNA media libraries with cloud services With the distributing media, a plugin can be developed to access a storage

content on cloud services, enabling media content to be accessible in the

subscriber premises via the media server shown in Figure 6. The media

content can be updated from anywhere to UPnP AV and DLNA home devices

on the domestic LAN of subscribers. For example, users travel overseas can

sync photos on the cloud storage or media library service via portable electric

devices such as a notebook to share their family members back at home. By

doing so, the family is able to watch the pictures on a smart TV or other UPnP

AV and DLNA media playing devices. The Capability can become a

customized feature to the clients with value-added services from service

providers [12].


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Compared to a conventional cloud-based storage service such as Dropbox,

the approach of integrated DLNA media libraries with cloud services has

several advantages. First of all, it is not required for any dedicated user

application that means any DLNA devices can access and reproduce media

content without modifications. Dropbox users are limited to integration with

media devices and only can use for small-embedded devices such as

smartphones and tablets in comparison with the smart TV supported by the

DLNA media standard. A further advantage is the file synchronization service.

Dropbox is insufficient for the real-time streaming and only provides a best-

effort service. On the other hand, the approach is based on the Operating

Support System (OSS) to offer the simultaneous service [4].

5.3. Seamless Internet-to-DLNA streaming system for

media services The application enables end-users to retrieve and play media content on their

DLNA-compliant devices directly from Internet services. In contrast, the typical

multimedia hosting services such as Flickr or Skifta for devices are unable to

directly access the Internet. Instead, devices are required to be installed

specific applications, allowing mediate content to transfer. On the other hand,

the Internet-to-DLNA streaming is based on a neutral platform for the

domestic gateway without the need of further devices or software installations

[11].


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6. Social web of Things (SoT) collaboration system

for interworking with smart home devices The typical home network provides UPnP AV and DLNA standards for media

sharing and interconnections among heterogeneous home devices, enabling

home-to-home or home-to-other networks via home servers or gateways to

deliver media content. However, the traditional home network does not

support controls from mobile networks such as 3G or 4G. In order to cope

with the problem, the idea of Social web of Things (SoT) is proposed to

support device-to-device collaborative services depending on the social

relationship information of end users for managing and sharing the web-based

objects in the home network. The SoT can easily access to the home-

networked devices and enable collaboration services for sharing media

content [13].

The traditional home-to-home media sharing architecture is based on UPnP

AV and DLNA with pre-established tunnels such as the Point-to-Point (P2P)

that requires the home server and gateway for connection shown in Figure 7.

Both connecting information and control messages of home-networked

devices are exchanged only through the home server or gateway for sharing

media content [14].

Figure 7 Home interworking based on Proxy [15]

On the other hand, users in SoT can connect with resources of things through

the Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) attribute information of the social

network relation and HTTP for configuration of things objects illustrated in


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Figure 8. Since the SoT offers device access and media content sharing

based on the social user profile, remote-controlling the home-networked

devices for media content not only can solve the issues of the authentication

and access control but also becomes more feasible for home-to-home or

home-to-external network environments [15].

Figure 8 Home interworking based on SoT [15]


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7. Conclusion UPnP AV and DLNA standards are the typical media content sharing

mechanisms in the home network. In order to extend multimedia service

functions, media distribution can be implemented via the domestic gateway by

operators that update the latest version and deliver the media content into

home-networked devices. An integrated DLNA media library with cloud

service is another application that subscribers can use the cloud storage to

manage multimedia for the synchronization service in DLNA-compliant

devices. A further application is Internet-to-DLNA streaming for media

services that allows end users to retrieve media content from the Internet

directly instead of software installations in advance. In addition, the SoT

collaboration system may become a new trend for interworking with smart

home devices, allowing more flexible and dynamic home-networked

environments for multimedia delivery and management. From personal

viewpoint, I think the cloud services will become the mainstream to support

large amount of media content for the effective management and the SoT

may integrate UPnP AV and DLNA services to facilitate the home networking

environment in the coming future.


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8. References

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[3] D. Peiqi, D. Xiangqian, and W. Xiaodong, "A multimedia server based

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International Conference on, 2010, pp. 202-204.

[4] T. Cruz, P. Simões, E. Monteiro, F. Bastos, and A. Laranjeira, "A

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[10] T. Cruz, P. Batista, J. Almeida, E. Monteiro, F. Bastos, and A.

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