Device discovery via residential gateways

This paper describes the discovery and interaction of devices in a home network. It defines an innovative device discovery and description framework called 3DF, that integrates existing networking and interoperability protocols. The 3DF framework provides abstract device descriptions with multiple views, dynamic capability changes and driver support in an advanced way, taking into consideration aspects such as reusability, extendibility and ease of use. Currently, there is no true standard for home networking or device discovery. Many frameworks and protocols are under development, enabling interoperability or some form of device discovery: HAVi, OSGi, UPnP, Salutation, etc. The 3DF framework can leverage these, as it offers a design that is focused on a small and changing environment (the home network), while remaining independent of underlying protocols. It is shown that a residential gateway is an ideal candidate to run a discovery service on. 3DF itself has been implemented and validated on such a gateway using OSGi and UPnP.