‘Missing Link’ For Home-Network Management
The UPnP Forum has both adopted and published its new Standardized Device Management:2 Device Control Protocols (DCPs) as it continues its work in standardizing and managing the operation of LAN IP devices within the home network.
The group, whose mission is to enable device-to-device interoperability and to facilitate easier and better home networking, says the new DCPs “enhance the existing DeviceManagement:1 specification and also add security features adopted from Device Protection specifications.”
This latest version builds on the success of DeviceManagement:1 DCPs that were published in July 2010 to enable and allow for the management of UPnP Certified devices.? ?UPnP Forum’s Device Management protocols are a key missing link in enabling end-to-end management of connected devices in the home.
"Service-provider-provisioned devices such as gateways and set-top boxes have long supported management based on standards such as Broadband Forum’s TR-069," the group notes. "However, with the growth of services being delivered around the home to retail third-party devices (tablets, Smart TVs, etc.), there has been a need to enable management of the service end-to-end from the back end to the end device."
UPnP Forum’s Device Management protocols are the industry solution for bridging existing back-end device management standards to the third party retail devices in the home network.? ?The functionality provided by DCPs is to cover such management needs as diagnostics, configuration and software management. The DeviceManagement:2 DCP improves these with enhanced features, specifically alarm management and bandwidth testing.
“The event management on parameter value change now enables not only the identification of an alarm, but also the reasoning behind the alarm and notifications,” the spec says. “With improved bandwidth testing capabilities, DeviceManagement:2 also enhances diagnostics in order to resolve problems on the network, enabling the smooth flow of data between devices.” ?
In addition, the group says implementation of DeviceManagement:2 in devices will prevent unauthorized invoking of device management actions and will help avoid potential attacks by providing secure communication channels between network nodes, control points and devices. ?
According to Dr. Alan Messer, UPnP Forum president/chairman, “For service providers, these DCPs define rules to ensure that certain specific actions and resources will only be managed by an authorized control point. In addition, its use will allow multiple service providers to each manage their own area of interest, thereby minimizing the possible unwanted side effects of such multi-party activity.”? ?
He concludes, “With such a large ecosystem and rapidly accelerating expectations, updating existing DCPs and creating new DCPs is vital for standardizing and managing the operation of LAN IP devices within the home network.” ?
