HNTF/Home Network TF Discussions/3-box-model

3-Box Model

Submitter: Clarke Stevens, CableLabs

Tracker Issue ID: ISSUE-10

Description: A document as an interface coordinating action between other services. In the most obvious example, a document discovers media content sources (e.g. UPnP CDS or ZeroConf content source) and media players (e.g. UPnP Renderer or ZeroConf television). The document allows the user to select a source and a player, then control playback (Play, pause, rewind, etc.) of the content to the player. This is similar to the Service User Interface proposed by Jean-Claude, but it explicitly manages services between independent devices, multiple simultaneous connections and is not specific to DLNA/UPnP.

Implementation: Possible implementation on top of UPnP, ZeroConf (e.g. Bonjour), etc.:

• the document discovers multiple services on the home network, then negotiates and manages multiple connections between them.
• the services can be of multiple types (e.g. UPnP, ZeroConf, etc.) and possibly work between service types (content from one service type plays on player of another service type).

Justification: Assets offered by one service (on one device) can be consumed by another service (on another device) and controlled by a separate controlling document (on a third device). Vendors can offer control services to manage services across the whole home.

Dependencies: None

Comments: