KR20030083400A - System and method for remote control of electronic devices - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system and method for remotely controlling an electronic device through an internet network with a mobile communication terminal or a personal computer terminal assigned an IP address using a simple network management protocol (SNMP). The remote control terminal is assigned an IP so as to be connected to the Internet, and is provided in the remote control terminal with an SNMP management unit capable of performing SNMP and a management information base (MIB) of each electronic device to be controlled. The electronic device has an SNMP agent and a MIB, and the proxy agent has an IP and has an Internet connection that can be connected to the Internet, and a MIB of each electronic device to be controlled. In addition, the proxy agent and the electronic devices to be managed are connected to the LAN network such as Ethernet, and the proxy agent and the remote control terminal are connected to the Internet network.

Description

System and method for remote control of electronic devices {System and method for remote control of electronic devices}

The present invention relates to a system and method for remotely controlling an electronic device of a home network system and displaying a status through an internet network. More particularly, the present invention relates to an electronic device in a home or office by applying a simple network management protocol to a home network system. The control relates to a system and a method.

Currently, there are devices (hereinafter, referred to as electronic devices) that operate using electricity, such as home appliances and office equipment, and their operation is designed to be manually operated by a person. As a result, it does not matter if a person is always in the home, but there are many cases in which the home is empty due to the current nuclear family and dual income.

In very hot summers or very cold winters, if you leave your home for an extended period of time, your home may be hot or cold. Even if you enter your home and turn on air conditioning and heating, it will be cool or warm after some time. And home appliances and electronics in the house or if the house is left in the air / heating to operate the operation, if you want to stop their operation is inconvenient to go back home.

Currently, there are the following ways for a person outside to control the operation of facilities, devices, and electronic devices inside a house.

First, there is a method of controlling devices in a home by assigning a schedule code to a telephone number or setting a function key from the outside, but this has the inconvenience of assigning a schedule code and setting a function key. In addition, there is a limit to the menu provided because the menu is divided using the dual tone multiple frequency (DTMF) signal of the terminal.

Secondly, there is a method of controlling the operation of the device by voice using voice recognition technology, but this is uneconomical in terms of installation cost, and thus the market activation according to the user's exterior is not made.

Third, the control device and the electronics in the home are connected by the IEEE bus to perform IEEE 1394 communication, and the control device and the remote monitor are connected to the Internet so that the monitor device communicates with the control device in the home according to TCP / IP. There is a method of controlling an electronic device remotely (Application No. 10-1998-0027136), but this is not a method of directly controlling the electronic device remotely, which is inconvenient to set the unique ID and function of the electronic device. Such a method of remotely controlling electronic devices has a disadvantage that the interface is not smooth.

Therefore, there has been a request for a method for a user to easily and directly control various control items of the electronic device remotely, and an object of the present invention is to directly control the electronic device by a user using an internet network.

To this end, a remote control electronic device and a mobile communication terminal or a personal computer terminal that issues a remote control command are connected to the Internet to communicate by SNMP protocol. Originally, SNMP is a representative network management protocol, but it is intended to achieve the present invention by applying it to a home network system.

1 is a schematic system configuration for remote control of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 2 is an internal block diagram of the electronic device applied to the present invention.

3 is an internal block diagram of a proxy agent.

4 is an internal block diagram of a mobile communication terminal;

5 is a hierarchical tree structure diagram of a MIB.

6 is a state diagram showing a display unit of a mobile communication terminal displaying a step-by-step process of remote control of a mobile communication terminal to which the present invention is applied.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a remote control terminal that is assigned an IP so as to be connected to the Internet, and furthermore, an SNMP management unit capable of performing SNMP and a management information base (MIB) of each electronic device to be controlled are remoted. It is provided in the control terminal. The electronic device has an SNMP agent and a MIB, and the proxy agent has an IP and has an Internet connection that can be connected to the Internet, and a MIB of each electronic device to be controlled. In addition, the proxy agent and the electronic devices to be managed are connected to the LAN network such as Ethernet, and the proxy agent and the remote control terminal are connected to the Internet network.

Inherently, SNMP is a representative network management protocol. Hardware (router, bridge, hub, ATM software, Ethernet switches and modems, etc.) and software (operating system, network layer) connected to a network such as the Internet / INTRANET And applications, etc.) is a common management framework for the Internet that allows for providing state through the MIB. Therefore, the MIB in the network management protocol is a collection of management objects of the remote device that can be accessed through the SNMP agent. The NMS administrator can select an agent for the value of the network device managed by the agent, that is, the MIB. It can be queried.

In the present invention, by applying a mobile communication terminal or a personal computer terminal instead of NMS, and by applying electronic devices used in homes or offices instead of network devices such as routers and bridges, SNMP protocols are used to manage and control the state of electronic devices using terminals. It is characterized by using. In particular, a proxy agent is provided between the remote control terminal and the electronic device in order to efficiently manage the electronic device in a limited area such as a home or an office.

For reference, the SNMP protocol is briefly described as follows.

An SNMP agent is a device that is connected to a network to be managed (for example, a hub, a switch, or a router). The SNMP manager is a device (for example, an NMS) that monitors managed objects connected to the network. . These managers and agents communicate with each other using network management protocols. These request and response messages occur asynchronously.

SNMP provides the following main functions.

-"GetRequest": Used by the administrator to retrieve the information object value of the agent.

-"SetRequest": Used by the administrator to set the value of a specific information object of the agent.

SNMP, which is originally a network management protocol, uses UDP (User Data Protocol), which is not as reliable as TCP (Transmission Control Protocol), but has a high transmission speed. The reason for this is that although UDP is less reliable than TCP, when sending SNMP messages, no additional packets are sent, which can increase the transmission rate. In the present invention, the invention will be implemented using SNMP based UDP transport.

MIB (Management Information Base) refers to a formal representation of management information of a device to be managed in network management. Refers to items such as standardized MIB such as Internet management or OSI management. The network management device (NMS) has static or dynamic information about the device it manages, and the network management device obtains and changes its contents.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a block diagram illustrating a system for controlling an electronic device connected to an internet network using a remote control terminal.

Where 100a is a TV, 100b is an air conditioner, and 100n is a refrigerator.

The electronic devices 100n in the home or office are connected to the proxy agent 200 by the LAN network 150, and the proxy agent 200 is connected to the internet network 500 and has a remote control capability. 300 or the personal computer terminal 400 can be connected.

In the embodiment of the present invention, as an example of the remote control terminal will be described as an example of a mobile communication terminal, such a remote control terminal as a personal computer terminal (desktop, notebook, PDA, etc.) that can be connected to the Internet as well as the mobile communication terminal Is also true.

The user is provided with the IP address of the proxy agent 200 connected to the electronic device 100n to be controlled through the user interface (MMI, Man Machine Inetrface) of the mobile communication terminal and the item (Object_ID) of the electronic device. Specify the work content. According to the specified details, the mobile communication terminal 300 requests the proxy agent 200 to execute the details according to the simple network management protocol (SNMP). The proxy agent requests the electronic device to report the status or set the status according to the received identification item (Object_ID). When the electronic device 100n reports the status report according to the status report request, the proxy agent 200 transmits the state received from the electronic device to the mobile communication terminal 300.

By going through these steps, the remote controller can receive the state of the electronic device in the home or office (eg, power on / off, volume up / down) through the display window of the mobile communication terminal and receive the received state. You can also change the state of the electronic device.

2 shows an internal block diagram of an electronic device to be controlled remotely.

The electronic device 100n should have an SNMP agent 110n, a LAN connection 120n, and a MIB 130n in addition to the central processing unit and the control unit that perform the original functions of the product.

For example, referring to the internal block diagram 100a of the TV, the central processing unit 150, the power control unit 160, the volume control unit 170, the screen control unit 180, and the VTR control unit are provided to perform the original TV function. In addition to 190, it has an SNMP agent 110a, a LAN connection unit 120a, and a MIB 130a.

The LAN connection unit 120n of the electronic device is connected to the LAN connection unit 220 of the proxy agent shown in FIG. 3 by a network so as to communicate with the proxy agent 200.

The SNMP agent 110n is used to respond to a query requested from the mobile terminal 300. The proxy agent 200 which receives the status check and status setting request of the specific item from the mobile communication terminal 300 again informs the SNMP agent 110n of the corresponding electronic device. The SNMP agent 110n receiving the query content transmits the MIB 130n to the proxy agent 200 or sets the MIB 130n of the electronic device in accordance with a required setting state.

The MIB (Management Information Base) defines the contents exchanged when communicating between the SNMP management unit 310 and the SNMP agent 110n and forms a hierarchical tree structure (FIG. 5). As shown in FIG. 5, if the identification item (Object_ID) is specified together with a specific command according to the SNMP protocol, the status of the corresponding item can be known as well as the state of the corresponding item can be set.

For example, if the user designates "①.①", the SNMP management unit 310 of the mobile communication terminal transmits the message "GetRequest ①.①" according to the SNMP protocol and then powers the TV received from the SNMP agent of the electronic device. By displaying on the display window of the mobile communication terminal, the user can receive a report on the current power state of the power supply unit 160 of the TV. Likewise, if the user designates "①.①.②", the SNMP manager sends the message "GetSet①.①.②" to turn off the TV. In this way, the MIB allows you to represent items of the electronic device in simple numbers and strings.

The MIB is broadly divided into standard MIBs (MIB, MIB-2, etc.) and extended MIBs that the company independently develops. Both MIBs are described using the grammar defined in ASN.1 of the ISO specification. As a result, product developers can create new MIB extensions based on their product-specific features. Once created, the MIB extension can request registration from the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) or the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

The MIB 130n initially set at the time of manufacture in each electronic device is stored in an electromagnetic storage medium (eg, a diskette) in which data is shipped at the time of shipment and distributed together or recorded at a relevant site. The user downloads the MIB through the registration unit 210 of the proxy agent shown in FIG. 3 and the registration unit 340 of the mobile communication terminal shown in FIG. 4, thereby providing the MIB 230n of the proxy agent shown in FIG. The MIB 330n of the mobile communication terminal shown in FIG. 4 can be made the same as the MIB 130n of the corresponding electronic device.

3 is an internal block diagram of a proxy agent.

The proxy agent 200 includes a registration unit 210, a LAN connection unit 220, a MIB 230n, a proxy processing unit 240, and an internet connection unit 250, and has a unique IP so as to connect to the Internet network.

The proxy agent 200 may be connected to several electronic devices 100n.

If the electronic devices to be controlled each have their own IP, they can communicate directly with the remote control terminal and the SNMP protocol, eliminating the need for a proxy agent. There is a problem in manufacturing cost of electronic equipment. In addition, in order to assign a unique IP to each of a number of electronic devices, an allocation method using subnets can be considered, but this is a technical problem and requires a host to manage these subnets.

Therefore, it is possible to solve this problem by providing a proxy agent with an IP and connecting the electronic devices to be managed by the network to the proxy agent.

The proxy agent register 210 not only registers the electronic device 100n to be managed by the proxy agent, but also downloads the MIB 130n of the corresponding product from a diskette or a specific site as described above. It stores a function at 230n. Therefore, the MIB 230n of the proxy agent has the same MIB as the electronic device 100n, and eventually has the MIB 130n of each of the corresponding electronic devices, thereby having a plurality of MIBs 230n.

Thus, by having the same MIB as the corresponding electronic device, the proxy processor 240 finds and delivers the corresponding electronic device based on the MIB 230n owned by the mobile communication terminal 300 according to the SNMP protocol. In this case, the mobile station can transmit the reported state to the mobile communication terminal.

The LAN connection unit 220 of the proxy agent is connected to the LAN connection unit 120n of the electronic device shown in FIG. 2 by a network, and the internet connection unit 250 of the proxy agent is connected to the Internet of the mobile communication terminal shown in FIG. It is connected to the connection 320.

4 is an internal block diagram of a mobile communication terminal having a function of remotely controlling an electronic device.

The mobile communication terminal 300 requires an SNMP manager 310, an internet access unit 320, a MIB 330n, and a register 340 in addition to a transmitter, a receiver, an input unit, a display unit, and a central processing unit.

The internet access unit 320 may be connected to the proxy agent through the internet network according to the IP / UDP protocol by receiving a unique IP.

The SNMP manager 310 generates a query to execute the SNMP agent 110n in the electronic device and transmits the message to the proxy agent.

The registration unit 340 not only functions to register the electronic device 100n to be remotely controlled to the mobile communication terminal, but also downloads and stores the MIB 130n of the corresponding product as described above in its MIB 330n. Function Therefore, since the MIB 230n of the mobile communication terminal has the same MIB as the electronic device 100n, and eventually has the MIB 130n of each of the corresponding electronic devices, the MIB 230n has a plurality of MIBs 330n.

By having the same MIB, the SNMP management unit 310 instructs the proxy agent 200 to control the electronic device based on the MIB 330n of the mobile communication terminal, and the proxy agent 220 receives the received message. This can be delivered to the SNMP agent (110n) of the electronic device (100n).

6 illustrates an embodiment in which a user remotely controls an electronic device through a display window of a mobile communication terminal.

First, the user connects to the Internet using a mobile communication terminal (FIG. 6A), and then selects a remote control (FIG. 6B).

In the proxy agent registration / deletion / selection step (FIG. 6C), the user may register, delete or select the proxy agent in the mobile communication terminal. The registration process of the proxy agent is a process of inputting an IP address of the proxy agent and specifying a name (eg, house 1, house 2, office). By specifying the name, the proxy agent can be easily selected because the name can be displayed instead of the proxy agent IP address at the proxy agent registration / deletion / selection step. The user can also select a proxy agent by entering the IP directly.

In the electronic device registration / deletion / selection step (FIG. 6D), the user may register, delete or select an electronic device to be remotely controlled in the mobile communication terminal. The registration process of the electronic device is a process of downloading the MIB of the corresponding electronic device and a process of designating a name (eg, TV, air conditioner).

The user can select a corresponding electronic device by selecting a name item of the electronic device displayed on the display window.

In the management item selection step (FIG. 6E), the user selects an item to be remotely controlled, and then selects whether to request a status report or a state setting of the target item in the designation statement setting step (FIG. 6F).

By going through the above steps, the SNMP management unit finally installed in the mobile communication terminal can transmit messages such as GetRequest and GetSet according to the SNMP protocol.

If the status report request is successfully performed, the status of the corresponding item is displayed on the display window of the mobile communication terminal so that the user can know the specific status of the electronic device. In addition, if the state setting request is successfully performed, the electronic device is controlled as required.

On the other hand, the mobile communication terminal and the corresponding electronic device must go through the authentication process before connecting and sending a message, the SNMP protocol used in the original network management uses a tag called community name. In the present invention, the authentication process of the SNMP protocol is applied as it is.

Community names are case sensitive and can be up to 32 characters long. When a request is made, the electronic device's SNMP agent determines whether the request is from the same community of the management system or not. If the community names do not match, the request will not be processed. When the product is first shipped, anyone can connect to the electronic device because the PUBLIC name is set. However, you will need to set a specific name later to maintain minimal access. For this purpose, it may be desirable to have an item for setting a name in the mobile communication terminal.

Although the technical spirit of the present invention has been described in detail according to the above-described preferred embodiment, it should be noted that the above-described embodiment is for the purpose of description and not of limitation. In addition, those skilled in the art will understand that various embodiments are possible within the scope of the technical idea of the present invention.

The present invention has the effect of providing the flexibility to reduce the development cost of the system builder and the expansion of the system in the future by applying the generalized SNMP protocol that can be used as a standard for each company to the home network system.

In addition, the present invention provides the convenience of life by allowing the object and the contents to be controlled to be remotely operated by simple key operation.

Claims (4)

SNMP management unit for performing a simple network management protocol (SNMP), a protocol for remote control of electronic devices, MIB (Management Information Base) showing the state information of the electronic device to be controlled, A register having a function of registering a MIB of an electronic device to be controlled; An Internet connection that connects to the Internet with an IP, User interface including input and display for interface between user and remote control terminal Remote control terminal having a; A proxy processing unit for transmitting a SNMP message between the remote control terminal and the electronic device; MIB showing the state information of the electronic device to be controlled, A register having a function of registering a MIB of an electronic device to be controlled; LAN connection to connect electronics and LAN Proxy agent provided with; And SNMP agent that has the ability to perform the SNMP protocol and performs the operation according to the SNMP message received from the remote control terminal, MIB showing the state information of the electronic device, LAN connection to proxy agent and LAN network Electronic device equipped with Electronic device remote control system having a. The method of claim 1, The remote control terminal and the proxy agent have their respective IPs and are connected to the Internet network, and the proxy agent and the electronics are connected to the LAN network. In a system for remotely controlling an electronic device through an internet network consisting of an electronic device, a remote control terminal, a proxy agent, Storing a control item which is a management target of the electronic device in the MIB of the electronic device; Storing the MIB of the electronic device in an electromagnetic storage medium or related Internet site; And Downloading, by the register of the proxy agent and the register of the remote control terminal, the MIB of the electronic device stored in the electromagnetic storage medium or the Internet site; Remote control of the electronic device through the Internet network having a. In a system for remotely controlling an electronic device through an internet network consisting of an electronic device, a remote control terminal, a proxy agent, Transmitting, by the SNMP management unit of the remote mobile terminal, a status report and a status setting message to the proxy agent according to the SNMP protocol; Delivering, by the proxy agent, the above message to the SNMP agent of the electronic device; Setting a state according to a message received by the SNMP agent of the electronic device; Reporting a status to the proxy agent according to the message received by the SNMP agent of the electronic device; Forwarding the status report received by the proxy agent from the SNMP agent to the SNMP management unit of the remote mobile terminal; And Displaying the status report received from the proxy agent on the display of the remote control terminal Remote control of the electronic device through the Internet network comprising a.