Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
2000-05-25
2002-10-01
Robinson, Greta L. (Department: 2177)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C707S793000, C710S010000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06460032
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of consumer electronic devices coupled in an audio/visual network. More specifically, the present invention pertains to a system and method for performing a search through data stored in electronic devices in the network.
2. Background Art
The typical audio/visual (AV) system consists of a variety of consumer electronic devices that present and record AV media in different ways. For instance, the typical AV equipment found in a home includes a number of components such as a radio receiver or tuner, a compact disk (CD) player and/or a digital video disc player (DVD), a number of speakers, a television, a video cassette recorder (VCR), a tape deck, and the like, and also may include a personal computer (PC). The consumer electronic devices in the AV system are interconnected in some manner, typically by wires.
Consumer electronic devices have become more capable and more complex, and the demand for the latest and most capable devices has increased. As new devices emerge and become popular, the devices are purchased by consumers and “plugged” into their home or office AV systems. In turn, the conventional AV system paradigm is being replaced with a home or office AV network architecture for networking consumer electronic devices. The AV network architecture provides a powerful platform on which device functionality and interoperability can be built, and is capable of taking advantage of the increased sophistication that is being incorporated into consumer electronic devices.
A communication standard, the IEEE 1394 standard, has been defined for networking consumer electronic devices using a standard communication protocol layer (e.g., the audio visual control [AV/C] protocol). The IEEE 1394 standard is an international standard for implementing an inexpensive high-speed serial bus architecture which supports both asynchronous and isochronous format data transfers. The IEEE 1394 standard provides a high-speed serial bus for interconnecting digital devices, thereby providing universal input/output connection. The IEEE 1394 standard defines a digital interface for applications, thereby eliminating the need for an application to convert digital data to an analog form before it is transmitted across the bus. Correspondingly, a receiving application will receive digital data, not analog data, from the bus and will therefore not be required to convert analog data to digital form. The IEEE 1394 standard is ideal for consumer electronics communication in part because devices can be added to or removed from the serial bus while the bus is active.
At least one of the devices in the AV network functions as a controller device; for example, the tuner, a PC, or an intelligent controller device such as a set-top-box. The controller device has a number of specific inputs for coupling to the other consumer electronic devices on the AV network, referred to as target devices. The controller device has a corresponding number of control buttons or control switches which provide a limited degree of controllability and interoperability for the target devices. A user controls the AV system and the target devices by manipulating the buttons and switches on the front of the central component or, alternatively, by manipulating buttons on a hand-held remote control unit. In other implementations of AV networks, such as a network of devices compliant with the home audio/visual interoperability (HAVi) architecture, the target devices provide on-screen display (OSD) controls that are presented to the user on a screen or via speakers of the controller device.
The target devices in the AV network store their content and/or broadcast services using some method or model that provides a hierarchical set of data structures. One example of such a model is the AV/C object list model described in the patent application entitled “Method and Apparatus for Representing Devices and Available Information within a Network of Devices Using Object List and Object Entries,” by Harold Aaron Ludtke, Ser. No. 09/040,540, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,260,063, filed Mar. 17, 1998, assigned to the assignee of the present invention and herein incorporated by reference. In the AV/C object list model, an object is used to represent a distinct entity on the target device, such as a particular track on a compact disk or a particular compact disk loaded into a CD changer that holds multiple CDs. An object list is a list of the objects, such as a list of all CDs in the CD changer.
One problem with an AV network is associated with the maximum bandwidth capacity of the network bus. That is, there is a maximum rate at which the network bus can carry data, typically measured in megabits/second. Each device on the AV network consumes a certain amount of the bandwidth capacity when the device is transmitting data, thereby reducing the bandwidth available for other devices to use at the same time.
In an AV network, particularly a distributed network where the target devices operate primarily as peers, a controller device may need to find, access, and retrieve data from one or more of the target devices. A significant disadvantage to the prior art is that, in order to find specific instances of data that describe the content available from a target device (e.g., descriptive data that corresponds to an object or object list), the controller device first retrieves most or all of the data from the target device. The data must first be transferred across the network bus from the target device to the controller device. The controller device then has to examine all of the data that was stored on the target device. For example, to find whether a particular compact disk is located in a CD changer that holds multiple disks, in the prior art it is necessary for the controller device to retrieve all titles from the target device (the CD changer). The controller device then must parse through all of that data to find the particular title being sought. In instances other than this one, even greater amounts of data may need to be retrieved and searched. Thus, in the prior art, a huge burden is placed on the overall network, the controller device, and the target device by the prior art search method described above. In particular, a large burden is placed on the bus, which must message all the data between the target device and the controller device.
The prior art is problematic because network traffic is significantly increased owing to the large amounts of data that need to be transferred over the network bus whenever a search of the descriptive data is requested. As such, the available bandwidth of the bus is substantially reduced and is thus not fully available for other functions. According to the IEEE 1394 standard, bandwidth is divided into isochronous and asynchronous portions. The isochronous portion of the bandwidth is guaranteed for those devices that successfully reserve the necessary bandwidth. However, this guarantee is at the expense of asynchronous data transfers because these types of transfers by their nature are not guaranteed to be performed by any specific time. Thus, when asynchronous traffic over the bus is heavy, all asynchronous transactions can incur delays. For example, the transmission of OSD data from target devices to controller devices could be delayed, which is manifested to the user as slow screen updates or poor animation quality. Thus, in the prior art, one function of the AV network may be temporarily subverted due to the heavy traffic associated with the search function. Certainly, the number of other simultaneous functions that can be supported by the AV network is reduced when descriptive data are being transferred over the network bus.
In addition, the prior art is problematic because the controller device is required to acquire and then search through large amounts of descriptive data to find the object of interest. The controller device typically is limited in its capability to process and store data. Consequently, the centr
Robinson Greta L.
Wagner , Murabito & Hao LLP
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