Sony Deutschland Gmbh

Nokia Siemens Networks Gmbh & Co Kg

Sony International (Europe) Gmbh

Sony Deustschland Gmbh

Davide Mandato

Ernö Kovacs

Andreas Kassler

Teodora Guenkova-Luy

Ernoe Kovacs

Klaus Röhrle

Oliver Schramm

Markus Nosse

A system offering an Application Programming Interface for multi-stream multimedia applications running on at least two registered end peers participating in a mobile telecommunication session and/or middleware being connected to a mobile network. The system providing guaranteed end-to-end quality and resource capabilities using the concept of concatenated E2ENP phases and providing a pre-negotiation of a multiplicity of alternative capabilities and QoS Contracts, management of leased pre-negotiated information, session establishment between said end peers with negotiation of a multiplicity of alternative capabilities and/or QoS Contracts, and a dynamic re-negotiation of the end-to-end quality and capabilities. The information to be negotiated is expressed in an interchangeable format allowing multi-stream multimedia applications to agree on a specific reference model of the negotiated information, which can then be used for dynamically configuring Finite State Machines to orchestrate local, peer, and network resources according to the preferences and profiles of the respective user.

Specification of a software architecture for capability and quality-of-service negotiations and session establishment for distributed multimedia applications

The present invention generally relates to the field of mobile multimedia middleware, quality-of-service, shared resource reservation mechanisms, distributed processing systems, handheld computers, computer networking and wireless communication. Particularly, the present invention describes a processing system and pieces of software for one or more communication networks, with middleware comprising an application programming interface () cast over a data model describing quality-of-service contracts and quality-of-service adaptation paths specified by quality-of-service aware mobile multimedia applications () using said programming interface, in order to manage quality-of-service and mobility-aware for managing network connections with other applications. The present invention hereby relates to a corresponding data model as well as the necessary architecture.

High-level interface for QoS-based mobile multimedia applications

In mobile computing and context awareness in mobile ad-hoc networks, node connectivity is unpredictably time-varying. A middleware entity solves the problem of automatically executing a user-defined set of actions, collected in a user profile, upon detection of events such as an attachment of a mobile terminal to the ad-hoc network, changes of the underlying network topology, the moving of mobile terminals into the physical proximity of further mobile terminals, the presence of services and/or of users within the network, and a detachment of a mobile terminal from the ad-hoc network. Thereby, the actions are invocations of services hosted on the mobile terminal or other mobile terminals interconnected via the ad-hoc network. The aforementioned profiles are stored on mobile terminals (e.g. PDAs, mobile phones, etc.) or on fixed or mobile customer-edge devices such as television sets, home gateways, etc. Also envisioned is the deployment of a distributed database holding the profiles.

Context-aware automatic service discovery and execution engine in mobile ad-hoc networks

This invention presents a framework for achieving dynamic End-to End QoS negotiation and control coordination, with distributed multimedia applications. The framework builds upon dynamic capability negotiations and specification of Adaptation Paths and (alternative) QoS Contracts, based on user preferences. In particular we present a protocol providing End-to-End negotiation of alternative QoS, capabilities, and preferences/configurations, based on extensions of IP-based protocols like SIP/RTSP/SDP, in coordination with mechanisms for network resource reservation (e.g. RSVP), local terminal resource (e.g. CPU, memory, power, auxiliary devices) reservation, and adaptation mechanisms. To this extent, and with respect to two or more peers () this invention identifies six phases, through which said peers can establish multiparty, multi-stream, multimedia communications. In detail, the phases are: Protocol Discovery (), Pre-Negotiation (), Multi-Stream QoS Synchronization and QoS Correlation (), Fast-Negotiation (obeying the Economy Principle) (), Re-Negotiation (obeying the Economy Principle) (), Resource Reservation Release (). All the six phases can be concatenated, or be executed at different times. This invention also presents the concept of the E2ENP Broker (), an optional third-party entity, which can be used for relieving peers () from performing the time- and resource-consuming Pre-Negotiation phase () (and eventually also the Multi-Stream QoS Synchronization and QoS Correlation (). This entity may coincide with e.g. audio-/videoconference bridges.

Method for achieving end-to-end quality of service negotiations for distributed multi-media applications

The underlying invention generally relates to the field of mobile computing in a networking environment with distributed multimedia applications and technologies. More specifically, it is directed to the concept of the End-to-End Negotiation Protocol (E2ENP) phases, which enable a pre-negotiation (), fast negotiation () and a fast, dynamic renegotiation () of the end-to-end quality and capabilities for telecommunication sessions (), for multiple configurations of two or a multiplicity of end peers and/or intermediate components in a consistent, reliable, and incremental way by enabling the mobile users' applications to efficiently and timely react to QoS violations. In this context, the invention proposes a model for defining user profiles and terminal capability information in such a way that hierarchical QoS contract specifications (), e.g. compelling correlations () across different sets of QoS contracts () for related media streams (), can be enforced and used for deriving negotiable information. As a reference implementation of this concept, this invention proposes a novel usage of the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP,) standardized by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) in conjunction with extensions of the Session Description Protocol Next Generation (SDPng,) specification based on the Extensible Markup Language (XML) in order to implement concepts of the End-to-End QoS Negotiation Protocol (E2ENP,).

Model for enforcing different phases of the end-to-end negotiation protocol (E2ENP) aiming QoS support for multi-stream and multimedia applications

The present invention relates to a communication device and a software for operating multimedia applications in one or more communication networks, with a computing manager unit () for managing and providing multimedia applications on the basis of a communication with one or more communication devices in the one or more communication networks, whereby the computing manager unit () controls a device discovery manager unit () for detecting the availability of one or more devices and/or one or more communication networks, a service discovery manager unit () for providing available services from and/or for said one or more communication networks, and a virtual device manager unit () providing a graphical user interface for controlling devices and/or services of the one or more communication networks. The present invention particularly enables mobile multimedia applications to effectively use mobile ad-hoc networks in a simple and effective way.

Communication device and software for operating multimedia applications

The invention generally related to the field of mobile multimedia middle-ware, computer networking, distributed processing systems, data bases, hand-held computers and wireless communication. A method for conveniently managing user profile information in an unified instant messaging system () is proposed. This method operates on a data base structure, which accommodates in a flexible way subscribers' information. More specifically, this method takes into account the mutable characteristics of the environment where subscribers' devices () are operating: subscribers can in fact freely modify their personal user profiles () as situations change and/or as they move to different geographical locations.

Management of user profile data

The present invention relates to a processing system and to pieces of software for one or more communication networks. Applications are provided with a platform and a network-independent framework for achieving cross-adaptability by providing components for QoS management in the communication network(s) by means of a component coordinator unit.

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Fellbach, Germany

Davide Mandato