DLNA

INTRODUCTION
DLNA is an acronym for Digital Living Network Alliance. It is a series of guidelines used by manufacturers of consumer electronics to allow entertainment devices within a home share media content with each other seamlessly across a home network. The organization provides guidelines dening a framework of network protocols that support this interoperability concept. There is also a certication program to identify products that comply with DLNA guidelines.

HISTORY
DLNA was formed in 2003 by 21 companies including Microsoft, Intel, HP, IBM, Sony, Philips, Toshiba, Pioneer, Motorola and Nokia.
It currently has more than 200 members, including virtually all of the global brands in PC,CE and mobile electronics. The latest version of the DLNA Interoperability Guidelines, version 1.5, was published in March 2006 and then expanded in October 2006 .

DLNA
DLNA is a standard based on UPnP model, whose primitive goal was to attach all devices directly to computer. With a view to interconnect devices seamlessly, DLNA was brought to light. DLNA represents the content negotiation and sharing portion. At a customary level, a DLNA device works like any other device by discovering other DLNA-enabled hosts. But its competence doesnt stop there. The DLNA device goes on to learn other devices capabilities.

WHY DLNA?

 Three main pools of electronic goods that prevail in today's world are : 1. MOBLIE INTERNET WORLD 2. PC INTERNET WORLD

3. CE BROADCAST WORLD
Consumers wish to inter-operate in these 3 zones Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) is a cross-industry organization of leading operators of these 3 islands - consumer electronics, computing industry and mobile devices. They provide a seamless environment for sharing and growing new digital media and content services.

DLNA ARCHITECTURE

1. MEDIA FORMAT
Media Formats describe how digital content is encoded and formatted for image, audio, and AV.
Media Class Image Audio Mandatory Formats JPEG LPCM Optional Formats PNG, GIF, TIFF AC3, AAC, MP3, WMA9, ATRAC3plus MPEG1, MPEG4, VC1, MPV1

Video

MPEG2

2. MEDIA TRANSPORT
Media Transport defines how content moves across the network.

Mandatory Transport
HTTP1.1

Optional Transport
RTP

3. NETWORK STACKS
The basis for UPnP Networking (and thus DLNA) is the TCP/IP v4 protocol. Discovery is done via an HTTP Multicast over UDP. Definition, control, and eventing services are delivered via HTTP over TCP Every device must implement a DHCP client, and search for a DHCP server when first connected to the network. If a DHCP server is discovered, the device must use the IP address assigned by the server. If no DHCP server is discovered, the device must use Auto-IP to generate a link-local IP address.

4. NETWORK CONNECTION
Three network connection technologies are incorporated in the DLNA 1.5 Interoperability Guidelines: 10Base-T and 100Base-T Ethernet(802.3i / 802.3u) for wired connections. WiFi (802.11a /802.11b/802.11g) for wireless connections. Bluetooth for wireless connections for mobile handheld devices such as cell phones and PDAs. Additional network connections such as 1000Base-T Ethernet (802.3ab) and faster WiFi (802.11n) will be added to the Guidelines in the future.

5. DISCOVERY
Discovery includes device and service discovery. This takes into account 1. Discovering the presence and capabilities of other devices in the connected network. 2. Control and interconnect with the discovered devices. The Service protocol used in DLNA is SSDP - Simple Service Discovery protocol.

HOW DOES DLNA WORK?

DLNA works in two ways: 1. Pull Type UI

2. Push Type UI

PULL-TYPE UI

PUSH-TYPE UI

QUALITY OF SERVICE (QOS)

Quality of service is the ability to provide different priority to different applications, users, or data flows, or to guarantee a certain level of performance to a data flow.

AUTHENTICATION & AUTHORIZATION

Authentication is the mechanism whereby systems may securely identify their users. Authentication systems provide an answer to the questions:
Who is the user? Is the user really who he/she represents himself to be?

Authorization, by contrast, is the mechanism by which a system determines what level of access a particular authenticated user should have to secured resources controlled by the system.

CONCLUSION
With growing demand for consumer goods, there is an equal rise in crave for interconnecting devices, be at home or office. DLNA is THE way to achieve is. The best aspect of DLNA is that it allows products from different manufacturers to talk to each other.

With DLNA all leading CE companies are tied in a technological knot; there is interdependence, yet independence with their own products.
In the near future, digital homes will contain intelligent platforms which will manage and distribute rich digital content to rendering devices such as televisions and wireless monitors from devices such as digital cameras, camcorders and multimedia mobile phones.

QUESTIONS?

THANK YOU