Srvdiscovery
From Symbian Developer Community
Service Discovery and Usage Package
The Service Discovery and Usage package enables devices to discover and share services offered by other devices. The package currently contains:-
- a full Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) stack,
- a generic Service Discovery API (called PnP API) designed to support any device-to-device discovery mechanism.
Contents |
Introduction
The Service Discovery package is an OS offering that provides the necessary mechanism for local connectivity on devices. Service Discovery, by itself, is a broad term so it is necessarily to qualify it in context of this package.
The package contains an implementation of the UPnP protocol stack, which is an industry standard that enables consumer electronic devices and mobile phones to establish simple but robust connectivity. The implementation in this package confirms to the [UPnP Device Architecture 1.0].
The key use-cases for UPnP on mobile phone devices are chiefly Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) oriented, which aims to tive the mobile phone a handy home networking tool. The SrvDiscovery package, therefore, is closely aligned with the DLNAServices package. DLNAServices implements the Audio/Visual profile which shares media content with DLNA-enabled consumer electronics devices like TVs and Hi-Fi systems.
In addition to the UPnP protocol stack, the package also contains the PnP API which is designed to address technology-agnostic service discovery solutions. This developer API is targeted towards at application developers interesting in enabling Local Connectivity support in their applications without having to worry too much about the underlying network protocols.
ZeroConf is one of the other Service Discovery technologies that we expect to be a part of this package in the near future. ZeroConf provides a lightweight service discovery protocol and is quite popular in the developer community with a plethora of devices (including printers) supporting it. It should be possible for developers to use the same PnP API to use UPnP or ZeroConf.
The high level block diagram explains where the components sit:
Package Backlog
Can be found here.
Related Packages
- DLNA Services utilizes the UPnP Stack. The UPnP stack will be delivered through the DLNA Services package till Symbian ^ 3 release, after which this (srvdiscovery) package will added.
Key APIs
The Service Discovery and Usage Package contains the PnP API, which is designed to work with any service discovery protocol or mechanism. The allows the application or service developer to add service discovery features to his or her application/service without getting too deep into the service discovery protocol. PnP API uses ECOM plug-ins to abstract the service discovery technology from the application/service developer leaving only a simple interface for the developers to deal with. Here are some links that describe the PnP API:-
- PnP API for application/service developers - a Whitepaper (PDF) - 90.1 KB (Oct 2009)
- Implementing ZerConf over PnP API - package backlog item
Working with the Package
Contacts
Community
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