News

Matsushita (Panasonic) Develops Network Protocol Technology for Consumer Electronics (1/10/2003)

New technology provides simple setup without additional network settings

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., best known for its Panasonic brand consumer electronics, announced the development of a network protocol technology that allows users to operate consumer electronics connected to the Internet in real time from remote locations using mobile devices such as mobile phones or personal computers. The protocol technology has already been incorporated in previously released products such as the DIGA series of Panasonic's DVD/HDD video recorders and the "KURASHI NET" networked home appliances/housekeeping system. The protocol technology will be included as a standard feature in all of Matsushita's future networked consumer electronics.

With this technology, networked consumer electronics (which incorporate client functionality) and servers communicate using a newly developed protocol that eliminates the need for users to make settings on individual network-capable home appliances. Once Internet connection is inserted to a device, such as DVD/HDD video recorder, the client program automatically contacts the control server and mutual information exchange take place, sending its global IP address and device information to the system server. This data is used as the basis for communication between the home appliance and the control server. If the global IP address of the appliance changes or is powered off and then back on again, the above negotiation is performed again, reestablishing communication. As a result, there is no need for the user to input any complicated settings normally needed to enable port forwarding and global IP checking.

The protocol technology also allows real-time control of consumer electronics such as AV equipment, security systems, and climate control equipment to take place from remote locations. When an operation command reaches the application server from mobile devices such as a mobile phone or personal computer, the server immediately sends the client program a command instructing it to retrieve operation data from the application server. To ensure safe usage, individual devices have their own IDs to provide security against unauthorized usage and protection against spoofing and unauthorized access.

In order to implement remote control of network-capable devices in the home, the protocol technology needed to have the ability to exchange data with devices behind routers employing network address translation (NAT). Home networking products also needed to be assigned a global address. Conventional technology requires the user to assign the appropriate settings to the networking equipment used, such as the router, in order to get around current limitations. Alternately, the capability to operate the networked consumer electronics in real time had to be sacrificed. The protocol technology overcomes the issues mentioned above while providing extremely simple setup: the user simply needs to connect the cable.

www.panasonic.co.jp