Patent ID: 7392304

Claim:
An apparatus for a home network middleware interoperability service, comprising: a home network that includes: a plurality of home network devices that include different types of middleware; and a home gateway comprising: a plurality of middleware bundles that support the different types of middleware; and an OSGi (Open Standards Gateway Initiative) platform configured to transfer information on the home network devices to an external network external to the home network; and a service provider connected to the home gateway via the external network, the service provider configured to receive the information on the home network devices and download middleware conversion bundles based on the received information to the home gateway to provide the middleware interoperability service; wherein the OSGi platform includes: a middleware bundle module having a plurality of middleware bundles configured to collect information on the home network devices and export the collected information through a OSGi service; an interoperability processing bundle configured to collect the information exported from each middleware bundle and send the information to the service provider; a middleware conversion bundle configured to interact with each middleware bundle using the OSGi service to perform device level conversion among the different types of middleware, and export middleware device messages to the different middleware devices; and an OSGi framework configured to control the plurality of middleware tare bundles and enable OSGi service registration and in middleware bundles utilization.