PATENT DOCUMENT

Publication Number: US-8593995-B1
Application Number: US-201213461131-A
Country: US
Kind Code: B1

Title: Integrated home service network

Abstract:
The present invention provides a centralized home controller that is used to coordinate a plurality of associated packet communication clients. The home controller provides a centralized and unified control and messaging system for the various packet communication clients. The home controller also allows the packet communication clients to establish and control packet sessions among the associated packet communication clients, as well as between any one of the packet communication clients and remote clients. The packet communication clients are provided in consumer electronics devices, and the associated packet sessions support data, voice, audio, or video content. In one embodiment, the home controller acts as a proxy for the various communications between the packet communication clients.

Claims:
What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A method of operating a home controller, the method comprising:
 receiving, at a home controller, an instruction from a first of a plurality of associated packet communication clients via at least one packet communications interface; 
 in response to the instruction, establishing or controlling a first media session between a second of the plurality of associated packet communication clients and a third of the plurality of associated packet communication clients, the plurality of associated packet communication clients provided by a plurality of consumer electronics devices coupled to the home controller, and 
 storing information received from at least one of the plurality of associated packet communication clients and delivering the information from a memory to the at least one of the plurality of associated packet communication clients. 
 
     
     
       2. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising establishing or controlling a second media session with the second of the plurality of associated packet communication clients according to the instruction. 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising establishing or controlling a second media session with the third of the plurality of associated packet communication clients according to the instruction. 
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising communicating with the plurality of associated packet communication clients using a uniform message protocol. 
     
     
       5. The method of  claim 1 , wherein one of the plurality of associated packet communication clients is operable to emulate a handset for a cordless telephone, the method further comprising a public switched telephone interface cooperating with a control system and the at least one packet communications interface to emulate a base station for the cordless telephone, such that telephony communications are provided with the one of the plurality of associated packet communication clients, the public switched telephone interface adapted to provide a gateway to facilitate interworking between the at least one packet communications interface and a public switched telephone network. 
     
     
       6. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one packet communications interface comprises a local wireless interface operable to facilitate wireless communications with at least certain of the plurality of associated packet communication clients. 
     
     
       7. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one packet communications interface comprises a wired interface operable to facilitate wired communications with at least certain of the plurality of associated packet communication clients. 
     
     
       8. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the media session is at least one of a group consisting of a data session, an audio session, a video session, and a voice session. 
     
     
       9. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising interacting with the first of the plurality of associated packet communication clients to receive control commands for the second of the plurality of associated packet communication clients and to send instructions to control the second of the plurality of associated packet communication clients based on the control commands. 
     
     
       10. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the information includes video content and associated audio content. 
     
     
       11. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising communicating with at least one of the plurality of associated packet communication clients using different message protocols. 
     
     
       12. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising providing a simple mail transfer protocol host for handling email associated with at least one of the plurality of associated packet communication clients. 
     
     
       13. The method of  claim 3 , wherein the first media session and the second media session form part of a single multimedia session. 
     
     
       14. The method of  claim 4 , further comprising operating the home controller as a proxy for communications involving the plurality of associated packet communication clients. 
     
     
       15. The method of  claim 7 , wherein the at least one packet communications interface further comprises a local wireless interface adapted to facilitate wireless communications with others of the plurality of associated packet communication clients. 
     
     
       16. The method of  claim 15 , wherein one of the plurality of associated packet communication clients is adapted to emulate a handset for a cordless telephone, the method further comprising a public switched telephone interface cooperating with a control system and the at least one packet communications interface to emulate a base station for the cordless telephone, such that telephony communications are provided with the one of the plurality of associated packet communication clients, the public switched telephone interface adapted to provide a gateway to facilitate interworking between the at least one packet communications interface and a public switched telephone network. 
     
     
       17. The method of  claim 16 , wherein a router is associated with the wired interface, the local wireless interface, and the public switched telephone interface and adapted to facilitate communications between the wired interface, the local wireless interface, and the public switched telephone interface. 
     
     
       18. The method of  claim 17 , wherein a broadband interface is associated with the router. 
     
     
       19. The method of  claim 18 , wherein a firewall is associated with the router and the broadband interface.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application is a continuation of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/103,438, filed on May 9, 2011, entitled “INTEGRATED HOME SERVICE NETWORK,” which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/321,208, filed on Dec. 29, 2005, entitled “INTEGRATED HOME SERVICE NETWORK,” now U.S. Pat. No. 7,957,326, each of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. 
    
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to networking residential consumer electronics devices, and in particular to providing integrated establishment and control of communication sessions with and between these consumer electronics devices. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Traditionally, consumer electronics devices have used proprietary control and communication interfaces, which significantly impair the ability of these devices to interact with one another. With such proprietary interfaces, the devices that may interact with one another must be from a common manufacturer or provide a highly related function. For example, certain stereo or home theater electronics components may be connected to facilitate common control and operation. However, such control rarely extends to cable boxes, televisions, computers, or telephony devices. 
     Given the rapid acceptance of the Internet and packet-based communications and the corresponding convergence of various types of media, including audio, video, voice, and data, there is an ever-increasing desire to provide multimedia capabilities through various devices in an integrated fashion. Unfortunately, the lack of effective integration techniques and the use of proprietary control and communication interfaces continue to provide a barrier to fully exploiting multimedia capabilities. 
     To further complicate matters, many consumer electronics devices employ wireless interfaces that use a frequency spectrum used by other devices. For example, many cordless telephones operate in the unlicensed 2.4 GHz spectrum. Other wireless devices, such as wireless networking devices using wireless local area network protocols set forth in the IEEE&#39;s 802.11 standards, also operate in the 2.4 GHz spectrum. As such, these devices often compete for the allocated spectrum and interfere with one another. Further, the use of different protocols prohibits these devices from being able to interact with one another. 
     Although networking and telephony applications are the predominant wireless technologies in the home, there is a movement to deliver audio and video to various speakers, controllers, receivers, and monitors or televisions. In addition to wirelessly delivering the media, the need to provide various types of media for multimedia sessions from the various devices in a coordinated fashion will require concerted control over the respective devices. As such, there is a need for a way to provide an efficient and effective integration and control of the various consumer electronics devices in an efficient and effective manner. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention provides a centralized home controller that is used to coordinate a plurality of associated packet communication clients. The home controller provides a centralized and unified control and messaging system for the various packet communication clients. The home controller also allows the packet communication clients to establish and control packet sessions among the associated packet communication clients, as well as between any one of the packet communication clients and remote clients. The packet communication clients are provided in consumer electronics devices, and the associated packet sessions support data, voice, audio, or video content. In one embodiment, the home controller acts as a proxy for the various communications between the packet communication clients. 
     The home controller may include various types of packet interfaces, including a local wireless interface for facilitating wireless communications with one or more of the packet communication clients, a wired interface for establishing ethernet or like connections with one or more of the packet communication devices, as well as an optional broadband interface for accessing a broadband network. The home controller may be integrated into one device or distributed over multiple devices. Further, a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) interface may be provided, wherein the interface provides a gateway that will facilitate the necessary interworking between a traditional telephony line or other circuit-switched connection and the packet-based interworkings of the home controller. In one embodiment, one of the packet communication clients forms a handset for a cordless telephone, wherein the home controller acts like a base of a cordless telephone. As such, telephony calls over the PSTN and coming in through the PSTN interface are relayed to the packet communication client acting as a handset to facilitate telephony operation. In addition to establishing and controlling sessions between and with the various packet communication clients, basic control instructions may be provided to or from the packet communication clients to effectively control the operation of other packet communication clients. 
     Those skilled in the art will appreciate the scope of the present invention and realize additional aspects thereof after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments in association with the accompanying drawing figures. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES 
       The accompanying drawing figures incorporated in and forming a part of this specification illustrate several aspects of the invention, and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the invention. 
         FIG. 1  is a block representation of an integrated home service network environment according to one embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIGS. 2A and 2B  provide a communication flow diagram of an exemplary scenario of integrated home services network control via a home controller according to one embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIGS. 3A and 3B  provide a communication flow diagram of an exemplary scenario of integrated home services network control via a home controller according to a second embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     The embodiments set forth below represent the necessary information to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention and illustrate the best mode of practicing the invention. Upon reading the following description in light of the accompanying drawing figures, those skilled in the art will understand the concepts of the invention and will recognize applications of these concepts not particularly addressed herein. It should be understood that these concepts and applications fall within the scope of the disclosure and the accompanying claims. 
     The present invention provides a centralized control point, referred to as a home controller, to facilitate the integration of multiple consumer electronics devices. These consumer electronics devices may include the requisite intelligence and associated interfaces to form packet communication clients capable of facilitating packet-based communications through wired or wireless means. As such, the home controller can facilitate a centralized and unified control and messaging system for the packet communication clients of the electronic devices. The home controller allows the packet communication clients to establish as well as control and manipulate packet sessions with any of the associated packet communication clients, as well as with remote clients. These sessions may be used to carry data, voice, audio, and video between any of the associated packet communication clients or between one or more of the associated packet communication clients and one or more remote devices. In one embodiment, the home controller acts as a proxy for the associated packet communication clients for establishing and controlling the packet sessions therebetween. 
     The home controller may include a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) interface to support circuit-switched telephony including traditional telephone calls, as well as wired or wireless packet interfaces for communications with the associated packet communication clients and remote devices through broadband network connections. As such, the home controller may emulate a base station for a cordless telephone, wherein one or more of the electronic devices may act as a corresponding telephone handset. The home controller would be able to facilitate wireless communications with the handset to support telephony calls established over the PSTN or via the broadband interface. 
     Turning now to  FIG. 1 , an exemplary home controller  10  and associated environment is illustrated according to one embodiment. As illustrated, the home controller  10  will include or have access to multiple interfaces or gateways to support communications between the PSTN  12 , or broadband network  14 , such as that afforded by cable or digital subscriber line (DSL) services, and any number of packet communication clients  16 . For access to the broadband network  14 , the home controller  10  may include or be able to interact with a broadband gateway  18 , such as a cable or DSL modem. The home controller  10  may interact with the packet communication clients  16  through wired or wireless techniques. The type of interface will vary depending on the type of device represented by the packet communication client  16 . Exemplary packet communication clients  16  include a local wireless handset  20 , such as that which would cooperate with the home controller  10  to provide a cordless telephone function; a mobile terminal  22 , which may be able to carry out cellular as well as local wireless communications with the home controller  10 ; a PC client  24 ; a personal digital assistant (PDA)  26 ; an audio receiver  28 ; network ready speakers  30 ; a television (TV) or video display device  32 ; and a set-top box  34 , just to name a few of the possible electronic devices represented by the packet communication clients  16 . 
     Local wireless communications with the local wireless handset  20 , mobile terminal  22 , PC client  24 , PDA  26 , audio receiver  28 , and network ready speakers  30  may be facilitated through a local wireless interface  36 . The local wireless interface  36  may use any available wireless communication technology, such as Bluetooth or the IEEE&#39;s 802.11 standards for wireless local area networks (WLANs). For wired interfaces, the home controller  10  may include a network interface  38 , which may be ethernet-based, and is shown as being connected to the television  32  and the set-top box  34 , which may be connected to each other directly or indirectly through the network interface  38 . Such inter-client connections are possible with any of the packet communication clients  16 . 
     The PSTN interface may include a telephone gateway  40 , which will take the necessary steps to convert between packet and circuit switched communications. The local wireless interface  36 , network interface  38 , and telephone gateway  40  are coupled to each other through an appropriate router  42 , which may include a firewall, between the home controller  10  and the broadband network  14 . As such, the router  42  may operate to direct packets in either direction between the local wireless interface  36 , network interface  38 , and telephone gateway  40  as necessary to facilitate communication sessions between the various packet communication clients  16  as well as remote devices on the PSTN  12  or on the broadband network  14 . 
     The home controller  10  will include a control system  44  operatively coupled to the router  42  and perhaps to the respective interfaces  36 ,  38 ,  40 . One role of the control system  44  is to provide a communication proxy for the respective packet communication clients  16 . The control system  44  will be associated with sufficient memory  46 , which will include the necessary software  48  to provide the operation described herein. 
     As noted above, the home controller  10  is capable of interacting with the various packet communication clients  16  to receive instructions for establishing sessions between two or more of the packet communication clients  16  or remote devices, and take the necessary steps to establish those sessions as instructed. In one embodiment, the communication proxy provided by the control system  44  will interact with the various packet communication clients  16  and establish sessions as dictated by any one or more of the packet communication clients  16 . Notably, for a given multimedia session, different sessions may be established among different packet communication clients  16 . For example, a television session including audio and video may require a video session established between the television  32  and the set-top box  34  for delivery of video from the set-top box  34  to the television  32 , as well as an audio session between the set-top box  34  and an audio receiver  28  for delivery of audio from the set-top box  34  to the audio receiver  28 . Alternatively, an audio session may be established to the network ready speakers  30 , which are capable of receiving streaming audio and playing the audio without the audio receiver  28  acting as a liaison. In yet another alternative, the audio streamed to the audio receiver  28  from the set-top box  34  may be further forwarded to the network ready speakers  30 , for example a left channel to one speaker and a right channel to another, from the audio receiver  28 . The home controller  10  may interact with each of these packet communication clients  16  to establish the requisite sessions, provide the necessary control to have the proper content delivered to these packet communication clients  16 , and receive instructions from any of these packet communication clients  16  or other packet communication clients  16  to control one or more of the established sessions. 
     Given the integration provided by the home controller  10 , additional functionality may be implemented in the home controller  10 . For example, the home controller  10  may establish sessions with the respective packet communication clients  16  or remote devices, and store received data, audio, video, or voice and then establish subsequent sessions with any of the packet communication clients  16  to essentially replay or otherwise provide the stored information. As such, the home controller  10  may operate as an answering machine, digital video recorder, or the like. For email applications, the home controller  10  may act as a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) host to control mail delivery among the packet communication clients  16  and remote devices. Further, the wireless nature of the local wireless interface  36  and the ability to interact with the packet communication clients  16  essentially allows any of the packet communication clients  16  to act as remote controllers for any of the other packet communication clients  16  as well as for the home controller  10 . 
     Turning now to  FIGS. 2A and 2B , an exemplary scenario is provided to illustrate the concepts of the present invention. As illustrated, the PC client  24  is used to establish a television session so that the user may watch channel  3  on the television  32  and receive the corresponding audio via the audio receiver  28 , which is connected to traditional stereo or home theater speakers. Once the television sessions are established, the user may receive an incoming call through the PSTN  12 , which will automatically trigger the home controller  10  to alert the PC client  24 . For this example, the incoming call is answered by the user through the PC client  24 , which is presumably equipped with the appropriate microphone, speakers, and the necessary hardware and software to facilitate telephony communications. The PC client  24  may be a notebook computer often used while viewing the television  32 . Once the call is established, the user will elect to initiate a video conference, which will be established under the control of the home controller  10  in response to a request from the PC client  24 . After the video conference ends, viewing of the television session will resume.  FIGS. 2A and 2B  illustrate a communication flow using pseudo messaging for illustration purposes. 
     Assume that the home controller  10  provides a primary control function, supports user interactions via a hypertext markup language (HTML), and controls sessions using the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). 
     Initially, assume the user selects channel  3  through a television interface afforded by the PC client  24  (step  100 ), which will respond by sending an HTML request to request establishment a television session for channel  3  to the home controller  10  (step  102 ). Assume that the HTML request includes information directing the home controller  10  to establish the video session for the television session from the set-top box  34  to the television  32 , and the audio session from the set-top box  34  to the audio receiver  28 . As such, the home controller  10  will process the HTML request from the PC client  24  and send SIP Invite messages to the television  32 , audio receiver  28 , and set-top box  34  (steps  104 ,  106 , and  108 ) to establish the audio and video sessions. In select embodiments, the home controller  10  may send a follow-up Invite message, or Re-invite, to provide additional information for controlling the television  32  (step  110  as shown), audio receiver  28 , or set-top box  34 . The additional information may dictate volume, channel guide information, or the like. At this point, an audio session is established from the set-top box  34  to the audio receiver  28  (step  112 ), and a video session is established from the set-top box  34  to the television  32  (step  114 ). The audio and video for the sessions correspond to channel  3  content. 
     Assume that during viewing of the television program on channel  3 , a call is received via the PSTN  12  at the home controller  10  (step  116 ). The home controller  10  may be configured through various processing rules to handle the numerous events it may encounter as a centralized controller, and will send a SIP Invite message to the PC client  24  indicating that an incoming call (CALL  1 ) is being received (step  118 ). The PC client  24  may receive user input indicative of the user taking the call at the PC client (step  120 ). 
     The PC client  24  may be configured to automatically respond to the SIP Invite message and the user taking the call by providing an HTML request instructing the home controller  10  to hold the television session (step  122 ). In response, the home controller  10  will recognize that hold messages must be sent to the television  32 , audio receiver  28 , and set-top box  34 , and will send hold messages (SIP) to each of these packet communication clients  16  (steps  124 ,  126 , and  128 ). The PC client  24  will take the necessary steps to answer the incoming call and send a message to the home controller  10  indicating that CALL  1  was answered (step  130 ). At this point, the PC client  24  and home controller  10  will establish a bi-directional audio session for the incoming call (CALL  1 ) (step  132 ). Notably, the audio session is a packet session between the PC client  24  and the home controller  10 , and in particular with the telephone gateway  40 , which provides a circuit-switched connection to the PSTN  12  for the incoming call. As such, bi-directional voice communications are established between the PC client  24  and the calling party through the home controller  10  and the PSTN  12 . The packet session between the PC client  24  and home controller  10  may go through the local wireless interface  36 , as illustrated in  FIG. 1 . 
     Assume that once the call is established, the user recognizes that the call could be a video call, and selects a video call at the PC client  24  (step  134 ), which will send an HTML request to the home controller  10  to establish the video call (TV-CALL  1 ) (step  136 ). Either the HTML request will include information identifying the television  32  for the video session of the video call, or the home controller  10  will make the decision to elect the television  32  for the video session of the video call. The home controller  10  may send SIP Invite messages to the television  32 , the PC client  24 , and video server  50  to initiate the video sessions for each direction of the video call (TV-CALL  1 ) (steps  138 ,  140 , and  142 ). 
     Assuming that the PC client  24  has a camera and the requisite hardware or software to deliver video images, a video session may be established from the PC client  24  to the video server  50  through the home controller  10  (step  144 ). Similarly, incoming video may be received over appropriate sessions from the video server  50  and sent to the television  32  (step  146 ). Notably, the sessions may be direct sessions between the video server  50  and the PC client  24  or television  32 , or separate sessions between the home controller  10  and the respective devices. In either case, incoming video is delivered to the television  32  from the video server  50 , and outgoing video is delivered from the camera on the PC client  24  to the video server  50 . The video server  50  may support similar sessions with the calling party&#39;s device or devices. Alternatively, the sessions may be established between the respective audio and video devices of the parties under control of the home controller  10 . 
     Next, assume the user ends the video call through the PC client  24  (step  148 ), which will send an HTML request to release or otherwise end the call (TV-CALL  1 ) to the home controller  10  (step  150 ). The home controller  10  will send a SIP release message to the PC client  24 , television  32 , and video server  50  (steps  152 ,  154 , and  156 ). At this point, the audio and video sessions of the call are ended. Since the call is ended, the PC client  24  may use an HTML request to instruct the home controller  10  to remove the hold placed on the multimedia session for the television session (step  158 ). In response, the home controller  10  will send SIP Remove Hold messages to the television  32 , audio receiver  28 , and set-top box  34  (steps  160 ,  162 , and  164 ) to reestablish streaming of the audio and video over the respective audio and video sessions (steps  166  and  168 ). 
     Another embodiment provides a distributed control component by incorporating additional control capability in a SIP client on the PC client  24 . The home controller  10  may act as a SIP proxy and will operate to control session signaling between the various packet communication clients  16 . A communication flow for such an embodiment to implement a similar scenario described above is provided in  FIGS. 3A and 3B . 
     Again, assume the user selects channel  3  through a television interface afforded by the PC client  24  (step  200 ), which will respond by sending SIP Invite messages intended for each of the television  32 , audio receiver  28 , and set-top box  34  to establish a television session for channel  3 . The SIP Invite messages are received by the home controller  10  (steps  202 ,  206 ,  210 ), which sends the SIP Invite messages to the television  32 , audio receiver  28 , and set-top box  34  (steps  204 ,  208 , and  212 ). The SIP Invite messages include information to establish the video session for the television session from the set-top box  34  to the television  32 , and the audio session from the set-top box  34  to the audio receiver  28 . In select embodiments, the PC client  24  may send a follow-up SIP Invite message, or Re-invite, to the television  32  via the home controller  10  to provide additional information for controlling the television  32  (steps  214  and  216 ), audio receiver  28 , or set-top box  34 . The additional information may dictate volume, channel guide information, or the like. At this point, an audio session is established from the set-top box  34  to the audio receiver  28  (step  218 ), and a video session is established from the set-top box  34  to the television  32  (step  220 ). The audio and video for the sessions correspond to channel  3  content. 
     Assume that during viewing of the television program on channel  3 , a call is received via the PSTN  12  at the home controller  10  (step  222 ). The home controller  10  may be configured through various processing rules to handle the numerous events, and will send a SIP Invite message to the PC client  24  indicating that an incoming call (CALL  1 ) is being received (step  224 ). Upon receiving user input to take the call (step  228 ), the PC client  24  may be configured to automatically respond to the SIP Invite message for an incoming PSTN call by instructing the home controller  10  to hold just the audio portion of the television session (step  230 ). In response, the home controller  10  will recognize that a hold message (SIP) must be sent to the audio receiver  28 , but not the television  32  or the set-top box  34 , and will send a hold message to the audio receiver  28  (step  232 ). When the PC client  24  answers the call, a 200 OK message is sent to the home controller  10  (step  234 ). At this point, the PC client  24  and home controller  10  will establish a bi-directional audio session for the incoming call (CALL  1 ) (step  236 ). Notably, the audio session is a packet session between the PC client  24  and the home controller  10 , and in particular with the telephone gateway  40 , which provides a circuit-switched connection to the PSTN  12  for the incoming call. As such, bi-directional voice communications are established between the PC client  24  and the calling party through the home controller  10  and the PSTN  12 . The packet session between the PC client  24  and home controller  10  may go through the local wireless interface  36  as illustrated in  FIG. 1 . 
     Again assume that once the call is established, the user recognizes that the call could be a video call, and selects a video call at the PC client  24  (step  238 ), which will send a SIP Invite message to the home controller  10  to establish the video call (TV-CALL  1 ) (step  240 ). The home controller  10  will send the SIP Invite to the television  32  for the video call (step  242 ). Similarly, the PC client  24  will also send a SIP Invite message to a video server  50  or other device associated with the call via the video server  50  over the broadband network  14  (steps  244  and  246 ) to establish a video session with the video server  50 . Assume that the PC client  24  has a camera and the requisite hardware or software to deliver video images. At this point, a video session may be established from the PC client  24  to the video server  50  through the home controller  10  (step  248 ). Incoming video may be received over appropriate sessions from the video server  50  and sent to the television  32  (step  250 ). Notably, the sessions may be direct sessions between the video server  50  and the PC client  24  or television  32 , or separate sessions between the home controller  10  and the respective devices. In either case, incoming video is delivered to the television  32  from the video server  50 , and outgoing video is delivered from the camera on the PC client  24  to the video server  50 . The video server  50  may support similar sessions with the calling party&#39;s device or devices. Alternatively, the sessions may be established between the respective audio and video devices of the parties under control of the home controller  10 . 
     Next, assume the user ends the video call through the PC client  24  (step  252 ), which will send a SIP release message (BYE) for the call to the home controller  10  (step  254 ), which will send the SIP release message to the television  32  (step  256 ). The PC client will send a SIP release message to the video server  50  via the home controller  10  (steps  258  and  260 ). At this point, the audio and video sessions of the call are ended. Since the call is ended, the PC client  24  may instruct the home controller  10  to remove the hold placed on the multimedia session for the television session (step  262 ). The home controller  10  will send an appropriate message via to the audio receiver  28  to remove the hold on the audio for the television session and reestablish streaming of the audio over the audio session (step  264 ). 
     Although the above illustrates only a couple of numerous possible scenarios, those skilled in the art will recognize the ability of any one of the packet communication clients  16  to interact with the home controller  10  and establish and control sessions with other of the associated packet communication clients  16 , as well as with remote devices. Those skilled in the art will also recognize the tremendous flexibility and efficiency provided by using the home controller  10  as a base station for a cordless telephone, which has a local wireless handset  20  acting as one of the packet communication clients  16 . Providing the home controller functionality in the base station of a cordless telephone centralizes control in a very commonly desired entity in a residence. Further, the optional functionality of a PSTN interface allows the home controller  10  to be the centralized communication hub for the entire home. As such, data, audio, video, and voice communications may be established with any number of the packet communication clients  16  as desired by the user. Internet access may be afforded to any of these devices in addition to the audio, video, and voice capabilities. Those skilled in the art will recognize the limitless types of functionality afforded by such a centralized system. Those skilled in the art will also recognize that the session control messages forming the request could also be web-based or Internet-based pushes using Internet Protocol techniques. As such, the packet communication clients  16  as well as the home controller  10  may act as a client or a server, depending on the configuration and the direction in which requests and responses are required. These requests and responses may establish the various control instructions as well as be used to establish sessions for any type of data, audio, video, or voice sessions. 
     Those skilled in the art will recognize improvements and modifications to the preferred embodiments of the present invention. All such improvements and modifications are considered within the scope of the concepts disclosed herein and the claims that follow.

Metadata:
Filing Date: 20120501
Publication Date: 20131126
Grant Date: 20131126
Priority Date: 20051229
Inventors: CHRISTIE, IV SAMUEL H.
Assignee: APPLE INC
CPC Classifications: [{"code": "H04L65/1094", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L65/1045", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L65/1045", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L2012/2849", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L2012/2841", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L12/2836", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L12/2838", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L65/1036", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L2012/2849", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L65/1026", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L12/66", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L65/1069", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L65/1036", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L2012/2841", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L65/1026", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L65/1069", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L12/66", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L12/2836", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L12/2838", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}]
Family ID: 44070912