Abstract: A system and method manages Quality-of-Service (QoS) in a network by allocating resources, such as available network bandwidth. The network devices transmit and receive data traffic streams, each of which includes QoS parameters, including a priority level and bandwidth allocation. The method includes choosing which existing QoS allocations are pre-empted, notifying original requesters of pre-empted allocations, and re-establishing pre-empted allocations with appropriate modifications. If a new QoS request cannot be accommodated due to the previous allocations to lower-priority requesters, the existing lower-priority allocations are released until enough allocations are released to accommodate the new request. Once the new request is allocated, the pre-empted configurations may be reallocated.

Abstract: A method and system for automatically controlling home appliances based on an estimated time of arrival (ETA) of a resident at his or her home. In one aspect of the invention, a system for controlling a home appliance comprises a mobile electronic device (MED) and a home automation system (HAS), wherein the MED determines that a homeward bound condition is met and in response to determining that the homeward bound condition is met commences reporting whereby the HAS acquires ETA information for a resident based in part on device location information acquired by the MED, and wherein the HAS determines based in part on the ETA information that an ETA condition is met and in response to determining that the ETA condition is met executes a control action that controls the home appliance.

Abstract: A system and method manages Quality-of-Service (QoS) in a network by allocating resources, such as available network bandwidth. The network devices transmit and receive data traffic streams, each of which includes QoS parameters, including a priority level and bandwidth allocation. The method includes choosing which existing QoS allocations are pre-empted, notifying original requesters of pre-empted allocations, and re-establishing pre-empted allocations with appropriate modifications. If a new QoS request cannot be accommodated due to the previous allocations to lower-priority requesters, the existing lower-priority allocations are released until enough allocations are released to accommodate the new request. Once the new request is allocated, the pre-empted configurations may be reallocated.

Abstract: A system and method in a local area network based on the Universal-Plug-and-Play (UPnP™) technology represents an infrared (IR) remote control (RC) pass-through protocol in the Content Directory Service (CDS) of a media server that transmits an audio-video (AV) media stream over the network to a media renderer. The CDS includes a listing of media content items that represent media source devices that provide media content to the media server, and a listing of associated IR pass-through protocol identifiers (IRPT-IDs) for each media content item. Each IRPT-ID identifies an IR pass-through encoding/decoding protocol usable by the IR decoder in the media server and each IRPT-ID has an associated internet protocol (IP) connection point (IRPT-CP). The media renderer browses the CDS to identify the media content item and its associated IRPT-ID/IRPT-CP pair. The IR RC at the media renderer sends RC commands to the media renderer that are encoded using the IR pass-through protocol represented by the IRPT-ID.