UPnP Device and Control Point Architecture
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4/8/2010
A set of UPnP devices can be controlled by one or more control points.
A UPnP device can contain a number of services and nested devices. For identification purposes, the device must host an XML device description document that lists:
- Specific properties about the device.
- Services associated with the device.
- Nested devices.
- A Uniform Resource Locator (URL) for the service description. (The service description is an XML document that lists the actions and state variables that apply to a specific service offered by the device.)
The XML schema for UPnP device descriptions is called the UPnP Template Language (UTL).
UPnP control points are devices that use UPnP to control UPnP devices. UPnP control points enumerate UPnP devices on the network, search for instances of particular UPnP devices, and control services on UPnP devices. Control points can also subscribe to events to receive notification of the change of state variables on UPnP devices.
Important UPnP concepts are described in more detail in the topics in the following list.
For more information about these concepts and the internals of the protocols, see this UPnP Forum Web site.