A TV-centric home network to provide a unified access to UPnP and PLC domains

Universal plug and play (UPnP) aims at connecting home electronic devices, especially audio-video (AV) devices, whereas several protocols based on power-line communications (PLC) technologies target home appliances and security devices for networking. There is a need to have a unified access to, and control of, all devices regardless of the networking technology they use. This paper describes the design and implementation of a system that allows a user to control devices in two different network domains, namely a UPnP domain and a multi-carrier (MC) PLC domain based on a proprietary power line networking technology.