System for searching through descriptive data in a network having a hierarchical data structure describing contents and capabilities of the network devices

摘要

A system and method of same for performing a search of stored data in a network of electronic devices connected by a network bus, wherein at least one of the electronic devices is a target device containing the stored data and another one of the electronic devices is a controller device. In one embodiment, the electronic devices are compliant with audio visual control (AV/C) protocol and the network is compliant with IEEE 1394. In accordance with the present invention, search criterion are specified in a command structure transmitted from the controller device to the target device. The target device recognizes the command as a request to perform the search of the stored data and executes the command, thereby causing the search to be performed. As a result of a successful search, data on the target device that satisfy the search criterion are identified and an identifier locating that data is also specified. The target device transmits a response containing the identifier to the controller device. The identifier provides sufficient information for locating the discovered data so that it can be subsequently accessed and retrieved by the controller device. Thus, the present invention accomplishes the search on the target device containing the stored data and only a relatively small amount of data is transmitted over the network bus, thus consuming only a small portion of the available bandwidth capacity of the bus and improving overall network performance.