Method and apparatus for managing resource schedules in a peer to peer distributed networking environment

摘要

The invention is an architecture, a system and a method for generating and storing resource schedule entries to an AV/C resource schedule bulletin board subunit. The AV/C resource schedule bulletin board accepts and stores schedule entries posted as requests from a plurality of devices networked through an IEEE 1394 serial bus. The AV/C bulletin board provides each posted schedule entry with a status data field and a progress data field. The status data fields and progress data fields are updated periodically by the system with status values and progress values to reflect the current status and progress of the request. The status values and progress values are used to manage the resource schedule bulletin, resolve schedule conflicts, negotiate resource time between competing control devices and to provide a detailed history of each schedule entry posted to the AV/C bulleting board.