What's Next: The DLNA Roadmap
With the latest version of the DLNA Interoperability Guidelines, the DLNA defined capabilities for DLNA Certified devices now include:
- Addition of mobile devices and printers
- An increase from two to 12 device classes supported
- Addition of link protection guidelines to protect commercial content
- Improvements to the architecture and protocol
- Addition of new media format profiles
- Addition of Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) for streaming audio and video
- Quality of Service (QoS) extended across the entire DLNA network
- Support for the AVC (MPEG-4) video coding standard
- Support for Bluetooth® technology
For the future, the DLNA member companies will continue to refine and expand the DLNA defined capabilities, so that you can enjoy your digital devices and content in new and novel ways. Some future capabilities that could be possible are:
- Connect the digital devices in your automobile to your DLNA defined network – that is a natural extension of the DLNA capabilities already defined for mobile devices so that you can enjoy your digital content literally on the road.
- Use not just the current sets of wired and wireless networking and connectivity technologies, but many other ways to network and connect to enable more use cases in more diverse environments. With the adoption of IPv6, you will be able to enjoy your personal content while outside the home just as if you were at home.
These are just examples. There will be many others. What we do know for certain is that the digital living defined by DLNA will continue to expand.
