DLNA Aims to Curb CE Power Use

The DLNA is "greening" its Guidelines in an effort to use the network to reduce energy consumption by consumer electronics (CE) devices in the home network, including those used for streaming video.

DLNA Guidelines now mandate low-power modes for VidiPath-Certified Mobile Digital Media Server (M-DMS) and Digital Media Renderer (DMR) devices used to stream personal and subscription TV content. They incorporate open standards such as IEEE 1905 nVoy to facilitate a variety of power-management capabilities, including enabling a device to advertise on the network the signaling specifics required to change its network interface state. The Guidelines also support the use of proxied network interface information so that a server device can be immediately discoverable by client devices, even if the server device's network interfaces are currently non-active.

Mandated low-power modes will also be included in DLNA 4.0 Guidelines that will be available in early 2016 for products that are used to stream personal content in the home. The Guidelines will be supported by a new certification program for products.