Why DIAL (Discovery and launch) when we have UPnP?

Question

I was browsing through the capability of DIAL, and found out that it is very similar to UPnP, in-fact it uses UPnP protocol for device discovery (SSDP).

What dial is offering, actually a subset of UPnP protocol, isn’t it? Can't we use UPnP's SOAP for content sharing and communicating (launch app) instead of DIAL?

I'm not getting a clear picture where DIAL is fitting in the software stack (If I have UPnP supported already).

Please help me clear my confusion.

Ciprian

Answer 1

The new DIscovery And Launch (DIAL) standard builds on Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) but rather than trying to stream content from a device to the TV it asks the TV or set-top box to launch a suitable client to play back the content direct from source. That way, the digital rights management (DRM) issues are addressed while minimising the reliance in wireless bandwidth and removing the battery issue, but at the cost of creating a new standard.

More info here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/01/28/dial_youtube_netflix/

Ushas

Answer 2

You are correct that UPnP could be used to accomplish what DIAL accomplishes.

DIAL apparently was developed quickly avoiding the UPnP standards development process. There was/is no reason that an UPnP device/service that implements application launch and has XML device/service description and SOAP actions could not be added to UPnP, and in fact there now is a UPnP multiscreen effort underway to do just that.

Advantages of DIAL: already defined; already being deployed; simpler than a UPnP device/service is likely to be.

Wilk