Management Protocol

The Management Protocol is used by a host to monitor and configure EEVideo devices.

In the most limited case, an EEVideo device may not require Management Protocol support. In a pre-configured embedded system the device can power up and begin streaming a standard format with no host interaction.

Conformance Levels

EEVideo defines two conformance levels for the Management Protocol:

  • Minimal — Device powers up and streams with limited or no management interaction (hard-coded IP and default stream format). Full CoAP support is not required.

  • Full — Device implements the complete register-based CoAP interface defined in this section and CoAP-Based Register Access. Required for discovery, dynamic configuration, and monitoring.

A device claiming “EEVideo Management support” must implement the Full level.

In most applications the host will need to configure the EEVideo camera and its stream parameters, query its capabilities and status, and/or trigger captures.

Typical Management Flow

A normal host–device interaction follows this sequence:

  1. Host discovers the device (see Device Discovery).

  2. Using the discovery response, the host reads register 0 (Device Capabilities) to determine supported features.

  3. Host reads the feature list and builds a register map for the device.

  4. Host configures stream parameters via register writes.

  5. Host starts the stream.

  6. Host may read status registers or trigger actions at any time.

All operations use the CoAP transactions defined in CoAP-Based Register Access.

Register-Based Transactions

All management functions for EEVideo are implemented as register transactions. Each transaction is initiated by a request packet from the host to the device and concluded by a response packet from the device to the host.

Register Data Width

All registers are 32 bits (4 bytes) wide. Not every register uses all 32 bits. Many registers are subdivided into fields of varying bit lengths.

Register Address Space

All registers are mapped into a 32-bit address space. Most devices will fit their registers into a small portion of that space.

The addresses are byte-based for maximum compatibility. Since each register is 4 bytes wide, the two least-significant bits of every register address are 0b00.

Register 0 — Device Capabilities (Required)

Every EEVideo device implementing the Management Protocol must implement register 0 as a read-only register containing a 32-bit capabilities bitmap. This provides the host with immediate information about supported features without requiring feature-discovery downloads.

The bit definitions are specified in the Features section.

Even minimal devices must implement register 0 so a host can confirm the device is EEVideo-compliant.

Security Considerations

The Management Protocol inherits the security model of CoAP. EEVideo ≤ 1.0 does not mandate DTLS. Devices operating on untrusted networks should enable CoAP DTLS as described in RFC 7252. All sensitive configuration (e.g. network keys) should be protected by write-once or authenticated registers.