Editing Universal Plug and Play (section)

==Protocol==
{{More citations needed|date=May 2025}}
UPnP uses common [[Internet]] technologies. It assumes the network must run [[Internet Protocol]] (IP) and then uses [[HTTP]], [[SOAP]] and [[XML]] on top of IP, in order to provide device/service description, actions, data transfer and eventing. Device search requests and advertisements are supported by running HTTP on top of [[User Datagram Protocol|UDP]] using [[multicast]] (known as HTTPMU). Responses to search requests are also sent over UDP, but are instead sent using [[unicast]] (known as HTTPU). UPnP uses UDP due to its lower overhead in not requiring confirmation of received data and retransmission of corrupt packets. HTTPU and HTTPMU were initially submitted as an [[Internet Draft]], but it expired in 2001;<ref>
{{cite web
  | last1 = Goland
  | first1 = Yaron Y. 
  | last2 = Schlimmer
  | first2 = Jeffrey C.
  | url = http://www.upnp.org/download/draft-goland-http-udp-04.txt
  | title = Multicast and Unicast UDP HTTP Messages
  | publisher = UPnP Forum Technical Committee
  | date = 2 October 2000
  | access-date = 11 September 2014
  | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061230232025/http://www.upnp.org/download/draft-goland-http-udp-04.txt
  | archive-date = 30 December 2006
}}</ref> these specifications have since been integrated into the actual UPnP specifications.

UPnP uses UDP port 1900, and all used [[Transmission Control Protocol|TCP]] ports are derived from the SSDP alive and response messages.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://support.microsoft.com/kb/886257 |title=How Windows Firewall affects the UPnP framework in Windows XP Service Pack 2 |publisher=[[Microsoft]] |access-date=11 September 2014 |date=23 May 2014}}</ref>

===Addressing===
The foundation for UPnP networking is IP addressing. Each device must implement a DHCP client and search for a DHCP server when the device is first connected to the network. If no DHCP server is available, the device must assign itself an address. The process by which a UPnP device assigns itself an address is known within the UPnP Device Architecture as [[AutoIP]]. In UPnP Device Architecture Version 1.0,<ref name="uda-v1.0" /> AutoIP is defined within the specification itself; in UPnP Device Architecture Version 1.1,<ref name="uda-v1.1" /> AutoIP references [[Internet Engineering Task Force|IETF]] {{IETF RFC|3927}}. If during the DHCP transaction, the device obtains a domain name, for example, through a DNS server or via [[DNS forwarding]], the device should use that name in subsequent network operations; otherwise, the device should use its IP address.

===Discovery===
Once a device has established an IP address, the next step in UPnP networking is discovery. The UPnP discovery protocol is known as the [[Simple Service Discovery Protocol]] (SSDP). When a device is added to the network, SSDP allows that device to advertise its services to control points on the network. This is achieved by sending SSDP alive messages. When a control point is added to the network, SSDP allows that control point to actively search for devices of interest on the network or listen passively to the SSDP alive messages of devices. The fundamental exchange is a discovery message containing a few essential specifics about the device or one of its services, for example, its type, identifier, and a pointer (network location) to more detailed information.

===Description===
After a control point has discovered a device, the control point still knows very little about the device. For the control point to learn more about the device and its capabilities, or to interact with the device, the control point must retrieve the device's description from the location ([[URL]]) provided by the device in the discovery message. The UPnP Device Description is expressed in [[XML]] and includes vendor-specific manufacturer information like the model name and number, [[serial number]], manufacturer name, (presentation) URLs to vendor-specific web sites, etc. The description also includes a list of any embedded services. For each service, the Device Description document lists the URLs for control, eventing and service description. Each service description includes a list of the [[Command (computing)|commands]], or ''actions'', to which the service responds, and parameters, or ''arguments'', for each action; the description for a service also includes a list of [[Variable (programming)|variables]]; these variables model the state of the service at [[Run time (program lifecycle phase)|run time]] and are described in terms of their data type, range, and event characteristics.

===Control===
Having retrieved a description of the device, the control point can send actions to a device's service. To do this, a control point sends a suitable control message to the control URL for the service (provided in the device description). Control messages are also expressed in XML using the [[SOAP (protocol)|Simple Object Access Protocol]] (SOAP). Much like [[function call]]s, the service returns any action-specific values in response to the control message. The effects of the action, if any, are modeled by changes in the variables that describe the run-time state of the service.

===Event notification===
Another capability of UPnP networking is [[event notification]], or ''eventing''. The event notification protocol defined in the UPnP Device Architecture is known as General Event Notification Architecture (GENA). A UPnP description for a service includes a list of actions the service responds to and a list of variables that model the state of the service at run time. The service publishes updates when these variables change, and a control point may subscribe to receive this information. The service publishes updates by sending event messages. Event messages contain the names of one or more state variables and the current value of those variables. These messages are also expressed in XML. A special initial event message is sent when a control point first subscribes; this event message contains the names and values for all ''evented'' variables and allows the subscriber to initialize its model of the state of the service. To support scenarios with multiple control points, eventing is designed to keep all control points equally informed about the effects of any action. Therefore, all subscribers are sent all event messages, subscribers receive event messages for all "evented" variables that have changed, and event messages are sent no matter why the state variable changed (either in response to a requested action or because the state the service is modeling changed).

===Presentation===
The final step in UPnP networking is presentation. If a device has a URL for presentation, then the control point can retrieve a page from this URL, load the page into a [[web browser]], and depending on the capabilities of the page, allow a user to control the device and/or view device status. The degree to which each of these can be accomplished depends on the specific capabilities of the presentation page and device.