Digital Living Network Alliance

The Digital Living Network Alliance, or DNLA, is a trade organization responsible for defining interoperability guidelines for consumer electronics products.

The group was founded in 2003 by Sony (then called the Digital Home Working Group), and now includes some of the industry's most important figures, such as Microsoft, Intel, Broadcom, AT&T, LG, HTC, Nokia and many more.

The group puts together guidelines for interoperability between electronics products, such as televisions, computers, cameras, camcorders, mobile phones and so forth. These guidelines are available for a fee, though largely based on existing public standards.

Since DNLA guidelines utilize the Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) protocols for connectivity between devices, DNLA-compatible devices are separated as "server", "renderer" and "controller."

Devices that conform to the DNLA guidelines can become DNLA-certified. In 2011, over 9,000 devices on the market have been DNLA-certified, accounting for more than 440 million shipped units.

One notable firm that is not listed among DNLA members is Apple Inc. The Cupertino-based company uses its own Digital Audio Access Protocol to achieve similar goals to DNLA.

Types of DLNA devices include...

Home Network Devices
Digital Media Server (DMS)
Digital Media Player (DMP)
Digital Media Renderer (DMR)
Digital Media Controller (DMC)
Digital Media Printer (DMPr)

Mobile Handheld Devices
Mobile Digital Media Server (M-DMS)
Mobile Digital Media Player (M-DMP)
Mobile Digital Media Uploader (M-DMU)
Mobile Digital Media Downloader (M-DMD)
Mobile Digital Media Controller (M-DMC)

Home Infrastructure Devices
Mobile Network Connectivity Function (M-NCF)
Media Interoperability Unit (MIU)