Starting from SOHO #007, everyone inside home network can:

reach the Internet thanks to NAT translation described in SOHO #004
reach now their favorite Internet service by name thanks for SOHO #005
and get IPv4 (or IPv6) address from DHCP server (we took as a switch connected to sdn6)
this applies to all wired host but also all mobile host connected to the home wireless network

Requirement

Basic Linux/Unix knowledge
Service provider networking knowledge

Overview

I'm very fond listening music at home and started my personal music collection. I was aware of this practice, and since then started 24/96 flac collection. As mechanical hard drives became more and more affordable, storage was not an issue for the NAS I deployed. I purchased then a refurbished but still decent DLNA network player (DMP) that would be able to stream music sources from DLNA server(DMS). All of this is orchestrated though my mobile phone acting as DLNA media controller (DMC). So far so good, but DLNA alliance expects that all DLNA protagonists are in the same and unique broadcast domain.

You might have guess already, but I'm not a huge FAN of having a single layer 2 domain at home and throw everything inside the same subnetwork. Granted the fact that not all home network are running OSPF/ ISIS MPLS or Segment Routing, everything is so simple and more predictable to manage at layer 3 whether you use IPv4 or IPv6.

Long story short, I can't listen music by structuring my home network using layer 3 as it is now ...

Article objective

In this article we will pursue the SOHO network appliance installation and enable THE UNIQUE freeRouter feature that you won't find in any router in the world: UPNP forwarder server.

Diagrams

RARE > 2020/11/04 > RARE validated design: [ SOHO #008 ] - "It's the end of L2 at my home... At last !" > image2020-11-4_17-9-58.png

source: DLNA German wikipedia

[ SOHO #008 ] - "It's the end of L2 at my home... At last !"

The first step is to configure an UPNP hub server

server upnphub upnp
 interface loopback0
 vrf inet
 exit

As any other server it is bound to loopback0
And operate inside VRF inet

Now that you have an UPNP hub, we need to configure any upnp forwarder client where we expect to see any incoming UPNP/DLNA message

server upnpfwd wifi4-appliance
 target 192.168.254.1
 interface hairpin12
 vrf inet
 exit

In this case, WIFI network we encompasses all mobile clients. My phone is acting as DMC here, but it could also be a DMS. The upnp forwarder:

has a target UPNP hub (we configured 102.168.254.1)
is bound to interface sdn2
operates within VRF inet

server upnpfwd wired-media
 target 192.168.254.1
 interface sdn2
 vrf inet
 exit

In this precise case wired-media is another UPNP fowarder client that will forward all UPNP message to UPNP hub 192.168.254.1. As you might have guessed behind sdn2 is cascaded my NAS and DLNA network streamer (DMP or DMR)

In this example the key idea is:

Create a UPNP hub
Create a UPNP forwarder bound to any interface where you expect DLNA/UPNP communication
In this case DMS and DMR are behind sdn2
DMC is behind WIFI

Verification

RARE > 2020/11/04 > RARE validated design: [ SOHO #008 ] - "It's the end of L2 at my home... At last !" > image2020-11-4_18-44-42.png

In the screenshot below, the DLNA player is shutdown

RARE > 2020/11/04 > RARE validated design: [ SOHO #008 ] - "It's the end of L2 at my home... At last !" > image2020-11-4_18-16-1.png

Check that the App is able to discover the DLNA server DMS in other L3 subnet

RARE > 2020/11/04 > RARE validated design: [ SOHO #008 ] - "It's the end of L2 at my home... At last !" > image2020-11-4_18-17-30.png

RARE > 2020/11/04 > RARE validated design: [ SOHO #008 ] - "It's the end of L2 at my home... At last !" > image2020-11-4_18-20-48.png

Conclusion

In this article we enabled RARE/freeRouter DLNA/UPNP server/client:

You have now the possibility to position any DLNA devices on any L3 subnet of your home network
Bye bye flat single VLAN design
Not having a flat VLAN is desirable when you have lots of IPv4/IPv6 devices of different nature. You would want domotic/IoT devices not in the same subnet as your wifi client and have a separate subnet for you NAS or wired services

In this example the key take-away are:

Configure an UPNP hub
Configure UPNP forwarder on very interface you expect DLNA/UPNP communication
Of course this is IPv4/IPv6 compliant

This is a pretty unique freeRouter feature !