Operating a remote USB host controller

• US 20050223119A1
• Filed: 03/31/2004
• Published: 10/06/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Howard, John S., Ismail, Abdul R., Keys, John S.
• Granted Patent: US 7,213,096 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 710/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/59 Providing operational support to end devices by off-loading in the network or by emulation, e.g. when they are unavailable
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/32 Architecture of open systems interconnection [OSI] 7-layer type protocol stacks, e.g. the interfaces between the data link level and the physical level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/323 in the physical layer [OSI layer 1]

Abstract

An apparatus and method for remote USB host controlling are described herein.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a computer including;

a processor, and

a memory coupled to said processor, having a USB driver and an abstraction of a remote host controller; and

a remote host controller, coupled with and remotely disposed from said computer, operating in combination with said abstraction of a remote host controller as a USB host controller of the computer.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a remote device coupled to said remote host controller.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein said remote device is a selected one of a digital camera, a printer, a digital music player/recorder, a keyboard and a cursor control device.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein said abstraction of a remote host controller comprises a remote host controller function equipped to provide function specific processing for a USB buffer I/O request of a function of the remote host controller.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein said abstraction of a remote host controller comprises a remote host controller driver equipped to provide function independent processing to format a USB buffer I/O request for transmission to the remote host controller.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein said abstraction of a remote host controller comprises a media transport equipped to transmit a USB buffer I/O request formatted for a media type over a media of the media type to the remote host controller.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein said remote host controller comprises a media transport of like type, a remote host function driver coupled to the media transport of the remote host controller and a USB host controller.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein said media includes a communications link selected from the group consisting of:

local area networks, wide area networks, personal area networks, telephone networks, parallel interfaces, wireless links, USB, IEEE 1394 and powerlines.

9. A remote USB host controller comprising:

a media transport to communicate with a counterpart media transport of an abstraction of the remote USB host controller disposed in a remotely located host computer;

a remote host controller function driver coupled to the media transport to process a USB buffer I/O request from a remote host controller function of the abstraction of the remote USB host controller; and

a USB host controller coupled to the remote host controller function driver to facilitate coupling of a USB device to the remotely located host computer.

10. The remote USB host controller of claim 9, wherein the media transports are equipped to support a media selected from the group consisting of:

local area networks, wide area networks, personal area networks, telephone networks, wireless links, USB, IEEE 1394 and powerlines.

11. The remote USB host controller of claim 9, where the remote host controller function driver comprises support for a miniport function.

12. A remote host controller comprising:

a media transport to communicate with a counterpart media transport of an abstraction of the remote host controller disposed in a remotely located host computer, the host computer including a USB driver coupled to the abstraction of the remote host controller;

a remote host controller function driver coupled to the media transport to process a USB buffer I/O request from a remote host controller function of the abstraction of the remote host controller, the remote host controller function driver being also equipped to translate USB commands to non-USB commands and vice versa; and

a non-USB host controller coupled to the remote host controller function driver to facilitate coupling of a non-USB device to the remotely located host computer.

13. The remote host controller of claim 12, wherein the media transports are equipped to support a media selected from the group consisting of:

local area networks, wide area networks, personal area networks, telephone networks, parallel interfaces, wireless links, USB, IEEE 1394 and powerlines.

14. The remote host controller of claim 12, wherein the non-USB host controller comprises hardware to support the control of devices utilizing communication media link selected from the group consisting of:

local area networks, wide area networks, personal area networks, telephone networks, parallel interfaces, wireless links, USB, IEEE 1394 and powerlines.

15. A method of connecting a USB device to a host computer, the method comprising:

coupling a remotely disposed host controller to a host computer having a USB driver and an abstraction of the remote host controller; and

coupling a USB device to a USB host controller of the remote host controller.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the abstraction of the remote host controller and the remote host controller comprise complementary media transport equipped to support transmission over a media of a media type, and the method further comprises formatting a USB buffer I/O request for transmission from the host computer to the remote host controller over the media.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises recovering the USB buffer I/O request on receipt at the remote host controller.

18. A method of connecting non-USB devices to a host computer as USB devices, the method comprising:

coupling a remotely disposed host controller to a host computer having USB capabilities and an abstraction of the remote host controller, wherein the remote host controller is equipped to receive a non-USB device and operative to convert between USB signals and at least one type of non-USB signals; and

coupling a non-USB device to said host computer through said remote host controller.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the abstraction of the remote host controller and the remote host controller comprise complementary media transport equipped to support transmission over a media of a media type, and the method further comprises:

formatting a USB buffer I/O request for transmission from the host computer to the remote host controller over the media; and

recovering the USB buffer I/O request on receipt at the remote host controller.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the method further comprises translating the USB buffer I/O request to a non-USB buffer I/O request.