Exposing Bluetooth compliant wireless device connection as modems or sockets

• US 20060224664A1
• Filed: 01/06/2006
• Published: 10/05/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 04/24/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Joy, Joseph M., Ray, Kenneth D., Holan, Doron J., Adermann, Stanley W., Giliberto, Louis J., Zintel, William Michael, Roukbi, Husni, Murching, Arvind, Bertoglio, Mark
• Granted Patent: US 7,389,334 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/04 Interfaces between hierarchically different network devices

Abstract

A method for providing an interface to a Bluetooth compliant device can emulate a modem such that computer software programs can communicate through the Bluetooth compliant device in the same manner in which they would communicate through a standard modem to access a dial-up, wide area network. The method also supports an interface to a Bluetooth compliant device which can emulate a network socket such that computer software programs can communicate through the Bluetooth compliant device seemingly in the same manner in which they would communicate through a standard network interface card to access a local area network. The method also allows for the interface to a Bluetooth compliant device to be dependent on the nature of the Bluetooth compliant device.

Claims

1. For use in a computer, a method of automatically exposing a remote RFCOMM device to an application through sockets via RFCOMM, the method comprising the steps of:

detecting a new connection to the remote RFCOMM device and assigning a socket to the remote RFCOMM device for communications between the application and the remote RFCOMM device;

determining whether or not the remote RFCOMM device is a dial-up networking device; and

in response to determining that the remote RFCOMM device is not a dial-up networking device, allowing the application access to the remote RFCOMM device through an interface to a transport layer of the computer.

2. A method of automatically routing an RFCOMM connection to an appropriate device type comprising the steps of:

detecting a new RFCOMM device for connection and assigning a socket to the remote RFCOMM device for communications between the application and the remote RFCOMM device;

determining whether or not the new RFCOMM device is a dial-up networking device; and

in response to determining whether or not the new RFCOMM device is a dial-up networking device;

enumerating a physical device object associated with the new RFCOMM device if the new RFCOMM device is a dial-up networking device; and

exposing a new RFCOMM device to an application by way of a transport driver interface if the new RFCOMM device is not a dial-up networking device.

3. A method of using a BLUETOOTH-aware transport service module for connecting a legacy application lacking any BLUETOOTH-specific functions to a

remote BLUETOOTH device in a manner that is transparent to the application, wherein the legacy application is hosted on a first computer and wherein the first computer also hosts a BLUETOOTH communications stack, and wherein the remote BLUETOOTH device is connectable to the first computer via a BLUETOOTH radio link, the method comprising:

automatically detecting at the transport service module on the first computer the presence of the remote BLUETOOTH device;

determining automatically at the transport service module whether the remote BLUETOOTH device is a dial-up network device; and

in response to determining whether the remote BLUETOOTH device is a dial-up network device, automatically assigning at the transport service module an interface to the remote BLUETOOTH device, wherein the interface allows the legacy application to utilize at least a portion of the BLUETOOTH communications stack to communicate with the remote BLUETOOTH device, wherein if it is determined that the remote BLUETOOTH device is a dial-up network device, the interface appears to the application as a standard modem interfaces

wherein automatically assigning, at the transport service module an interface to the remote BLUETOOTH device, further comprises assigning a socket to the remote BLUETOOTH device for communications between the application and the remote BLUETOOTH device.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the interface assigned to the remote BLUETOOTH device comprises a UNIMODEM interface.

5. The method according to claim 3, wherein the interface assigned to the remote BLUETOOTH device comprises a Telephony API.

7. The method according to claim 3, wherein the interface allows the application to treat the remote BLUETOOTH device as a standard network interface card.

8. The method according to claim 3, wherein the remote BLUETOOTH device is a dial-up networking device associated with a second computer, the method further comprising using the interface assigned to the remote BLUETOOTH device to execute peer-to-peer communications between the first and second computers.

6. (canceled)