Plug And Play Device Redirection For Remote Systems

• US 20070061477A1
• Filed: 04/03/2006
• Published: 03/15/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/09/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Chik, Joy, Kasheff, Zardosht, Stoyanov, Vladimir, Patwardhan, Makarand, Porter, Nelly
• Granted Patent: US 8,918,530 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/230
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4411 Configuring for operating with peripheral devices; Loading of device drivers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4413 Plug-and-play [PnP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2814 Exchanging control software or macros for controlling appliance services in a home automation network arrangements for maintenance or administration involving configuration of the network and network elements H04L41/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416

Abstract

A remote access system connects a server computer with one or more client computers, where devices are connected locally at the client computers. The devices are recognized by the client computers and a device driver is provided for each connected and recognized device. A virtual driver is created at the server computer from information specific to the device, such that the virtual driver acts as an actual driver to an application on the server computer. The application through the virtual driver is able to recognize and provide commands to the connected device.

Claims

1. A method of creating a virtual driver at a server computer, wherein the virtual driver is specific to a device connected to a client computer that communicates with the server computer, comprising:

discovering the device when the device is connected to the client computer;

installing a device driver specific to the device;

identifying information related to the device driver and the device; and

communicating the information to the server computer in order to create the virtual driver.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the discovering is performed by remote access application resident at the client computer.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the installing the device driver is part of plug and play (PNP) device operation when the device is connected to the client computer.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the installing the device driver further comprises installing other drivers that supports the device.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the identifying information is performed by a remote access application resident at the client computer.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the identifying employs request packets and the device is identified by a particular physical device object.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the communicating the information uses a dedicated virtual channel between the server computer and the client computer.

8. A method of redirecting control of a device at a client computer to a server computer comprising:

creating a virtual driver at the server computer, wherein the virtual driver is specific to the device;

establishing communication between the client computer and server computer through the virtual driver;

notifying the availability of the device through the communication between the client computer and the server computer; and

communicating commands from the server computer to the device, when the availability of the device is determined.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the creating the virtual driver is based on information received by the server computer from the client computer describing the device.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the establishing communication is through a dedicated virtual channel.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein the establishing is through a remote access application resident at the client computer.

12. The method of claim 8 wherein the notifying the availability of the device is provided to a remote access application resident at the client computer and to an application resident at the server computer.

13. The method of claim 8 wherein the communicating commands comprises passing the commands to a real device driver resident at the client computer.

14. A remote access system comprising:

a server computer;

a client computer supported by the server computer;

a device connected to the client computer;

a device driver specific to the device and installed in the client computer; and

a virtual driver in the server computer that is created based on the device, and acts for the device driver in communicating with an application in the server computer, the application providing commands to the virtual driver and device driver to control the device.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the server computer includes a redirector that identifies the device.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the redirector includes a redirection library that provides for communication between the server compute and client computer.

17. The system of claim 15 wherein the client computer includes a remote service application that provides for communication between the server computer and client computer.

18. The system of claim 15 wherein the device is a plug and play (PNP) device.

19. The system of claim 15 wherein device driver is installed with other drivers when the device is connected to the client computer.

20. The system of claim 20 wherein the commands firm the server computer are communicated through the driver stack that is installed in the client computer.