PLUG AND PLAY DEVICE REDIRECTION FOR REMOTE SYSTEMS

• US 20110035758A1
• Filed: 10/19/2010
• Published: 02/10/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/09/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Patwardhan, Makarand V., Chik, Joy, Kasheff, Zardosht, Porter, Nelly L., Stoyanov, Vladimir K.
• Granted Patent: US 8,892,758 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/324
• 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

1-20. -20. (canceled)

21. A method of supporting a client device, wherein the client device is connected to a remote client computer, and wherein the client computer is connected a server computer, the method comprising:

recognizing the client device as connected to the client computer;

installing a real device driver at the client computer system;

sending device specific information related to the device to the server computer system to allow for the creation of a remote device instance on the server computer; and

receiving redirected commands from the server computer at the client computer to control the client device.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein the redirected commands are IO Control commands.

23. The method of claim 21 wherein the installing the real device driver is part of plug and play (PNP) device operation when the client device is connected to the client computer.

24. The method of claim 21 wherein the remote device instance is identified by a particular physical device object and further creating a virtual device driver on the server computer.

25. The method of claim 21 wherein the communicating the information uses a dedicated virtual channel between the server computer and the client computer.

26. The method of claim 21 wherein the redirected commands from the server computer are passed to the real device driver on the client computer to control the client device.

27. The method of claim 21 wherein the redirected commands from the server computer bypass the real device driver and directly control the client device.

28. A method of controlling a device connected to a client computer by a server computer comprising:

receiving at the server computer, a device notification identifying that a device is connected to the client computer;

receiving, at the server computer, information specifically related to the device;

creating a remote device instance at the server computer, wherein the remote device instance is specific to the device;

establishing communication between the client computer and server computer through a virtual channel; and

communicating commands from the server computer to the device through the virtual channel.

29. The method of claim 28 wherein the creating the remote device instance is based on information received by the server computer from the client computer describing the device.

30. The method of claim 28 wherein virtual channel is established prior to receiving the device notification.

31. The method of claim 28 wherein the communicated commands are IO Control commands.

32. The method of claim 28 wherein the connecting of the device to the client computer initiates a plug and play (PNP) device operation.

33. The method of claim 28 wherein the remote device instance is identified by a particular physical device object and further creating a virtual device driver specific to the physical device object on the server computer.

34. The method of claim 28 wherein the communicated commands from the server computer are passed to a real device driver on the client computer to control the device.

35. The method of claim 28 wherein the communicated commands from the server computer bypass the real device driver and directly control the device.

36. 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 remote device instance 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 remote device instance to control the device.

37. The system of claim 36 wherein the server computer includes a redirector that identifies the device.

38. The system of claim 36 wherein server computer controls the device through device driver.

39. The system of claim 36 wherein server computer controls the device bypassing the device driver.

40. The system of claim 36 wherein the client computer includes a remote service application that provides for communication between the server computer and client computer.