SIMPLE AND DYNAMIC CONFIGURATION OF NETWORK DEVICES

• US 20110289517A1
• Filed: 07/07/2011
• Published: 11/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/27/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Simonnet, Guillaume, Kuehnel, Thomas, Sather, Dale A., Jaff, Kosar A., Gehlsen, John M., Chan, Shannon J., Ayala, Roland J., Lipe, Ralph A.
• Application Number:
  US13/178,414
• Publication Number:
  US 20110289517A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/321
• 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: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system and method for configuring and managing network devices. The arrival (and departure) of devices on a network can be detected by a monitor. Upon detection, network devices can be simply and dynamically configured with little or no end-user intervention, for instance by automatically loading device drivers and allocating resources for the devices. Furthermore, network devices can be associated with other network devices such as a personal computer to facilitate seamless integration of network devices with a computer operating system.

Claims

1. A method for automatically configuring a device, the method comprising:

automatically detecting an arrival of the device on a network;

associating, based on authentication in response to the detecting, over the network the device with a second device;

storing authentication information used to perform the authentication; and

automatically configuring, in response to the associating, the device for operation with the second device, the configuring including executing a device driver for the device on the second device, the configured device and the second device further configured for automatically re-authenticating and re-associating over the network based on the stored authentication information in response to a re-arrival on the network of the device subsequent to a departure from the network of the device subsequent to the associating.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising generating, in response to the detecting, a physical device object component configured to represent the device to the device driver.

3. The method of claim 2, the configuring further comprising locating the pre-executed device driver based on at least an identifier of the device provided by the physical device object component.

4. The method of claim 2 further comprising generating, by the executing device driver, a functional device object component configured for exposing functionality of the device via the network.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising establishing a communication channel over the network between the device and the second device.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the communication channel is secure.

7. The method of claim 5 further comprising freeing-up, in response to the departure, the established communication channel and memory allocated for the device.

8. At least one computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a second device, cause the second device to perform a method for automatically configuring a device, the method comprising:

automatically detecting an arrival of the device on a network;

associating, based on authentication in response to the detecting, over the network the device with the second device;

storing authentication information used to perform the authentication; and

automatically configuring, in response to the associating, the device for operation with the second device, the configuring including executing a device driver for the device on the second device, the configured device and the second device further configured for automatically re-authenticating and re-associating over the network based on the stored authentication information in response to a re-arrival on the network of the device subsequent to a departure from the network of the device subsequent to the associating.

9. The at least one computer-readable media of claim 8, the method further comprising generating, in response to the detecting, a physical device object component configured to represent the device to the device driver.

10. The at least one computer-readable media of claim 9, the configuring further comprising locating the pre-executed device driver based on at least an identifier of the device provided by the physical device object component.

11. The at least one computer-readable media of claim 9, the method further comprising generating, by the executing device driver, a functional device object component configured for exposing functionality of the device via the network.

12. The at least one computer-readable media of claim 11, the method further comprising establishing a communication channel over the network between the device and the second device.

13. The at least one computer-readable media of claim 12 wherein the communication channel is secure.

14. The at least one computer-readable media of claim 12, the method further comprising freeing-up, in response to the departure, the established communication channel and memory allocated for the device.

15. A system configured for automatically configuring a device, the method comprising:

a second device configured for automatically detecting an arrival of the device on a network;

the second device further configured for associating, based on authentication in response to the detecting, over the network the device with a second device;

the second device further configured for storing authentication information used to perform the authentication; and

the second device further configured for automatically configuring, in response to the associating, the device for operation with the second device, the configuring including executing a device driver for the device on the second device, the configured device and the second device further configured for automatically re-authenticating and re-associating over the network based on the stored authentication information in response to a re-arrival on the network of the device subsequent to a departure from the network of the device subsequent to the associating.

16. The system of claim 15, the second device further configured for generating, in response to the detecting, a physical device object component configured to represent the device to the device driver.

17. The system of claim 16, the configuring further comprising locating the pre-executed device driver based on at least an identifier of the device provided by the physical device object component.

18. The system of claim 16, the second device further configured generating, by the executing device driver, a functional device object component configured for exposing functionality of the device via the network.

19. The system of claim 18, the second device further configured establishing a communication channel over the network between the device and the second device.

20. The system of claim 19, the second device further configured freeing-up, in response to the departure, the established communication channel and memory allocated for the device.