SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SUPPORTING BOTH BULK STORAGE AND ETHERNET COMMUNICATIONS

• US 20140355618A1
• Filed: 09/24/2012
• Published: 12/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: China Unionpay Company Limited
• Original Assignee: China Unionpay Company Limited
• Inventors: Lu, Zhijun, Meng, Hongwen, Zhou, Yu, Guo, Wei, Chen, Chengqian
• Granted Patent: US 10,461,957 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/411
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/385 for adaptation of a particular data processing system to different peripheral devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/387 for adaptation of different data processing systems to different peripheral devices, e.g. protocol converters for incompatible systems, open system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2213/3804 Memory card connected to a computer port directly or by means of a reader/writer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/46 Interconnection of networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/462 LAN interconnection over a bridge based backbone

Abstract

The invention provides a master MMC/SD apparatus for simultaneously supporting bulk storage and Ethernet communication, a slave MMC/SD apparatus for simultaneously supporting bulk storage and Ethernet communication, a system composed of these two apparatuses as well as a method of operating the system. The apparatuses, system and method which simultaneously support bulk storage and Ethernet communication and which are based on MMC/SD interface enable a master apparatus with MMC/SD interface to support network function while maintaining bulk storage function as well, thus greatly expanding applicable areas of such embedded terminal apparatus with the MMC/SD interface that has bulk storage function.

Claims

1. A main MMC/SD apparatus for simultaneously supporting bulk storage and Ethernet communication, characterized in that the master MMC/SD apparatus comprises:

a master MMC/SD interface for providing access interface to a slave MMC/SD apparatus;

a master MMC/SD interface drive device for controlling transfer of MMC/SD signaling over the master MMC/SD interface;

a master bulk storage device for providing file system service and data management service for bulk storage;

a master communication protocol stack device for achieving Ethernet communication between the master MMC/SD apparatus and the slave MMC/SD apparatus; and

a master controller for controlling operations of the master MMC/SD interface drive device, the master bulk storage device and the master communication protocol stack device;

wherein the master bulk storage device and the master communication protocol stack device interact with the master MMC/SD interface drive device respectively.

2. The master MMC/SD apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that the master bulk storage device and the master communication protocol stack device are arranged to access physical addresses that are independent from each other in the slave MMC/SD apparatus.

3. The master MMC/SD apparatus according to claim 2, characterized in that the operations performed on the master MMC/SD interface drive device by the master bulk storage device and the master communication protocol stack device are atomic operations.

4. The master MMC/SD apparatus according to claim 3, characterized in that the master controller is used to send a probe command to the slave MMC/SD apparatus through the master communication protocol stack device and determines whether the slave MMC/SD apparatus supports Ethernet communication according to a command return value.

5. The master MMC/SD apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that the master communication protocol stack device comprises the following modules arranged sequentially from top to bottom:

an application layer module for executing network application programs;

a transmission layer module and a network layer module for executing Ethernet protocol function;

a data link layer module for packing Ethernet data frame;

a MMC/SD EEM (Ethernet Emulation Model) layer module for emulating Ethernet card function for upper layer protocol stack; and

a MMC/SD protocol layer module for executing MMC/SD protocol stack.

6. The master MMC/SD apparatus according to claim 5, characterized in that the MMC/SD EEM layer module transmits data in EEM packet format, wherein the EEM packet is composed of an EEM header field and an EEM payload field.

7. The master MMC/SD apparatus according to claim 6, characterized in that the EEM header field comprises a first field and a second field, and the first field is used to define the type of the EEM packet.

8. The master MMC/SD apparatus according to claim 7, characterized in that when the EEM packet is a data packet, the second field comprises a check status field and a length field, wherein the length field is used to indicate the length of the payload field in the EEM data packet, and the check status field is used to indicate whether CRC check of Ethernet data frame is on or off.

9. The master MMC/SD apparatus according to claim 7, characterized in that when the EEM packet is a command packet, the second field comprises a command type field and a command parameter field, wherein the command type field is used to define the type of EEM command, and the command parameter field is used to define parameters of EEM command.

10. The master MMC/SD apparatus according to claim 6, characterized in that the MMC/SD protocol layer module uses MMC/SD data block to carry the EEM packet in one of the following manners:

one MMC/SD data block contains one EEM packet;

one MMC/SD data block contains a plurality of EEM packets;

a plurality of MMC/SD data blocks contain one EEM packet; and

a plurality of MMC/SD data blocks contain a plurality of separate EEM packets.

11. The master MMC/SD apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that the master MMC/SD interface is a Mini-SD master interface, a Micro-SD master interface or a standard MMC/SD master interface.

26. A system for simultaneously supporting bulk storage and Ethernet communication, characterized in that the system comprises the master MMC/SD apparatus according to any of claims 1-11 and the above slave MMC/SD apparatus according to any of claims 12-25, wherein the master MMC/SD apparatus and the slave MMC/SD apparatus perform both bulk storage and Ethernet communication via the same MMC/SD interface.

27. The system according to claim 26, characterized in that Ethernet communication between the master MMC/SD apparatus and the slave MMC/SD apparatus employs a request-response mechanism, wherein a request command and a response command are both read from the same special address in the slave MMC/SD apparatus.

28. The system according to claim 27, characterized in that when Ethernet communication is being performed, the master MMC/SD apparatus is arranged to poll the slave MMC/SD apparatus periodically so as to receive data from the slave MMC/SD apparatus.

29. The system according to claim 26, characterized in that the master MMC/SD apparatus is a cell-phone, PDA, laptop computer, POS machine or ATM with a MMC/SD master interface.

30. A method for simultaneously supporting bulk storage and Ethernet communication between a master MMC/SD apparatus and a slave MMC/SD apparatus, wherein the master MMC/SD apparatus is the master MMC/SD apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that the method comprises the following steps:

a. when the master MMC/SD apparatus detects that a slave MMC/SD apparatus is connected thereto, the master MMC/SD apparatus reads a specific location in the file system of the slave MMC/SD apparatus to obtain special address information;

b. the master MMC/SD apparatus sends a probe command to the special address and determines whether the slave MMC/SD apparatus is the slave MMC/SD apparatus according to claim 12 based on a command return value;

c. if not, the master MMC/SD apparatus restores a previously stored special address information and executes a standard MMC/SD storing procedure;

otherwise, the master MMC/SD apparatus loads a master communication protocol stack device and sends data to the slave MMC/SD apparatus;

d. the slave MMC/SD apparatus determines whether the data from the master MMC/SD apparatus is used for bulk storage or for Ethernet communication according to whether the data is sent to the special address;

e. if the data is sent to the special address, Ethernet communication is performed between the slave MMC/SD apparatus and the master MMC/SD apparatus;

otherwise, the slave MMC/SD apparatus according to claim 12 and the master MMC/SD apparatus perform a standard MMC/SD storing procedure together.

12. A slave MMC/SD apparatus for simultaneously supporting bulk storage and Ethernet communication, characterized in that the slave MMC/SD apparatus comprises:

a slave MMC/SD interface for providing access interface to a master MMC/SD apparatus;

a slave MMC/SD interface drive device for controlling transfer of MMC/SD signaling over the slave MMC/SD interface;

a slave bulk storage device providing corresponding file system service and data management service for bulk storage of the master MMC/SD apparatus;

a slave communication protocol stack device for achieving Ethernet communication between the slave MMC/SD apparatus and the master MMC/SD apparatus; and

a slave controller for controlling operations of the slave MMC/SD interface drive device, the slave bulk storage device and the slave communication protocol stack device;

wherein the slave bulk storage device and the slave communication protocol stack device interact with the slave MMC/SD interface drive device respectively.

13. The slave MMC/SD apparatus according to claim 12, characterized in that special address information is contained in the file system of the slave bulk storage device so that the slave MMC/SD interface drive device can provide two physical passages that are independent from each other.

14. The slave MMC/SD apparatus according to claim 13, characterized in that the special address information is provided in a reserved sector after the main boot sector of the file system of the slave bulk storage device.

15. The slave MMC/SD apparatus according to claim 13, characterized in that the special address information is provided in a reserved sector after the boot sector of each partition of the file system of the slave bulk storage device.

16. The slave MMC/SD apparatus according to claim 13, characterized in that an index for the special address information is provided in a reserved sector after the main boot sector of the file system of the slave bulk storage device.

17. The slave MMC/SD apparatus according to claims 13-16, characterized in that the length of the special address information is 512 bytes.

18. The slave MMC/SD apparatus according to claim 13, characterized in that the slave controller is arranged to determine whether data received from the slave MMC/SD interface is used for bulk storage or for Ethernet communication according to whether the data is sent to the special address.

19. The slave MMC/SD apparatus according to claim 12, characterized in that the slave communication protocol stack device comprises the following modules arranged sequentially from top to bottom:

an application layer module for executing network application programs;

a transmission layer module and a network layer module for executing Ethernet protocol function;

a data link layer module for packing Ethernet data frame;

a MMC/SD EEM (Ethernet Emulation Model) layer module for emulating Ethernet card function for upper layer protocol stack; and

a MMC/SD protocol layer module for executing MMC/SD protocol stack.

20. The slave MMC/SD apparatus according to claim 19, characterized in that the MMC/SD EEM layer module transmits data in EEM packet format, wherein the EEM packet is composed of an EEM header field and an EEM payload field.

21. The slave MMC/SD apparatus according to claim 20, characterized in that the EEM header field comprises a first field and a second field, and the first field is used to define the type of the EEM packet.

22. The slave MMC/SD apparatus according to claim 21, characterized in that when the EEM packet is a data packet, the second field comprises a check status field and a length field, wherein the length field is used to indicate the length of the payload field in the EEM data packet, and the check status field is used to indicate whether CRC check of Ethernet data frame is on or off.

23. The slave MMC/SD apparatus according to claim 21, characterized in that when the EEM packet is a command packet, the second field comprises a command type field and a command parameter field, wherein the command type field is used to define the type of EEM command, and the command parameter field is used to define parameters of EEM command.

24. The slave MMC/SD apparatus according to claim 20, characterized in that the MMC/SD protocol layer module uses MMC/SD data block to carry the EEM packet in one of the following manners:

one MMC/SD data block contains one EEM packet;

one MMC/SD data block contains a plurality of EEM packets;

a plurality of MMC/SD data blocks contain one EEM packet; and

a plurality of MMC/SD data blocks contain a plurality of separate EEM packets.

25. The slave MMC/SD apparatus according to claim 12, characterized in that the slave MMC/SD interface is a Mini-SD slave interface, a Micro-SD slave interface or a standard MMC/SD slave interface.