Plug and play device redirection for remote systems

• US 8,892,758 B2
• Filed: 10/19/2010
• Issued: 11/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/09/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Stoyanov, Vladimir K., Patwardhan, Makarand V., Chik, Joy, Porter, Nelly L., Kasheff, Zardosht
• Primary Examiner(s): Hussain, Tauqir
• Assistant Examiner(s): WIDHALM, ANGELA M
• Application Number:
  US12/907,832
• Publication Number:
  US 20110035758A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,491 Days
• Field of Search: 709/230, 709/238
• 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 supporting a client device, the method comprising:

recognizing the client device as connected to the client computer, wherein the client device is connected to a remote client computer, and wherein the client computer is communicatively connected to a server computer;

installing a real device driver at the client computer;

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

receiving redirected I/O request packet (IRP) commands from the server computer at the remote client computer to control the client device, wherein the client device is identified as the remote device instance in I/O control (IOCTL) code in the IRP commands, wherein the redirected IRP commands from the server computer bypass the real device driver and directly control the client device.

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

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the remote device instance is identified by a particular physical device object and further creating a virtual device driver on the server computer.

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

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the redirected IRP commands from the server computer are passed to the real device driver on the client computer to control the client device.

6. 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 I/O request packet (IRP) commands from the server computer to the device through the virtual channel, wherein the client device is identified as the remote device instance in I/O control (IOCTL) code in the IRP commands, wherein the communicated IRP commands from the server computer bypass a real device driver at the client computer and directly control the device.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the creating the remote device instance is based on information received by the server computer from the client computer describing the device.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein the virtual channel is established prior to receiving the device notification.

9. The method of claim 6 wherein the connecting of the device to the client computer initiates a plug and play (PNP) device operation.

10. The method of claim 6 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.

11. The method of claim 6 wherein the communicated IRP commands from the server computer are passed to a real device driver on the client computer to control the device.

12. 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 as the device driver in communicating with an application in the server computer, the application providing I/O request packet (IRP) commands to the remote device instance to control the device, wherein the client device is identified as the remote device instance in I/O control (IOCTL) code in the IRP commands and wherein the IRP commands from the server computer bypass a real device driver at the client computer and directly control the client device.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the server computer includes a redirector that identifies the device.

14. The system of claim 12 wherein the server computer controls the device through the device driver.

15. The system of claim 12 wherein the server computer controls the device bypassing the device driver.

16. The system of claim 12 wherein the client computer includes a remote service application that provides for communication between the server computer and client computer.