Communicating between electronic devices using a portable storage device

• US 9,413,558 B2
• Filed: 08/31/2010
• Issued: 08/09/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Hanes, David H
• Primary Examiner(s): SALAD, ABDULLAHI ELMI
• Application Number:
  US12/872,309
• Publication Number:
  US 20120054386A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,170 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/6418 Hybrid transport

Abstract

Embodiments disclosed herein relate to communicating between electronic devices using a portable storage device. In one embodiment, a portable storage device communicates with a first electronic device, and the portable storage device communicates with a second electronic device via a network. The portable storage device sends a request from the first electronic device to the second electronic device. The portable storage device may send a response to the request from the second electronic device to the first electronic device.

Claims

1. A portable storage device comprising:

a processor; and

a communication mechanism, when executed by the processor, to cause the processor to;

receive a read command from a first electronic device using a storage communication protocol;

send via a network the read command to a second electronic device;

receive via the network a response to the read command from the second electronic device; and

send the response to the first electronic device using the storage communication protocol;

wherein the communication mechanism further causes the processor to replace a logical field address in a command descriptor block of the read command with a corresponding storage location information associated with the second electronic device and transmit an updated command descriptor block with the read command to the second electronic device.

2. The portable storage device of claim 1, wherein the communication mechanism further causes the processor to:

receive a request from the first electronic device for data storage, wherein the received request is based on the storage communication protocol; and

send, via the network, the request to the second electronic device.

3. The portable storage device of claim 1, wherein the communication mechanism further causes the processor to establish a network connection, based on the request, using the storage communication protocol.

4. The portable storage device of claim 1, wherein the portable storage device further comprises a storage,

wherein the processor further stores the response to the read command received from the second electronic device in the storage, and

wherein sending the response to the first electronic device comprises sending the response, based on the storage communication protocol, from the storage to the first electronic device.

5. The portable storage device of claim 1, further comprising a Universal Serial Bus connector for connecting the portable storage device with the first electronic device, wherein the storage communication protocol comprises a Universal Serial Bus protocol.

6. The portable storage device of claim 1, wherein:

the read command indicates a particular location of the portable storage device from which data is to be read; and

the portable storage device further comprises a map mapping that particular location to the corresponding storage location in the second electronic device.

7. The portable storage device of claim 6, wherein the particular location comprises a logical address field in a Universal Serial Bus command descriptor block.

8. The portable storage device of claim 7, wherein the communication mechanism transmits the updated command descriptor block to the second electronic device using one of:

a server message block (SMB) protocol and a common internet file system (CIFS) protocol.

9. A method for communicating between electronic devices using a portable storage device, comprising:

receiving, by a processor associated with a portable storage device, a request based on a storage communication protocol;

sending, by the processor, via a network, the request to a second electronic device;

receiving, by the processor, via a network, a response to the request from the second electronic device; and

sending, by the processor, the response to the first electronic device using the storage communication protocol;

wherein sending the request to the second electronic device comprises, by the processor replacing a logical field address in a command descriptor block of the request with a corresponding storage location information associated with the second electronic device and transmitting an updated command descriptor block with the request to the second electronic device.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the request comprises one of:

a read command and a request for data storage.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

establishing a network connection, based on the request;

receiving, by the processor, data from the first electronic device for communication, wherein the received data is using the storage communication protocol; and

sending, by the processor, via the network connection, the data to the second electronic device for storage.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the first electronic device comprises a digital display device.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein receiving the response to the request from the second electronic device comprises receiving the response from the second electronic device, the response having been received by the second electronic device from a third electronic device.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the storage communication protocol comprises a Universal Serial Bus protocol.

15. A machine-readable non-transitory storage medium encoded with instructions executable by a processor associated with a portable storage device for communicating between electronic devices using the portable storage device, the machine-readable medium comprising instructions to:

access a request from a first electronic device, wherein the request is based on a storage communication format;

transmit via a network the request to a second electronic device;

access via the network a response to the request from the second electronic device; and

send the response to the request to the first electronic device using the storage communication format;

wherein the instructions to transmit the request to the second electronic device further comprise instructions to replace a logical field address in a command descriptor block of the request with a corresponding storage location information associated with the second electronic device and transmit an updated command descriptor block with the request to the second electronic device.

16. The machine-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 15, further comprising instructions to:

receive information for storage from the first electronic device, wherein the information is associated with the storage communication format; and

transmit via the network connection the information to the second electronic device for storage.

17. The machine-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 15, wherein the first electronic device comprises a digital display device.

18. The machine-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 15, wherein the request comprises a read command.

19. The machine-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 18, wherein:

the read command indicates a particular location of the portable storage device from which data is to be read; and

the instructions further comprise a map mapping that particular location to a storage location in the second electronic device.

20. The machine-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 15, wherein the storage communication format comprises a Universal Serial Bus format.