Simple and dynamic configuration of network devices

• US 20050108369A1
• Filed: 02/27/2004
• Published: 05/19/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 10/27/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• 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.
• Granted Patent: US 8,151,280 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/220
• 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 network device interaction system comprising:

an application component that seeks to utilize a network device; and

a configuration system that automatically configures the network device to operate with the application component.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein configuration of the network device comprises loading a driver associated with the device.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein configuration of the system further comprises setting one or more registry keys.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the device driver is loaded from a local data store.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the device driver is downloaded over the Internet.

6. The system of claim 2, wherein the device driver is received from the network device.

7. The system of claim 2, wherein the device driver is retrieved from a computer readable medium.

8. The system of claim 2, wherein the device driver is retrieved from a computer over a local area network.

9. The system of claim 2, wherein configuration of the network device further comprises updating device firmware to a newer firmware version packaged with the device driver.

10. The system of claim 2, wherein configuration of the network device further comprises writing a copy of a most recent or current device driver package onto the network device.

11. A network device configuration system comprising:

a monitor component that monitors a local area network for the arrival of network devices; and

a configuration component that automatically configures a network device detected by the monitor component to operate in conjunction with a computer system.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the network device is a wireless device.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the network is a power line network.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the monitor component utilizes Simple Service Discovery Protocol (SSDP) to detect the arrival of a network device.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the monitor component utilizes web services discovery (WS-Discovery) protocol to detect the arrival of a network device.

16. A dynamic network device configuration system comprising:

an association component that specifies an association of the network device with at least one other active network component;

an enumerator component that generates a physical device object (PDO) component that provides information about the device to be configured; and

a PnP system that utilizes the PDO component to produce a functional device object (FDO) component that exposes device functionality to associated network components.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the PnP system comprises a driver installation management component that receives a PDO component and locates a driver component that generates the FDO component.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the installation management component extracts information about the network device from the PDO component and maps such data to an information component to determine a driver component associated with the device.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the driver component is retrieved and loaded from a data store.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the association component includes an authentication component to ensure access to network devices is restricted to associated network devices.

21. A method for interacting with network devices comprising:

detecting the arrival of a device on a local network; and

configuring the device automatically upon detection.

22. The method of claim 21, utilizing Simple Service Discovery Protocol to detect the arrival of a network device.

23. The method of claim 21, utilizing a web services discovery (WS-discovery) protocol to detect the arrival of a network device.

24. The method of claim 21, configuring the device comprises loading a driver associated with the device.

25. The method of claim 21, configuring the device comprises associating a device with at least one other network device.

26. A computer readable medium having stored thereon computer executable instructions for carrying out the method of claim 24.

27. A method of configuring a network device comprising:

associating a network device with at least one other installed network device;

locating a driver component associated with the network device;

retrieving the driver component; and

loading the driver component to facilitate installation of the network device.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the at least one other network device is a personal computer.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein locating a driver component comprises searching a local data store of the computer.

30. The method of claim 28, wherein locating a driver component comprises searching a remote server.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein searching a remote server is accomplished over the Internet.

32. The method of claim 27, wherein the driver component is retrieved from the network device.

33. The method of claim 27, wherein the driver component is retrieved a from the associated network device.

34. A computer readable medium having stored thereon computer executable instructions for carrying out the method of claim 27.

35. A methodology for dynamic configuration of network devices comprising:

detecting the arrival of a network device on a network;

creating a physical device object component representing the device;

locating a driver component associated with the device and

utilizing the driver component to generate a functional device object that exposes the device functionality to applications.

36. The method of claim 35, further comprising associating the network device to one or more active network devices.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein one of the one or more network devices is a personal computer.

38. The method of claim 36, further comprising establishing a secure channel of communication between the network device and the other one or more network devices.

39. The method of claim 35, the physical device object component provides identifying and state information regarding network device.

40. A computer readable medium having stored thereon computer executable instructions for carrying out the method of claim 35.