Communication of information between a plurality of network elements

• US 20080082683A1
• Filed: 10/04/2007
• Published: 04/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Welch Allyn Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Welch Allyn Incorporated
• Inventors: Petersen, Eric, Goldfain, Albert, Blaszak, Ronald, Gondek, Cory, Craw, Chad, West, Kenneth, Chung, Song, DelloStritto, James, LoMascolo, Frank, Narayan, Mahesh
• Granted Patent: US 8,402,161 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/236
• 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 9/546 Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0816 Key establishment, i.e. cryptographic processes or cryptographic protocols whereby a shared secret becomes available to two or more parties, for subsequent use

Abstract

A communications protocol interface may be configured as being divisible into a core portion and an extensible portion. The extensible portion of the communications protocol interface may be further configured so that each network element can communicate a unique and optimally small subset of actual interoperable data that corresponds to at least a portion of a larger defined data set. A software generator program may be configured to generate a set of extensible source code that operates upon the subset of actual data and that directs the execution of the extensible portion of the communications protocol interface for a particular network element.

Claims

1. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions for controlling communications between one or more network devices, which instructions, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to carry out the steps of:

transferring a communication through an upper protocol stack wherein the upper protocol stack is operable by application software,

transferring the communication through an interchange layer between the upper protocol stack and a lower protocol stack,

transferring the communication through the lower protocol stack wherein the lower protocol stack is operable by operating system software,

wherein the upper protocol stack comprises one or more of a data transfer protocol, and

wherein the data transfer protocol processes communications based upon values found in classification fields within the communication.

2. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the upper protocol stack further comprises a link management protocol, wherein the link management protocol establishes and terminates connections between the one or more network devices.

3. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising receiving the communication at the upper protocol stack from an application layer.

4. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising receiving the communication at the lower protocol stack from a network device.

5. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the classification fields comprise a first classification field identifying a particular software module within the data transfer protocol having an associated set of message and information types.

6. The computer-readable medium of claim 5, wherein the classification fields comprise a second classification field identifying a set of one or more attributes of the first classification field.

7. The computer-readable medium of claim 6, wherein the classification fields comprise a third classification field identifying a set of one or more additional attributes of the software module identified by the first classification field and the one or more attributes identified by the second classification field.

8. A method of establishing a communications connection between network devices comprising:

creating an interchange envelope comprising a connection request at a first network device,

transmitting the interchange envelope to a second network device,

receiving a response to the connection request from the second network device,

creating an encryption key request for the second network device,

transmitting the encryption key request to the second network device,

receiving an encryption key in response to the encryption key request,

creating a start communication protocol process request for the second network device,

transmitting the start communication protocol process request to the second network device,

receiving a host ready communication in response to the start communication protocol process, and

wherein each request and response is classified and processed based upon a first classification sub-field, a second classification sub-field, and a third classification sub-field within each request and response.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the first sub-field identifies a particular module within data processing software having an associated set of message types, the second sub-field identifies a set of one or more attributes of the first sub-field, and the third sub-field identifies a set of one or more additional attributes of the module identified by the first sub-field and the one or more attributes identified by the second sub-field.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising transferring control to a communication protocol process operating on the first network device.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising terminating the communications connection upon receiving a termination communication at the first network device.

12. A communications protocol interface stored in a tangible medium and implemented by one or more processors comprising:

application software,

operating system software for implementing a lower protocol stack,

one or more extensible software modules interfacing with the application software and one or more core software modules,

wherein the one or more core software modules interface with the one or more extensible software modules, the application software and the operating system software,

wherein the one or more extensible software modules and the one or more core software modules implement an upper protocol stack

wherein the processing and delivery of a communication is performed according to a classification hierarchy within the communication,

wherein the one or more core software modules implement standardized functionality, and

wherein the one or more extensible software modules implement supplemental and customizable functionality.

13. The communications protocol interface of claim 12, wherein the standardized functionality may be selected from the group consisting of connection establishment, connection termination, encryption, generic message types, and combinations thereof.

14. The communications protocol interface of claim 12, wherein the one or more extensible software modules are defined by data definitions.

15. The communications protocol interface of claim 12, wherein a first classification identifies a particular software module selected from the one or more extensible software modules and the one or more core extensible modules having an associated set of message types.

16. The communications protocol interface of claim 15, wherein a second classification identifies a set of one or more attributes of the first classification.

17. The communications protocol interface of claim 16, wherein a third classification identifies a set of one or more additional attributes of the software module identified by the first classification and the one or more attributes identified by the second classification.

18. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions for controlling communications between one or more network devices, which instructions, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to carry out the steps of:

receiving a communication from a network device,

passing the communication through a data management protocol,

classifying the communication while in the data management protocol based upon a data classification within the communication,

passing data from the classified communication to application software for processing,

preparing a reply to the communication in the application software,

passing the reply from the application software through the data management protocol,

classifying the reply while in the data management protocol based upon a data classification within the reply, and

sending the reply to the network device.

19. A communication protocol system comprising:

a host computer,

a network link at the host computer for communicating between the host computer and one or more network devices,

a database in communication with the host computer for storing data from the host computer,

communications protocol software on the host computer for processing communications between the host computer and the one or more network devices,

wherein the communications protocol software comprises an upper protocol stack operable by application software and a lower protocol stack operable by the operating system software, and

wherein the upper protocol stack processes communications based upon values found in hierarchal classification fields within the communication.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the hierarchal classification fields comprise a first classification field, a second classification field and a third classification field, wherein the first classification field identifies a particular software module functionality within the upper protocol stack having an associated set of message and data types, the second classification field identifies a set of one or more attributes of the first classification field, and the third classification field identifies a set of one or more additional attributes of the software module identified by the first classification field and the one or more attributes identified by the second classification field.

21. The system of claim 19, further comprising one or more additional host computers in communication with the host computer.

22. The system of claim 19, wherein the communicating between the host computer and the one or more network devices is performed by connections selected from the group consisting of WiFi, serial, USB and combinations thereof.

23. The system of claim 19, wherein communications from the one or more network devices are received in a format compatible with the communications protocol software.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the communications from the one or more network devices contain values corresponding to the first classification, the second classification and the third classification.

25. A method of communicating between network devices comprising:

transmitting a request communication,

wherein the request communication comprises a first classification, a second classification, and a third classification, the first classification identifying a module having an associated set of message types, the second classification identifying a set of one or more attributes of the first classification, and the third classification identifying a set of one or more additional attributes of the module identified by the first classification and the one or more attributes identified by the second classification,

receiving a response to the request communication comprising values corresponding to the first classification, the second classification and the third classification.

26. A data classification system comprising:

one or more fields within a message,

one or more sub-fields within at least one of the one or more fields,

values within the one or more sub-fields,

wherein the one or more sub-fields each represent one or more tiers of a classification scheme, and

wherein the message is processed based upon the values within the one or more sub-fields.

27. A network communications protocol comprising:

one or more sets of code instructions,

one or more data definitions created from the one or more sets of code instructions,

a communication format defined by the data definitions for passing a communication between network devices,

wherein the communication format incorporates data organized by the data definitions, and

wherein the data definition contains a tiered classification system comprising a first classification identifying a particular software module for processing the communication format having an associated set of message types, a second classification identifying a set of one or more attributes of the first classification, and a third classification identifying a set of one or more additional attributes of the software module identified by the first classification and the one or more attributes identified by the second classification.

28. An interchange envelope sent, received or transmitted by a network device and processed by one or more processors on the network device comprising:

a data buffer field for storing data included within the interchange envelope,

a message within the data buffer field,

a message identifier field within the message comprising a set of values for identifying and classifying the type of message, and

wherein the set of values for identifying and classifying the type of message comprises a first sub-field, a second sub-field, and a third sub-field each representing one level of hierarchal classification for the message.

29. The interchange envelope of claim 28, further comprising a session preamble field.

30. The interchange envelope of claim 29, wherein the session preamble field delimits a structure of the interchange envelope with a unique sequence of binary values.

31. The interchange envelope of claim 28, further comprising a packet length field.

32. The interchange envelope of claim 31, wherein the packet length field indicates the length of the entire interchange envelope.

33. The interchange envelope of claim 28, further comprising a port/application identifier field.

34. The interchange envelope of claim 33, wherein the port/application identifier field identifies a port number associated with an application type.

35. The interchange envelope of claim 28, further comprising a header cyclic redundancy check field.

36. The interchange envelope of claim 35, wherein the header cyclic redundancy check field stores a cyclic redundancy check value computed for the interchange envelope.

37. The interchange envelope of claim 28, wherein the first sub-field identifies a particular module within data processing software having an associated set of message types.

38. The interchange envelope of claim 37, wherein the second sub-field identifies a set of one or more attributes of the first sub-field.

39. The interchange envelope of claim 38, wherein the third sub-field identifies a set of one or more additional attributes of the module identified by the first sub-field and the one or more attributes identified by the second sub-field.

40. The interchange envelope of claim 28, wherein the message further comprises a message identifier field, a message size field, a message encryption field, an object buffer field, an a cyclic redundancy check field.

41. The interchange envelope of claim 40, wherein the message size field indicates the length of the entire message.

42. The interchange envelope of claim 40, wherein the message encryption field comprises values that indicate the presence and type of encryption of the message.

43. The interchange envelope of claim 40, wherein the object buffer field stores data that represents a serialized object.

44. The interchange envelope of claim 40, wherein the cyclic redundancy check field stores a cyclic redundancy check value computed for the message.

45. The interchange envelope of claim 28, further comprising a sequence number field, a universal unique identifier field, and a data length field.

46. The interchange envelope of claim 45, wherein the sequence number field stores a unique identifier for each portion of the interchange envelope when the interchange envelope is divided into portions in response to limited buffer capacity.

47. The interchange envelope of claim 46, wherein the universal unique identifier field stores an identifier for the interchange envelope.

48. The interchange envelope of claim 45, wherein the data length field stores a length of the data buffer field.

49. A software generator program stored on a computer readable medium, wherein processors execute the following steps comprising:

receiving a data dictionary corresponding to a network device and its device data sheet wherein the device data sheet comprises data definitions structured as a three-tiered classification system,

accessing a code framework organized based upon the data definitions in the data dictionary,

compiling and generating a source code module based upon the code framework to represent the data definitions as object files, and

outputting the source code module.

50. The software generator program of claim 49, further comprising integrating the outputted source code module with a communications interface.

51. The software generator program of claim 49, wherein the outputted source code module is compiled and linked to an existing set of core source code files.

52. The software generator program of claim 49, wherein the outputted source code module is compiled and linked to an existing set of newly created source code files.

53. The software generator program of claim 49, wherein the outputted source code module is compiled and linked to an existing set of core source code files and an existing set of newly created source code files.

54. The software generator program of claim 53, wherein a sub-set of the source code modules are selected for use on a specific network device.

55. The software generator program of claim 49, further comprising a collection of compiled and linked modules of source code modules.

56. The software generator program of claim 55, wherein the collection is dynamically linked.

57. The software generator program of claim 55, wherein the collection is statically lined.

58. A method of creating customizable communications protocols comprising:

identifying a communications protocol interface for a particular application,

encoding the communications protocol interface as an extensible data definition defining one or more modules of functionality,

transferring the extensible data definition to an application generator program,

receiving extensible software from the application generator program, and

combining the extensible software with pre-existing core software and pre-existing extensible software for creating a communications software module implementing the communications protocol interface.

59. The method of claim 58, further comprising installing the communications software module onto one or more network devices.

60. The method of claim 58, further comprising modifying the communications protocol interface.

61. The method of claim 60, further comprising revising the extensible data definition and repeating the steps beginning with inputting the extensible data definition into the application generator program through installing the communications software module onto one or more network devices.