FILE PROTOCOL FOR TRANSACTION BASED COMMUNICATION

• US 20080307109A1
• Filed: 06/28/2007
• Published: 12/11/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/08/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Chinn, Paul, Gies, Sean, GALLOWAY, CURTIS C., Graessley, Joshua Verweyst, Wright, John andrew
• Application Number:
  US11/770,697
• Publication Number:
  US 20080307109A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/232
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/16 Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/161 Implementation details of TCP/IP or UDP/IP stack architecture; Specification of modified or new header fields
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/163 In-band adaptation of TCP data exchange; In-band control procedures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/168 specially adapted for link layer protocols, e.g. asynchronous transfer mode [ATM], synchronous optical network [SONET] or point-to-point protocol [PPP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/32 Architecture of open systems interconnection [OSI] 7-layer type protocol stacks, e.g. the interfaces between the data link level and the physical level

Abstract

File protocols for transaction based communication are described. In one embodiment, a method to provide a file transfer protocol includes receiving packets containing headers, the packets being received at a first network stack software through an interface, and extracting data from he packets and reconstructing a file from data in the packets. The extracting may be performed by a first network stack software, and the interface is not designed to use Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, and the headers contain data for flow control and sequencing and are associated with a port for a file transfer application, and the headers allow multiple applications to maintain multiple concurrent sessions through the interface, which may be a USB compliant or BLUETOOTH compliant interface. Systems, computer readable media, software architectures and other methods are also described.

Claims

1. A computer readable medium containing executable program instructions which cause a data processing system to perform a method comprising:

receiving packets containing headers at a first network stack software, the packets being received through an interface;

extracting data from the packets, wherein the extracting is performed by the first network stack software, wherein the interface is not designed to use Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and wherein the headers contain data for flow control and sequencing and are associated with a port for a file transfer application and wherein the headers allow multiple applications to maintain an arbitrary number of multiple concurrent sessions through the interface;

reconstructing a file from data in the packets.

2. The medium as in claim 1 wherein the method further comprises:

validating the file after all data for the file has been received and wherein the validating comprises at least one of a checksum operation or a hash operation.

3. The medium as in claim 2 wherein the packets include an indication of a packet type having a predetermined packet format and a packet functionality associated with the packet type.

4. The medium as in claim 3 wherein a standard protocol of the interface does not use IP addresses and wherein the interface is one of a Universal Serial Bus (USB) compliant wired serial interface or a BLUETOOTH compliant wireless interface.

5. The medium as in claim 4 wherein the packets comprise Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) like headers and no IP compliant headers.

6. The medium as in claim 5 wherein the TCP like headers are associated with a socket for the file transfer application.

7. The medium as in claim 6 wherein the method further comprises:

creating further packets to contain the data extracted from the packets, the further packets comprising TCP/IP headers in which the IP header specifies a loopback address;

extracting the data from the further packets and providing the data extracted from the further packets to the file transfer application.

8. The medium as in claim 7 wherein the creating of the further packets and the extracting of the data from the further packets is performed by a TCP/IP stack software which is operatively coupled to another interface for connecting to the Internet through an IP protocol.

9. A machine implemented method comprising:

receiving packets containing headers at a first network stack software, the packets being received through an interface;

extracting data from the packets, wherein the extracting is performed by the first network stack software, wherein the interface is not designed to use Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and wherein the headers contain data for flow control and sequencing and are associated with a port for a file transfer application and wherein the headers allow multiple applications to maintain an arbitrary number of multiple concurrent sessions through the interface;

reconstructing a file from data in the packets.

10. The method as in claim 9 wherein the method further comprises:

validating the file after all data for the file has been received and wherein the validating comprises at least one of a checksum operation or a hash operation.

11. The method as in claim 10 wherein the packets include an indication of a packet type having a predetermined packet format and a packet functionality associated with the packet type.

12. The method as in claim 11 wherein a standard protocol of the interface does not use IP addresses and wherein the interface is one of a Universal Serial Bus (USB) compliant wired serial interface or a BLUETOOTH compliant wireless interface.

13. The method as in claim 12 wherein the packets comprise Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) like headers and no IP compliant headers.

14. The method as in claim 13 wherein the TCP like headers are associated with a socket for the file transfer application.

15. The method as in claim 14 wherein the method further comprises,

creating further packets to contain the data extracted from the packets, the further packets comprising TCP/IP headers in which the IP header specifies a loopback address;

extracting the data from the further packets and providing the data extracted from the further packets to the file transfer application.

16. The method as in claim 15 wherein the creating of the further packets and the extracting of the data from the further packets is performed by a TCP/IP stack software which is operatively coupled to another interface for connecting to the Internet through an IP protocol.

17. A data processing system comprising:

means for receiving packets containing headers at a first network stack software, the packets being received through an interface;

means for extracting data from the packets, wherein the extracting is performed by the first network stack software, wherein the interface is not designed to use Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and wherein the headers contain data for flow control and sequencing and are associated with a port for a file transfer application and wherein the headers allow multiple applications to maintain an arbitrary number of multiple concurrent sessions through the interface; and

means for reconstructing a file from data in the packets.

18. A computer readable medium containing executable program instructions to be executed on a data processing system, the medium comprising:

a first network stack software to create packets for transmission through a first interface on a device and to extract data from packets received through the first interface;

a second network stack software to create packets for transmission through a second interface on the device and extract data from packets received though the second interface, the second network stack software being configured to communicate with the first network stack software, wherein the second interface is configured to be coupled to a third interface on another system, the second network stack software being configured to send data extracted from packets received trough the second interface through the first network stack software, and wherein the second network stack software is configured to transmit and receive packets using a protocol designed for the second interface;

a file transfer protocol software operatively coupled to communicate with the first network stack software to receive the data extracted from the packets received through the second interface and to reconstruct a file from the data extracted from the packets.

19. The medium as in claim 18 wherein the file transfer protocol software validates the file after all data for the file has been received by at least one of a checksum operation or a hash operation.

20. The medium as in claim 19 wherein the packets include an indication of a packet type having a predetermined packet format and a packet functionality associated with the packet type.

21. The medium as in claim 20 wherein the packet functionality specifies an operation of the file transfer protocol software.

22. The medium as in claim 20 wherein a standard protocol of the interface does not use IP addresses and wherein the interface is one of a Universal Serial Bus (USB) compliant wired serial interface or a BLUETOOTH compliant wireless interface.

23. The medium as in claim 22 wherein the packets comprise Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) like headers and no IP compliant headers.

24. The medium as in claim 23 wherein the TCP like headers are associated with an opened socket for the file transfer protocol software.

25. The medium as in claim 24 wherein the first network stack software and the second network stack software are configured to allow multiple applications, including the file transfer protocol software, on the device to maintain multiple concurrent sessions through the second interface and wherein the file is an audio or audiovisual media file.

26. The medium as in claim 25 wherein the first interface is designed to be coupled to the Internet and the second interface is not designed to use Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and wherein the first network stack software comprises a TCP/IP stack and the second network stack software comprises a TCP like stack which does not create IP headers.

27. The medium as in claim 26 wherein an error message is generated in response to a failure in transferring the complete file, he error message specifying the file.