Emulation of physical equipment

Translation of description of equivalent WO 2015092319 A1

0001Emulation of physical equipment.

0002Technical area

0003The invention is applicable to any device with a communication interface to an expansion device (storage device, printing, viewing, etc.).

0004The invention is particularly applicable to the terminals whose communication interfaces are easily accessible by a user.

PRIOR ART

0006Generally, the use of a terminal equipped with a communication interface is realized by connecting directly, with or without thread, peripheral equipment (e.g., a storage device, printing, viewing, storing, etc.) on the physical interface of the terminal, for example via a USB type wired (English Universal Serial Bus) or a wireless type of wireless connection, etc. But some terminals may be too distant in space of the user (they are in another room of the house, in a cupboard in an attic, etc.)

0007In addition, some terminals, although potentially closer to the user, are not easily accessible interfaces (because physically located behind the terminal, below, above, etc.)

0008To remedy this problem, the protocols well known in the art as the "USB over IP" used to encapsulate the USB signals into TCP / IP packets and forward them to other equipment in an Internet network (IP). However, use of such a protocol only allows deporting USB type interfaces, and supposes a manual association between the terminal and the physical interface. There is not now a simple solution to access automatically, remotely, interfaces such terminals.

0009The invention provides a solution does not present the drawbacks of the prior art. The invention

0010To this end, according to a functional aspect, the invention relates to a method of emulation of a physical interface of a device capable of communicating in a network, said interface being adapted to receive at least one peripheral equipment, the method being characterized in that it comprises the following steps:

0011- Pre-combination to establish a set of possible associations between said physical interface and at least one software interface of at least one terminal;

0012selection of an association between said physical interface and at least one software interface of at least one terminal, among all possible associations.

0013routing messages between the physical interface and associated software interface.

0014Thus, the emulation process he offers the advantage of providing two-way communication by exchanging messages between the peripheral equipment and the terminal, even if the peripheral equipment is not connected directly to the terminal but to another network device. Everything happens in this case as if the physical interface of the emulation device was on the terminal. "Physical Interface" here means the hardware of the interface (such as a connector) and all the software modules that allow to manage (also called pilots, or "drivers" in English). Can, in this way, associate each of the physical interfaces of the emulation device to one or more terminals in the network. For example, the emulation device, which is located near the user, may comprise a USB interface and SD interface on which are respectively connecting a USB and a digital camera card. The USB stick can be associated with the personal computer (PC) to the user, who is in her room. The (SD) card from the camera can be linked to the TV, which lacks interface physics of this type, and the tablet user. The user can thus, without moving, view photographs on your television and on the tablet, and transfer files from your PC as if the USB key was directly connected to it.

0015In this way, the read access and write to the device may be distantly: the method of the invention manages the communication transparently to the user and the terminal manager (or "routing" in computer language) the data appropriately.

0016The pre-combination lets you associate a device to one or more terminals temporarily. Indeed, it may be desirable that a device, for example storage, may sometimes be associated with a terminal, sometimes to another, or shared among several terminals. Such a prior mapping step followed by effective selection of the terminal equipment, for example via a proposed interface to the user of the terminal, allows such a combination in time. The pre-stage combination allows a list of possible associations between terminals, potential virtual interfaces and physical interfaces available on the emulation device. Indeed, some associations having no physical sense (eg, associate a joystick with a communication interface in the near field (NFC) has an unrealistic combination), it is soon becoming aware of the different network terminals, to provide good associations. So when the user connects one of its peripheral devices (eg joystick) will obtain the list of devices that can potentially be involved in it, in this case the digital decoder salon whose services are perfectly appropriate the use of a joystick.

0017Subsequently, effective selection step selects one of the pre-associations. Everything happens then as if the device were connected directly to the terminal (or terminals) associated, for example the USB key can be associated to the user's PC and then to the tablet and simultaneously the PC and the tablet. According to a particular mode of implementation of the invention, the association step is preceded by a declaration of step with at least one terminal of the network to the device.

0018This embodiment allows each terminal to report its capabilities to the emulation device, eg when the terminal connects to the local network. The terminal may include, at this preliminary stage, declare its physical interfaces (type, number, capacity, etc.), its services (eg video games with gamepad) and its possible desire to benefit from other interfaces that it does not have natively: for example a TV that does not have an SD interface type can nevertheless have needs such a virtual interface.

0019According to a second particular implementation mode of the invention, which can be set alternatively or cumulatively with the previous work, the Association is followed by a priority management step. The definition of such priorities permits according to this embodiment to provide a quality service to the user, by arbitrating potential conflicts between different terminals. For example, the priority can be assigned to some of them can resolve conflicts if a USB interface is shared between two devices, access is given to the one with the highest priority. Such a mechanism may also allow advantageously share the distribution of bandwidth between multiple devices and multiple physical ports of the device.

0020In a third particular implementation mode of the invention, which can be set alternatively or cumulatively with previous work, the selection step automatically selects an association if this association is the only possible after the stage pre-association.

0021According to this embodiment, it is possible not to require the user to explicitly select an association, especially in the case where a terminal equipment is the only one of a given type, eg if there is one PC connected to the network, it seems legitimate to automatically associate the USB. This possibility is also useful to allow the user to set a default for a given device (eg automatic association of a joystick to digital decoder salon, which is most likely to support such equipment association).

0022According to another functional aspect, the invention relates to a method of managing a software interface on an ability to communicate in a network terminal, said method being characterized in that it comprises the following steps: a step of making day of an association between a software interface and an external physical interface;

0023- A step of activating the software interface;

0024a step of communicating a message between the terminal and the external physical interface associated, via the software interface.

0025This aspect of the invention allows a terminal to manage a virtual software interface that connects it to a physical interface in the network. Thereafter, when the software interface is activated, that is to say, it was actually associated with a physical interface, it is as if the terminal actually dialogued with this physical interface locally, interface software taking the role of the physical interface is transparent to the terminal.

0026According to a hardware aspect, the invention also relates to an emulation device comprising a communication module capable of communicating in a network, characterized in that it comprises the following modules:

0027an access module to at least one physical interface adapted to receive at least one peripheral equipment;

0028a pre-association module for establishing a set of possible associations between said physical interface and at least one software interface at least one terminal;

0029a selection module of an association between said physical interface and at least one software interface of at least one terminal, among all possible combinations;

0030- An interface management module able to provide message routing between the physical interface and associated software interface. The term module can correspond to both a software component that a hardware component or a set of hardware and software components, a corresponding software component itself to one or more programs or sub computer or more generally programs to any element of a program able to implement a function or set of functions as described for the concerned modules. Similarly, a hardware component corresponds to any element of a hardware set (or hardware) able to implement a function or set of functions for the relevant module (integrated circuit, chip card, memory card, etc. .)

0031According to another hardware aspect, the invention provides an emulation device as claimed, characterized in that the physical interface from the device.

0032According to another hardware aspect, the invention provides an emulation device as claimed, characterized in that the physical interface is external to the device.

0033According to another hardware aspect, the invention also relates to a terminal having a communication module capable of communicating in a network, characterized in that it comprises the following modules:

0034a software interface;

0035- An update module of an association between a software interface and an external physical interface;

0036an activation module of the software interface;

0037a management module of at least one software interface adapted to exchange messages with an external physical interface.

0038According to another hardware aspect, the invention also relates to a service gateway comprising an emulation device as claimed above.

0039According to another hardware aspect, the invention also relates to a communication system including an emulation device comprising a communication module adapted to communicate with at least one terminal through a network, characterized in that:

0040the emulation device further comprises: - An access module to at least one physical interface adapted to receive at least one peripheral equipment;

0041- A pre-combination module for establishing a set of possible associations between said physical interface and at least one software interface at least one terminal;

0042- A selection module of an association between said physical interface and at least one software interface of at least one terminal, among all possible combinations;

0043- An interface management module able to provide message routing between the physical interface and associated software interface.

0044said at least one terminal comprises:

0045- A software interface;

0046- An update module of an association between a software interface and an external physical interface;

0047- A software interface activation module;

0048- A management module of at least one software interface adapted to exchange messages between the enabled software interface with an external physical interface.

0049According to another hardware aspect, the invention also relates to a communication system as defined above, characterized in that the physical interface from the emulation device and the virtual interface from a first terminal.

0050According to another hardware aspect, the invention also relates to a communication system as defined above, characterized in that the physical interface is external to the emulation device and from a first terminal and the virtual interface from at least one second terminal.

0051According to another hardware aspect, the invention also relates to a computer program comprising code instructions for implementing a method emulation of a physical interface as described above, when it is executed by a processor. According to another hardware aspect, the invention also relates to a computer program comprising code instructions for implementing a method of managing a software interface as described above, when the latter is carried by a processor.

0052According to yet another hardware aspect, the invention relates to a recording medium readable by a data processor on which is recorded a program comprising program code instructions for executing the steps of the emulation method defined above -above.

0053According to yet another hardware aspect, the invention relates to a recording medium readable by a data processor on which is recorded a program comprising program code instructions for executing steps of the management method of a software interface defined above.

0054This emulation device, terminal, system and these computer programs have characteristics and advantages similar to those described above in connection with the process of emulation and the method of managing a software interface.

0055The invention will be better understood on reading the following description, given by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings. The figures:

00561 shows a local area network according to the prior art.

00572 shows the general application of an embodiment of the invention in a local network.

00583 shows a hardware architecture of a device according to the invention connected to a terminal of the local network.

00594 shows an embodiment of the invention.

00605 shows another embodiment of the invention.

00616 shows a timing diagram of exchanges between a device and a terminal according to an embodiment of the invention. detailed description of an embodiment illustrating the invention

00621 shows a local area network according to the prior art.

0063The context of the home network is given as an example and could be easily transposed to that of a corporate network or from any Internet.

0064Conventionally, the local network comprises a service gateway (T3, BOX), in this example a home gateway, which handles the routing of the data in the local network, and between the broadband network (not shown) and the network local. LAN has three other devices: a personal computer

0065(T2, PC), a TV (T4, TV) and a digital television decoder (T5, STB).

0066Subsequently, by means of terminal equipment, or simply terminal, any device capable of connecting to the home network (printer, scanner device, digital tablet, smartphone, hard drive, etc.) Typically, in our example, TV is in the living room, the home gateway in the desktop and the laptop in the user's room.

0067In this context, the user wants to retrieve a file on the USB key must get in the room to plug the key into the USB port of a PC; it can not connect their digital camera to a TV that does not have proper connectivity (no SD card reader); it must connect the joystick to the STB that can be easily accessible; he can not share his USB key between two devices (tablet and PC, for example).

0068Figure 2 shows the general application of an embodiment of the invention in a local network, which solves all the problems mentioned above.

0069The general context of Figure 2 is identical to that of Figure 1 but according to the invention, the user is provided an emulation device (C) he asked for a place that is easily accessible to him, for example on the table in his living room. The invention proposes to simulate the network (in this case, an IP LAN network but alternatively may be of different type) physical layer of various devices. This simulation or emulation, or "virtualization" allows access to external devices to the terminal, these devices were seen as local devices to the terminal.

0070The invention in other words to perform a routing of data from a server device (here, the emulation device) with physical interfaces to one or more end devices in the network (or home broadband ), thereby kicking out physical interfaces. The emulation device (C) of Figure 2 includes a corresponding set of physical ports such Standards USB (standing for "Universal Serial Bus", a standard for serial communications), SD (from the English " Secure Digital "), NFC (standing for" near field Communication "for near field communications), SATA (from the English" Sériai ATA "for high-speed storage device connection). The device has a screen (not shown) or alternatively a remote screen on the TV.

0071In the example of Figure 2, the emulation device has two USB ports (SI, S2), an NFC interface (S4) and an SD interface (S3). The emulation device also features a set of programs of the invention, which allow successively ensure recognition of the terminals, the association of terminals and devices, and the data transfer between the terminals and associated peripherals.

0072In this example, the user connects the USB key and joystick two USB ports emulation device then combines two USB devices (PC, TV) LAN and the joystick to the STB (T5 ).

0073The TV (T4) is also equipped with an adapter device (dongle) WiFi / USB to exchange data with the emulation device.

0074In general, this invention is applicable to any device connected to the LAN, broadband network or via an adapter (dongle) WiFi / USB or Ethernet / USB. The terminals can be natively compatible or made compatible by installing a specific driver. This association can be done automatically or via a user interface provided on the device.

0075Thereafter, it is as if the USB device was connected to the PC (T2) and on TV (T4), and as if the joystick was connected directly to the STB (T5).

00763 shows a hardware architecture of a device according to the invention (C) connected to a terminal (T2-T5) the local network.

0077The emulation device (C) typically comprises memories (M) associated with a processor (CPU). Memories can be ROM (Read On English / y Memory) or RAM (standing for Random Access Memory) or Flash. The emulation device (C) communicating over the LAN (9) via the ETH (Ethernet) module.

0078According to Figure 2, the device comprises a set of physical interfaces (S1-S4) corresponding to the USB standards (SI, S2), SD (S4), NFC (NFC P, S4). Each of these interfaces is managed by one of the physical interface control software (USB P, SD P, P NFC). The device further comprises a physical SATA interface, not shown, managed by a pilot "SATA P".

0079In the context of this application, the term "physical interface" not only the hardware but also all the software drivers (in English "drivers") which allow access.

0080All modules conventionally communicate with each other via a data bus (12).

0081The emulation device (C) also includes a module PILAS management of associations capable of providing the virtual combination of a physical interface on the emulation device (C) with one or more software interfaces, or virtual ( VS1-VS4) to a network terminal. The PILAS module accesses including memory emulation device (M) to create, view and update the table of associations (TIV) that maps the physical interfaces of the device emulation and virtual interfaces terminals. This table will be described later in support of Figures 4 and 5. The PILAS module can be for example a software program running in the memory of the emulation device, or hardware and software together. The PILAS module can alternatively be on another device on the local network, or on an external server.

0082The emulation device (C) also includes a PILIP module (steering of Physical Interfaces) for controlling communication between the physical interfaces of the emulation device and the various virtual interfaces on remote terminals. It is responsible to read the associations in the table of associations and accordingly control the communication between a physical interface and a virtual interface (message routing, priorities, etc.)

0083The terminal (T2-T5) also comprises memory (M) associated with a processor (CPU). It communicates over the LAN (9) via the ETH module (Ethernet). All modules communicate via a data bus (13). The terminal shown in this example comprises a set of virtual interfaces (VS1-VS4) corresponding to the USB standards, SD, NFC, SATA. Each of these interfaces is represented by a software module (USB V, V SD, NFC V, SATA V). A software interface, which is also called indiscriminately "virtual interface" in the rest of this application is a software module running on the terminal and having the same access (to the terminal) that the driver software equivalent physical interface . In other words, this software module manages all communications (read and / or write) with the terminal as if he were a driver software of an equivalent physical interface.

0084The device also comprises a PILIV management module (control of Virtual Interfaces) of the various virtual interfaces, able to ensure the association of a virtual interface (software) with a physical interface on the emulation device (C). The PILIV module also accesses the device memory to create, view, update, association tables that allow him to know at a given virtual interfaces that are available. The PILIV module can be for example a software program running on the device memory.

00854 shows an embodiment of the invention In this example, three terminals T2 (PC), T3 (home gateway) and T4 (TV) and the emulation device (C) according to the invention connected to the local network (9) controlled by the gateway. According to Figure 2, the emulation device (C) has four physical interfaces (S1-S4). It has in memory a table, shown schematically in the lower part of FIG. This table (TIV - Table of Virtual Identifications), which allows the device to maintain associations between physical and virtual interfaces interfaces on different terminals for each physical interface comprises:

0086a SRC column to indicate the source terminal that carries the physical interface (here, they are all on the emulation device C);

0087a column I / F (T) to reference the physical interface, and its type (T), for example IF (USB) to the physical interface USB-1;

0088a column (Ti) by the terminal (for example column T2 to the terminal 2) containing the list of virtual interfaces (VS1-VS4) of the terminal, in association with a physical interface (S1-S4).

0089Thus, according to this example, the terminals T3 and T4 both have a virtual interface VS3 corresponding to the physical interface number 3 (S3) to the emulation device. In other words, a physical SD card inserted in the SD compartment emulation device becomes accessible from the home gateway (T3) and the TV (T4).

0090To achieve this association, the emulation device chained in advance several steps that will be described later in support of Figure 6:

0091• Discovery of terminals available in the network;

0092• Discovery of physical interfaces and services offered by each terminal;

0093• Pre-combination of virtual pilots to the various terminals (in our example corresponding to an initialization of the memory table TIV), which can lead to an array of the form:

0094CBC / IF fT) T2 (PC) T3 (BOX) T4 (TV)

0095C / Sl (USB) Yes Yes Yes <img id="imgf000016_0001" he="16" wi="129" file="imgf000016_0001.tif" img-format="tif" img-content="drawing" orientation="portrait" inline="no" />

0096Table 1: Pre-table associations (TAS)

0097Each time a cell of the table includes the word 'yes', the phase of pre-association can afford to install on the device the corresponding virtual driver: for example, the T4 terminal being declared compatible with the IS interfaces and S3 , virtual drivers for these two types of interfaces (USB and SD) can be installed on the TV in anticipation of a future association.

0098• Management software drivers, terminal versions and update if necessary.

0099• associations table management (TIV), such user intervention: if the user requests a virtual SD interface on their television (T4), T4 terminal, having been declared compatible, will be associated the S3 interface of the emulation device.

0100• Automatic QoS management table, namely optimization services based on the available bandwidth and prioritization of streams by type.

0101To achieve this association, in our example, a terminal for its first chained hand several steps that will be described later in support of Figure 6:

0102• Announcement terminal on the network:

0103o Announcement of services, physical interfaces, drivers, etc. proposed by the terminal.

0104o Declaration of physical devices provided by the device (hard disk, printer, etc.)

0105• Virtual Driver Manager on the terminal (installations, updates, etc.) 5 shows another embodiment of the invention

0106This example is very similar to that illustrated by Figure 4, but the emulation device (C) according to the invention uses not only its own physical port but also the physical ports of the devices: it can support the physical USB port terminal 2 (T2, PC) and associate it later to another terminal, thus ensuring the routing of the physical port of the terminal 2 data to the virtual port terminal 3.

0107The TIV table includes an additional line to indicate the association of the physical interface with the Al VA1 virtual interface on the T3 terminal.

01086 shows a timing diagram of an exchange between the emulation device and a terminal according to an embodiment of the invention.

0109In a step E, a terminal registers with the emulation device (C) of the invention, for example the PC 2 in Figure 1. The terminal may occur automatically with the emulation device to register and to dynamically register its own capacity (available drivers, physical interfaces and connected devices, etc.) - Alternatively, the registration rules may be implicit. For example, if there is only one terminal in the local network, or a terminal of a single type (PC, etc.), the emulation device can initiate itself this discovery phase, so to appropriate the characteristics of the terminal, and directly associate some devices to some terminals. For example, a USB stick can be automatically associated with the PC on the local network, if it happens to be the single PC or multiple PCs in the local network; The joystick can be associated consistently with the STB, etc.

0110The emulation device receives the application for registration in a step E10.

0111In a step Eli, the emulation device built a first table of possible associations (TAS) between the terminal and the physical ports that can it being potentially associated. Such a table can be built according to our example as follows:

0112- The emulation device has three interfaces (SI, S2, S3);

0113- It can associate to Terminal 2 which has just declare IF (USB) interface, the S2 (USB) interface, the interface S3 (SD) although the terminal does not natively available, but not the S4 interface (NFC).

0114This leads to the following table, as regards the terminal 2 T2):

0115<img id="imgf000018_0001" he="25" wi="144" file="imgf000018_0001.tif" img-format="tif" img-content="table" orientation="portrait" inline="no" />

0116Table 2: Table of pre-associations for Terminal 2 The procedure is repeated for each terminal that occurs or is discovered by the emulation device, resulting in a multi-column table as shown earlier.

0117Then he eventually returns to the terminal, during a step E12, the result of the interfaces used for a possible association. On receipt of this message, the terminal updates (step E2) its list of supported drivers and physical interfaces, including to increase hardware compatibility of the system. For example, the terminal can receive the following information:

0118• one of its USB ports has been "virtualized" on the emulation device, that is to say that any subsequent connection of a USB key on the associated physical port emulation device will lead to the same result a direct connection to the USB port of the device (see Figure 4).

0119• A new SD port has been "virtualized" on the emulation device that is to say that although the terminal is devoid of native SD port, everything will later pass as if the associated SD port device emulation was physically located on the PC. • a new NFC port has been "virtualized" on the smartphone to the PC user, that is to say that any subsequent communication to the NFC smartphone will lead to the user's PC.

0120• etc. During a subsequent step E20, the user plugs in a USB stick on one of the physical ports (SI, S2) of the emulation device.

0121At step E13, the emulation device according to the invention detects the connection of the USB stick on one of its interfaces (eg S2) and consults its table of pre-associations interfaces (CAS). Following this operation, it can provide the user (E14) a graphical interface showing all terminals that have a virtual USB port in our example the terminals 2 (PC), 3 (home gateway) and 4 (TV). This step is optional because the association, as mentioned before, can be automatic.

0122It should be noted that the emulation device can allow multiple client terminals simultaneous access to a physical device, and it manages in this case the arbitration.

0123During a step E21, the client displays the possible associations information as a graphical interface offers the user a list of possible associations. The latter can choose by simple selection (click) the combination of a physical device with a given terminal.

0124During a step E22, the user selects, for example via the GUI, connect the USB to PC (T2).

0125This information is received in step E15 by the device that validates the association and updates the table of associations (TIV) to take account of this new association.

0126During a step E16 that can be successively him, the emulation device prepares an acknowledgment for the respective terminal that receives during a step E3 this information stating that its virtual interface VS2 is now active and ready for use. During a step E17 that can be him next, the emulation device prepares a QoS table that allows it to mediate potential conflicts between different terminals, including the priority can be assigned to some of them (for example in the case where a USB interface is shared) and allocation of bandwidth.

0127The emulation device is indeed able to diagnose the road a physical device to a host to provide the maximum bandwidth available on that link; the server maintains a prioritization table flows and is thus able to provide a quality of service (QoS) to customers. During a step E18, the emulation device receives a request to read and / or write from the terminal (2) which requested the operation in step E4. At step E18, a consulting its table of associations (TIV) allows the emulation device to redirect the playback order (resp. Write) to the interface associated with the terminal 2 by the USB 2 port. step E23 is finally writing or physical play in the USB device under the control of the emulation device (C).

0128It goes without saying that the embodiment described above has been given purely indicative and non-limiting, and that many modifications can be easily made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention.

0129For example, a remote service in the broadband network may thus be identified in the home gateway or a network terminal, all happening in this case thanks to the invention as if the service was in the network local: for example, a user's data can be saved on a hard drive that is in the broadband network while it seems physically connected to the user's PC, etc.