Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Computer-to-computer session/connection establishing
Reexamination Certificate
1998-09-30
2001-04-24
Geckil, Mehmet B. (Department: 2152)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Computer-to-computer session/connection establishing
C709S203000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06223223
ABSTRACT:
The present invention generally relates to software and firmware, i.e., software embedded on a system, and more particularly to software and firmware for supporting scanners over a network.
Scan peripheral vendors typically provide custom software that takes advantage of features of the product, however, the custom software is typically written to communicate only with a single device over a local interface, such as a SCSI bus or a parallel port. While the local interface design is simple, the design fails to address issues that occur when the peripheral is attached to a network. Thus, attached scanners cannot utilize the custom software and associated features.
A problem exists with scanners and other peripherals attached to the network since multiple users can access the peripherals. Scanners, for example, typically require some setup before starting an actual scan. If no controls are in place, contention between clients could occur where one client sends commands to set the scanner resolution, page size, and other options in preparation for starting a scan, at the same time another client is issuing similar commands to the same scanner. One client's commands could overwrite the commands of another client. Similarly, one client can send commands to reset the scanner while another client's scan is in progress, and effectively abort the other client's scan job.
Another problem exists in network scanning, when a scan connection is indefinitely held open by one client. While the connection remains open, other clients are unable to access the scanner. Thus, there is a need for a software that has a timeout and a recovery to keep any one client from tying up the scanner for too long.
Another problem exists with network scanning since the peripheral is usually centrally located and not visible to the client, device status is typically not readily available to a network client. With locally attached peripherals, peripheral status can usually be determined either visibly, due to the proximity of the peripheral, or by viewing error messages reported by the local operating system or local software. Thus, device error messages reported to an application running on one client's personal computer (PC) are not propagated to other clients'PCs on the network.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide an improved server apparatus that can handle contention on the network.
Another object of the present invention is to provide such an improved apparatus which can recover to keep a client from tying up a scanner for too long on the network.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide meaningful error messages to the client on the network.
Other objects and advantages will become apparent upon reading the following detailed description, in conjunction with the attached drawings.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed to an improved method in the form of software and firmware for supporting a scan peripheral over the network, whereby an improved server apparatus can handle network contention situations, and can provide a connectionless protocol for control data and a connection-oriented protocol for scan data. Additionally, the present invention provides an improved server that can recover from a client tying up, but not using a scanner for an extended period.
In one aspect of the present invention, the server waits for a client to attempt to open a connection with the peripheral. When the client sends a peripheral connection request via a data packet to the server, the server accepts the connection. The server determines an availability of the peripheral and locks the peripheral so that it cannot be used by other clients. Thereafter, the server opens a connection with the peripheral, if it is available, and notifies the client of the peripheral availability. The server then waits for predetermined data from the client, which when received, results in the client having control of the peripheral for at least a first predetermined time period, and when received sends the data to the client. The server closes the connection with the client upon completion of sending the data to the client.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5913088 (1999-06-01), Moghadam et al.
patent: 5933580 (1999-08-01), Uda et al.
patent: 5946458 (1999-08-01), Austin et al.
patent: 5968138 (1999-10-01), Clough
patent: 6101555 (2000-08-01), Goshey et al.
Garcia Glenn R.
Kumpf David A.
Scoville Dean L.
Smith David L.
Geckil Mehmet B.
Hewlett--Packard Company
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