Patent ID: 8028078
Filing Date: 2011-09-27
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A communications system comprising: a plurality of data storage devices, each of the plurality of data storage devices using at least one of a plurality of operating protocols, at least one data storage device communicating using multiple operating protocols; a plurality of mobile wireless communications devices for accessing said at least one data storage device, each mobile wireless communications device communicating using at least one of the plurality of operating protocols; and a protocol interface device comprising a front-end proxy module for communicating with said plurality of mobile wireless communications devices using respective operating protocols; and a protocol engine module for communicating with said plurality of data storage devices using respective operating protocols, determining whether a given data storage device of said plurality of data storage devices communicates using multiple operating protocols, selecting a single supported operating protocol for communicating with the given data storage device of said plurality of data storage devices if only a single operating protocol is supported by the given data storage device, and selecting a desired operating protocol for communicating with the given data storage device of the plurality of data storage devices from the multiple operating protocols if multiple operating protocols are supported by the given data storage device; said protocol engine module selecting the desired operating protocol based upon a ranking of the plurality of operating protocols, the ranking being based upon a total number of protocol-supported elements by each of the plurality data storage devices.