Abstract:
A method of establishing a virtual USB interface for a non-USB device, comprising the steps of establishing a non-USB interface to communicate with the non-USB device, generating a virtual USB physical device object to provide a USB transport layer driver, establishing the virtual USB interface to communicate with the USB transport layer driver, filtering a transmitting command of the USB transport layer driver based on the virtual USB interface, and filtering a returned information of the non-USB device based on the non-USB interface.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Technical Field 
     The present invention relates to a Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface, and more particularly relates to a virtual Universal Serial Bus interface. 
     2. Background 
     Universal Serial Bus (USB) is a transmission interface connecting peripheral devices to a host controller (for example, computer). USB can support peripheral devices, such as keyboard, mouse, digital camera, printer and hard disk. Nowadays, USB transmission interface has become a standard interface for most peripheral devices. With the maturity of wireless communications, USB can also support bluetooth wireless communication hardware devices. 
     On the present market, the majority of bluetooth devices are connected to computers by USB interface. Bluetooth communication standard defines USB transport layer, and therefore, manufacturers of bluetooth wireless communication devices can develop corresponding profile stack of bluetooth wireless communication protocols based on the bluetooth communication standard. 
     However, for bluetooth wireless devices with non-USB interface, for example, Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe), as a transmission interface for the bluetooth wireless devices, it will be troublesome since the operating system providers do not provide additional software for them. For example, Microsoft only provides the profile stack for USB interface. In such case, the manufacturers of bluetooth wireless devices need to spend more time defining another PCIe transport layer in profile stack of bluetooth wireless communication protocols. 
     Accordingly, to solve such problem, one will need a new method of using non-USB device to establish virtual USB interface. 
     SUMMARY 
     A method of establishing a virtual USB interface for a non-USB device, comprising the steps of establishing a non-USB interface to communicate with the non-USB device, generating a virtual USB physical device object to provide a USB transport layer driver, establishing the virtual USB interface to communicate with the USB transport layer driver, filtering a transmitting command of the USB transport layer driver based on the virtual USB interface, and filtering a returned information of the non-USB device based on the non-USB interface. 
     A non-USB device with a driver carrying out the steps of establishing a non-USB interface to communicate with the non-USB device, generating a virtual USB physical device object to provide a USB transport layer driver, establishing a virtual USB interface to communicate with the USB transport layer driver, filtering commands sent by the USB transport layer driver based on the virtual USB interface, and filtering returned data of the non-USB device based on the non-USB interface. 
     The foregoing has outlined rather broadly the features and technical advantages of the present invention in order that the detailer description of the invention that follows may be better understood. Additional features and advantages of the invention will be described hereinafter, and from the subject of the claim of the invention. It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the conception and specific embodiment disclosed may be readily utilized as a basic for modifying or designing other structures or processes for carrying out the same purpose as the present invention. It should also be realized by those skilled in the art that such equivalent construction do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  shows a non-USB device connected to a host controller system according to one embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 2  shows a flow chart for the non-USB device to establish the virtual USB interface according to one embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 3  shows a flow chart of step  204  in  FIG. 2  according to one embodiment of the present invention; and 
         FIG. 4  shows a flow chart of the step  204  in  FIG. 2  according to another embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     The method of the present invention establishes a virtual USB interface for a non-USB device. In one embodiment of the present invention, the non-USB device uses the PCIe as a transmission interface for a bluetooth wireless device. However, the non-USB device in the present invention is not limited in the bluetooth wireless device, and the transmission interface is not limited to PCIe; any device encompassed by the scope the present invention may be used. 
       FIG. 1  shows a non-USB device connected to a host controller system according to one embodiment of the present invention. In  FIG. 1 , the PCIe is used as the transmission interface of the bluetooth wireless device, which has a controller program  101  and a driver  102 , and is connected to a host controller through a PCIe  103 . The host controller has a USB transport layer driver  104  and other higher level driver  105 . The driver  102  can operate and establish a PCIe  150  and a virtual USB interface  160 . The higher level driver  105  uses the USB transport layer driver  104  to communicate with the driver  102  through the virtual USB interface  160 . The driver  102  uses the PCIe  150  to communicate with the controller program  101  through the PCIe hardware bus  103 . 
     As shown in  FIG. 1 , the driver  102  establishes the PCIe  150  and the virtual USB interface  160 . In operation, the driver  102  generates a virtual USB physical device object (PDO) to provide the USB transport layer driver  104 . The USB transport layer driver  104  can load a virtual USB physical device object identification (ID), and that is a virtual USB device. The USB transport layer driver  104  communicates with the virtual USB device through the virtual USB interface  160 . 
       FIG. 2  shows a flow chart of how the non-USB device establishes the virtual USB interface according to one embodiment of the present invention. In step  201 , a non-USB interface is established to communicate with the non-USB device. In step  202 , a virtual USB physical device object is generated to provide a USB transport layer driver. In step  203 , a virtual USB interface is established to communicate with the USB transport layer driver. 
     In step  204 , the virtual USB interface filters the commands sent by the USB transport layer driver, and the non-USB interface filters returned data of the non-USB device. 
     As shown in  FIG. 1  and  FIG. 2 , the driver  102  in  FIG. 1  can operate to implement the method in  FIG. 2 . As shown in  FIG. 1 , the driver  102  generates a virtual USB physical device object to produce a virtual USB device. For the command transmitted by the USB transport layer driver  104 , the virtual USB device supports all of the USB functions and operates all of the commands transmitted by USB transport layer driver  104 . In practice, the driver  102  filters the command transmitted by the USB transport layer driver  104  with the virtual USB interface  160 ; for example, the driver  102  executes the initial setting of the USB and the related command of the USB level, and sends the related commands of the bluetooth wireless physical layer to the bluetooth wireless device. Preferably, the driver  102  can directly operate the USB initial setting and the related command of the USB level. 
     The following shows the operation of the virtual USB interface filtering the command sent by the USB transport layer.  FIG. 3  shows a flow chart of step  204  in  FIG. 2  according to one embodiment of the present invention. In step  301 , the virtual USB interface  160  receives the command of the USB transport layer driver  104 . In step  302 , operations are performed to check if the command is periodical. If it is, step  303  is performed; otherwise, step  304  is performed. In step  303 , the command is stored in a queue. In step  304 , the command is sent to the PCIe  150 . 
     As shown in  FIG. 3 , the driver  102  supports all of the USB related functions, including the function of periodical sending command. Accordingly, the virtual USB interface  160  uses the periodical command, such as the command of voice related data is periodically sent to the PCIe  150 . 
     Similar to the method in  FIG. 3 , the PCIe  150  also filters the returned data of the bluetooth wireless device.  FIG. 4  shows a flow chart of the step  204  in  FIG. 2  according to another embodiment of the present invention. In step  401 , the PCIe  150  receives the returned data of the bluetooth device. In step  402 , operations are performed to check if the returned data is USB related data. If it is, step  403  is performed; otherwise, step  404  is performed. In step  403 , the data is sent to the USB transport layer driver. In step  404 , the data is discarded. 
     As shown in  FIG. 4 , the PCIe  150  sends back the data of the USB level to the USB transport layer driver, and discards the data of the non-USB level. 
     In conclusion, the method of the present invention establishes the virtual USB interface and the device for the non-USB device, uses the driver to produce the virtual USB physical device object, and operates the USB transport layer driver and communicates with the virtual USB device. Consequently, the purpose of establishing the virtual USB interface is implemented. 
     Although the disclosure and its advantages have been described in detail, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions and alterations can be made herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure as defined by the appended claims. For example, many of the processes discussed above can be implemented in different methodologies or replaced by other processes, or both. 
     Moreover, the scope of the present application is not intended to be limited to the particular embodiments of the process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter, means, methods and steps described in the specification. As one of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate from the disclosure of the disclosure , processes, machines, manufacture, compositions of matter, means, methods, or steps, presently existing or later to be developed, that perform substantially the same function or achieve substantially the same result as the corresponding embodiments described herein may be utilized according to the disclosure. Accordingly, the appended claims are intended to include within their scope such processes, machines, manufacture, compositions of matter, means, methods, or steps.