Patent ID: 7734758

Claim:
A universal serial bus (USB) remote host control driver, comprising: a port for connection to a network, the remote host control driver configured to communicate with one or more USB device adapters via the port over the network, each of the one or more USB device adapters having a discrete network address; a network protocol stack, the protocol stack configured for encapsulating USB packets in network packets and for decapsulating USB packets from network packets, wherein the USB device adapters are coupled to USB devices that send USB packets to a USB protocol stack, which passes those packets to a network bridging task that identifies address information associated with the USB devices and the remote host control driver, and that passes the address information to the network protocol stack; a polling routine configured to poll each of possible USB device adapters connected to the network in accordance with a candidate list, and compile a master list of only the possible USB device adapters which responded to the polling and are therefore currently capable of establishing a connection over the network, wherein the candidate list is initially configured with one or more possible USB device adapters, wherein the polling routine is further configured to encapsulate a USB packet in one or more network packets; and a memory for storing the master list, the master list containing the discrete network address of each of the one or more USB device adapters which responded to the polling and a corresponding identifier of each USB device connected via the corresponding USB device adapter to the remote host control driver.