Patent ID: 8068245

Claim:
A method of transmitting data between a computer system and an external printing device, the method comprising: processing an image at the computer system for printing; generating, at the computer system, a data packet that embodies the image processing in accordance with a communications protocol, the protocol defined to consist essentially of: a first layer defining transmission line, transmitters, and receivers for transmission of the data packet, a second layer defining encoding and decoding of the data packet, and a third layer defining a frame format of the data packet, wherein generating the data packet comprises encoding the data packet according to the second layer of the protocol in a frame format according to the third layer of the protocol; transmitting the data packet from the computer system to the external printing device, wherein the data packet is transmitted according to the first layer of the protocol; and decoding the data packet in accordance with the second layer of the protocol at the external printing device.