Patent ID: 7356046

Claim:
An apparatus for facilitating communications between a control station and a remote device over a packet-switching network, comprising: a) a software component having a set of instructions stored on a computer-readable medium and executable by a processor of the control station, the instructions comprising: i) instructions for communicating data from a host application computer program of the control station to the remote device, comprising: 1) a first transmission portion configured to accept signals from the host application computer program in a non-packet-switched format, 2) a second transmission portion configured to convert the host application computer program signals into packet-switched data for transmission to a hardware component by means of a packet-switching network, and 3) a third transmission portion configured to generate commands to satisfy at least one host application computer program handshaking protocol; and ii) instructions for receiving data from a hardware component, comprising: 1) a first receiving portion configured to accept packet-switched data from the packet-switching network, 2) a second receiving portion configured to convert the packet-switched data into non-packet-switched signals having a format compatible with the host application computer program, and 3) a third receiving portion configured to generate commands to satisfy at least one host application computer program handshaking protocol; and b) a hardware component proximate the remote device, comprising: i) a transceiver portion electrically coupled to the packet-switching network and configured to: 1) accept packet-switched signal data from the software component, and 2) send packet-switched data to the software component; ii) a remote processor coupled between the transceiver portion and the remote device, the remote processor being configured to: 1) convert packet-switched data received from the transceiver to non-packet-switched signals having a format compatible with the remote device, and 2) convert non-packet-switched signals from the remote device to packet-switched data; and iii) a bidirectional data interface electrically coupled to the remote device and the remote processor to communicate signals from the remote device to the remote processor and to communicate signals from the remote processor to the remote device, wherein the control station and the remote device are in communication with each other via the packet-switching network, the control station and remote device using non-packet-switched signals to effect the communication.