Patent ID: 7870225

Claim:
A network-attached device (NAD) access system wherein a host, having an internal host system bus and running an operating system, controls an external device through a carrying general-purpose network traffic using a certain network protocol, the system comprising: a network interface card (NIC) installed at the host for providing a general purpose network connection between the host and the network and via the network to other devices coupled to the network; a network-attached device (NAD) having a data storage to store data, the NAD coupled to the network for receiving device level access commands from the host in data link frames according to the certain network protocol through the network; and a device driver, running at the host, for creating a virtual host bus adapter in software controlling the NAD through the network via the NIC, the device driver enumerating NAD that are available over the network, not directly attached to the host internal system bus, to make the host recognize the NAD as a host local device; the virtual host bus adapter controlling the NAD in a way indistinguishable from the way as a physical host bus adapter device controls device so that the host recognizes the NAD as if it is a local device connected directly to the system bus of the host.