The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 26, 1998
Filed:
Oct. 06, 1995
Thomas D Lawrence, Mission Viejo, CA (US);
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A method for dynamically determining a media type of a LAN to which a network device is connected, includes executing at least one network interface driver which supports a predefined network media type, and which has one or more configuration tables and one or more logical boards for processing communication packets having different frame types. Each configuration table is associated with one of the boards, which each includes a frame type identifying value that identifies a combination of frame type and media type for packets processed by the corresponding board. A multiplexer software module is executed, which interfaces between the network interface driver and one or more protocol stacks, and which routes packets from the network interface driver to respective protocol stacks. An executed protocol stack obtains an entry point of a network interface driver service routine via the multiplexer software module, obtains a location for one of the configuration tables via the service routine, reads the frame type identifying value in the one configuration table, and determines the network media type of the network interface driver by comparing the frame type identifying value read from the one configuration table to one or more values that correspond to a predetermined media type.