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:
Aug. 25, 2009
Filed:
Mar. 22, 2005
Aillil Ian Halsema, Los Angeles, CA (US);
Aillil Ian Halsema, Los Angeles, CA (US);
Xerox Corporation, Stamford, CT (US);
Abstract
A hierarchical architecture for a network printing system having a plurality of electronic printers and printing systems is provided. The hierarchical architecture decomposes each electronic printer and printing system's Digital Front End (DFE) and print engine into a hierarchical set of networked printer components communicating via a many-to-many network protocol. Print data is routed from component-to-component based on the receiving component's self-advertised function and availability. Adding duplicate printer components to the network environment scales or increases the reliability and performance of the network environment. A sufficiently large set of inexpensive printer components may be configured to achieve any desired level of reliability and performance through redundancy. Additionally, a network of DFE printer components (input and output spoolers, and RIP processors) can control multiple print engine components, improving the prior art 1:1 ratio between print engine components and DFE components.