Patent · US Expired

Apparatus to connect a client computer to a computer data network

US6070199A · kind A · utility

24Cited by
14References
1Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateNov 13, 1996
Grant dateMay 30, 2000
Priority date
Expiry dateNov 13, 2016

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04L69/08
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A system ling client computers, particularly client notebook computers, to communicate with a computer local area network (LAN) using infrared or other transparent links. The system includes a pseudo nic driver, transparent communication hardware, and a transparent link in a network interface unit. The pseudo nic driver hides the technical details of the transparent communications by presenting itself as a traditional nic driver to the client networking software. The network interface unit bi-directionally communicates via the transparent link with an, for example, an infrared enabled client computer and performs the necessary bridging between the low level infrared signals and traditional LAN system such as Ethernet.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.