[DotGNU]Re: Microsoft Prohibits GPLed Work via Licensing

[Seth Johnson]

Bill Lance wrote:
> 
> Interesting.  Neither one is in the USPTO search
> database at:
> 
> http://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/search-bool.html


You're right.  But when you click on the Patent Number
putton in the top toolbar thingy, you can find them.  (See
below; they are for SMB, and are dated before 1996.  I've
snipped everything but the Abstracts, Background and
Summaries)

Seth Johnson


United States Patent 5,265,261 

Method and system for network communications using raw mode
protocols 

Abstract

A method and system for sending data from a first computer
through a communications line to a second computer. The
second computer includes a redirector, a transport, a data
buffer, and an application program. The method and system
provides the transport with a read request to send data from
the first computer to the second computer, and with a
receive network control block which directs the transport to
store the next data it receives directly in the data buffer.
The transport sends the read request to the first computer.
The first computer stores the data identified by the read
request in a data block without a header. The first computer
transmits the data block over the communications line to the
transport. Using information contained in the network
control block, the transport stores the requested data
without the header directly in the data buffer. 


                                            Description

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains
material which is subject to copyright protection. The
copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile
reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent
disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office
patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all
copyrights whatsoever. 

TECHNICAL FIELD 

This invention relates generally to a computer system for
transmitting data on a computer network, and more
specifically, to a method and system for transmitting data
in raw mode. 

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 

Local Area Networks (LANs) are very popular means for
interconnecting computers, especially personal computers.
These computers are interconnected, in part, so that data
may be electronically transferred from one computer to
another and so that users can share resources such as files. 

Several different type computers and computer operating
systems can exist on a given network. For example, some of
the computers can run Microsoft's OS/2 operating system and
other computers can run a Unix-based operating system. These
different computer systems need to transfer information in a
protocol. The use of protocols in diverse computer systems
is somewhat analogous to the use of the transmission
protocols of AM and FM radio. An AM radio can only receive
AM protocol signals, an FM radio can only receive FM
protocol signals. Similarly, diverse computer systems cannot
communicate unless they use the same protocol. 

One such protocol for computer system file sharing is
defined in the document entitled "Microsoft Networks/OpenNET
FILE SHARING PROTOCOL," which is available from Intel
Corporation as Intel Part Number 138446, and is hereby
incorporated by reference. Systems that use that protocol
can obtain or provide remote file services in a network
environment. This protocol is referred to as the System
Message Block (SMB) protocol because the protocol defines
how data is to be packaged with SMB headers to be
transmitted on the network. The protocol defines a server
which provides file services and a consumer that accesses
those services. 

The SMB protocol defines how typical file access functions
are to be accomplished on a network. For example, to read
data from a file the consumer formats an SMB-read request
block and then sends the block to the server. When the
server receives the request, it retrieves the data from its
file system, formats an SMB-read data response message, and
sends the message with the data to the consumer. The
consumer would then repeat this process for the next part of
the file to be read. 

FIG. 2A shows how a consumer receives data from an SMB-read.
In this example, an application program makes a call to the
operating system requesting a file read and passing the
address of the buffer 21 for the requested data. The kernel
of the operating system determines that a file access is
required and passes the call to the redirector, if the file
is stored on network device. 

The redirector effects the read request by calling the
transport system and requesting the data be stored in the
SMB-buffer 23. The SMB-buffer 23 may not be large enough to
store the entire data requested. The application program may
request a large portion of the file, for example, 64K bytes.
A typical size of the SMB-buffer data area may be 4K.
Consequently, the redirector will need to send 16 requests
for 4K of data each. For each of the 16 requests, the
redirector initializes a network control block (NCB) to
point to an SMB-buffer that contains the SMB-read command.
The NCB also contains a pointer to the SMB-buffer in which
to store the requested data. The redirector then calls the
transport system. 

The transport system transports the SMB-read command to the
file server. When the response to the read is received, the
transport system stores the SMB data directly in the SMB
buffer of the redirector and returns to the redirector. The
received SMB data contains both header information and data. 

The redirector then stores the 4k bytes of SMB-buffer data,
not the header, in the application buffer. The redirector
then proceeds to send an SMB request to get the next 4k of
data and when it receives the data it copies the data into
the appropriate location in the application buffer. This
process continues until the entire 64K of data is received. 

The use of the prior message protocol has several
disadvantages. First, there is a high overhead associated
with formatting and sending NCB and SMB block. Second, the
use of small blocks is inefficient to transfer large blocks
of data. Third, there is duplicate copying occurring as the
transport system copies the data to the SMB buffer and then
the redirector copies the data to the application buffer. It
would be desirable to have a method and system for
implementing a protocol in which data can be transferred
without these disadvantages. 

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 

It is an object of the present invention to provide a method
and system for sending a write request on a network and then
sending the data directly from the application buffer to the
network. 

It is another object of the present invention to provide a
method and system for receiving data from a network and
storing the data directly in the application buffer. 

It is another object of the present invention to provide a
method in a computer system of requesting a read raw block
transfer and a write raw block transfer in an efficient
format. 

These and other objects, which will become apparent as the
invention is more fully described below, are obtained by an
improved method and system for communication between a
server and consumer. 

----

United States Patent 5,265,261 

Method and system for network communications using raw mode
protocols 

Abstract

A method and system for sending data from a first computer
through a communications line to a second computer. The
second computer includes a redirector, a transport, a data
buffer, and an application program. The method and system
provides the transport with a read request to send data from
the first computer to the second computer, and with a
receive network control block which directs the transport to
store the next data it receives directly in the data buffer.
The transport sends the read request to the first computer.
The first computer stores the data identified by the read
request in a data block without a header. The first computer
transmits the data block over the communications line to the
transport. Using information contained in the network
control block, the transport stores the requested data
without the header directly in the data buffer. 


Description

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains
material which is subject to copyright protection. The
copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile
reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent
disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office
patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all
copyrights whatsoever. 

TECHNICAL FIELD 

This invention relates generally to a computer system for
transmitting data on a computer network, and more
specifically, to a method and system for transmitting data
in raw mode. 

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 

Local Area Networks (LANs) are very popular means for
interconnecting computers, especially personal computers.
These computers are interconnected, in part, so that data
may be electronically transferred from one computer to
another and so that users can share resources such as files. 

Several different type computers and computer operating
systems can exist on a given network. For example, some of
the computers can run Microsoft's OS/2 operating system and
other computers can run a Unix-based operating system. These
different computer systems need to transfer information in a
protocol. The use of protocols in diverse computer systems
is somewhat analogous to the use of the transmission
protocols of AM and FM radio. An AM radio can only receive
AM protocol signals, an FM radio can only receive FM
protocol signals. Similarly, diverse computer systems cannot
communicate unless they use the same protocol. 

One such protocol for computer system file sharing is
defined in the document entitled "Microsoft Networks/OpenNET
FILE SHARING PROTOCOL," which is available from Intel
Corporation as Intel Part Number 138446, and is hereby
incorporated by reference. Systems that use that protocol
can obtain or provide remote file services in a network
environment. This protocol is referred to as the System
Message Block (SMB) protocol because the protocol defines
how data is to be packaged with SMB headers to be
transmitted on the network. The protocol defines a server
which provides file services and a consumer that accesses
those services. 

The SMB protocol defines how typical file access functions
are to be accomplished on a network. For example, to read
data from a file the consumer formats an SMB-read request
block and then sends the block to the server. When the
server receives the request, it retrieves the data from its
file system, formats an SMB-read data response message, and
sends the message with the data to the consumer. The
consumer would then repeat this process for the next part of
the file to be read. 

FIG. 2A shows how a consumer receives data from an SMB-read.
In this example, an application program makes a call to the
operating system requesting a file read and passing the
address of the buffer 21 for the requested data. The kernel
of the operating system determines that a file access is
required and passes the call to the redirector, if the file
is stored on network device. 

The redirector effects the read request by calling the
transport system and requesting the data be stored in the
SMB-buffer 23. The SMB-buffer 23 may not be large enough to
store the entire data requested. The application program may
request a large portion of the file, for example, 64K bytes.
A typical size of the SMB-buffer data area may be 4K.
Consequently, the redirector will need to send 16 requests
for 4K of data each. For each of the 16 requests, the
redirector initializes a network control block (NCB) to
point to an SMB-buffer that contains the SMB-read command.
The NCB also contains a pointer to the SMB-buffer in which
to store the requested data. The redirector then calls the
transport system. 

The transport system transports the SMB-read command to the
file server. When the response to the read is received, the
transport system stores the SMB data directly in the SMB
buffer of the redirector and returns to the redirector. The
received SMB data contains both header information and data. 

The redirector then stores the 4k bytes of SMB-buffer data,
not the header, in the application buffer. The redirector
then proceeds to send an SMB request to get the next 4k of
data and when it receives the data it copies the data into
the appropriate location in the application buffer. This
process continues until the entire 64K of data is received. 

The use of the prior message protocol has several
disadvantages. First, there is a high overhead associated
with formatting and sending NCB and SMB block. Second, the
use of small blocks is inefficient to transfer large blocks
of data. Third, there is duplicate copying occurring as the
transport system copies the data to the SMB buffer and then
the redirector copies the data to the application buffer. It
would be desirable to have a method and system for
implementing a protocol in which data can be transferred
without these disadvantages. 

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 

It is an object of the present invention to provide a method
and system for sending a write request on a network and then
sending the data directly from the application buffer to the
network. 

It is another object of the present invention to provide a
method and system for receiving data from a network and
storing the data directly in the application buffer. 

It is another object of the present invention to provide a
method in a computer system of requesting a read raw block
transfer and a write raw block transfer in an efficient
format. 

These and other objects, which will become apparent as the
invention is more fully described below, are obtained by an
improved method and system for communication between a
server and consumer.