Aspects of the invention relate to hard copy imaging systems, print server systems, and print server connectivity methods.
Enabling a user to employ printer services available over a network involves a complex set of tasks. Initial set-up in current network environments often requires creation and appropriate linking of print queues, printer objects and print servers. In order to forward a print job for processing, a client processor usually directs the print job to a network queue, a print server processes the job from the queue and then sends it to a printer for printing or other appropriate processing tasks. In such an environment, troubleshooting can be both difficult and time-consuming.
Certain printers may include print server cards that enable connection of a printer to a network without requiring a connected host computer. Such printer server cards include the “JetDirect” card and software, (JetDirect is a trademark of the Assignee of this application). A JetDirect print server card enables a printer to be connected to a network and to be used by multiple client processors. Upon being so connected, the JetDirect card and software causes transmission of a “Service Advertising Protocol” (SAP) that is an advertisement of the printer's availability. If the network to which the printer is connected is running in accordance with the “NetWare” network protocol or similar Network Operating Systems (NetWare is a trademark of the Novell Corporation, San Jose, Calif.), the network is controlled by a server which includes a database (i.e. called the “bindery”) for receiving and storing SAPs from newly connected printers.
Each SAP includes a limited amount of information that defines the originating printer, its network address, and some of its capabilities. A user requiring access to a printer calls a utility program running on the user's client processor. That utility program, e.g., the JetAdmin product, selects a mode to find SAPs stored in a network server. After being accessed, the SAP information is downloaded to the client processor and is displayed to the user. The user then selects an appropriate printer and requests that a print queue be set up in the network server to enable interconnection between the client processor and the selected printer. Specifying the print queue and other data may be required to be inputted, by a user, before appropriate interconnection of client and server devices can be accomplished. Since establishment of a network printer interconnection requires a level of sophistication on the part of the user, less sophisticated users may often experience difficulties in establishing a proper printer/client connection.
Furthermore, traditional print servers such as the Hewlett Packard JetDirect 310x connect a printer to the print server using a direct connection such as, for example, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) link. IEEE 1284 parallel port or RS 232 serial port connection have also been used for direct connection of printers to print servers. Input to the print server has typically been a LAN connection, which may be a wired or a wireless connection as shown in
The print server 102 may be configured to receive print job requests from varied sources via various communication links. These links may be served by a variety of network communication protocols. However, if a print job is received by the print sever 102 via a new communication link operating with a new network communication protocol to which the print server 102 is not configured, then a user may have to purchase a new print server that is configured to operate with the new network communication protocol, or forego the new link technology.
Traditional print servers can be popular for wired LANs, such as, for example, IEEE 802.3 and 802.3u, 10/100T, when a new link technology (e.g., 802.11, Bluetooth®) evolves, a customer may have to choose between the two or purchase a new additional print server for individual printers. In the case of new installation having 802.11 wireless connections, purchasing a single 802.11 print server may be a viable option. However, it still does not address printing with other new technologies, such as, for example, Bluetooth.
Thus, there is a need to solve the above-identified problems encountered by the prior approaches.
Aspects of the invention overcome the above-identified drawbacks by enabling a new print server to connect an existing network of printers, either wired or wireless, to a new communication link technology without the need to purchase an additional print server for individual printers. At least some embodiments of the invention relate to hard copy imaging systems, print server systems, and print server connectivity methods.
In some embodiments, a hard copy imaging system having a first communications network configured to operate in a first communication link format, a second communications network configured to operate in a second communication link format, a plurality of hard imaging devices communicatively coupled to the first communications network, an external device communicatively coupled to the second communications network, the external device is configured to forward a print request to at least one of the plurality of hard imaging devices for processing. A print server is communicatively coupled to a plurality of hard imaging devices via the first communications network, and to an external device via the second communications network. The print server is configured to receive a print request from the external device in the second communication link format and automatically generate a translated print request in the first communication link format for processing by at least one of the plurality of hard imaging devices. The print server is further configured to automatically generate and communicate a signal to the external device, the signal being indicative of individual hard imaging devices among the plurality of hard imaging devices that are supported by the print server even if the plurality of hard imaging devices are not configured to support the second communication link format.
Other print server systems, methods, and computer-readable media are provided.
The printers 202, 204, and 206 may be configured to form hard images. Such printers and printers identified in various embodiments may be alternatively referred as “hard imaging devices.” Hard images are images physically rendered upon output media, such as sheet paper, roll paper, envelopes, transparencies, labels, etc. The printers 202, 204, and 206 may be implemented as laser printers, inkjet printers, impact printers, copiers, facsimile devices, multiple function peripheral (MFP) devices, or otherwise arranged to form hard images. The printers 202, 204, and 206 may each have the same or configurations that are different from other printers, in a given implementation of system 200. Printers 202, 204, and 206 connected to the communications network 210 are merely exemplary. It will be understood that more or fewer number of printers may be coupled to the communications network 210.
The print server 208 (e.g., new printer server level 1) is configured to receive and process requests from one or more external devices 214, 216. The print server 208 forwards the received requests to one or more printers 202, 204, 206 for further processing (e.g., printing) via the communications network 210. The print server 208 may be configured to support multiple discovery techniques such as, for example, Bluetooth Service Discovery protocol or Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) Simple Service Discovery protocol, and advertise the printers it supports. A user of the external devices 214, 216 may select a printer among printers supported by the print server 208 and submit a print request to the print server 208 via the communication network 212.
Such advertising by the print server 208 may include sending information from the print server 208 to the external devices 214, 216 regarding printers supported by the print server 208. Further, such advertising may be performed by the print server 208 even if individual printers that are communicatively coupled to the print server 208 are incapable of processing a request directly received by such printers from one or more of the external devices 214, 216. For example, the print server 208 may advertise that it supports UPnP or Bluetooth protocols though the printers 202, 204, and 206 are not configured to support such protocols. In such cases, the print server 208 is configured to receive a print request from the external devices 214, 216 and translate the received request into a format (e.g., communication link format) compatible with the printers 202, 204, 206. Further details regarding the print server 208 are described below with reference to
The communications network 210 is configured to communicatively couple the printers 202, 204, 206 to the print server 208. For example, the communications network 210 may be a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), or other network configuration configured to communicate requests (e.g., print processing requests) from the print server 208 to the printers 202, 204, and 206, respectively.
The communications network 212 is configured to communicatively couple the external devices 214, 216 to the print server 208. In one case, the communications network 212 may be a different network (e.g., network architecture) or a network having a different link technology (e.g., communication link technology) when compared to the communications network 210. For example, the communications network 212 may be provided with network architecture to accommodate Bluetooth communications protocol, or 802.11 communication protocol. The communications networks 210 and 212 may be individually configured in any suitable manner to provide communication of electronic data, programming or other information between communicatively coupled devices. In another case, architecture or communication link format of the communications network 212 may be configured to be similar to that of the communications network 210. For example, the communications networks 210 and 212 may be configured to have similar communication link formats but with differing communication protocol layers.
The printers 302, 304, and 306 may be configured to form hard images and have some functions that are common with the printers 202, 204, and 206 described above with reference to
The print server 1208 may be configured to be similar to that of the print server 208 but with additional features as described below. By moving select printer architecture to the print sever 1208, architectural complexity (e.g., both hardware and software) of the printers 302, 304, and 306 is reduced thereby rendering such printers to have simple architecture. For example, printers 302, 304, and 306 may be configured to operate using a single printer protocol, and intelligence (e.g., architecture) to receive external print requests (e.g., from devices 1214 and 1216) in varied communication link formats is made resident on the print server 1208. Thus, translation of external print requests from one communication link format to another, and network protocol tasks previously performed by printers 202, 204, 206 (
Details regarding the communications networks 1210 and 1212, and the external devices 1214 and 1216 were set forth above with reference to the embodiment of
The print server system 400 includes printers 2302, 2304, and 2306, print server 2308, communications networks 2210, 2212, and external devices 2214, 2216, details of which have been described above with reference to
If a print request received from an external device (e.g., 2214 or 2216) is in a format that is understood by the print server 2208, then such a request is processed by the print server 2208. Processing of the print request may include translating the print request from a communication format or technology link format (e.g., compatible with communication network 2212 and external devices 2214, 2216) into another communication format or technology link format (e.g., compatible with communication network 2210 and printers 2302, 2304, 2306). Processing of the print request further includes forwarding the processed request to a select printer among printers 2302, 2304, or 2306 for further processing (e.g., printing) the request.
If a print request received from an external device (e.g., 2214, or 2216) is not understood by the print server 2208, then such request is forwarded by the print server 2208 to the external service 402 for further processing. The external service may be a part of the print server 2208 or an additional component on the network (e.g., 2212 or 2210). In one example, external service 402 may be configured to convert the print request that is not understood by the print server 2208 into a format that is compatible with the print server 2208. Such converted request is forwarded to the print server 2208 for processing as described above. In another example, the external service 402 may be configured to return the request back to sender (e.g., external device such as devices 2214, 2216 responsible for originating the request) with an indication that the request could not be processed by the print server 2208.
The communications interface 502 is configured to communicate electronic data externally of the print server 208, for example, with respect to the communications networks 210 and 212. In one embodiment, the interface 502 is arranged to provide input/output communications with respect to external devices (e.g., 1214, 1216) and printers (e.g., 202, 204, and 206). The interface 502 may comprise a parallel port, USB port, EIO slot, network interface card (e.g., JetDirect™), IEEE 1394 connector, and/or other appropriate configuration capable of communicating electronic data.
The processing circuitry 504 is configured to process data (e.g., translation of information in one communication link format or technological link format into another communication format or technological link format) and forwarding of the translated requests to select printers (e.g., printers 202, 204, 206, or 302, 304, 306) for further processing. The processing circuitry 504 may also be configured to forward external print requests that are not understood by the print server 208 to service 402 (
In another embodiment, the processing circuitry 504 is configured to register users authorized to send print requests to select printers that are communicatively coupled to communications network (e.g., 210, 1210, 2210) in accordance with various embodiments of the invention. Information regarding such registered users may be stored in a storage device 508 of the print server 208. Users identified in a list stored in the storage device 508 may be considered as registered users of a select printer among a plurality of printers (e.g., 202, 204, 206, or 302, 304, 306), while those users that are absent from the list are considered as unregistered users of such printers.
The print server 208 includes the storage device 506 configured to store electronic data, file systems having one or more electronic files, programming such as executable instructions (e.g., software and/or firmware), and/or other digital information and may include processor-usable media. Processor-usable media includes any article of manufacture that can contain, store, or maintain programming, data and/or digital information for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system including processing circuitry in the exemplary embodiment. For example, exemplary processor-usable media may include any one of physical media such as electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, and infrared or semiconductor media. Some more specific examples of processor-usable media include, but are not limited to, a portable magnetic computer diskette, such as a floppy diskette, zip disk, hard drive, random access memory, read only memory, flash memory, cache memory, and/or other configurations capable of storing programming, data, or other digital information.
The storage device 208 includes a database 508 that may be stored with information for performing translation from one communication link format or technological link format to another. For example, the database 508 may include information for converting a print request received from external devices (e.g., 214, 216) into a communication link format that is compatible with printers 202, 204, 206 that are communicatively coupled to the communications network 210, or printers 302, 304, and 306 that are communicatively coupled to the communications network 1210.
The print server 208 may be configured to implement such features as, for example, accounting, authentication, and authorization functions. The print server 208 may also be configured to keep track of the print requests received from external devices 214, 216 (
The print server 208 may also be configured to implement such bridge functions as, for example, J2EE (Java 2 Enterprise Edition), UPnP, and .NET. J2EE technology and its component based model simplifies enterprise development and deployment, manages server infrastructure and supports web services between external devices 214, 216 and the print server 208.
UPnP architecture leverages TCP/IP and web technologies to enable seamless proximity networking between divergent communication networks (e.g., communication networks 210, 212) in addition to control and data transfer among such communication networks.
The above described authentication and authorization functions may be equally implemented in print servers 1208 and 2208, respectively, shown in
The processing circuitry 504 includes a controller 612 (e.g., an SDRAM controller), another controller 614 (e.g., a flash memory controller), an embedded central processing unit (CPU) 616, and link layer media access controllers (MAC) 618, 620. In the exemplary embodiment of
The memory 604 is configured to store data for operation of print server (e.g., 208) as well as buffering print data as it flows through the print server 208 in accordance with various embodiments of the invention.
The physical layer components 608, 609 may be individually configured to link communication formats of the respective link layer MAC's 618, 620. The print server 208 is configured to receive external data via physical layer of one network (e.g., communication network 212), process the received data, and then transmit the processed data over another physical layer to another network (e.g., communication network 210).
The status indicators 610 may be configured to provide an indication of status of the plurality of printers (e.g., 202, 204, 206 or 302, 304, 306) in accordance with various embodiments.
In one case, CPU 616 may be configured to control various functions of the print server 208. The memory 606 includes native firmware circuitry to perform translation functions, as described above, in accordance with various embodiments of the invention. The firmware may be created using an application program to implement interfaces between various components of the print server system 200 (
Individual MACs 618, 620 may be configured to provide link layer access for similar or different communication or technological links (e.g., 210, 212). Examples of such communication or technological links include WLAN, WPAN, WMAN, PAN, LAN, including Ethernet, any version of IEEE 802.11, and Bluetooth communication technologies.
Referring to
At a step 702, the communication networks (e.g., 210, 212) are communicatively coupled to the print server (e.g., 208, 1208, and 2208). The process then proceeds to step 704.
At a step 704, the print server is communicatively linked to printers, (e.g., (202, 204, 206) or (302, 304, and 306)) via the communications network 210. The process then proceeds to step 706.
At a step 706, the print server is communicatively linked to external devices (e.g., 214, 216) via the communications network (e.g., 212). The process then proceeds to step 708.
At a step 708, a print request from the external devices is translated or converted from one communication link format or technological link format as understood by the external devices coupled to the communication network 212 into another communication link format or technological link format as understood by the printers coupled to the communications network 210. The process then proceeds to step 710.
At a step 710, the print server informs the external devices about the printers it supports.
Exemplary advantages of various aspects of the invention include (i) leveraging the existing network of printers to a new link technology without a need to upgrade individual printers with a new print server, (ii) providing additional functionality or services to the new print server, (iii) enabling traditional print servers to be simpler, less complex, and utilize less expensive technology, (iv) the new print server may be configured to act as a proxy to external services that could provide new functionality that has not yet been implemented by the new print server. The new print server may be configured to have protocols that automatically forward requests that are not understood by the new print server to external services configured to fulfill the requests.
The protection sought is not to be limited to the disclosed embodiments, which are given by way of example only, but instead is to be limited only by the scope of the appended claims.