Virtual universal serial bus peripheral controller

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10437760-B2
Application number	US-201715456591-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 13, 2017
Priority date	Mar 13, 2017
Publication date	Oct 8, 2019
Grant date	Oct 8, 2019

Abstract

A method to intercept an universal serial bus (USB) related request and to respond the intercepted request in a virtualized environment includes connecting a virtual USB peripheral controller in a virtualization software in the virtualized environment to a virtual machine in the virtualized environment. An USB data access request generated by the virtual machine may be intercept by the virtual USB peripheral controller so that the USB data access request does not reach a kernel space of the virtualization software and physical hardware resources supporting the virtualized environment. The method further includes generating a response according to the USB data access request and a process called by a firmware framework module of the virtual USB peripheral controller and transmitting generated response towards the virtual machine.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method to intercept an universal serial bus (USB) related request and respond to the intercepted request in a virtualized environment, wherein the virtualized environment includes a physical host with physical hardware resources that executes a virtualization software and supports one or more virtual machines, the method comprising:
connecting a virtual USB peripheral controller in the virtualization software to a virtual machine;
intercepting a USB data access request from the virtual machine to prevent the USB data access request from reaching a kernel space of the virtualization software and the physical hardware resources;
generating a response according to the USB data access request and a process called by a firmware framework module of the virtual USB peripheral controller, wherein the firmware framework module resides in a user space of the virtualization software or in an application on a remote user device; and
transmitting the generated response towards the virtual machine.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the connecting of the virtual USB peripheral controller and the virtual machine further comprises transmitting a USB device descriptor of the virtual USB peripheral controller to a guest operating system of the virtual machine, and wherein the USB device descriptor includes a vendor identifier of the virtual USB peripheral controller and a product identifier of the virtual USB peripheral controller.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the remote user device is configured to access one or more services provided by a management server in the virtualized environment.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the intercepting of the USB data access request is performed at a user space of the virtualization software or an application of a remote user device.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining whether the USB data access request matches a USB data access request predefined in a user-defined logic module of the virtual USB peripheral controller.

6. The method of claim 5 , in response to a determination that the USB data access request matches the USB data access request predefined in the user-defined logic module, the method further comprising:
calling a customized process from the user-defined logic module so that the generating of the response is based on the customized process.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the generated response is inconsistent with the USB data access request.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the generating of the response includes generating a response based on the customized process including data sizes different from the data sizes requested in the USB data access request.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the generating of the response includes generating a response based on the customized process with a transmission rate different from the transmission rate requested in the USB data access request.

10. The method of claim 5 , in response to a determination that the USB data access request does not match the USB data access request predefined in the user-defined logic module, the method further comprising:
calling a default process from the firmware framework module so that the generating of the response is based on the default process.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the generated response is inconsistent with the USB data access request.

12. A computer system configured to intercept an USB related request and to respond to the intercepted request in a virtualized environment, wherein the virtualized environment includes a physical host with physical hardware resources that executes a virtualization software and supports one or more virtual machines, the computer system comprising a processor and a display and the processor being programmed to:
connect a virtual USB peripheral controller in the virtualization software to a virtual machine;
intercept a USB data access request from the virtual machine to prevent the USB data access request from reaching a kernel space of the virtualization software and the physical hardware resources;
generate a response according to the USB data access request and a process called by a firmware framework module of the virtual USB peripheral controller, wherein the firmware framework module resides in a user space of the virtualization software or in an application executed on a remote user device; and
transmit the generated response towards the virtual machine.

13. The computer system of claim 12 , wherein the remote user device is configured to access one or more services provided by a management server in the virtualized environment.

14. The computer system of claim 12 , wherein the connecting of the virtual USB peripheral controller and the virtual machine further comprises transmitting a USB device descriptor of the virtual USB peripheral controller to a guest operating system of the virtual machine, and wherein the USB device descriptor includes a vendor identifier of the virtual USB peripheral controller and a product identifier of the virtual USB peripheral controller.

15. The computer system of claim 12 , wherein the intercepting of the USB data access request is performed at a user space of the virtualization software or an application of a remote user device.

16. The computer system of claim 12 , the processor further being programmed to determine whether the USB data access request matches a USB data access request predefined in a user-defined logic module of the virtual USB peripheral controller.

17. The computer system of claim 16 , in response to a determination that the USB data access request matches the USB data access request predefined in the user-defined logic module, the processor further being programmed to:
call a customized process from the user-defined logic module so that the generating of the response is based on the customized process.

18. The computer system of claim 17 , wherein the generated response includes data sizes different from the data sizes requested in the USB data access request or a transmission rate different from the transmission rate requested in the USB data access request.

19. The computer system of claim 16 , in response to a determination that the USB data access request does not match the USB data access request predefined in the user-defined logic module, the processor further being programmed to:
call a default process from the firmware framework module to generate the response so that the response is in consistent with the USB data access request.

Assignees

• Vmware Inc

Inventors

• An nan
• Sun Jianbin
• Zhao Yan
• Gao Zhao

Classifications

• G06F13/385 Primary

  for adaptation of a particular data processing system to different peripheral devices · CPC title

• G06F9/45558

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• G06F2009/45579

  I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage · CPC title

• G06F13/20

  for access to input/output bus · CPC title

• G06F13/4282

  on a serial bus, e.g. I2C bus, SPI bus (on daisy chain buses G06F13/4247) · CPC title