Conveying protocol units for portable electronic objects via a protocol for microcomputer peripherals
AssigneeGemalto SA
InventorCharles Coulier
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Application protocol data units are conveyed in a universal serial bus so that a portable electronic object such as a smart card can be recognized by a terminal, such as a micro-computer, as being a peripheral. The header and the data field, when such a data field exists, of each command are encapsulated in data fields of data packets of respective downlink transactions. The data field, when such a data field exists, and the trailer of each response are encapsulated in the data packet data field of at least one uplink transaction. By means of this bus link, the data rate between the terminal and the electronic object is higher, and a plurality of portable electronic objects can be connected to the terminal.
Claims15
A method for communicating between a host device and a smart card by means of a serial bus, comprising:
- encapsulating by the host device a portion of a command of an ISO 7816 Application-Protocol Data Unit (APDU) command-response pair within a first data packet that conforms to a Universal Serial Bus (USB) protocol;
- transmitting by the host device said first data packet to the smart card via the bus;
- encapsulating by the smart card a response of said APDU command-response pair within a second data packet that conforms to the USB protocol;
- and
- transmitting by the smart card said second data packet to the host device via the bus,
- wherein the command is transmitted to the smart card in a plurality of successive transactions in which respective data packets encapsulate different portions of said command.
A system comprising:
- a host device;
- a smart card;
- and
- a serial bus communicatively linking the host device and the smart card,
- wherein:
- the host device encapsulates a first message within a first data packet that conforms to a Universal Serial Bus (USB) protocol,
- said first message being a portion of a command in an ISO 7816 Application-Protocol Data Unit (APDU) command-response pair, and
- said command being transmitted to said smart card in a plurality of successive transactions in which respective data packets encapsulate other portions of said command;
- the host device transmits the first data packet to the smart card via the bus;
- the smart card encapsulates a second message within a second data packet that conforms to the USB protocol, said second message being a response of the APDU command-response pair;
- and
- the smart card transmits the second data packet to the host device via the bus.
A method for communicating between a host device and a smart card by means of a serial bus, comprising:
- receiving by the smart card from the host device via the bus a first data packet conforming to a Universal Serial Bus (USB) protocol, said first data packet encapsulating a portion of a command of an ISO 7816 Application-Protocol Data Unit (APDU) command-response pair;
- determining by the smart card a reply to the command, said reply being the response of the ISO 7816 Application-Protocol Data Unit (APDU) command-response pair;
- and
- transmitting by the smart card to the host device via the bus a second data packet conforming to the USB protocol, said second data packet encapsulating the reply,
- wherein portions of the command are received by the smart card in a plurality of data packets transmitted over successive transactions.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.