Zero client device with integrated serial bandwidth augmentation and support for out-of-band serial communications

A zero client device, comprising:

• a housing;
• a transcoding processing unit, comprised in the housing, wherein the transcoding processing unit comprises a first circuit board, wherein the transcoding processing unit implements a zero client protocol for conducting zero client sessions, and wherein the transcoding processing unit comprises at least one Universal Serial Bus (USB) port and supports peripheral remoting via USB protocol;
• a communications processing unit, comprised in the housing and directly interfaced to the transcoding processing unit, wherein the communications processing unit comprises a second circuit board, wherein the communications processing unit implements a software based USB remoting protocol that supplements the at least one USB port of the transcoding processing unit, wherein to supplement the at least one USB port of the transcoding processing unit, the communications processing unit implements one or more USB ports for out-of-band communications implementing a supplemental peripheral communication channel;
• and
• an uplink network connection, comprised in the housing, wherein the uplink network connection is comprised in or directly interfaced to the communications processing unit for connecting to a network;
• and
• wherein the zero client device has no user-modifiable storage medium, but does include one or more memory elements for operation of the zero client device;
• wherein the communications processing unit is configured to:
• determine an identifier of a server to which connection is desired;
• provide a network communication channel to the transcoding processing unit for accessing the server;
• and
• establish an out-of-band USB session for communications between the server and the communications processing unit, and between the server and peripheral devices connected to the one or more USB ports for out-of-band communications;
• wherein the transcoding processing unit is configured to:
• instantiate a zero client session with the server through the network communication channel provided by the communications processing unit using the zero client protocol;
• receive first input data from one or more human interface devices;
• encode the first input data, thereby generating encoded input data;
• and
• provide the encoded input data to the communications processing unit for transmission over the network to the server via the zero client session using the zero client protocol;
• wherein the communications processing unit is configured to:
• receive the encoded input data from the transcoding processing unit;
• receive second input data from one or more USB peripheral devices via the one or more USB ports;
• transmit the encoded input data and the second input data over the network to the server via the zero client session using the zero client protocol;
• transmit the second input data over the network to the server via the out-of-band USB session;
• receive first output data from the server over the network via the zero client session using the zero client protocol;
• receive second output data from the server over the network via the out-of-band USB session;
• and
• send the first output data to the transcoding processing unit;
• send the second output data to the one or more USB peripheral devices via the one or more USB ports;
• wherein the transcoding processing unit is further configured to:
• receive the first output data from the communications processing unit;
• decode the first output data, thereby generating decoded output data;
• and
• send the decoded output data to at least one of the one or more human interface devices.