USB Device Sharing over IP Network

News

• 2005.12.06

  The usbip drivers are now experimentally included 2.6.15-rc5-mm1 kernel patch.

• 2005.10.28

  This server has been down until October 28 because of hardware failure.

• 2005.10.17

  This server will be down from October 21 to 24 for maintenance.

• 2005.04.19

  My paper about USB/IP got the best paper award of the USENIX'05 FREENIX track!

• 2005.03.04

  A technical paper will be available soon in the proceedings of USENIX'05. Please catch me in the conference.

• 2004.11.30

  Initial release! This is a pre-alpha release for experts.

• 2004.11.19

  Thank you for your contacts. I am now preparing for the initial release of USB/IP. It will be released until the end of November 2004. Please wait just for a moment.

The latest release is available for download.

Overview

The USB/IP Project aims to develop a general USB device sharing system over IP network. To share USB devices between computers with their full functionality, USB/IP encapsulates "USB protocols" into IP packets and transmits them between computers. Original USB device drivers and applications can be also used for remote USB devices without any modification of them.

A computer can use remote USB devices as if they were directly attached; for example, we can ...

• USB storage devices: fdisk, mkfs, mount/umount, file operations, play a DVD movie and record a DVD-R media.
• USB keyboards and USB mice: use with linux console and X Window System.
• USB webcams and USB speakers: view webcam, capture image data and play some music.
• USB printers, USB scanners, USB serial converters and USB Ethernet interfaces: ok, use fine.

In a client host, the VHCI (Virtual Host Controller Interface) driver is implemented as a USB host controller driver. The VHCI driver emulates a real USB host controller interface for virtual attachment/detachment, enumeration and initialization of remote USB devices. It encapsulates USB request blocks and then transmits USB/IP packets to remote server hosts. In a server host, the Stub driver is implemented as a USB per-device driver. The Stub driver decapsulates USB/IP packets into USB requests and then submit them to real USB devices.

We have implemented USB/IP in Linux Kernel 2.6 series. The I/O performance is enough practical in local area network with original USB device drivers, including isochronous devices. The USB/IP implementation is available under the open source license GPL.

Documentation

• USB/IP - a Peripheral Bus Extension for Device Sharing over IP Network. Takahiro Hirofuchi, Eiji Kawai, Kazutoshi Fujikawa, and Hideki Sunahara. In the Proceedings of the FREENIX Track: USENIX Annual Technical Conference, pp. 47-60, April 2005. (Awarded FREENIX Track Best Paper!)
• USB/IP: A Transparent Device Sharing Technology over IP Network. Takahiro Hirofuchi, Eiji Kawai, Kazutoshi Fujikawa, and Hideki Sunahara. IPSJ Transactions on Advanced Computing Systems, Vol. 46, No. SIG11(ACS11), pp. 349-361, August 2005. (Also appeared in IPSJ Digital Courier.)

Anyway, if you have any question or comment, please contact me.

Screenshots

Downloads

Download is available from sourceforge.net. Please visit our project page.

Please note that this is a pre-alpha release.

• The USB/IP Project in sourceforge.net

Links

• The USB/IP Project in sourceforge.net
• NAIST (Nara Institute of Science and Technology)
  • inet-lab (Laboratory for Internet Architecture and Systems)
    • Network-Attached Device Group
  • about me

Contact

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