IrDA Requirements for Communications

Infrared capabilities are neither required nor recommended on servers. If they are implemented, they must meet the requirements in this section.

The interface between Infrared Data Association (IrDA) hardware (framers) and the Windows IrDA stack is through NDIS 5.0 miniport drivers that adhere to the conventions described in Infrared Extensions to the NDIS Version 4.0 Functional Specification. The Windows NT IrDA stack expects that the hardware and NDIS drivers deal with framing, transparency, and error detection, and also support media sense and speed change commands. Miniport drivers are responsible for discarding incoming frames with bad cyclic redundancy checks. These frames must never be forwarded to the protocol.

Infrared device meets network adapter requirements

Required

The following network adapter requirements must be met:

Infrared device supports both FIR and SIR

Required

All infrared devices must comply with approved IrDA specifications, including support for SIR and FIR data devices.

IrDA hardware reports a unique Plug and Play ID sufficient to support unattended driver installation

Required

FIR Plug and Play hardware must report a unique Plug and Play ID that matches the combination of the chip set, transceiver, and any other system specific parameters, in order for the operating system to find and install the correct INF, and the associated driver for the IrDA hardware.

In the best case, the IrDA hardware has only one Plug and Play ID, associated INF file, and a miniport driver that can auto detect the transceiver type and other system specific parameters. This enables the installation and configuration of the hardware and the driver without any user intervention.

In other cases, for example, where the driver can not autodetect the transceiver type, or any other system specific parameters, a unique Plug and Play ID for each combination of the chip set and the transceiver type must be reported, and an associated driver and INF file describing the configuration parameters must be provided by the vendor for each combination.