METHOD IN AN OPERATING SYSTEM FOR INTERFACING A STANDARD SINGLE PORT COMMUNICATION APPLICATION TO MULTIPLE PORTS WITHOUT MODIFYING THE SINGLE PORT COMMUNICATION APPLICATION

In an operating system for facilitating the execution of a communication application typically comprised of a single port interface, a method for facilitating the interaction of the single port interface of the communication application with a plurality of hardware devices through the selection of corresponding and compatible port drivers is presented. A device driver router is designated as the port driver for the specific communication application. The port driver router functions as an intermediate device driver for evaluating conditions that exist among the possible target hardware devices. The device driver router initiates the loading of the determined port driver and hooks the responding port handle from the device driver. The device driver router modifies the port information structure of the device driver to enable the device driver router to perform the closing and unloading of the port driver. The port driver router substitutes its information structure with that of the determined port driver for use in communicating through the open port.