USB_PORT_CONNECTOR_PROPERTIES structure (usbioctl.h)

The USB_PORT_CONNECTOR_PROPERTIES structure is used with the IOCTL_USB_GET_PORT_CONNECTOR_PROPERTIES I/O control request to retrieve information about a port on a particular SuperSpeed hub.

Syntax

typedef struct _USB_PORT_CONNECTOR_PROPERTIES {
  ULONG               ConnectionIndex;
  ULONG               ActualLength;
  USB_PORT_PROPERTIES UsbPortProperties;
  USHORT              CompanionIndex;
  USHORT              CompanionPortNumber;
  WCHAR               CompanionHubSymbolicLinkName[1];
} USB_PORT_CONNECTOR_PROPERTIES, *PUSB_PORT_CONNECTOR_PROPERTIES;

Members

ConnectionIndex

The port number being queried in the request. ConnectionIndex is specified by the caller. If there are n ports on the SuperSpeed hub, the ports are numbered from 1 to n. To get the number of ports, the caller first sends an IOCTL_USB_GET_HUB_INFORMATION_EX I/O control request. The request retrieves the highest port number on the hub.

ActualLength

The number of bytes required to hold the entire USB_PORT_CONNECTOR_PROPERTIES structure including the string that contains the symbolic link name of the companion hub. That string is stored in the CompanionHubSymbolicLinkName member. The ActualLength value is returned by the IOCTL_USB_GET_PORT_CONNECTOR_PROPERTIES request and used by the caller to allocate a buffer to hold the received information. For details, see IOCTL_USB_GET_PORT_CONNECTOR_PROPERTIES.

UsbPortProperties

The port properties. Upon completion of the IOCTL_USB_GET_PORT_CONNECTOR_PROPERTIES request, UsbPortProperties contains a bitwise OR of one or more flags indicating the properties and capabilities of the port. The flags are defined in USB_PORT_PROPERTIES.

CompanionIndex

The index of the companion port that is associated with the port being queried (specified by ConnectionIndex). If there are n companion ports, those ports are indexed from 0 to n–1.

If a port is mapped to more than one companion port, CompanionIndex is incremented on multiple queries to enumerate all companion ports.

For SuperSpeed hubs and xHCI controllers, CompanionIndex is always 0. For more information, see Remarks.

CompanionPortNumber

The port number of the companion port that is given by CompanionIndex. If the port being queried shares a USB connector with a port on another hub, CompanionPortNumber indicates the port number of the port on the other hub.

Note  For root hub of an xHCI controller, the shared port might be on the same hub.
 

CompanionHubSymbolicLinkName[1]

The Unicode string that contains the symbolic link of the companion hub that shares the USB connector. If a companion hub exists, CompanionPortNumber is nonzero. Otherwise, CompanionHubSymbolicLinkName [0] is NULL.

Remarks

A SuperSpeed 3.0 hub contains two independent hub implementations. One is for USB 2.0 devices, and the hub implementation is similar to existing 2.0 hubs. The other hub is only for SuperSpeed devices. Because the USB 2.0 and 3.0 bus signaling are electrically independent, both of those hubs operate simultaneously. Therefore, when a SuperSpeed hub is connected to the host, Windows enumerates the two hubs independently; one hub is associated with a USB 2.0 port, and the other hub with a USB 3.0 port. Each hub has its downstream and upstream ports. USB physical connectors are shared between ports that are associated with those two hub implementations.

Similarly, an xHCI controller must be able to handle SuperSpeed, high-speed, full-speed, and low-speed devices. The USB 3.0 specification requires an xHCI controller to contain two independent execution units each for USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 bus speeds. The USB 3.0 execution unit handles SuperSpeed traffic on the bus. The USB 2.0 execution unit must handle low, full, and high speed traffic. That requirement can be met in many ways. For instance, in one implementation, the USB 2.0 execution unit can have either a downstream USB 1.1 execution unit or a downstream USB 2.0 hub. The other execution unit handles SuperSpeed traffic on the bus. For instance, in one implementation, the xHCI controller can have a downstream USB 2.0 hub (instead of a USB 2.0 host controller) with a transaction translator to handle full-speed and low-speed traffic. That downstream hub shares connectors with the ports of the SuperSpeed root hub.

In cases where USB connectors are shared, the port that is being queried through the IOCTL_USB_GET_PORT_CONNECTOR_PROPERTIES I/O control request is specified by ConnectionIndex, and the port that shares the connector is called the companion port. Upon completion of the request, the CompanionIndex, CompanionPortNumber, and CompanionHubSymbolicLinkName members of USB_PORT_CONNECTOR_PROPERTIES can be used to determine the port routing in those cases.

If more than one companion port is associated with the port that is being queried, the application can get information about all companion ports by sending the IOCTL_USB_GET_PORT_CONNECTOR_PROPERTIES I/O control request in a loop and incrementing the CompanionIndex value in each iteration. When all of the ports have been enumerated and there is no port associated with the index specified in CompanionIndex, the request completes successfully, CompanionPortNumber is set to 0, and CompanionHubSymbolicLinkName is NULL.

To get information about the operating speed of a device attached to a particular port, the application can send the IOCTL_USB_GET_NODE_CONNECTION_INFORMATION_EX_V2 I/O control request.

Requirements

Requirement Value
Minimum supported client Windows 8
Minimum supported server None supported
Header usbioctl.h (include Usbioctl.h)

See also

IOCTL_USB_GET_NODE_CONNECTION_INFORMATION_EX_V2

IOCTL_USB_GET_PORT_CONNECTOR_PROPERTIES

USB_HUB_INFORMATION_EX

USB_PORT_CONNECTOR_PROPERTIES

USB_PORT_PROPERTIES