Modifying a configuration of a port hub

1. An electronic device comprising:

a processor; and

a hub configurator executable on the processor to:

obtain, from a port hub that expands a number of ports for the electronic device, information of topological elements of the port hub, wherein the obtained information of the topological elements of the port hub comprises information specifying a dependency among a plurality of ports of the port hub, and wherein the dependency comprises a maximum active port dependency corresponding to a restriction on a number of ports of the plurality of ports that can be active at a time; and

modify a configuration of the port hub.

2. An electronic device comprising:

a processor; and

a hub configurator executable on the processor to:

obtain, from a port hub that expands a number of ports for the electronic device, information of topological elements of the port hub, wherein the obtained information of the topological elements of the port hub comprises information specifying a dependency among a plurality of ports of the port hub, and wherein the information specifying the dependency among the plurality of ports is included in a configuration object representing a group that includes the plurality of ports; and

modify a configuration of the port hub.

3. The electronic device of claim 2 , wherein the obtained information of the topological elements of the port hub comprises information specifying a state or status of an individual port of the port hub.

4. The electronic device of claim 3 , wherein the information specifying the state of the individual port comprises information of whether the individual port is enabled, disabled, or charge-only.

5. The electronic device of claim 3 , wherein the status of the individual port comprises one or more of: a connected status indicating whether or not the individual port is connected to a device, a data activity status indicating a data activity of the individual port, a power draw status indicating a power draw of the individual port, and information of a device connected to the individual port.

6. The electronic device of claim 3 , wherein the information specifying the state or status of the individual port is included in a configuration object for the individual port.

7. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the modifying of the configuration of the port hub comprises updating a configuration object of an individual port of the port hub to change a mode of operation of the individual port.

8. The electronic device of claim 7 , wherein the updating of the configuration object comprises changing the mode of operation of the individual port between a charge-only mode and a mode in which data communication can be performed through the individual port.

9. The electronic device of claim 2 , wherein the modifying of the configuration of the port hub comprises setting a security policy for an individual port of the port hub.

10. The electronic device of claim 2 , wherein the modifying of the configuration of the port hub comprises setting different security policies for respective different ports of the port hub.

11. The electronic device of claim 2 , wherein the modifying of the configuration of the port hub comprises setting different functionalities for respective different ports of the port hub.

12. The electronic device of claim 2 , wherein the obtained information of the topological elements of the port hub comprises names of ports of the port hub.

13. The electronic device of claim 12 , wherein the hub configurator is executable on the processor to map Universal Serial Bus (USB) identifying properties of at least a subset of the topological elements to respective names of the ports of the port hub.

14. A port hub comprising:

a plurality of ports to connect to respective devices; and

a configuration interface to:

provide, to an electronic device connected to a port of the plurality of ports, information of topological elements of the port hub, the information of the topological elements of the port hub comprises information specifying a dependency among the plurality of ports of the port hub, the dependency comprising a maximum active port dependency corresponding to a restriction on a number of ports of the plurality of ports that can be active at a time; and

modify a configuration of the port hub in response to control of the electronic device.

15. A method performed by an electronic device, comprising:

obtaining, from a port hub that expands a number of ports for the electronic device, information of topological elements of the port hub, wherein the obtained information of the topological elements of the port hub comprises information specifying a dependency among a plurality of ports of the port hub, and wherein the dependency comprises a maximum active port dependency corresponding to a restriction on a number of ports of the plurality of ports that can be active at a time; and

modifying a configuration of the port hub.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the topological elements comprise a bridge, and

wherein modifying the configuration of the port hub comprises:

initiating a role swap session with a further device connected to the port hub, and

configuring the bridge that comprises configuring a port of the port hub as a downstream port that appears as a device to both the electronic device and the further device that behave as host devices, to enable host-to-host communications between the electronic device and the further device using the bridge.

17. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the hub configurator is executable on the processor to interact with a configuration interface of the port hub to obtain the information of the topological elements and to modify the configuration of the port hub.

18. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the topological elements comprise the port hub and the plurality of ports of the port hub.

19. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the topological elements comprise a bridge through which multiple host devices are to communicate with each other.

20. The electronic device of claim 19 , wherein the hub configurator is executable on the processor to:

create a role swap session with a further device connected to the port hub; and

configure the bridge.

21. The electronic device of claim 20 , wherein the configuring of the bridge comprises configuring a port of the port hub as a downstream port that appears as a device to both the electronic device and the further device that behave as host devices.

22. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the dependency further comprises a power dependency among the plurality of ports that share power.