Pluggable service delivery platform

• US 20010016880A1
• Filed: 12/29/2000
• Published: 08/23/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Cai, Hong, Liu, Dong, Liu, Leo Y.
• Granted Patent: US 7,356,615 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/321
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

The present invention discloses a pluggable service delivery platform for supporting many devices to many services e-business application, comprising device-platform interface, service-platform interface and platform kernel section. The service delivery platform of this invention is flexible and scalable platform to easily “plug” a new device and a new service, and the different parts of the platform are componentized. Any one of the components can be replaced by the 3^rd party'"'"'s products, providing they abide certain open interface like Java Servlet, LDAP, etc.

Claims

1. A pluggable service delivery platform for supporting many devices to many services e-business application, characterized by comprising:

a device-platform interface, for accepting requests issued by devices, transforming into XML and then sending to platform kernel section, and transforming the XML representation of information which is returned by the platform into a representation mode which is adapted for various devices for displaying, said device-platform interface comprising;

(1) common transforming section, for transforming various information representation mode;

(2) special sections for various devices, the information via processing of said special sections and directing to the platform is XML files which can be transmitted via HTTP protocol;

a service-platform interface, for abstracting the common requirements of various services as the common base, providing a adapter for each kind of service, the information via processing of said service-platform interface and directing to the platform is XML files which can be transmitted via HTTP protocol; and

a platform kernel section, for managing user/device/service information, providing synchronized/asynchronized service engine and the interfaces with other modules, and transferring the information among the modules and between services and devices.

2. A pluggable service delivery platform according to

claim 1

, characterized in that said platform kernel section comprises three layers:

a run-time layer, an administration layer, and a development layer; and

various layers are associated via platform API;

the run-time layer provide on-line information access, the administration layer is responsible for adding/deleting users/devices/services, and the development layer provides support to new services and new devices.

3. A pluggable service delivery platform according to

claim 1

, characterized in that said platform kernel section comprises at least:

a service engine, a profile manager, a billing interface, and a platform run-status manager.

4. A pluggable service delivery platform according to

claim 3

, characterized in that said service engine may provide synchronized requests based on session and asynchronized requests based on queue.

5. A pluggable service delivery platform according to

claim 3

, characterized in that said profile manager is used for managing user information, services information and device information.

6. A pluggable service delivery platform according to

claim 1

, characterized in that said device-platform interface provides a corresponding gateway for each kind of device, for transforming the information representation XML into a file format which is adapted for various devices for displaying and transforming among communication protocol based on the script language of various devices stored in said device profile.

7. A pluggable service delivery platform according to

claim 1

, characterized in that said service-platform interface provides a corresponding adapter for each kind of service, for transforming between HTTP and XML.

8. A pluggable service delivery platform according to

claim 1

, characterized in that upon the platform running, a new kind of device can be incorporated by adding a kind of gateway in the device-platform interface and adding an item in said device profile without changing service system at background.

9. A pluggable service delivery platform according to

claim 1

, characterized in that upon the platform running, a new kind of service can be incorporated by adding a kind of adapter in the service-platform interface and adding an item in said service profile without modifying the programs at front-end.