Interception method and system for compensating disadvantageous characteristics of a communication protocol

• US 20020004834A1
• Filed: 05/15/2001
• Published: 01/10/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 07/07/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kyndryl Incorporated (Kyndryl Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Sabiwalsky, Dirk, Petrov, Tzvetan, Guenther, Ludwig
• Granted Patent: US 7,139,822 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/230
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/2876 Pairs of inter-processing entities at each side of the network, e.g. split proxies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/564 Enhancement of application control based on intercepted application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/16 Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/165 Combined use of TCP and UDP protocols; selection criteria therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

Means and method of data communication compensating disadvantageous characteristics of a first protocol for data communication between a client-application and a server-application. Communication requests of the client application and the server application adhering to a second protocol are intercepted by an client interceptor and a server interceptor. Besides mapping the second protocol onto the first protocol and back again the interceptors compensate disadvantageous characteristics inherent to the first protocol or arising from the combination of protocols transparently.

Claims

1. A data communication method that compensates for disadvantageous characteristics of a first protocol that is used to communicate data between a client application and a server application, wherein the client application and the server application employ a second protocol that is mapped onto the first protocol, said method comprising the acts of:

intercepting, by a client interceptor acting on behalf of a server application, a second-protocol data communication request from a client application;

mapping, by the client interceptor, the second-protocol data communication request onto the first protocol;

sending the communication request to a server interceptor using the first protocol;

compensating a disadvantageous characteristic of the first protocol;

mapping, by the server interceptor, the communication request back onto the second protocol to recreate substantially the second-protocol data communication request; and

delivering the second-protocol data communication request to the server application.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of compensating further comprises the acts of determining loss of a connection and re-establishing the connection responsive to the act of determining loss.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of compensating further comprises the acts of detecting that a connection is idle, dropping the connection, and re-establishing the connection when a new communication request is intercepted.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of compensating further comprises the acts of determining that transmission capacity is insufficient to process the data communication request within a predetermined interval of time, and establishing a parallel connection to increase transmission capacity.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the second protocol is connection oriented, and wherein the client interceptor and the server interceptor intercept a plurality of connections between the client application and the client interceptor using the second protocol, and between the server interceptor and the server application using the second protocol.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the plurality of connections using the second protocol are multiplexed onto a single connection of the first protocol.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first protocol is a wireless communication protocol.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising the act of opening, by the client interceptor, a connection to the server interceptor using the first protocol following the act of intercepting a second-protocol data communication request.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising the acts of:

receiving, by the client interceptor, an identification of the server application; and

forwarding the identification to an address-resolution server for first-protocol address resolution.