Network transaction portal to control multi-service provider transactions

• US 20030069922A1
• Filed: 05/23/2001
• Published: 04/10/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/1995
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lakshmi Arunachalam
• Original Assignee: WebXchange Incorporated
• Inventors: Arunachalam, Lakshmi
• Granted Patent: US 7,930,340 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/04 Payment circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/18 Delegation of network management function, e.g. customer network management [CNM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5045 Making service definitions prior to deployment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

The present invention provides a system and method for providing controlled service transactions involving multiple service providers on a service network. A client access device links to the service network via a network entry point and performs the multi-service provider transaction under the control of a network transactional application at a hub that holds the transaction captive and includes a router to route to remote distributed software objects at nodes of the service providers. The software objects include methods that may be remotely executed under the control of the transactional application at the hub.

Claims

1. (New) A method comprising

receiving a request to perform a service transaction involving a plurality of service providers;

performing the transaction by remotely executing methods associated with the transaction including routing to a plurality of distributed networked software objects containing methods associated with the transaction via at least one link through a common network application functionally interposed between a client network access device and the plurality of networked software objects that controls the transaction.

2. (New) The method of claim 1, wherein performing the transaction includes communicating with a virtual information store via a network protocol to determine a network address for a networked software object.

3. (New) The method of claim 1, wherein performing the transaction includes using a stub object to enable remote execution of a method of a corresponding skeleton object that is associated with the transaction.

4. (New) The method of claim 3, wherein using the stub includes using the stub to interact with a networked software object of a first service provider and a networked software object of a second service provider.

5. (New) The method of claim 3, wherein the stub is created in real-time using a meta compiler and transmitted to the hub.

6. (New) The method of claim 1, wherein performing the transaction includes performing an N-way interactive transaction among an integer plurality N of service providers.

7. (New) A machine-readable medium having stored thereon data representing sequences of instructions that when executed cause a machine to:

receive a request to perform a service transaction involving a plurality of service providers; and

perform the transaction by remotely executing methods associated with the transaction including routing to a plurality of distributed networked software objects containing methods associated with the transaction via at least one link through a common network application functionally interposed between a client network access device and the plurality of networked software objects that controls the transaction.

8. (New) The machine-readable medium of claim 7, wherein the instructions to perform the transaction further comprise instructions causing the machine to communicate with a virtual information store via a network protocol to determine a network address for a networked software object.

9. (New) The machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the instructions to perform further comprise instructions causing the machine to use a stub object to enable remote execution of a method of a corresponding skeleton object that is associated with the transaction.

10. (New) The machine-readable medium of claim 7, wherein the instructions to perform further comprise instructions causing the machine to perform an N-way interactive transaction among an integer plurality N of service providers.

11. (New) A method comprising:

receiving a request to perform a transaction on a service network from a client access device, the service network including a first service provider and a second service provider;

registering with an object router that routes to remote networked software objects associated with the transaction;

creating links between the client access device and a plurality of nodes each having a software object associated with the transaction via a common hub that is functionally interposed between the client access device and the plurality of nodes by routing to the software object of each node;

remotely executing methods associated with each software object; and

receiving transaction results.

12. (New) The method of claim 11, wherein creating links includes using an application-accessible virtual information store that contains an object identification and a network address assigned to each software object determine the network address of each software object and route to the network address.

13. (New) The method of claim 11, wherein using the application-accessible virtual information store includes using a distributed on-line service information base (DOLSIB).

14. (New) The method of claim 11, wherein accessing the networked software object at the obtained network address.

15. (New) The method of claim 11, wherein wherein remotely executing includes using a stub object that allows remote execution of a method of a corresponding skeleton object that is the software object at the node.

16. (New The method of claim 11, further comprising returning the transaction results to the access device via the hub.

17. (New) The method of claim 11, wherein executing includes executing a transaction involving a plurality of distributed networked software objects associated with service methods of each of a plurality of service providers by routing to each of the plurality of distributed networked software objects via a common network application that controls the transaction.

18. (New) A system comprising:

an interface to a client network access device to receive a request to perform a transaction from the access device; and

a transactional application corresponding to the transaction, the transactional application functionally interposed between the client network access device and a plurality of service providers corresponding to the transaction to control access to and remote execution of methods associated with the software objects.

19. (New) The system of claim 18, wherein the transactional application includes a router to route use a DOLSIB to route to a plurality of distributed networked software objects each having a method associated with the transaction.

20. (New) The system of claim 18, further comprising a switch in an application layer of a layered network communications model to switch to the transactional application after receiving the request.

21. (New) The system of claim 18, further comprising a remote software object associated with the transaction functionally interposed between the network application and an enterprise computer system of a service provider participant to interface with the enterprise computer system and utilize data of the enterprise computer system in a method.

22. (New) The system of claim 18, wherein the plurality of geographically distributed software objects are object-oriented software objects.

23. (New) The system of claim 18, further comprising a stub object corresponding to the one of the plurality of geographically distributed software objects to allow remote access to the one of the plurality of geographically distributed software objects.

24. (New) A system comprising:

a server to store software and to execute software instructions; and

hub means to control a service involving a plurality of service providers by controllably routing to a plurality of software objects associated with the plurality of service providers.

25. (New) The system of claim 24, wherein the hub means includes a network application and wherein the hub means is a hub means to route via a at least one link through the common network application.