Communications firewall

• US 20040098616A1
• Filed: 11/14/2002
• Published: 05/20/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: General Hydrogen Corporation (Plug Power Inc.)
• Original Assignee: General Hydrogen Corporation (Plug Power Inc.)
• Inventors: Jenner, Bruce Stephen, Christensen, Henrik Thorning
• Application Number:
  US10/298,162
• Publication Number:
  US 20040098616A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/11
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0236 Filtering by address, protocol, port number or service, e.g. IP-address or URL

Abstract

An energy exchange network provides services to users through a firewall. The firewall includes a plurality of ports and a plurality of services. Access to a client through the firewall is controlled by mapping a port to a service so that at any given time, the client is communicating with one service via one port. A different service must access the client through a different port. Typically, services are provided sequentially so that access through the ports is also sequential, a service is not given more access than needed at any point in the sequence, hence a user can only respond to the service currently connected and cannot access other services.

Claims

1. A communications firewall comprising:

a first port for establishing a first communications link for use by a first service; and

a second port for establishing a second communications link for use by a second service using information provided by the first interface.

2. A communications firewall comprising:

a plurality of ports; and

a plurality of services associated with the plurality of ports, operable to provide access to a client via a specific port allocated to a predetermined service, and to restrict access to non-allocated ports.

3. A communications firewall as claimed in claim 2 wherein a service includes an activity.

4. A communications firewall as claimed in claim 3 wherein a completion of an activity by one service effects a call to another service.

5. A communications firewall as claimed in claim 4 wherein a call to another service activates another port to access the client.

6. A method of providing a communications firewall comprising steps of:

providing a plurality of ports;

associating a plurality of services with the plurality of ports, each service restricted to a predetermined port;

initiating communication with a client via by a first restricted service via a first port; and

continuing communication with the client by a second restricted service via a second port.

7. A method of providing a communications firewall as claimed in claim 6 wherein the step of initiating communication by the first restricted service includes the step of completing an activity, and completion of the activity establishes communications with the client.

8. A method of providing a communications firewall as claimed in claim 7 wherein the step of completing the activity by the first service includes the step of calling another restricted service.

9. A method of providing a communications firewall as claimed in claim 8 wherein the step of calling another restricted service leads to the step of continuing communication with the client via the second port to access the client.

10. A method of providing a communications firewall as claimed in claim 9 further comprising the step of continuing communication with the client via a third port by a further restricted service.