Method and system for managing connections

• US 20060020698A1
• Filed: 07/21/2004
• Published: 01/26/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/21/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Whipple, William R., Camilli, Anthony M.
• Granted Patent: US 8,825,832 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06

Abstract

According to one embodiment, a method for managing a plurality of connections is provided. The method comprises grouping a plurality of connections to form at least two connection groups, where each connection is associated with a communication service and each connection group comprises a first connection and at least one failover connection operable to establish a new communication service if the communication service associated with the first connection fails; and associating the at least two connection groups with a user identifier.

Claims

1. A method for managing a plurality of connections, the method comprising:

grouping a plurality of connections to form at least two connection groups, where each connection is associated with a communication service and where each connection group comprises a first connection and at least one failover connection operable to establish a new communication service if the communication service associated with the first connection fails; and

associating the at least two connection groups with a user identifier.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one connection group associated with the user identifier comprises a primary connection and a plurality of failover connections.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

grouping the plurality of failover connections to form a failover connection group; and

associating the failover connection group with a connection setting operable to establish how the plurality of failover connections in the failover connection group are executed.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising establishing a connection for a connection group using at least one connection group according to a connection setting.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the connection setting comprises a prompt option operable to:

initiate the display of a prompt to a user;

request input from the user indicating acknowledgement of a request for connection; and

initiating the connection request in response to the received input.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein the connection setting comprises a randomize option operable to randomly select the first connection and the plurality of failover connections.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein associating the at least two connection groups with the user identifier further comprises:

receiving the user identifier;

creating a user profile corresponding to the user identifier; and

assigning to the user profile at least two connection groups.

8. A system for managing a plurality of connections, the system comprising:

a plurality of connections comprising a plurality of connection groups, each connection associated with a communication service and each connection group comprising a first connection and at least one failover connection operable to establish a new communication service if the communication service associated with the first connection fails; and

a connection association operable to associate at least two connection groups with a user identifier.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein at least one connection group associated with the user identifier comprises a primary connection and a plurality of failover connections.

10. The system of claim 8 wherein the connection association is further operable to:

group the plurality of failover connections to form a failover connection group; and

associate the failover connection group with a connection setting operable to establish how the plurality of failover connections in the failover connection group are executed.

11. The system of claim 8 further comprising a processor operable to establish a connection for a connection group using at least one connection group according to a connection setting.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the connection setting comprises a prompt option operable to:

initiate the display of a prompt to a user;

request input from the user indicating acknowledgement of a request for connection; and

initiating the connection request in response to received input.

13. The system of claim 11 wherein the connection setting comprises a randomize option operable to randomly select the first connection and the at least one failover connection.

14. The system of claim 9 further comprising a processor operable to:

receive the user identifier;

create a user profile corresponding to the user identifier;

assign to the user profile at least two connection groups; and

storing in memory the user profile.

15. A connection administration module, the module comprising:

means for grouping a plurality of connections to form at least two connection groups, each connection associated with a communication service and each connection group comprising a primary connection and a plurality of failover connections operable to establish a new communication service if the communication service associated with the first connection fails; and

means for associating at least two connection groups with a user identifier.

16. The module of claim 15 further comprising means for configuring a connection using a connection group and according to a connection setting.

17. The module of claim 16 wherein the connection setting comprises a prompt option operable to:

initiate the display of a prompt to a user;

request input from the user indicating acknowledgement of a request for connection; and

initiating the connection request in response to received input.

18. The module of claim 16 wherein the connection setting comprises a randomize option operable to randomly select the first connection and the at least one failover connection.

19. A system for managing a plurality of connections, the system comprising:

at least one server operable to provide data services to a plurality of users; and

at least one client comprising a plurality of connections for communicatively coupling to the at least one server, the plurality of connections grouped into at least two connection groups where each connection group comprises a primary connection and at least one failover connection.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the at least two connection groups comprise a primary connection and a plurality of failover connections grouped to form a failover connection group.

21. The system of claim 19 wherein:

the at least one client comprises a second plurality of connections grouped into another at least two connection groups;

the at least two connection groups are associated with a first user identifier of a plurality of user identifiers; and

the another at least two connection groups are associated with a second user identifier of the plurality of user identifiers.

22. The system of claim 19 wherein the at least one client comprises a connection setting operable to establish how the plurality of connections of the at least two connection groups are used to communicatively couple the at least one client with the at least one server.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein the connection setting comprises a prompt option operable to:

initiate the display of a prompt to a user;

request input from the user indicating acknowledgement of a request for connection; and

initiating the connection request in response to received input.

24. The system of claim 22 wherein the connection setting comprises a randomize option operable to randomly select the primary connection and the at least one failover connection.