Secure bidirectional cross-system communications framework

• US 20060048217A1
• Filed: 08/27/2004
• Published: 03/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/27/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Watkins, Ryan Edward
• Granted Patent: US 7,571,464 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/11
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/563 Data redirection of data network streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/566 Grouping or aggregating service requests, e.g. for unified processing

Abstract

A local computer system and a remote computer system are connected by a network. When the local computer system needs to initiate communication with the remote computer system or vice versa, a cross-system request is generated, and placed in a request queue on the computer system generating the request. All cross-system requests residing on request queues and are handled by two jobs executing on local computer system. The first of these jobs, a request push job, pushes cross-system requests existing on local computer system'"'"'s request queue to the remote computer system'"'"'s request queue. The second of these jobs, a request pull job, pulls cross-system requests existing on remote computer system'"'"'s request queue over to local computer system'"'"'s request queue. In this way, all cross-system communications are initiated from a computer system inside the firewall (e.g., local computer system) without violating any outside-in dataflow limitations.

Claims

1. A secure bidirectional cross system communication framework comprising:

one or more local computer systems each having a first request queue;

one or more remote computer systems each having a second request queue;

a network coupling the one or more local computer systems to the one or more remote computer systems;

a request push job executing on each of the one or more local computer systems for pushing a cross system request from the one or more local computer systems to the second request queue on each of the one or more remote computer systems; and

,

a request pull job executing on each of the one or more local computer systems for pulling a cross-system request from the one or more remote computer systems to the first request queue on each of the one or more local computer systems.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the secure bidirectional cross system communication framework further comprises a firewall coupling the one or more remote computer systems and the one or more local computer systems, wherein the firewall prevents unauthorized access to the one or more local computer system from network communications originating from the network outside of the firewall.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the secure bidirectional cross system communication framework further comprises one or more system communication configuration files, wherein the one or more system communication configuration files contain information specifying communication protocols and other settings related to the secure bidirectional cross system communication framework.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein the system communication configuration file specifies a communications protocol to be utilized within the network.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein the communications protocol is Transmission Control Protocol (TCP).

6. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein the communications protocol is Internet Protocol (IP).

7. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein the communications protocol is System Network Architecture (SNA).

8. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein the one or more communications protocols are implemented in conjunction with Secure Socket Layer (SSL).

9. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the secure bidirectional cross system communication framework further comprises one or more request router jobs executing on at least one of the one or more local computer systems.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the secure bidirectional cross system communication framework further comprises one or more request router jobs executing on at least one of the one or more remote computer systems.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the cross-system request further comprises a key.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the cross-system request further comprises one or more instructions.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the cross-system request further comprises data.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the first request queue is a data queue.

15. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the second request queue is a data queue.

16. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the request push job is initiated when the one or more local computer systems are initiated.

17. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the request pull job is initiated when the one or more local computer systems are initiated.

18. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the request push job is a continuously running process.

19. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the request pull job is a continuously running process.

20. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the secure bidirectional cross-system communication framework further comprises one or more application files containing information describing the relationship between an application and the application data queue.

21. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the secure bidirectional cross-system communication framework further comprises one or more hub files containing information specifying how cross-system requests will be routed.

22. The apparatus of claim 21 wherein the secure bidirectional cross-system communication framework further comprises one or more request re-router jobs to route the cross-system request specified by the one or more hub files.

23. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the secure bidirectional cross-system communication framework further comprises a hub/node environment.

24. A method of secure bidirectional cross system communication between one or more local computer systems and one or more remote computer systems comprising the steps of:

initiating a request push job on at least one of the one or more local computer systems for pushing a cross-system request from the one or more local computer systems to a request queue on the one of the one or more remote computer systems; and

,

initiating a request pull job on at least one of the one or more local computer systems for pulling a cross-system request from the one or more remote computer systems to a request queue on the one or more local computer systems.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein the request push job further comprises:

initiating a connection with the one or more remote computer systems;

notifying the one or more remote computer systems that a local-to-remote communication will occur,

checking the first request queue for any cross-system requests destined for the one or more remote computer systems;

sending any cross-system requests destined for the one or more remote computer systems to the one or more remote computer systems; and

,

processing the cross-system request at the one or more remote computer systems.

26. The method of claim 25 wherein the step of sending any cross-system requests to the one or more remote computer systems further comprises placing the cross-system request into the request queue on the one or more remote computer systems.

27. The method of claim 25 wherein the step of processing the cross-system request further comprises:

reading an application file on the remote computer system to determine which application queue the cross-system request will be routed to;

routing the cross-system request to an application queue using a request router job;

temporarily storing the cross-system request in the application queue until the cross-system request is processed by an application; and

,

removing the cross-system request from the application queue and processing the cross-system request using the application.

28. The method of claim 24 wherein the request pull job further comprises:

initiating a connection with the one or more remote computer systems;

notifying the one or more remote computer systems a remote-to-local communication will occur;

checking the second request queue for any cross-system requests destined for the one or more local computer systems;

sending any cross-system requests destined for the one or more local computer systems to the one or more local computer systems; and

,

processing the cross-system request at the one or more local computer systems.

29. The method of claim 28 wherein the step of sending any cross-system requests to the one or more local computer systems further comprises placing the cross-system request into the request queue on the one or more local computer systems.

30. The method of claim 28 wherein the step of processing the cross-system request once it has been sent from the one or more remote computer systems to the one or more local computer systems further comprises:

reading an application file on the local computer system to determine an application queue the cross-system request will be routed to;

routing the cross-system request to the application queue using a request router job;

temporarily storing the cross-system in the application queue request until the cross-system request is processed by an application; and

,

removing the cross-system request from the application queue and processing the cross-system request using the application.

31. A method of enabling a local computer system for secure bidirectional cross system communication between the local computer system and a remote computer system comprising the steps of:

initiating a request push job on the local computer system for pushing a cross-system request from the local computer system and adapted to be received by a request queue on a remote computer system; and

,

initiating a request pull job on a local computer system for pulling a cross-system request from a remote computer system and adapted to be received by a request queue on the local computer system.

32. The method of claim 31 wherein the request push job further comprises:

initiating a connection with the remote computer system;

notifying the remote computer system that a local-to-remote communication will occur,

checking the first request queue for any cross-system requests destined for the remote computer system; and

sending any cross-system requests destined for the remote computer system to the remote computer system.

33. The method of claim 32 wherein the step of sending any cross-system requests to the remote computer system further comprises placing the cross-system request into the request queue on the remote computer system.

34. The method of claim 31 wherein the request pull job further comprises:

initiating a connection with the remote computer system;

sending a notification to the remote computer system that a remote-to-local communication will occur;

checking the second request queue for any cross-system requests destined for the local computer system;

receiving any cross-system requests destined for the local computer system; and

,

processing the cross-system request at the local computer system.

35. The method of claim 34 wherein the step of receiving any cross-system requests at the local computer system further comprises placing the cross-system request into the request queue on the local computer system.

36. The method of claim 34 wherein the step of processing the cross-system request once it has been received at a local computer system further comprises:

reading an application file on the local computer system to determine an application queue the cross-system request will be routed to;

routing the cross-system request to the application queue using a request router job;

temporarily storing the cross-system in the application queue request until the cross-system request is processed by an application; and

,

removing the cross-system request from the application queue and processing the cross-system request using the application.

37. A method for processing a remote-to-local communication on a computer system, the method comprising the steps of:

monitoring for a cross-system request associated with a remote-to-local communication, and

processing the cross-system request at the computer system, wherein the cross-system request is routed to an application associated with the cross-system request, the application residing on the computer system.

39. The computer program product of claim 37, wherein the signal bearing media comprises a transmission medium.

40. The computer program product of claim 37, wherein the signal bearing media comprises a non-writable storage media.

38. A computer program product, comprising:

(a) a program which, when executed by a processor, performs a method of secure bidirectional cross system communication between one or more local computer systems and one or more remote computer systems comprising the steps of;

initiating a request push job on at least one of the one or more local computer systems for pushing a cross-system request from the one or more local computer systems to a request queue on the one of the one or more remote computer systems; and

,

initiating a request pull job on at least one of the one or more local computer systems for pulling a cross-system request from the one or more remote computer systems to a request queue on the one or more local computer systems.

(b) a signal bearing media bearing the program.

41. A method for deploying computing infrastructure, comprising integrating computer-readable code into a computing system, wherein the code in combination with the computing system is capable of providing secure bidirectional cross system communication between one or more local computer systems and one or more remote computer systems, the method comprising the steps of:

initiating a request push job on at least one of the one or more local computer systems for pushing a cross-system request from the one or more local computer systems to a request queue on at least one of the one or more remote computer systems; and

initiating a request pull job on each of the one or more local computer systems for pulling a cross-system request from at least one of the one or more remote computer systems to a request queue on at least one of the local computer systems.