System for exchanging messages between customer devices and servers

• US 20060075118A1
• Filed: 09/14/2005
• Published: 04/06/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/17/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: Alcatel SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Roelens, Wim Gabriel Andy, Maria Bracke, Sylvie Adriana Louisa
• Granted Patent: US 9,118,739 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/168 above the transport layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/133 Protocols for remote procedure calls [RPC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/32 Architecture of open systems interconnection [OSI] 7-layer type protocol stacks, e.g. the interfaces between the data link level and the physical level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/322 Intralayer communication protocols among peer entities or protocol data unit [PDU] definitions

Abstract

Systems (1) for exchanging messages (10-13,40-55) between customer devices (2) such as customer premises equipment and servers (3) such as auto configuration servers at several layers comprising a first layer such as a hyper text transfer protocol layer and a second layer such as a simple object access protocol layer are made compliant to web services toolkits by, at the second layer, allowing the customer device (2) to be a requesting party only and the server (3) to be a responding party only, for so-called server method applications as well as for so-called customer device method applications. At the second layer, the server (3) is never a requesting party and the customer device (2) is never a responding party. As a result, the development of management appliances no longer needs to be done manually and the system (1) according to the invention can be used in combination with firewalls.

Claims

1. System (1) for exchanging messages (10-13,40-55) between a customer device (2) and a server (3) at several layers comprising a first layer and a second layer, the customer device (2) being a requesting party at the first layer and the server (3) being a responding party at the first layer, the customer device (2) being a requesting party at the second layer and the server (3) being a responding party at the second layer, which second layer is higher than the first layer, characterized in that the server (3) is not a requesting party at the second layer and the customer device (2) is not a responding party at the second layer.

2. System (1) as defined in claim 1, characterised in that the customer device (2) is a customer premises equipment and the server (3) is an auto configuration server.

3. System (1) as defined in claim 1, characterised in that the first layer is a hyper text transfer protocol layer and the second layer is a simple object access protocol layer.

4. System (1) as defined in claim 1, characterised in that a first message signal (40,41) comprises a request message (40) at the first layer and a GetCPEMethodType{} message (41) at the second layer, a second message signal (42,43) comprises a response message (42) at the first layer and a Method1 message (43) at the second layer, a third message signal (44,45) comprises a request message (44) at the first layer and a GetMethod1Arguments{id} message (45) at the second layer, a fourth message signal (46,47) comprises a response message (46) at the first layer and a Method1Arguments message (47) at the second layer, and a fifth message signal (48,49) comprises a request message (48) at the first layer and a SetMethod1Result{id,result} message (49) at the second layer.

5. System (1) as defined in claim 4, characterised in that a sixth message signal (50,51) comprises a response message (50) at the first layer and a Method2 message (51) at the second layer.

6. Method for exchanging messages (10-13,40-55) between a customer device (2) and a server (3) at several layers comprising a first layer and a second layer, the method comprising the steps of

at the first layer, transmitting a request message (40) from the customer device (2) to the server (3) and transmitting a response message (42) from the server (3) to the customer device (2),

at the second layer, transmitting a request message (41) from the customer device (2) to the server (3) and transmitting a response message (43) from the server (3) to the customer device (2),

which second layer is higher than the first layer, characterized in that the method comprises the step of

at the second layer, not transmitting a request message (23) from the server (3) to the customer device (2) and not transmitting a response message (25) from the customer device (2) to the server (3).

7. Processor program product for exchanging messages (10-13,40-55) between a customer device (2) and a server (3) at several layers comprising a first layer and a second layer, the processor program product comprising the functions of

at the first layer, transmitting a request message (40) from the customer device (2) to the server (3) and transmitting a response message (42) from the server (3) to the customer device (2),

at the second layer, transmitting a request message (41) from the customer device (2) to the server (3) and transmitting a response message (43) from the server (3) to the customer device (2),

which second layer is higher than the first layer, characterized in that the processor program product comprises the function of

at the second layer, not transmitting a request message (23) from the server (3) to the customer device (2) and not transmitting a response message (25) from the customer device (2) to the server (3).

8. Customer device (2) for exchanging messages with a server (3) at several layers comprising a first layer and a second layer, the customer device (2) comprising

a customer device transmitter (61) for, at the first layer, transmittting a request message (40) to the server (3) and, at the second layer, transmitting a request message (41) to the server (3), and

a customer device receiver (63) for, at the first layer, receiving a response message (42) from the server (3) and, at the second layer, receiving a response message (43) from the server (3),

which second layer is higher than the first layer, characterized in that the customer device transmitter (61) is arranged for, at the second layer, not transmitting a response message (25) to the server (3) and the customer device receiver (63) is arranged for, at the second layer, not receiving a request message (23) from the server (3).

9. Server (3) for exchanging messages with a customer device (2) at several layers comprising a first layer and a second layer, the server (3) comprising

a server receiver (73) for, at the first layer, receiving a request message (40) from the customer device (2) and, at the second layer, receiving a request message (41) from the customer device (2), and

a server transmitter (71) for, at the first layer, transmittting a response message (42) to the customer device (2) and, at the second layer, transmitting a response message (43) to the customer device (2),

which second layer is higher than the first layer, characterized in that the server receiver (73) is arranged for, at the second layer, not receiving a response message (25) from the customer device (2) and the server transmitter (71) is arranged for, at the second layer, not transmitting a request message (23) to the customer device (2).

10. Message signal (40-41,42-43,44-45,46-47,48-49,50-51) to be exchanged between a customer device (2) and a server (3) at several layers comprising a first layer and a second layer, characterised in that the message signal comprises at least one of a GetCPEMethodType{} message (41), a Method1 message (43), a GetMethod1Arguments{id} message (45), a Method1Arguments message (47), a SetMethod1Result{id,result} message (49) and a response Method2 message (51).