DEVICE, METHOD, AND PROGRAM FOR RELAYING DATA COMMUNICATION

• US 20090055891A1
• Filed: 07/07/2008
• Published: 02/26/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/22/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: OKAMOTO, Kohsuke, MIYAMOTO, Takashi
• Application Number:
  US12/168,549
• Publication Number:
  US 20090055891A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0227 Filtering policies mail message filtering H04L51/212
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0281 Proxies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/101 Access control lists [ACL]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/104 Grouping of entities

Abstract

A device, method and computer program product for relaying data communication between a client and a server. A proxy device for relaying data communication between a client and a server includes a receiving unit for receiving an access request directed to the server from the client, a determining unit for determining whether transfer of a response of the server to the access request to the client will take and amount of time equal to or longer than a threshold time period, a dummy message responding unit for sending, in response to a determination result indicating that the transfer of the response will take an amount of time equal to or longer than the threshold time period, a dummy response message for notifying the client that the response of the server will be sent to the client when the response becomes available for transfer, and a transferring unit for transferring, upon the response of the server becoming transferable to the client, the response to the client.

Claims

1. A proxy device for relaying data communication between a client and a server, comprising:

a receiving unit for receiving an access request directed to the server from the client;

a policy storage unit for storing a policy that defines a criterion for identifying communication data whose transfer to a destination needs to be authorized by an authorizer;

a determining unit for determining whether the transfer of the access request or a response of the server to the access request needs to be authorized by the authorizer on the basis of the policy and for determining whether the transfer of the response of the server to the client will take an amount of time equal to or longer than a threshold time period;

a dummy message responding unit for sending, in response to a determination result indicating that the transfer of the response to the client will take an amount of time equal to or longer than the threshold time period, a dummy response message to the client for notifying the client that the response of the server will be sent to the client when the response becomes available for transfer; and

a transferring unit for transferring, upon the response of the server becoming transferable to the client, the response to the client.

2. The proxy device according to claim 1, wherein the access request includes request sender information, request receiver information, and a content of the request, and wherein the policy defines a criterion, regarding at least one of the request sender information, the request receiver information, and the content of the request, for identifying the communication data whose transfer needs to be authorized by the authorizer.

3. The proxy device according to claim 2, wherein the transferring unit transfers the access request to the server under the condition that the transfer of the access request to the server is authorized by the authorizer.

4. The proxy device according to claim 1, wherein the response from the server includes response sender information, response receiver information, and a content of the response, and wherein the policy defines a criterion, regarding at least one of the response sender information, the response receiver information, and the content of the response, for identifying the communication data whose transfer needs to be authorized by the authorizer.

5. The proxy device according to claim 4, wherein the transferring unit transfers the response of the server to the client under the condition that the transfer of the response of the server to the client is authorized by the authorizer.

6. The proxy device according to claim 1, further comprising an authorization processing unit for sending, in response to a determination result indicating that authorization is needed, an authorization request to an authorization request receiver, wherein the policy storage unit stores, for each access request receiver that can be set in the access request of the client, the policy to be applied in association with the authorization request receiver for authorizing the communication data that is determined to require authorization on the basis of the policy.

7. The proxy device according to claim 6, further comprising a management table storage unit for storing a processing status and a processing result of the authorization processing performed by the authorization processing unit, wherein the authorization processing unit notifies, in response to an end of the authorization processing, the client of the processing result.

8. The proxy device according to claim 7, wherein the transferring unit transfers the response of the server to the client under the condition that the proxy device receives a transfer request from the client that was notified of a success result.

9. The proxy device according to claim 8, wherein the dummy message responding unit includes a receipt issuer for issuing a receipt that is included in the dummy response message and that indicates a valid receiver of the response, and wherein the transferring unit transfers the response to the client under the condition of further receiving the receipt from the client that sent the transfer request to the proxy device.

10. The proxy device according to claim 1, further comprising:

an authentication information storage unit for temporarily storing authentication information used in authentication sent from the client to the server; and

a connection maintaining unit for regularly sending, to the server, the authentication information read out from the authentication information storage unit in order to enable the server to maintain the session with the client until the transfer of the access request of the client to the server is authorized by the authorizer.

11. A proxy device for relaying data communication between a client and a server, comprising:

a receiving unit for receiving an access request directed to the server from the client;

a request storage unit for temporarily storing the received access request;

a queue for storing a request for performing transferring processing of the access request;

a queue setting unit for setting, in response to the reception of the access request, the request for performing transferring processing of the access request in the queue;

a first transferring unit for sequentially pulling the request for performing transferring processing from the queue and transferring the access request to the server;

a determining unit for determining whether a number of requests to be transferred to the server before the transfer of the access request is equal to or greater than a predetermined value on the basis of information stored in the queue, the predetermined value indicating whether the transfer of a response of the server to the access request to the client will take an amount of time equal to or longer than a threshold time period;

a dummy message responding unit for sending, in response to a determination result indicating that the transfer of the response from the server will take an amount of time equal to or longer than the threshold time period, a dummy response message for notifying the client that the response of the server will be sent to the client when the response becomes available for transfer; and

a second transferring unit for transferring, upon the response of the server becoming transferable to the client, the response to the client.

12. The proxy device according to claim 11, further comprising a priority determining unit for determining a priority of the request for performing the transferring processing of the access request received from the client on the basis of a categorization of a user of the client, wherein the queue setting unit stores the request for performing the transferring processing of the access request at an appropriate position in the queue on the basis of the priority.

13. The proxy device according to claim 11, further comprising:

an authentication information storage unit for temporarily storing authentication information used in authentication sent from the client to the server; and

a connection maintaining unit for regularly sending, to the server, the authentication information read out from the authentication information storage unit in order to enable the server to maintain the session with the client while the request for performing the transferring processing of the access request is stored in the queue.

14. A method for relaying data communication executed in a proxy device for relaying data communication between a client and a server, the method comprising:

receiving an access request directed to the server from the client;

determining whether transfer of the access request or a response of the server to the access request needs to be authorized by an authorizer on the basis of a policy that defines a criterion for identifying communication data whose transfer to a destination needs to be authorized by the authorizer;

determining whether the transfer of the response of the server to the client will take an amount of time equal to or longer than a threshold time period;

sending, in response to a determination result indicating that the transfer of the response will take an amount of time equal to or longer than the threshold time period, a dummy response message for notifying the client that the response of the server will be sent to the client when the response becomes available for transfer; and

transferring, upon the response of the server becoming transferable to the client, the response to the client.

15. A method for relaying data communication executed in a proxy device for relaying data communication between a client and a server, the method comprising:

receiving an access request directed to the server from the client;

temporarily storing the received access request in a request storage unit;

setting, in response to the reception of the access request, a request for performing transferring processing of the access request in a queue;

sequentially pulling the request for performing transferring processing from the queue and transferring the access request to the server;

determining whether a number of requests to be transferred to the server before the transfer of the access request is equal to or greater than a predetermined value on the basis of information stored in the queue, the predetermined value indicating whether the transfer of a response of the server to the access request to the client will take and amount of time equal to or longer than a threshold time period;

sending, in response to a determination result indicating that the transfer of the response will take an amount of time equal to or longer than the threshold time period, a dummy response message for notifying the client that the response of the server will be sent to the client when the response becomes available for transfer; and

transferring, upon the response of the server becoming transferable to the client, the response to the client.

16. A computer program product for relaying data communication between a client and a server, the computer program product comprising:

a computer readable medium having computer usable program code embodied therewith, the computer usable program code configured to enable a proxy device to;

receive an access request directed to the server from the client;

determine whether transfer of the access request or a response of the server to the access request needs to be authorized by an authorizer on the basis of a policy that defines a criterion for identifying communication data whose transfer to a destination needs to be authorized by the authorizer;

determine whether the transfer of the response of the server to the client will take an amount of time equal to or longer than a threshold time period;

send, in response to a determination result indicating that the transfer of the response will take an amount of time equal to or longer than the threshold time period, a dummy response message for notifying the client that the response of the server will be sent to the client when the response becomes available for transfer; and

transfer, upon the response of the server becoming transferable to the client, the response to the client.