RELAY SERVER AND RELAY COMMUNICATION SYSTEM ARRANGED TO SHARE RESOURCES BETWEEN NETWORKS

• US 20110238835A1
• Filed: 06/06/2011
• Published: 09/29/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/11/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Murata Machinery Limited (Muratec)
• Original Assignee: Murata Machinery Limited (Muratec)
• Inventors: TANIMOTO, Yoshifumi
• Granted Patent: US 8,533,330 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/225
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion

Abstract

A relay server which is connected to a LAN and which can communicate with a relay server in a different LAN, includes: an account information registering unit that stores information on client terminals connected to the LAN; a relay group information registering unit that stores relay group information; a shared resource information registering unit that stores shared resource information; a check unit that checks whether the client terminals stored in the account information registering unit can be accessed; a relay group information notifying unit that updates the relay group information and transmits a change notification of the relay group information to the relevant relay server; and a shared resource information notifying unit that updates the relevant shared resource information and transmits a change notification of the shared resource information to the relevant client terminal which is stored in the account information registering unit.

Claims

1. A relay server which is connected to a LAN and which can communicate via a WAN with at least one different relay server connected to a different LAN, the relay server comprising:

an account information registering unit that stores information about client terminals connected to the LAN to which the relay server is connected; and

a relay group information registering unit that stores relay group information including information about a group of relay servers which includes the relay server and the at least one different relay server and permits access to each other, and information on the client terminals registered in the respective relay servers;

a control unit that, when receiving a connection request from a client terminal, determines whether the client terminal which transmitted the connection request has been registered in the account information registering unit, and, when the client terminal which transmitted the connection request has not been registered in the account information registering unit, identifies a different relay server of the at least one different relay server in which the client terminal which transmitted the connection request has been registered based on the relay group information, and determines whether to permit the connection while inquiring of the identified relay server.

2. The relay server according to claim 1, wherein

the relay group information includes connection information which is created for every client terminal and which indicates the relay server as a connection destination of the corresponding client terminal;

and

when the connection request is received from the client terminal stored in the account information registering unit, details of the connection information of the client terminal included in the relay group information stored in the relay server is updated and a change notification of the relay group information is transmitted to a corresponding one of the at least one different relay server.

3. The relay server according to claim 2, wherein when the connection of the client terminal stored in the account information registering unit of the identified relay server is permitted, details of the connection information of the client terminal included in the relay group information stored in the relay server is updated and a change notification of the relay group information is transmitted to the corresponding one of the at least one different relay server.

4. A management method using a relay server which is connected to a LAN and which can communicate via a WAN with at least one different relay server connected to a different LAN, the management method comprising:

storing account information about client terminals connected to the LAN to which the relay server is connected; and

storing relay group information including information about a group of relay servers which includes the relay server and the at least one different relay server and permits access to each other, and information about the client terminals registered in the respective relay servers; and

when receiving a connection request from a client terminal, determining whether information about the client terminal which transmitted the connection request has been stored in the step of storing account information, and, when information about the client terminal which transmitted the connection request has not been stored in the step of storing account information, identifying a different relay server of the at least one different relay server in which information about the client terminal which transmitted the connection request has been stored based on the relay group information, and determining whether to permit the connection while inquiring of the identified relay server.

5. The management method according to claim 4, wherein

the relay group information includes connection information which is created for every client terminal and which indicates the relay server as a connection destination of the corresponding client terminal;

and

when the connection request is received from the client terminal stored in the step of storing account information, details of the connection information of the client terminal included in the relay group information stored in the relay server is updated and a change notification of the relay group information is transmitted to a corresponding one of the at least one different relay server.

6. The management method according to claim 5, wherein when the connection of the client terminal stored in the registering of the account information of the identified relay server is permitted, details of the connection information of the client terminal included in the relay group information stored in the relay server is updated and a change notification of the relay group information is transmitted to the corresponding one of the at least one different relay server.