DYNAMIC CONFIGURATION OF A CLIENT-SERVER RELATIONSHIP

• US 20120254372A1
• Filed: 03/28/2011
• Published: 10/04/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Signify Holding B.V. (Signify N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Greenwave Reality, Pte Ltd. (Greenwave Reality, Inc.)
• Inventors: Vandendorpe, Christian
• Granted Patent: US 9,002,993 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/220
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/95 Retrieval from the web
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1091 Interfacing with client-server systems or between P2P systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/133 Protocols for remote procedure calls [RPC]

Abstract

A network client may retrieve a unique ID for the network client and a first server identifier from within the network client. The network client may send the unique ID to a first server identified by the first server identifier. The first server may look up a second server identifier using the unique ID as a key in a database query and return the second server identifier to the network client. The network client may send data to a second server identified by the second server identifier

Claims

1. A method of configuring a client-server relationship, the method comprising:

sending a unique identifier of a network client from the network client to a first server using a first server identifier to communicate across an internet connection;

receiving a packet of information at the network client from the first server, wherein the packet of information includes at least a second server identifier; and

sending data from the network client to a second server using the second server identifier.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second server identifiers comprise Uniform Resource Locator (URL) strings.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein unique identifier of the network client is a Media Access Control (MAC) address.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the packet of information uses JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) syntax.

5. A method of configuring a client-server relationship, the method comprising:

receiving a unique identifier of a network client across an internet connection at a first server identified by a first server identifier;

retrieving a second server identifier for a second server from a database; and

sending a packet of information to the network client from the first server, wherein the packet of information includes the second server identifier.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the retrieving of the second server identifier from the database is based on the unique identifier of the network client.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the retrieving of the second server identifier from the database is based on a geographical location of the network client.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the packet of information uses Extensible Markup Language (XML) syntax.

9. A computer program product for configuring a client-server relationship, the computer program product comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising;

computer readable program code configured to retrieve a unique identifier of a network client from within the network client;

computer readable program code configured to retrieve a first server identifier from within the network client;

computer readable program code configured to send said unique identifier from the network client to a first server using the first server identifier to communicate across an internet connection;

computer readable program code configured to receive a packet of information at the network client from the first server, wherein the packet of information includes at least a second server identifier; and

computer readable program code configured to send data from the network client to a second server using the second server identifier.

10. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the computer readable program code configured to retrieve a first server identifier from within the network client retrieves the first server identifier from the non-transitory computer readable storage medium.

11. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the computer readable program code configured to retrieve a unique identifier from within the network client retrieves the unique identifier from a wireless networking interface.

12. A network client comprising:

the computer program product of claim 9;

a processor, said processor communicatively coupled to the non-transitory computer readable storage medium and capable of retrieving and executing the computer readable program code; and

a network interface communicatively coupled to said processor and configured to send and receive data over a computer network.

13. The network client of claim 12, wherein the computer readable program code configured to retrieve a unique identifier from within the network client retrieves the unique identifier from the network interface.

14. The network client of claim 12,

wherein the packet of information further comprises:

a third server identifier for a hyper-text transfer protocol (HTTP) server;

a fourth server identifier for a firmware update server; and

an upgrade timer value; and

wherein the computer program product further comprises;

computer readable program code configured to determine if a firmware upgrade file for the network client is available on the firmware update server after an amount of time indicated by the upgrade timer value has elapsed;

computer readable program code configured to retrieve said firmware upgrade file across the internet from the firmware update server using the fourth server identifier;

computer readable program code configured to update the firmware of the network client using said firmware upgrade file; and

computer readable program code configured to provide the third server identifier to an other local network device in response to a request by the other local network device to the network client for a server identifier.

15. A computer program product for configuring a client-server relationship, the computer program product comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising;

computer readable program code configured to receive a unique identifier of a network client across an internet connection from the network client;

computer readable program code configured to retrieve a second server identifier for a second server from a database; and

computer readable program code configured to send a packet of information to the network client, wherein the packet of information includes the second server identifier.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein computer readable program code configured to retrieve a second server identifier for a second server from a database uses a database query based on the unique identifier of the network client.

17. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein computer readable program code configured to retrieve a second server identifier for a second server from a database uses a database query based on a geographical location of the network client.

18. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the packet of information further comprises:

a NetBIOS name for the network client;

a third server identifier for a hyper-text transfer protocol (HTTP) server; and

a fourth server identifier for a firmware update server.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, the computer readable program code further comprising:

computer readable program code configured to provide hypertext markup language (HTML) data in response to hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) requests sent to the third server identifier; and

computer readable program code configured to provide a firmware upgrade file in response to requests sent to the fourth server identifier.

20. A server comprising:

the computer program product of claim 15;

a processor, said processor communicatively coupled to the non-transitory computer readable storage medium and capable of retrieving and executing the computer readable program code; and

a network interface communicatively coupled to said processor and configured to send and receive data over a computer network.