Protocol for transporting reservation system data over a TCP/IP network
First Claim
1. A method for transporting reservation system data over a network transport between intermediate stations bordering a TCP/IP network of a reservation system internetwork, the method comprising the steps of:
- establishing airline protocol support (ALPS) tunneling protocol (ATP) virtual circuits over the network transport between the intermediate stations for transporting reservation system data frames;
encapsulating the data frames as ATP-encapsulated frames at one of the intermediate stations; and
transporting the ATP-encapsultated frames over the ATP virtual circuits in accordance with ATP protocol software processes executing on the intermediate stations.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An ALPS tunneling protocol (ATP) is used to transport airline reservation data over ATP virtual circuits extending between branch and data center resources of an air-line reservation internetwork system. The resources include branch and data center routers, along with AX.25/EMTOX virtual circuits, bordering a TCP/IP network cloud of the internetwork system. The ATP protocol includes a set of primitives used to establish ATP virtual circuits for transporting ATP-encapsulated frames between the branch and data center routers. The frames are encapsulated in accordance with an encapsulation technique of the ATP protocol that enables maintenance of airline reservation data frame boundaries over the TCP/IP network and correlation between ATP virtual circuit end-points in the routers.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method for transporting reservation system data over a network transport between intermediate stations bordering a TCP/IP network of a reservation system internetwork, the method comprising the steps of:
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establishing airline protocol support (ALPS) tunneling protocol (ATP) virtual circuits over the network transport between the intermediate stations for transporting reservation system data frames; encapsulating the data frames as ATP-encapsulated frames at one of the intermediate stations; and transporting the ATP-encapsultated frames over the ATP virtual circuits in accordance with ATP protocol software processes executing on the intermediate stations. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. Apparatus for transporting airline reservation data over a network transport of a TCP/IP network interposed within an airline reservation internetwork system, the internetwork system including a host reservation system (HRS) and a plurality of terminals coupled to an agent set control unit (ASCU), the apparatus comprising:
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a branch intermediate station coupled between the ASCU and the TCP/IP network; a data center intermediate station coupled between the HRS and the TCP/IP network; an airline protocol support (ALPS) tunneling protocol (ATP) protocol software process executing on each intermediate station; a plurality of ATP primitive data structures exchanged between the intermediate stations to establish ATP virtual circuits over the network transport to enable transporting of airline reservation data; and ATP frame structures transported over the ATP virtual circuits in accordance with the ATP protocol software processes, the ATP frame structures encapsulating the airline reservation data. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification