Method and apparatus for context sensitive pathsend

• US 6,003,085 A
• Filed: 09/25/1998
• Issued: 12/14/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 06/07/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Compaq Computer Corporation (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Limprecht, Rodney T., Schorow, David J., Ratner, Mitchell, Blevins, Michael R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Shin, Christopher B.
• Application Number:
  US09/161,442
• Time in Patent Office: 445 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/208, 709/227-237, 709/300, 370/322, 370/389
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

An improved method and apparatus for creating a context-sensitive pathsend in a asynchronous data packet network of the kind used typically in on-line transaction processing where a particular receiving server in a server pool must communicate with a particular originating client. By piggybacking messages and employing run-time binding to create a logical connection between the server and client, the present invention achieves a dramatic improvement in processing data packets and minimizing system resources. In a preferred embodiment the invention is backwardly compatible with existing context-free applications.

Claims

1. A method of creating a context-sensitive pathsend in a server-client node network to minimize the costs of maintaining a dialogue between server and client comprising:

sending client messages from a plurality of client nodes, each client message having specific client requests, to a particular server node;

piggy-backing data onto said client messages from said plurality of client nodes, said piggy-backed data including both data related to said specific client requests and data relating to the state of the client-server relationship;

responding to said piggy-backed data by sending a plurality of server messages to said plurality of clients; and

piggy-backing data onto said server messages, said piggy-backed data including both data related to said specific client requests and data relating to the state of said client-server relationship, whereby said piggy-backed data can decrease the costs of maintaining a dialogue between client and server nodes.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein a temporary dedicated communication is created between at least one of the plurality of client nodes and the server node, said dedicated communication defined by and creating a plurality of states between the client node and the server node, said states monitored by an operating system process application common to both the client node and the server node, said operating system process application residing in an operating system node having a primary memory, the method further comprising the steps of:

creating a plurality of object-oriented data structures in said operating system process node primary memory; and

linking said plurality of data structures in a predetermined manner according to which of said states are present between the client node and the server node,

whereby by traversing the links of said plurality of data structures, the state of said dedicated communication can be ascertained and the particular client and server nodes can be ascertained as a consequence.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of piggy-backing data includes the step of establishing a dialog ID.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of piggy-backing data includes the step of establishing a dialog status.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the dialog status has one of the following values:

FeOK, which indicates that the dialog should be ended, and

FeContinue, which indicates that the client should send another request.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of sending, by the client, an abort message that ends the dialog.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of sending, by the server, an abort message that ends the dialog.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of sending, by the operating system, an abort message that ends the dialog.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of piggy-backing data includes the step of setting up a dialog control block that includes a dialog ID.