Generic communications framework

• US 7,222,152 B1
• Filed: 10/01/2001
• Issued: 05/22/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Geller, Alan S., Thompson, Donald
• Primary Examiner(s): Wiley; David
• Assistant Examiner(s): Jean-Gilles; Jude J.
• Application Number:
  US09/968,632
• Time in Patent Office: 2,059 Days
• Field of Search: 709203-204, 709/217, 709/227, 709/249, 709/219, 709/202, 709/230, 709/245, 709/250, 370/235, 370/466, 705/40, 705/27, 705/29, 705/26, 705/77, 707100-103, 455/426, 455/412, 455/517
• US Class Current: 709/202
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/00 Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications user-to-user messaging H04L51/00; network arrangements, protocols or services for supporting real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/18 Multiprotocol handlers, e.g. single devices capable of handling multiple protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/32 Architecture of open systems interconnection [OSI] 7-layer type protocol stacks, e.g. the interfaces between the data link level and the physical level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/321 Interlayer communication protocols or service data unit [SDU] definitions; Interfaces between layers

Abstract

A system and method for communicating between a client and a server using a generic, extensible, high-speed framework that separates clients and servers from the application layer and transport layer protocols commonly used for network communications. An application (client or server) specifies a uniform resource identifier (URI) to identify an interface for transmitting or receiving one or more messages and to identify the desired protocol and transport for communication. The invention, executing on the client and/or server, instantiates an object based on the URI to implement the specified protocol and transport for communication between the client and the server.

Claims

1. A method of communicating between a client and a server in a distributed processing system, said client executing a client application and said server executing a server application, said method comprising:

creating a first communications object that supports a plurality of protocols enabling communication between the client and the server, said first communications object being protocol agnostic;

passing a uniform resource identifier (URI) from the client application to the first communications object, said URI identifying the server application with which the client application desires to communicate;

identifying a desired application layer protocol based on the URI from the client application, said desired application layer protocol being one of the plurality of protocols supported by the first communications object;

instantiating a second communications object based on the URI, said second communications object being protocol specific and corresponding to the identified application layer protocol, said second communications object specifying a desired transport layer protocol; and

implementing, by the instantiated second communications object, the application layer protocol to establish a connection between the client application and the server application, said instantiated second communications object implementing the application layer over the transport layer protocol.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein communication between the client and server is enabled according to a protocol stack having at least the application layer protocol and the transport layer protocol and wherein the first communications object separates at least one of the client and server applications from the application layer and transport layer protocols.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising creating a callback interface from the instantiated second communications object and implementing, by one or both of the client and server applications, asynchronous events generated by the instantiated second communications object.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the server application uses the callback interface to send a reply to a request received from the client application.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the instantiated second communications object comprises a server object for use by the server application, said server application using the server object to receive one or more requests sent by the client application.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the second communications object establishes a single connection between the client application and the server application and further comprising multiplexing/demultiplexing requests from the client application.

47. The method of claim 1, wherein the request from the client application is one or more of the following:

notification, transaction, and query.

5. A method of communicating between a client and a server in a distributed processing system, said client executing a client application and said server executing a server application, said method comprising:

creating a first communications object that supports a plurality of protocols enabling communication between the client and the server, said first communications object being protocol agnostic;

passing a uniform resource identifier (URI) from the client application to the first communications object, said URI identifying the server application with which the client application desires to communicate;

identifying a desired application layer protocol based on the URI from the client application, said desired application layer protocol being one of the plurality of protocols supported by the first communications object;

instantiating a second communications object based on the URI, said second communications object being protocol specific and corresponding to the identified application layer protocol, wherein said second communications object specifying a desired transport layer protocol, wherein the instantiated second communications object comprises a client object for use by the client application, said client application using the client object to send one or more requests to the server application; and

implementing, by the instantiated second communications object, the application layer protocol to establish a connection between the client application and the server application, said instantiated second communications object implementing the application layer over the transport layer protocol.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the request from the client application is one or more of the following:

notification, transaction, and query.

46. The method of claim 5, further comprising creating a callback interface from the instantiated second communications object and implementing, by one or both of the client and server applications, asynchronous events generated by the instantiated second communications object.

9. A method of communicating between a client and a server in a distributed processing system, said client executing a client application and said server executing a server application, said method comprising:

creating a first communications object that supports a plurality of protocols enabling communication between the client and the server, said first communications object being protocol agnostic;

passing a uniform resource identifier (URI) from the client application to the first communications object, said URI identifying the server application with which the client application desires to communicate;

identifying a desired application layer protocol based on the URI from the client application, said desired application layer protocol based one of the plurality of protocols supported by the first communications object;

instantiating a second communications object based on a different URI identifying another server application with which the client application desires to communicate, said second communications object being protocol specific and corresponding to the identified application layer protocol; and

implementing, by the instantiated second communications object, the application layer protocol to establish a connection between the client application and the server application.

10. One or more computer-readable media having computer-executable components comprising:

a client application component, said client application component providing a uniform resource identifier (URI) identifying a server application component with which the client application component desires to communicate; and

a communications object component that supports a plurality of protocols enabling communication between the client and server application components, said communications object component identifying one of the supported plurality of protocols as a desired application layer protocol based on the URI, said communications object component instantiating a communications object based on the desired application layer protocol, said communications object component implementing the application layer protocol based on the instantiated communications object to establish a connection between the client application component and a server application component, wherein communication between the client and server application components is enabled according to a protocol stack having at least the application layer protocol and the transport layer protocol and wherein the communications object component separates at least one of the client and server application components from the application layer and transport layer protocols.

11. The computer-readable media of claim 10, wherein the instantiated communications object specifies a desired transport layer protocol and wherein the communications object component implements the application layer over the transport layer protocol based on the instantiated communications object.

12. The computer-readable media of claim 10, further comprising a callback interface component created from the instantiated communications object, one or both of said client and server application components using the callback interface component to implement asynchronous events generated by the instantiated communications object.

13. The computer-readable media of claim 12, wherein the server application component uses the callback interface component to send a reply to a request received from the client application component.

14. The computer-readable media of claim 10, wherein the communications object component comprises a client object component for use by the client application component, said client application component using the client object component to send one or more requests to the server application component.

15. The computer-readable media of claim 14, wherein the request from the client application component is one or more of the following:

notification, transaction, and query.

16. The computer-readable media of claim 10, wherein the instantiated communications object comprises a server object component for use by the server application component, said server application component using the server object component to receive one or more requests sent by the client application component.

17. The computer-readable media of claim 10, wherein the communications object component is a Component Object Model (COM) component.

19. The computer-readable media of claim 10, wherein the application layer protocol is Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).

20. The computer-readable media of claim 10, wherein the application layer protocol is Generic Communications Framework Protocol (GCFP).

21. The computer-readable media of claim 10, wherein the transport layer implements a transmission control protocol/Internet protocol transport.

22. The computer-readable media of claim 10, wherein the transport layer is Universal Data Protocol (UDP).

18. One or more computer-readable media having computer-executable components comprising:

a client application component, said client application component providing a uniform resource identifier (URI) identifying a server application component with which the client application component desires to communicate; and

a communications object component that supports a plurality of protocols enabling communication between the client and server application components, said communication object component identifying one of the supported plurality of protocols as a desired application layer protocol based on the URI, said communications object component instantiating a communications object based on the desired application layer protocol, said communications object component implementing the application layer protocol based on the instantiated communications object to establish a connection between the client application component and a server application component, wherein the communications object is protocol agnostic, and wherein the instantiated communications object is protocol specific.

48. The computer-readable media of claim 18, wherein the instantiated communications object specifies a desired transport layer protocol and wherein the communications object component implements the application layer over the transport layer protocol based on the instantiated communications object.

49. The computer-readable media of claim 18, wherein the instantiated communications object component comprises a client object component for use by the client application component, said client application component using the client object component to send one or more requests to the server application component.

50. The computer-readable media of claim 18, wherein the instantiated communications object comprises a server object component for use by the server application component, said server application component using the server object component to receive one or more requests sent by the client application component.

23. A distributed processing system comprising:

a client executing a client application;

a server executing a server application with which the client application desires to communicate; and

a computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for implementing a first communications object, said first communications object supporting a plurality of protocols to enable communication between the client and server applications, said first communications object identifying one of the supported plurality of protocols as a desired application layer protocol based on a uniform resource identifier (URI) identifying the server application, a second communications object being instantiated based on the desired application layer protocol to implement the desired application layer protocol to establish a connection between the client application and the server application, said instantiated second communications object specifies a desired transport layer protocol and said instantiated second communications object implements the application layer over the transport layer protocol, said instantiated second communications object comprising a server object for use by the server application, said server application using the server object to receive one or more requests sent by the client application.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the computer-readable medium is associated with the client.

25. The system of claim 23, wherein the instantiated second communications object specifies a desired transport layer protocol and wherein the instantiated second communications object implements the application layer over the transport layer protocol.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein communication between the client and server is enabled according to a protocol stack having at least the application layer protocol and the transport layer protocol and wherein the first communications object separates at least one of the client and server applications from the application layer and transport layer protocols.

27. The system of claim 23, further comprising a computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for creating a callback interface from the instantiated second communications object and implementing, by one or both of the client and server applications, asynchronous events generated by the instantiated second communications object.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the server application uses the callback interface to send a reply to a request received from the client application.

29. The system of claim 23, wherein the instantiated second communications object comprises a client object for use by the client application, said client application using the client object to send one or more requests to the server application.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the request from the client application is one or more of the following:

notification, transaction, and query.

31. The system of claim 23, wherein the first communications object is protocol agnostic, and wherein the second communications object is protocol specific.

32. The system of claim 23, wherein the second communications object establishes a single connection between the client application and the server application and further comprising a computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for multiplexing/demultiplexing requests from the client application.

33. The system of claim 23, another server application with which the client application desires to communicate, said second communications object being instantiated based on a different URI identifying the other server application.

34. A method of communicating between a first device and a second device via a communication component, said first device executing an application program, said method comprising:

conveying, from the application program to the communication component associated with the first device, a uniform resource identifier (URI) for specifying a protocol and transport from a plurality of protocols and transports supported by the communication component; and

receiving, by the application program from the communication component, identification of a transmitting interface for transmitting, by the application program to the second device, at least one message, said receiving identification of the transmitting interface comprising passing from the communication component to the application program a pointer associated with the transmitting interface.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein the message is a request message, further comprising identifying, by the application program to the communication component, a receiving interface for receiving, by the application program from the communication component, at least one reply message in response to the request message, said reply message for processing by the application program.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein identifying a receiving interface comprises passing from the application program to the communication component a pointer associated with the receiving interface.

37. The method of claim 34, wherein the message is unidirectional.

38. The method of claim 34, wherein the URI identifies the second device and/or an application executing on the second device.

39. The method of claim 34, wherein the message is a notification, a transaction, or a query.

40. The method of claim 34, wherein the first device is a computer and the second device is a hardware device.

41. The method of claim 40, wherein the hardware device is a computer-readable medium.

42. The method of claim 34, wherein the first device is a client and the second device is a server.

43. One or more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions for performing the method of claim 34.

44. A method of communicating between a first device and a second device via a communication component, said first device executing an application program, said method comprising:

conveying, from the application program to the communication component associated with the first device, a uniform resource identifier (URI) for specifying a protocol and transport from a plurality of protocols and transports supported by the communication component;

determining a receiving interface for receiving based on the URI;

identifying, by the application program to the communication component, the determined receiving interface for receiving, by the application program from the communication component, at least one request message, said communication component implementing the specified protocol and transport to receive the request message from the second device for processing by the first device; and

receiving, by the application program from the communication component, identification of a transmitting interface for transmitting, by the application program to the second device, at least one reply message in response to the request message, said reply message for processing by the second device.

45. A method of communicating between a first device and a second device via a communication component associated with the first device, said method comprising:

receiving, by the communication component from an application program executing on the first device, a uniform resource identifier (URI) for specifying a protocol and transport from a plurality of protocols and transports supported by the communication component;

identifying an object based on the URI, said identified object corresponding to the specified protocol and transport;

instantiating another object being accessible by the application program via a pointer associated therewith based on the identified object, said instantiated object being accessible by the application program for implementing the specified protocol and transport to transmit at least one message from the first device to the second device; and

receiving, by the communication component from the application program, identification of a receiving interface for receiving, by the application program from the communication component, a second message in response to the first message, said second message for processing by the application program.