Scalable wireless messaging system

• US 7,512,408 B2
• Filed: 02/16/2006
• Issued: 03/31/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/16/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Softwired AG
• Inventors: Marais, Charl
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, David Q
• Application Number:
  US11/276,177
• Publication Number:
  US 20070191033A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,139 Days
• Field of Search: 455/466, 455/412.1, 455/412.2, 709/228, 709/231, 709/208, 709/227, 713/168, 713/171
• US Class Current: 455/466
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/288 Distributed intermediate devices, i.e. intermediate devices for interaction with other intermediate devices on the same level
• 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 67/59 Providing operational support to end devices by off-loading in the network or by emulation, e.g. when they are unavailable
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/19 Connection re-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/16 Gateway arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/182 Network node acting on behalf of an other network entity, e.g. proxy

Abstract

A method for operating a wireless messaging system, the messaging system being configured to comprise a plurality of mobile wireless clients (1, 1′, 1″), a core messaging system (7) and at least two gateway processes or gateways (5, 5′, 5″) acting as proxies on behalf of the clients (1, 1′, 1″), the method comprising, in order for a client (1) to establish a connection with one of the gateways (5, 5′, 5″), a two phase connect procedure with the steps of,

• • the client (1) maintaining a list of access points, each access point defining an address at one of the gateways (5, 5′, 5″);
  • the client (1) sending, over a wireless bearer (4, 4′, 4″), a phase one connection request to one of the access points;
  • the gateway (5, 5′, 5″) that is addressed by the phase one connection request, sending, in response to the phase one connection request, over a wireless bearer (4, 4′, 4″), a list of connect points to the client (1), each connect point defining an address at one of the gateways (5, 5′, 5″);
  • the client (1) sending, over a wireless bearer (4, 4′, 4″), a phase two connection request to at least one of the connect points; and
  • the gateway (5, 5′, 5″) that is addressed by the phase two connection request responding to the phase two connection request, and the client (1) establishing a connection with the gateway (5, 5′, 5″) specified by said connect point.

Claims

1. A method for operating a wireless messaging system, having a plurality of mobile wireless clients, a core messaging system, and at least two gateway processes or gateways, a two-phase connect procedure with the steps of:

said client maintaining a list of access points, each access point defining an address at one of at least two gateway processes or gateways within a core messaging system, wherein said gateways act as proxies for said client, wherein said messaging system maintains sessions, wherein said gateways receive inbound messages from said clients over a wireless bearer using a wireless protocol and forward said inbound messages to said core messaging system over a connection using a wirebound protocol, and wherein said gateways receive outbound messages from said core messaging system over a connection using a wirebound protocol and forward said outbound messages to said clients over connections using a wireless protocol;

upon a need for said client to establish a connection with one of said gateways, said client sending, over a wireless connection, a phase-one connection request to one of said access points;

said gateway that is addressed by said phase-one connection request, sending, in response to said phase-one connection request, over a wireless bearer, a list of connect points to said client, each connect point defining an address at one of said gateways;

said client sending, over a wireless bearer, a phase-two connection request to at least one of said connect points;

said gateway that is addressed by said phase-two connection request responding to said phase-two connection request, and said client establishing a connection with said gateway specified by said connect point.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of

the client, if a phase one connection request is unsuccessful, sending a further phase one connection request to a further access point selected from the list of access points.

3. The method of claim 1, further coprising the step of

the list of connect points being an ordered list, and the client, if the preceding phase two connection request is unsuccessful, sending a further phase two connection request to the next connect point in the current list of connect points.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising the step of

a load balancing unit creating the list of connect points in response to a first connection request, the order of the list being determined as to balance the load between gateways.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising the step of

the load balancing unit determining a load parameter characterizing, for each of the available gateways, a current load, and the load balancing unit ordering the list of connect points in ascending order according to the load parameter of the gateways associated with the connect points.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the access points are defined as a HTTP request.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the connect points are defined by a protocol, an address, and a port to be used.

11. The method of claim 1, comprising the steps of

a gateway receiving a phase two connection request from a client, the connection request comprising a session identifier;

the gateway initiating a lock operation on the session context in the local memory associated with said session identifier;

if the lock operation succeeds, the gateway locking the session context, thus preventing other acceptor threads triggered by concurrent connect requests for the same session identifier from accessing the session context;

if the lock operation does not succeed, the gateway informing the client that the connection request is rejected;

if no session with said session identifier exists, the gateway creating in a local memory section a session context with said session identifier.

8. A method for operating a wireless messaging system having a plurality of mobile wireless clients, a core messaging system, at least two gateway processes or gateways, a common data store configured to store a session context, said session context having the status of a session established between the core messaging system and one of the clients, said session context having a state of the client connection associated with the session, and said session context having a session identifier;

the method comprising a two-phase connect procedure with the steps of;

said client maintaining a list of access points, each access point defining an address at one of at least two gateway processes or gateways within a core messaging system, wherein said gateways act as proxies for said client, wherein said messaging system maintains sessions, wherein said gateways receive inbound messages from said clients over a wireless bearer using a wireless protocol and forward said inbound messages to said core messaging system over a connection using a wirebound protocol, and wherein said gateways receive outbound messages from said core messaging system over a connection using a wirebound protocol and forward said outbound messages to said clients over connections using a wireless protocol;

upon a need for said client to establish, a connection with one of said gateways, said client sending, over a wireless connection, a phase-one connection request to one of said access points;

said gateway that is addressed by said phase-one connection request, sending, in response to said phase-one connection request, over a wireless bearer, a list of connect points to said client, each connect point defining an address at one of said gateways;

said client sending, over a wireless bearer, a phase-two connection request to at least one of said connect points;

said gateway that is addressed by said phase-two connection request responding to said phase-two connection request;

said client establishing a connection with said gateway specified by said connect point;

a first gateway maintaining a session;

said first gateway updating and maintaining, for said session, an associated session context in the common data store;

said first gateway no longer maintaining said session;

a second gateway retrieving for said session, the associated session context from the common data store; and

said second gateway maintaining said session.

9. The method of claim 8, comprising the steps of

a gateway receiving a phase two connection request from a client, the connection request comprising a session identifier;

the gateway initiating a lock operation on the session context in the data store associated with said session identifier;

if the lock operation succeeds, the gateway locking the session context, thus preventing other gateways from accessing the session context;

if the lock operation does not succeed, the gateway informing the client that the connection request is rejected;

if no session with the said identifier exists, the gateway creating in the data store, an entry for the session context with said session identifier.

10. The method of claim 9, comprising the steps

a gateway, after receiving a phase two connection request, determining that another gateway, which according to the session context owns the session identified by the connection request, is not operational;

said first gateway breaking the lock and taking ownership of the session.

12. A wireless messaging system, the messaging system being configured to comprise a plurality of mobile wireless, a core messaging system and at least two gateway processes or gateways, the gateways acting as proxies on behalf of the clients and comprising a client session manager for, in the course of normal operation of the messaging system, maintaining client sessions by

receiving inbound messages from the clients over wireless bearers using a wireless protocol and forwarding said inbound messages to the core messaging system over a connection using a wirebound protocol;

receiving outbound messages from the core messaging system over a connection using a wirebound protocol and forwarding said outbound messages to the clients over a wireless bearer using a wireless protocol;

the wireless messaging system further comprising, in order for a client to establish a connection with one of the gateways, a distributed logic for implementing a two phase connect procedure, said distributed logic comprising;

in the client, a client library providing an application program interface for, among others, accepting, access points, each access point defining an address at one of the gateways;

in the client, the client library comprising a phase one routine for sending, over a wireless bearer, a phase one connection request to one of the access points;

in the gateway that addressed by the phase one connection request, a servlet for sending, in response to the phase one connection request, over a wireless bearer, a list of connect points to the client, each connect point defining an address at one of the gateways;

the client library also comprising a phase two connection request comprising wireless bearer, a phase two connection request to at least one of the connect points and;

the gateway that is addressed by the phase two connection request comprising a response logic for responding to the phase two connection request, and for establishing a connection between the client and the gateway.

13. The system of claim 12, further comprising a load balancing unit for creating the list of the connect points in response to a first connection request, the order of the list being determined as to balance the load between gateways.

14. A computer readable medium encoded with a computer program for operating a wireless messaging system having a plurality of mobile wireless clients, a core messaging system, and at least two gateway processes or gateways for providing message forwarding from said clients to the messaging server and vice versa, wherein said computer program is loadable and executable on a data-processing unit on at least one of said gateway computers, and wherein said computer program, when being executed on one of at least one of said gateway computers, performs a two-phase connect procedure with the steps of;

causing said client to maintain a list of access points, each access point defining an address at one of the at least two gateway processes or gateways wtthin a core messaging system, wherein said gateways act as proxies for said client, wherein said messaging system maintains sessions, wherein said gateways receive inbound, messages from said clients over a wireless bearer using a wireless protocol and forward said inbound messages to said core messaging system over a connection using a wirebound protocol, and wherein said gateways receive outbound messages from said core messaging system over a connection using a wirebound protocol and forward said outbound messages to said clients over connections using a wireless protocol;

upon a need for said client to establish a connection with one of said gateways, causing said client to send, over a wire less connection, a phase-one connection request to one of said access points;

causing said gateway that is addressed by said phase-one connection request to send in response to said phase-one connection request, over a wireless bearer, a list of connect points to said client, each connect point defining an address at one of said gateways;

causing said client to send, over a wireless bearers a phase-two connection request to at least one of said connect points;

causing said gateway that is addressed by said phase-two connection request to respond to said phase-two connection request, and causing said client to establish a connection with said gateway specified by said connect point.