System architecture for wide-area workstation management
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A workstation sharing system, comprising:
- a set of heterogeneous workstations each executing a set of cross-platform code that provides a corresponding workstation sharing agent and a client agent;
management server that enables the workstation agents to formulate a workstation sharing pool for resource sharing among the heterogeneous workstations wherein the management server and the workstation agents communicate using a protocol that is selected to enable the heterogeneous workstations to be widely dispersed geographically and communicate via a network and wherein the client agent of each of the heterogeneous workstations is configured to present a selection function to a user of the workstation, the selection function is used by the workstation to push a remote desktop obtained from a first remote workstation in the workstation sharing pool onto a second remote workstation in the workstation sharing pool, the remote desktop is configured to be used by the user to interact with the first remote workstation, and the first and second remote workstations are different from the workstation.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system architecture for managing a group of heterogeneous workstations that may be widely dispersed geographically. A system according to the present teachings enables users to access remote workstations and run applications on the remote workstations transparently and enables seamless integration of remote desktop sharing and distributing desktops among heterogeneous workstations. The system also provides enforcement of protections among user and workstations, user account management and workstation allocation management. The present architecture is platform independent and enables workstations to be accessed from anywhere using a graphical user interface through the Internet.
-
Citations
23 Claims
-
1. A workstation sharing system, comprising:
-
a set of heterogeneous workstations each executing a set of cross-platform code that provides a corresponding workstation sharing agent and a client agent; management server that enables the workstation agents to formulate a workstation sharing pool for resource sharing among the heterogeneous workstations wherein the management server and the workstation agents communicate using a protocol that is selected to enable the heterogeneous workstations to be widely dispersed geographically and communicate via a network and wherein the client agent of each of the heterogeneous workstations is configured to present a selection function to a user of the workstation, the selection function is used by the workstation to push a remote desktop obtained from a first remote workstation in the workstation sharing pool onto a second remote workstation in the workstation sharing pool, the remote desktop is configured to be used by the user to interact with the first remote workstation, and the first and second remote workstations are different from the workstation. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
-
-
11. A method for workstation sharing, comprising:
-
obtaining a workstation sharing agent and a client agent for a workstation; executing the workstation sharing agent such that the workstation sharing agent performs resource sharing among a set of heterogeneous workstations that include the workstation; presenting a selection function to a user of the workstation; and in response to a selection by the user of the selection function, pushing a remote desktop obtained from a first remote workstation of the heterogeneous workstations onto a second remote workstation of the heterogeneous workstations, wherein the remote desktop is configured to be used by the user to interact with the first remote workstation and the first and second remote workstations are different from the workstation. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
-
-
17. A tangible computer readable storage media that holds a set of cross platform code that when executed on a workstation performs resource sharing by:
-
communicating with a management server via a network using a protocol that is selected to enable the workstation to be widely dispersed geographically with respect to a set of heterogeneous workstation in a workstation sharing pool; performing a remote procedure call to a function in the management server that checks-in the workstation into the workstation sharing pool; presenting a selection function to a user of the workstation; and in response to a selection by the user of the selection function, pushing a remote desktop obtained from a first remote workstation in the workstation sharing pool onto a second remote workstation in the workstation sharing pool, wherein the remote desktop is configured to be used by the user to interact with the first remote workstation and the first and second remote workstations are different from the workstation. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
-
Specification