Systems and methods for establishing network connections using local mediation services
First Claim
1. A method executable by a mediation server to facilitate sharing of network addresses between a client and a server, the method comprising:
- initially establishing a persistent connection between the mediation server and the server;
maintaining the persistent connection as an active connection even when no data is being transferred between the mediation server and the server;
after the persistent connection between the mediation server and the server has been established, receiving a request for a connection to the server from the client at the mediation server, wherein the request comprises first connection information comprising at least one client network address associated with the client;
sending the first connection information from the mediation server to the server via the persistent connection that was previously established prior to receiving the request for the connection;
receiving a response from the server at the mediation server, wherein the response comprises second connection information comprising at least one server network address associated with the server; and
sending the second connection information about the server from the mediation server to the client to thereby allow a direct connection between the client and the server to be established using the at least one client network address and the at least one server network address.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Systems and methods facilitate communication between clients, servers or other nodes located on separate local area networks (LANs) or sub-networks within a home, office, campus or other environment using one or more mediation servers located within the local network environment. The server establishes a persistent connection to each available mediation service. The client requests a connection to the server by providing addresses or other connection information associated with the client to one or more of the mediation servers in communication with the server. The mediation server(s) send network information associated with the client to the server via the persistent connections. The server responds to the mediation server(s) by providing network information that can be relayed to the client. When the client and server have exchanged network information, communications between the client and server can be established using conventional or proprietary network address translation (NAT) or other techniques.
282 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method executable by a mediation server to facilitate sharing of network addresses between a client and a server, the method comprising:
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initially establishing a persistent connection between the mediation server and the server; maintaining the persistent connection as an active connection even when no data is being transferred between the mediation server and the server; after the persistent connection between the mediation server and the server has been established, receiving a request for a connection to the server from the client at the mediation server, wherein the request comprises first connection information comprising at least one client network address associated with the client; sending the first connection information from the mediation server to the server via the persistent connection that was previously established prior to receiving the request for the connection; receiving a response from the server at the mediation server, wherein the response comprises second connection information comprising at least one server network address associated with the server; and sending the second connection information about the server from the mediation server to the client to thereby allow a direct connection between the client and the server to be established using the at least one client network address and the at least one server network address. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A computer system to establish communications between a client and a server over a network, the computer system comprising:
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an interface to the network, the interface comprising a hardware interface that physically couples to the network; and a processor comprising a hardware processing chip in communication with the interface, wherein the processor is configured to initially establish a persistent connection with the server via the interface and to maintain the persistent connection as an active connection even when no data is being transferred between the mediation server and the server, and, after the persistent connection is established, to receive a request for a connection to the server, wherein the request is received via the interface from the client and wherein the request comprises first connection information including at least one client network address associated with the client, and wherein the processor is further configured to send the first connection information to the server via the persistent connection, to receive a response from the server via the interface that comprises second connection information including at least one server network address associated with the server, and to send the second connection information to the client via the interface to thereby allow a direct connection between the client and the server to be established using the at least one client network address and the at least one server network address. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A method executable by a server to facilitate communications with a client, the method comprising:
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initially establishing a plurality of persistent connections, wherein each of the persistent connections is established with one of a plurality of mediation servers; maintaining each of the plurality of persistent connection as active connections even when no data is being transferred; receiving a request for a connection via at least one of the plurality of previously-established persistent connections, wherein the request comprises first connection information comprising at least one client network address associated with the client; responsive to the request, sending an address request to each of the plurality of mediation servers; receiving from each of the plurality of mediation servers a server network address that identifies the server to the mediation server; and sending a response to at least one of the mediation servers, wherein the response comprises each of the server network addresses that are obtained from the plurality of mediation servers to thereby allow the mediation server to forward each of the server network addresses to the client and to thereby allow the client and the server to establish a direct connection using the at least one client network address and at least one of the server network addresses. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification