Routing of communications to a platform service

• US 8,700,775 B2
• Filed: 09/21/2007
• Issued: 04/15/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aventail LLC
• Original Assignee: Aventail LLC
• Inventors: Hopen, Chris A., Tomlinson, Gary B., Brooke, John, Brown, Derek W., Burdge, Jonathan, Erickson, Rodger D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Joo, Joshua
• Application Number:
  US11/903,219
• Publication Number:
  US 20080126545A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,398 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709226-229, 709/238
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2007 using redundant communication media
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/121 by minimising delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/125 by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1008 based on parameters of servers, e.g. available memory or workload monitoring of computer activity G06F11/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/101 based on network conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1017 based on a round robin mechanism
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1029 using data related to the state of servers by a load balancer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1034 Reaction to server failures by a load balancer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1038 Load balancing arrangements to avoid a single path through a load balancer

Abstract

Systems and methods for routing communications to a platform service are provided. A message including payload data is received. The information in the payload data of the message is examined in order to determine the type of message. The message is then relayed to an appropriate platform service based on the type of message. Some embodiments assign numbers to the packets that make up the message.

Claims

1. A method for routing a communication to a platform service, the method comprising:

receiving a first message and a second message in a first communication;

sending an acknowledgement message to a source of the first communication in reply to the first message;

analyzing payload data contained in the second message to identify a communication type, wherein the communication type is specific to one of a plurality of platform service types available for routing, the available plurality of platform service types including a virtual private network platform service and an extranet platform service;

sending a first message and a second message in a second communication to a corresponding platform service of the platform service type specific to the communication type indicated by the payload data, wherein the second message in the second communication includes the payload data contained in the second message of the first communication;

receiving an acknowledgement of the first message from the corresponding platform service;

receiving a reply responsive to the second message in the second communication from the corresponding platform service; and

relaying the reply from the corresponding platform service to the source of the first communication.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second messages in the first communication are sequentially numbered and the first and second messages in the second communication are sequentially numbered differently from the first and second messages in the first communication;

and the method further comprises;

modifying the sequential numbering of the second message in the first communication to correspond with the sequential numbering of the second communication with the corresponding platform service, and

modifying the sequential numbering of the reply to the second message in the second communication to correspond with the sequential numbering of the first communication.

3. A method for routing a first communication to a platform service, the method comprising:

receiving the first communication comprising payload data;

determining a communication type for the first communication based on at least information provided by the payload data, wherein the communication type is specific to one of a plurality of platform service types available for routing, the available plurality of platform service types including a virtual private network platform service and an extranet platform service; and

relaying the first communication to a corresponding platform service being of the platform service type specific to the communication type of the first communication.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising receiving a reply from the corresponding platform service and relaying the reply to a source of the first communication.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the first communication is transmitted using sequentially numbered packets.

6. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

receiving a second communication, the second communication directed to a same internet protocol (IP) address and comprising different payload data than the payload data of the first communication; and

determining a communication type for the second communication based on at least information provided by the different payload data, wherein one of the first and second communications is determined to be a communication type specific to a virtual private network platform service and the other of the first and second communications is determined to be a communication type specific to an extranet platform service.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein the payload data of the first communication includes a virtual private network protocol frame.

8. The method of claim 3, wherein the payload data of the first communication includes a secure socket layer (SSL) helo message.

9. The method of claim 3, further comprising sending an acknowledgement to a source of the first communication in response to receiving a portion of the first communication.

10. The method of claim 3, further comprising receiving a reply from the available platform service in response to the relayed first communication.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising forwarding the received reply to a source of the relayed first communication.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising sending an acknowledgement to the corresponding platform service in response to the received reply.

13. The method of claim 3, wherein the virtual private network platform service has a different port number than the extranet platform service.

14. The method of claim 3, wherein port numbers for the virtual private network platform service and the extranet platform service are set based on user input.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the first communication is sent to a port number associated with a transfer protocol and wherein the port number associated with the transfer protocol is different from the port numbers set for the virtual private network platform service and the extranet platform service.

16. A system for routing a communication to a platform service, the system comprising:

an input configured to receive the communication comprising payload data;

a processor configured to execute instructions stored in memory for determining a communication type based on at least information provided by the payload data and received at the input wherein the communication type is specific to one of a plurality of platform service types available for routing, the available plurality of platform service types including a virtual private network platform service and an extranet platform service; and

an output configured to relay the communication received at the input to a corresponding platform service being of the platform service type specific to the communication type of the communication, the corresponding platform service selected from a plurality of platform services.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, having embodied thereon a program executable by a processor to perform a method for routing a first communication to a platform service, the method comprising:

receiving the first communication comprising payload data;

determining a communication type for the first communication based on at least information provided by the payload data, wherein the communication type is specific to one of a plurality of platform service types available for routing, the available plurality of platform service types including a virtual private network platform service and an extranet platform service; and

relaying the first communication to a corresponding platform service of the platform service type specific to the communication type of the first communication.