Method and apparatus for a client connection manager

• US 9,049,109 B1
• Filed: 10/31/2007
• Issued: 06/02/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/15/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Digi International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Digi International Inc.
• Inventors: Allred, Curtis M., Schwartz, Elliot
• Primary Examiner(s): STRANGE, AARON N
• Application Number:
  US11/980,979
• Time in Patent Office: 2,771 Days
• Field of Search: 709/223, 709/203
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0654 using network fault recovery ring fault isolation or reconfiguration in loop networks without recovery actions by a network management system H04L12/437
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0823 Errors, e.g. transmission errors
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2564 for a higher-layer protocol, e.g. for session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2567 for reachability, e.g. inquiring the address of a correspondent behind a NAT server
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/02 for separating internal from external traffic, e.g. firewalls
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0209 Architectural arrangements, e.g. perimeter networks or demilitarized zones
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/029 Firewall traversal, e.g. tunnelling or, creating pinholes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/142 Managing session states for stateless protocols; Signalling session states; State transitions; Keeping-state mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/145 avoiding end of session, e.g. keep-alive, heartbeats, resumption message or wake-up for inactive or interrupted session
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/2895 Intermediate processing functionally located close to the data provider application, e.g. reverse proxies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/563 Data redirection of data network streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/14 Multichannel or multilink protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/16 Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/161 Implementation details of TCP/IP or UDP/IP stack architecture; Specification of modified or new header fields
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/163 In-band adaptation of TCP data exchange; In-band control procedures

Abstract

A method and apparatus for a connection manager have been disclosed. By providing for persistent connections with clients, the connection manager allows for servers to communicate with clients, which would otherwise be inaccessible.

Claims

1. A system comprising a processor, which when executing a set of instructions, performs the following:

receives a plurality of connection requests from a first plurality of clients;

establishes a plurality of connections for communications with the first plurality of clients based upon the plurality of connection requests;

monitors the communications on the plurality of connections;

makes connections between the first plurality of clients and a second plurality of clients based upon the communications contents;

wherein if the substantially persistent connection is dropped the corresponding client from the first plurality of clients will issue another connection request; and

wherein some of the first plurality of clients are located behind firewalls, some of the second plurality of second clients are servers, and the connections for communications are via the Internet.

2. The system of claim 1 further performing transitioning information and resources associated with each of said plurality of connections between system resources based upon a state of said communications on each of said plurality of connections being in an active communication state or an inactive communication state.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein said information and resources are selected from the group consisting of threads, buffers, tables, and state information.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the first plurality of clients and the second plurality of clients are the same.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the establishment of the plurality of connections for communications with the first plurality of clients is substantially a persistent connection.