Maintaining communication connections during temporary network disruptions

• US 9,438,448 B2
• Filed: 08/18/2009
• Issued: 09/06/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/18/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Tripathi, Ashutosh, Rajagopalan, Balasubramanian, Dixit, Madhur, Singh, Rahul, Manda, Srinivasa Reddy
• Primary Examiner(s): LAZARO, DAVID R
• Application Number:
  US12/542,894
• Publication Number:
  US 20110047219A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,576 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206, 709/207, 709/227, 709/228
• 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 41/0816 the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0883 Semiautomatic configuration, e.g. proposals from system
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0811 by checking connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/066 Format adaptation, e.g. format conversion or compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• 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 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06

Abstract

Network disconnections are automatically detected between a client application and a server When a disconnection is detected by either the client or server, a determination is made as to whether the disconnection is a temporary disconnection or a longer-lasting disconnection. While disconnected, attempts are made to automatically reconnect the client and server. During the disconnected period, a subset of communication functions remain operable. When the connection is restored, presence/availability information is automatically delivered to the client.

Claims

1. A method for operating during temporary disruptions of network connectivity between a client device running a presence application comprising Instant Messaging (IM) capability and a communications server that processes IM notifications, the method executing on a processor of the communications server, the method comprising:

(a) establishing a communications channel between the client device and the communications server;

(b) accepting login information from a user of the client device and changing the status of the client device from logged out to logged in;

(c) receiving a heartbeat request from the logged in client device;

(d) in response to receiving the heartbeat request, waiting a period of time to send a heartbeat response to the logged in client device, wherein a length of the period of time is configured by the communications server based on the network connectivity between the logged in client device and the communications server;

(e) automatically identifying a data disconnection with the logged in client device when the communications server is not able to send a message over the communications channel;

(f) determining whether the data disconnection is a temporary disconnection or a longer-lasting disconnection; and

(1) when it is determined that the data disconnection is the temporary disconnection then, during a period of temporary disconnection;

maintaining the client device as logged in even though there is a data disconnection;

caching one or more incoming presence status updates for each of one or more contacts of the user of the client device;

setting an away status for the user during the period of the temporary disconnection; and

automatically attempting to re-establish a data connection with the client device; and

(2) when it is determined that the data disconnection is the longer-lasting disconnection, changing the status of the client device to logged out and changing the status of the user to offline.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

(g) sending the one or more incoming presence status updates for each of the one or more contacts of the user to the client device when the data connection is re-established.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

(d) immediately sending a notification to the client device in response to receiving the heartbeat request instead of waiting the predetermined period of time to send the heartbeat response to the logged in client in response to receiving the heartbeat request.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the notification is an IM.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication channel uses an HTTP communication connection.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the heartbeat response is empty.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein step (f) determining whether the data disconnection is a temporary disconnection or a longer-lasting disconnection further comprises:

determining the data disconnection is a longer-lasting disconnection when the data disconnection has continued for a predetermined period of time, wherein a length of the predetermined period of time is configured by the communications server based on the network connectivity between the client device and the communications server.

8. A server computer that processes IM messages, the server computer comprising:

a processor; and

memory communicatively coupled to the processor, the memory storing computer-readable instructions that when executed by the processor cause the server computer to

establish a communications channel between a client device and the server computer;

accept log in information from the client device and change a status of the client device from logged out to logged in;

receive a heartbeat request from the logged in client device;

in response to receiving the heartbeat request, waiting a period of time to send a heartbeat response to the logged in client device, wherein a length of the period of time is configured by the server based on the network connectivity between the logged in client device and the server;

automatically identify a data disconnection with the client device running a presence application comprising Instant Messaging (IM) capability when the server is not able to send a message to the logged in client device over the communications channel;

determine whether the data disconnection is a temporary disconnection or a longer-lasting disconnection;

when it is determined that the data disconnection is the temporary disconnection then, during a period of temporary disconnection;

maintain the status of the client device as logged in even though the data connection is disconnected;

cache one or more incoming presence status updates for one or more contacts of the user of the client device;

set user status for a user of the client device to away during the period of temporary disconnection; and

automatically attempt to re-establish the data connection with the client device; and

when it is determined that the disconnection is the longer-lasting disconnection, change the status of the client device-to logged out and change the status of the user to offline.

9. The server computer of claim 8, further comprising computer-readable instructions that cause the server computer to:

immediately send a notification to the client device in response to receiving the heartbeat request instead of waiting the period of time to send the heartbeat response to the logged in client in response to receiving the heartbeat request.

10. The server computer of claim 8, further comprising computer-readable instructions that cause the server computer to:

provide at least some of the one or more cached incoming presence status updates to the client device after a connection is re-established.

11. A system for operating during temporary disruptions of network connectivity, comprising:

a processor and a computer-readable medium;

an operating environment stored on the computer-readable medium and executing on the processor;

a network interface unit configured to connect with a server;

a connection manager operating on the processor; and

configured to perform tasks, comprising;

establishing a data connection with the server;

signing into the server with a login;

sending a heartbeat request to the server;

automatically identifying a data disconnection when a response to the heartbeat request is not received from the server within a time period, wherein the response from the server is one of an empty heartbeat response and a notification response and a length of the time period is based on the network connectivity;

determining whether the data disconnection is a temporary disconnection or a longer-lasting disconnection; and

during a period of temporary disconnection;

maintaining the login with the server even though the data connection is disconnected;

performing IM operations during the temporary disconnection;

automatically attempting to re-establish a data connection; and

converting an IM to a Short Message Service (SMS) message and delivering the SMS message instead of the IM message during the temporary disconnection; and

during a period of the longer-lasting disconnection, signing out the user from the server and setting the presence status of the user to offline.

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising determining the data disconnection is a longer-lasting disconnection when the data disconnection has continued for a predetermined period of time, wherein a length of the predetermined period of time is based on the network connectivity between the client device and the communications server.