Method and apparatus for reconnecting to a remote viewing session

• US 7,917,633 B1
• Filed: 04/17/2008
• Issued: 03/29/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/17/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Glance Networks, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Glance Networks, Inc.
• Inventors: Mendez, Debby, Baker, Richard L., Topolcic, Claudio, Hardebeck, Ed
• Primary Examiner(s): Mesfin; Yemane
• Application Number:
  US12/104,681
• Time in Patent Office: 1,076 Days
• Field of Search: 709/227, 709/228, 709/235, 726/14, 726/15
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/141 Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/142 Managing session states for stateless protocols; Signalling session states; State transitions; Keeping-state mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/143 Termination or inactivation of sessions, e.g. event-controlled end of session
• 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 69/162 involving adaptations of sockets based mechanisms secure socket layer H04L63/168

Abstract

Remote viewing software at a display may contain control logic to enable it to manage the connection associated with a session. The connection management process may preferentially elect to establish a socket connection and, if that is unavailable or unreliable, may use HTTP tunneling. The connection management process may also automatically reconnect the display to the session so that the display is not required to manually re-join an ongoing session. The connection management process also manages the termination of the session to ensure that both the server and the client process at the display end the session correctly.

Claims

1. A method of connecting to a remote viewing session being hosted to enable host screen information to be viewed remotely on a display screen, the method comprising the steps of:

attempting to establish a Transport Control Protocol (TCP) socket connection for the session, wherein the step of attempting to establish a TCP socket includes the steps of establishing a trial socket during a trial socket connection period and monitoring the trial socket for both a period of time and for a quantity of data to ensure that the trial TCP socket is operating adequately and,

if the attempt to establish the TCP socket connection is unsuccessful or if the resultant TCP socket connection is unreliable, attempting to establish a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) tunneling connection for the session, wherein the trial TCP socket will be deemed to have failed if, during the trial socket connection period, the connection is dropped more than once.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the trial TCP socket will be deemed to have failed if, during the trial socket connection period, a bad message is received, the bad message being a message that is truncated early or has a length greater than expected.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein if a HTTP tunnel is established, and there is a first HTTP tunnel failure, the method comprising the further step of attempting to reconnect the HTTP tunnel.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of deeming the socket connection to be reliable upon successful expiration of the trial socket connection period.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising the step of automatically attempting to reconnect the TCP socket if the connection is dropped.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the step of automatically attempting to reconnect the TCP socket will persist for a pre-configured period of time, and upon expiration of the pre-configured period of time, the TCP connection will be deemed to have failed.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the step of automatically attempting to reconnect the TCP socket will occur after a given period of inactivity, the period of inactivity being a period of time when the TCP connection is established but no data is received on the connection.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein upon occurrence of a second consecutive period of inactivity, the TCP socket will be deemed to have failed.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising monitoring the TCP connection or HTTP tunnel once established to enable an automatic reconnection process to be used to re-establish the TCP connection or HTTP tunnel upon failure.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising the step of distinguishing whether the failure was a result of an intentionally closed connection or an unintentionally dropped connection, and only enabling the automatic reconnection process to be used in the event of an unintentionally dropped connection.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of establishing a TCP socket connection for the remote viewing session.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising generating a close message by a display to instruct a server to close the TCP socket connection, and acknowledging the close message by the server by closing the TCP socket at the server prior to terminating the TCP socket at the display.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising generating a close message by a server to instruct a display to close the TCP socket connection, and acknowledging the close message by the display by closing the TCP socket at the display prior to terminating the TCP socket connection at the server.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of establishing a HTTP tunneling connection for the remote viewing session.

15. The method of claim 14, comprising generating a close message by a display to instruct a server to close the HTTP tunneling connection, and acknowledging the close message by the server prior to terminating the HTTP tunneling connection.

16. The method of claim 14, comprising generating a close message by a server to instruct a display to close the HTTP tunneling connection, and acknowledging the close message by the display prior to terminating the HTTP tunneling connection.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of maintaining a list of connections that are active at a server, and a list of connections that are in a process of being terminated.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein when a connection is to be terminated, it is passed from the list of connections that are active at the server to the list of connections that are in the process of being terminated to allow messages related to the organized termination of the connection to be passed over the connection before the connection is closed.