System for exchanging messages between customer devices and servers

• US 9,118,739 B2
• Filed: 09/14/2005
• Issued: 08/25/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/17/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Roelens, Wim Gabriel Andy, Bracke, Sylvie Adriana Louisa Maria
• Primary Examiner(s): Wang, Liangche A
• Application Number:
  US11/225,053
• Publication Number:
  US 20060075118A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,632 Days
• Field of Search: 709/220, 709/206
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/168 above the transport layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/133 Protocols for remote procedure calls [RPC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/32 Architecture of open systems interconnection [OSI] 7-layer type protocol stacks, e.g. the interfaces between the data link level and the physical level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/322 Intralayer communication protocols among peer entities or protocol data unit [PDU] definitions

Abstract

Systems (1) for exchanging messages (10-13,40-55) between customer devices (2) such as customer premises equipment and servers (3) such as auto configuration servers at several layers comprising a first layer such as a hyper text transfer protocol layer and a second layer such as a simple object access protocol layer are made compliant to web services toolkits by, at the second layer, allowing the customer device (2) to be a requesting party only and the server (3) to be a responding party only, for so-called server method applications as well as for so-called customer device method applications. At the second layer, the server (3) is never a requesting party and the customer device (2) is never a responding party. As a result, the development of management appliances no longer needs to be done manually and the system (1) according to the invention can be used in combination with firewalls.

Claims

1. A customer device for exchanging messages with a server at several layers comprising a first layer and a second layer, the customer device comprising:

a customer device transmitter operative to, at the first layer, transmit a request message to the server and, at the second layer, transmit a request message to the server; and

a customer device receiver operative to, at the first layer, receive a response message from the server and, at the second layer, receive a response message from the server, wherein the second layer is higher than the first layer and the customer device transmitter is operative to;

transmit a first message signal comprising a request message at the first layer and a request message for requesting from said server a task the customer device needs to perform, at the second layer;

receive a second message signal comprising a response message at the first layer and a response message including said task said customer device needs to perform, at the second layer;

transmit a third message signal comprising a request message at the first layer and a request message for asking said server for a plurality of argument values said customer device needs to perform said task, at the second layer;

receive a fourth message signal comprising a response message at the first layer and a response message including said plurality of argument values said customer device needs to perform said task, at the second layer;

transmit a fifth message signal comprising a request message at the first layer and a request message for setting the result of execution of said task on the server, at the second layer; and

receive a sixth message signal comprising a response message at the first layer and a Method2 message, at the second layer;

wherein the sixth message signal starts a next session with one or more remote procedure calls.

2. A system operative to exchange messages between a customer device according to claim 1 and a server at several layers comprising a first layer and a second layer, the customer device being a requesting party at the first layer and the server being a responding party at the first layer, the customer device being a requesting party at the second layer and the server being a responding party at the second layer, wherein said second layer is higher than the first layer, wherein a first message signal comprises a request message at the first layer and a request message for requesting from said server a task the customer device needs to perform, at the second layer, a second message signal comprises a response message at the first layer and a response message including said task the customer device needs to perform, at the second layer, a third message signal comprises a request message at the first layer and a request message for asking from said server a plurality of argument values said customer device needs to perform said task, at the second layer, a fourth message signal comprises a response message at the first layer and a response message including said plurality of argument values said customer device needs to perform said task, at the second layer, and a fifth message signal comprises a request message at the first layer and a request message for setting the result of execution of said task on the server, at the second layer.

3. A server for use in a system according to claim 2 operative to exchange messages with a customer device at several layers comprising a first layer and a second layer, the server comprising:

a server receiver operative to, at the first layer, receive a request message from the customer device and, at the second layer, receive a request message from the customer device, and

a server transmitter operative to, at the first layer, transmit a response message to the customer device and, at the second layer, transmit a response message to the customer device, wherein the second layer is higher than the first layer and the server receiver is operative to;

receive a first message signal comprising a request message at the first layer and a request message requesting from said server a task the customer device needs to perform, at the second layer;

transmit a second message signal comprising a response message at the first layer and a response message including said task the customer device needs to perform, at the second layer;

receive a third message signal comprising a request message at the first layer and a request message for asking said server for a plurality of argument values said customer device needs to perform said task, at the second layer;

transmit a fourth message signal comprising a response message at the first layer and a response message including said plurality of argument values said customer device needs to perform said task, at the second layer;

receive a fifth message signal comprising a request message at the first layer and a request message for setting the result of execution of said task by said customer device on the server, at the second layer.

4. A system as defined in claim 2, wherein the customer device is customer premises equipment and the server is an auto configuration server.

5. A system as defined in claim 2, wherein the first layer is a hyper text transfer protocol layer and the second layer is a simple object access protocol layer.

6. A method for exchanging messages between a customer device and a server at several layers comprising a first layer and a second layer, the method comprising:

at the first layer, receiving a request message from the customer device at the server and transmitting a response message from the server to the customer device;

at the second layer, receiving a request message from the customer device at the server and transmitting a response message from the server to the customer device, wherein the second layer is higher than the first layer;

receiving a first message signal comprising a request message at the first layer and a request message for requesting from said server a task the customer device needs to perform, at the second layer;

transmitting a second message signal comprising a response message at the first layer and a response message including said task the customer device needs to perform, at the second layer;

receiving a third message signal comprising a request message at the first layer and a request message asking said server for a plurality of argument values said customer device needs to perform said task, at the second layer;

transmitting a fourth message signal comprising a response message at the first layer and a response message including said plurality of argument values the customer device needs to perform said task, at the second layer;

receiving a fifth message signal comprising a request message at the first layer and a request message for setting the result of execution of said customer device method on the server, at the second layer; and

transmitting a sixth message signal comprising a sixth message signal comprising a response message at the first layer and a Method2 message, at the second layer;

wherein the sixth message signal starts a next session with one or more remote procedure calls.