Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L63/00—Network architectures or network communication protocols for network security
  • H04L63/08—Network architectures or network communication protocols for network security for authentication of entities
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L67/00—Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications
  • H04L67/01—Protocols
  • H04L67/02—Protocols based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]

Definitions

• the present invention relates to a method, system, and program for processing requests transmitted using a first communication directed to an application that uses a second communication protocol.
• a server machine may host a Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP) server application to process HTTP requests from HTTP clients on a port.
• HTTP Hypertext Transport Protocol
• the server machine may also provide access to non-HTTP applications and services on ports other than the port used for HTTP requests.
• HTTP Hypertext Transport Protocol
• the complexity of managing a firewall having multiple ports increases as the number of ports increases. Further, maintaining multiple ports open on a server machine subjects the server machine to additional points of access to hackers and other security threats.
• a request is received from a client over a network in a first communication protocol.
• a determination is made as to whether the request includes an identifier of an application indicated in a data structure.
• a socket is processed that enables communication between the application identified by the identifier in response to determining that the identifier included in the request is indicated in the data structure.
• the socket is provided to the application associated with the requested resource to enable the application to communicate with the client over the network using a second communication protocol.
• FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment of a network computing environment.
• FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment of an entry for a registered application.
• FIGs. 3, 4, and 5 illustrate an embodiment of operations to process client requests in a server.
• FIG. 1 illustrates a network computing environment including a server machine 2 and client machine 4 that communicate over a network 6.
• the client machine 4 includes a client application 8 that intends to communicate with a server application 10.
• the client-server application may comprise a database application, backup storage management program, or other client-server applications known in the art.
• the client application 8 To initiate communication with the server application, the client application 8 generates a Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP) request 12 and communicates this request using the HTTP protocol.
• HTTP Hypertext Transport Protocol
• subsequent communication between the client application 8 and server application 10 involves the use of an application layer communication protocol known in the art other than HTTP, such as Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) , Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) , File Transfer Protocol (FTP) , Telnet, and any TCP/IP based interaction between the client application 8 and server application 10.
• HTTP Simple Network Management Protocol
• SMTP Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
• FTP File Transfer Protocol
• Telnet Telnet
• the server machine 2 and client machine 4 also use a transport layer protocol, network layer protocol, and data link layer protocol to communicate over the network.
• the application layer enables common communication of application services for the application 10, 12 processes and provides semantic conversion between associated application processes.
• the server machine 2 includes one or more ports 14a, 14n, where the ports 14a, 14b represent physical connections on one or more network adaptors (not shown), and a memory 14.
• the memory 14 includes the application (s) 10, a listener port 16, an HTTP server 18, communication sockets 20, and an application registry 22.
• the listener port 16 comprises a program that monitors one port, e.g., 14a, for inbound communications in the HTTP protocol directed to the HTTP server 18.
• the HTTP server 18 handles HTTP requests and provides responses to requests.
• the communication sockets 20 comprise a programming construct used to send and receive information over a network connection, e.g., 6. When listening on a port, the application 10 accepts a connection by receiving a socket from the listener port 16 when an inbound connection is made.
• the client application 8 wants to create a connection to a remote program, e.g., application 10
• the client application 8 creates a socket, specifying the target address and port number and opens the socket to create the connection. After the client application or server application closes the connection the socket is gone and the next inbound connection on the port will return a new socket for the program to use for the connection.
• the socket 20 may maintain information such as the client machine 4 network address, e.g., an Internet Protocol (IP) address, the transport layer protocol, e.g., TCP, and a port 14a, 14n number.
• IP Internet Protocol
• the server application 10 uses the socket 20 to direct communications to the client application 8.
• the socket 20 enables communication between the server 10 and client 8 applications over the network 6 using an application layer protocol other than HTTP, i.e., the application layer protocol used for the initial communication .
• the client machine 4 may comprise a computational device known in the art, such as a server, desktop computer, workstation, mainframe, hand held computing device, telephony device, etc. capable of communicating over the network 6 with the server machine 2.
• the server machine 2 may comprise a suitable server system known in the art to manage backup messages from multiple systems.
• the network 6 may comprise one or more networks known in the art, such as a Wide Area Network (WAN) , Local Area Network (LAN) , Storage Area Network (SAN) , wireless network, the Internet, and Intranet, etc.
• WAN Wide Area Network
• LAN Local Area Network
• SAN Storage Area Network
• the applications 10 may comprise legacy applications that utilize older legacy application layer protocols that are not handled by the HTTP server 18.
• FIG. 2 illustrates an entry 50 in the application registry 22 maintained for each application 10 communicating using an application layer protocol other than HTTP.
• the entry 50 includes a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) 52 of the application 10, i.e., the application 10 name and a call back function 12 that may be called with the socket 20 to handoff the request from the client application 8 to initiate communication with the server application 10.
• URI Uniform Resource Identifier
• FIG. 3 illustrates operations performed by the client application 8 to initiate communication with the server application 10.
• the client application 8 To initiate (at block 100) operations to communicate with a server application 10, the client application 8 generates (at block 102) a request 12 (GET or POST) in a first communication protocol (e.g., HTTP) to initiate communication with the server application 10 over the network 6.
• the HTTP request 12 includes an identifier (e.g., URI) identifying the target server application 10.
• the client application 8 and server application 10 may communicate using an application layer protocol other than HTTP, such as a legacy application layer protocol, the initial communication request 12 comprises an HTTP request 12.
• the client application 8 receives (at block 104) a response from the server application 10 in a second communication protocol, i.e., an application layer protocol other than HTTP.
• This non-HTTP application layer protocol is used during subsequent communications between the client 8 and server 10 applications during the session initialized with the HTTP request 12.
• FIG. 4 illustrates an embodiment of operations performed in the server machine 2 to establish a connection between one server application 10 and the client application 8 which use a communication protocol, i.e., application layer protocol, other than HTTP (i.e., the application layer protocol used to establish the initial link) .
• the listener port 16 monitors, on a monitor thread, one port, e.g., 14a, for requests to the applications 10 and the HTTP server 18.
• a client request e.g., HTTP request 12
• the listener port 16 determines (at block 154) whether there is a registered function 50 (FIG. 2) for the application identified in the request in a data structure, i.e., the application registry 22.
• the request is processed as a normal HTTP request by a first communication protocol, e.g., (HTTP), server.
• HTTP first communication protocol
• Such requests are not intended for one of the application 10.
• an additional thread may be spawned (at block 158) to process the request from the client application 8 initiating the HTTP request 12.
• the main thread on which the listener port 16 executes can return to listening on the port 14a, 14b for an additional connection.
• threading may not be used, and then the server application 10 can only handle one connection at a time.
• the spawned thread further provides (at block 160) the generated socket 20 to the server application 10 identified in the request.
• the generated socket 20 may be provided to the application 10 to enable the application to respond to the request by calling the registered call-back function 52 with the socket to enable the application 10 identified in registry entry 50 (at field 54) to communicate with the client machine 4 over the network 6 using a second communication (application layer protocol) different from the first communication protocol, e.g., HTTP.
• a second communication application layer protocol
• This socket enables the client 8 and server 10 applications to communicate through the same port 14a used by HTTP requested directed to the HTTP server 18 even though the client 8 and server 10 applications do not use the HTTP protocol to communicate and intend to bypass the HTTP server 18.
• the monitor thread executing the listener port 16 to monitor the port 14a is not burdened with having to perform the operations of generating the thread and calling the application 10 to handle communication with the requesting client application 8.
• the server application 10 may transmit (at block 162) a response to the HTTP request using the second communication protocol, such as an application layer protocol other than HTTP.
• the client 8 and server 10 applications communicate through the sockets 20 established for application communication, which on the server side is socket 20.
• FIG. 5 illustrates operations performed by the listener port 16 to register an entry 50 (FIG. 2) for the application 10 in the application registry 22.
• the listener port 16 Upon the listener port 16 receiving (at block 200) a registration of a call back address and identifier (e.g., URI) for an application 10, the listener port 16 adds (at block 202) to the application registry 22 an application registry entry 50 having the identifier, e.g., URI, of the application 10 and the call back function that the listener port 16 may use to pass the socket 20 to the application 10 to use to communicate with the client application 8 initiating the request using any other TCP/IP based application layer protocol.
• a call back address and identifier e.g., URI
• the use of HTTP as the initial protocol allows Web services extensions to be applied to existing TCP/IP protocols because they are "tunneled" under the initial HTTP request.
• the Web Services (WS) Security specification extension is used to authenticate the caller or WS-Policy to route the request to the appropriate web server application server based on quality of service or other criteria.
• Web Services extension requests such as WS Security extensions may be transported using the HTTP protocol and the socket handling the communication with the application initiating the Web Services request is handed to the Web services application to enable the Web Services application on the server to communicate directly with the client initiating the Web Services request using a different communication protocol, such as Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) messaging.
• SOAP Simple Object Access Protocol
• Described embodiments provide techniques to enable a server having legacy applications and a protocol server, such as an HTTP server, handling requests for more current applications to use the same port for both the legacy (non-HTTP) and non-legacy (HTTP) application requests.
• a protocol server such as an HTTP server
• the described operations may be implemented as a method, apparatus or article of manufacture using standard programming and/or engineering techniques to produce software, firmware, hardware, or any combination thereof.
• article of manufacture refers to code or logic implemented in hardware logic (e.g., an integrated circuit chip, Programmable Gate Array (PGA) , Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), etc.) or a computer readable medium, such as magnetic storage medium (e.g., hard disk drives, floppy disks,, tape, etc.), optical storage (CD-ROMs, optical disks, etc.), volatile and non-volatile memory devices (e.g., EEPROMs, ROMs, PROMs, RAMs, DRAMs, SRAMs, firmware, programmable logic, etc.).
• Code in the computer readable medium is accessed and executed by a processor.
• the code in which preferred embodiments are implemented may further be accessible through a transmission media or from a file server over a network.
• the article of manufacture in which the code is implemented may comprise a transmission media, such as a network transmission line, wireless transmission media, signals propagating through space, radio waves, infrared signals, etc.
• the "article of manufacture” may comprise the medium in which the code is embodied.
• the "article of manufacture” may comprise a combination of hardware and software components in which the code is embodied, processed, and executed.
• the article of manufacture may comprise any information bearing medium known in the art.
• the first communication protocol comprised HTTP and the second communication protocol comprised an application layer protocol other than HTTP.
• the first communication protocol may comprise a communication protocol other than HTTP and the second communication protocol may comprise HTTP.
• the first and second communication protocols comprised application layer protocols.
• the first and second communication protocols may comprise an Open Systems Interconnection Reference Model (OSI Model) layer other than the application layer, such as one of the presentation layer, session layer, transport layer, network layer, data link layer, and physical layer.
• OSI Model Open Systems Interconnection Reference Model
• FIGs. 3-5 show certain events occurring in a certain order. In alternative embodiments, certain operations may be performed in a different order, modified or removed. Moreover, steps may be added to the above described logic and still conform to the described embodiments. Further, operations described herein may occur sequentially or certain operations may be processed in parallel. Yet further, operations may be performed by a single processing unit or by distributed processing units.

Landscapes

• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
• Signal Processing (AREA)
• Computer Hardware Design (AREA)
• Computer Security & Cryptography (AREA)
• Computing Systems (AREA)
• General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Computer And Data Communications (AREA)
• Communication Control (AREA)

Priority Applications (7)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=36384506

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (10)

Families Citing this family (15)

Citations (7)

Family Cites Families (21)

• 2005
  • 2005-03-10 US US11/076,609 patent/US7945676B2/en active Active
• 2006
  • 2006-02-24 DE DE602006002970T patent/DE602006002970D1/de active Active
  • 2006-02-24 CN CN200680007557.1A patent/CN101138219B/zh active Active
  • 2006-02-24 EP EP06708506A patent/EP1859597B1/en active Active
  • 2006-02-24 WO PCT/EP2006/060263 patent/WO2006094909A1/en not_active Ceased
  • 2006-02-24 JP JP2008500165A patent/JP4575980B2/ja active Active
  • 2006-02-24 AT AT06708506T patent/ATE410019T1/de not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 2006-02-24 CA CA2600710A patent/CA2600710C/en active Active
  • 2006-02-24 MX MX2007010921A patent/MX2007010921A/es active IP Right Grant
  • 2006-02-24 BR BRPI0606263A patent/BRPI0606263B1/pt active IP Right Grant
• 2011
  • 2011-03-09 US US13/044,482 patent/US8510376B2/en not_active Expired - Fee Related

Patent Citations (7)

Also Published As

Similar Documents

Legal Events