Inventors:
Edward Belove - Cambridge MA
R. Patrick Johnson - Manchester MA
O. Stevens Leland - Hudson MA
Deborah Mendez - Malden MA
Stephen Zagieboylo - Norfolk MA
Assignee:
AT&T Corporation - Basking Ridge NJ
International Classification:
G06F 1300
Abstract:
A computer architecture that permits applications resident on remote "client" computers to communicate simply and efficiently with applications resident on a central server is disclosed. Client applications can effectively retrieve information from the server without detailed knowledge of server applications, the location of a requested data item or the particular hardware configuration of the host or even the client. A circuit manager module opens and maintains a communication circuit to the appropriate server application, supervising routing of messages from all client applications to that server application. The circuit manager also receives all incoming messages, routing them to the appropriate client applications. A client application can specify message destination in the form of a specific circuit (which requires substantial program awareness of communication patterns), or an identifier associated with the target application, or the type of information being requested from the server.