International Business Machines Corporation

Ibrahim Korpeoglu

Chatschik Bisdikian

Mahmoud Naghshineh

Pravin Bhagwat

Frank J Janniello

Puneet Pandoh

The present invention provides shared communication medium capability to the plethora of computer devices, like the PCCAs, that normally are able to communicate with other devices via dedicated point-to-point links, e.g., via the practically universal RS-232 ports. It allows the sharing of the communication medium in a dynamic fashion depending on the instantaneous traffic demands by the various communicating devices. It further allows the emulation of point-to-point links over the shared communications medium in such a way that applications running on a PCCA use the shared medium transparently. Thus, this invention enables applications designed to operate over a point-to-point connection to operate over the shared medium without any modifications of the applications or the point-to-point devices. It enables the shared medium communications and dynamic communication resource allocation by using a device's I/O ports designed for point-to-point communications with dedicated communication resource allocation.

Providing shared-medium multiple access capability in point-to-point communications

The present invention provides a method, apparatus and computer product for a mobile device to roam securely and seamlessly from one access point to another access point without disrupting an active PPP connection. The method includes establishing, maintaining, and terminating a PPP connection between a mobile device and a PPP server via an access point, wherein the mobile device is equipped with a serial asynchronous communication interface. The PPP server is attached to a packet switched data network, and the access point is acting as a bridge between the serial communication interface and the packet switched communication interface. Also provided is a method to emulate a direct RS-232 cable connection between a mobile device and another computer located several hops away from the mobile device. It provides a method of keeping the RS-232 cable emulation between the mobile device an another computer system intact despite changes in mobile device's location in the network. It also provides a method of exchanging cookies between peers at the PPP connection establishment time and using them for fast reauthentication. This is a secure method of switching from one PPP proxy to another PPP proxy without disrupting the end to end PPP connection.

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Yorktown Heights, NY, United States of America

Ibrahim Korpeoglu