Attachmate Corporation

Stephen D Gunn

Delan Beah

Donald L Baldwin

A method and system for reconfiguring a communications stack. The system provides a comstack manager that can be used with a communications stack having any number of layers, which may be located on different computers. In addition, the comstack manager facilitates the reconfiguration of a communications stack without having to modify any communications stack layers. Each layer provides a single entrypoint through which it communicates to its adjacent layers, and the communications stack layers communicate with each other using a message transfer system that has a single entrypoint for transferring messages. The single entrypoint of the layer provides compatibility among the layers and flexibility since each layer is not bound to a specific definition of another layer's functions. That is, each layer only needs to know how to access the single entrypoint which is the same for each layer. The comstack manager receives configuration information at runtime that contains an indication of each communications stack layer, a reference to their location which indicates whether the layer is located on a local or remote computer, and the ordering of the layers. After receiving the configuration information, the system comstack manager starts the communications stack. As such, reconfiguring the communications stack merely requires sending the comstack manager new configuration information indicating either a new communications stack or one or more new layers in the communications stack.

Method and system for reconfiguring a communications stack

A system provides a comstack manager used with a communications stack having any number of layers. These layers are located on different computers so as to spread the load of the communications stack across multiple computers. The comstack manager facilitates the reconfiguration of a communications stack without having to modify any of the layers of the communications stack. Each layer provides a single entrypoint through which it communicates to its adjacent layers and the layers of the communications stack communicate with each other using a message transfer system that has a single entrypoint for transferring messages. The single entrypoint of the layer provides compatibility among the layers and flexibility since each layer is not bound to a specific definition of the functions provided by another layer. Each layer only needs to know how to access the single entrypoint which is the same for each layer. The comstack manager performs its processing by receiving configuration information at runtime. This configuration information contains an indication of each of the layers in the communications stack, a reference to their location which indicates whether the layer is located on a local computer or on a remote computer, and the ordering of the layers. After receiving the configuration information, the comstack manager of the system starts the communications stack. Sending the comstack manager new configuration information indicates either a new communications stack or one or more new layers in the communications stack. The comstack manager will start each layer and facilitate communications between the layers.

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Kirkland, WA, United States of America

Stephen D Gunn