Patent ID: 6351771
Filing Date: 2002-02-26
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
A distributed service network comprising a plurality of regions connected by a communications backbone, wherein:each of said regions comprises a plurality of region servers and a region manager in communication with said region servers; each of said region servers comprises a plurality of bridges, a plurality of adapters, and a transducer matrix in communication with said bridges and said adapters; each bridge is arranged to establish a preliminary connection with a client; said region manager is arranged to identify client characteristics associated with said preliminary connection and transfer said preliminary connection to an appropriate bridge based upon the identified client characteristics, whereby connection to said network is transparent as to where said client connects to said network; each adapter is arranged to establish a connection with an external service and to determine a service type associated with said service; each adapter is further arranged to receive data in a first transport protocol associated with said service type and convert said first transport protocol to a protocol understood by a selected one of said region servers; and said transducer matrix is arranged to convert between data formats associated with said client characteristics identified by said region manager and data formats associated with said service type determined by said adapter.