Patent ID: 7853525
Filing Date: 2010-12-14
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. A payment processing gateway server for processing financial transactions, comprising: a public network interface coupled to a public network such that the payment processing gateway server receives a first financial transaction authorization request, the first financial transaction authorization request being received from a merchant by way of the public network and the public network interface, wherein the first financial transaction authorization request includes transaction specific data, and a supplemental header, wherein the supplemental header includes a contract identification field in which there is stored an identification of a contract between the merchant and a payment provider; a gateway memory that includes a listing of valid contract identifications and a cache of merchant invariant data, wherein the first financial transaction authorization request also includes a cache-key that identifies a sub-set of all data in the cache, and wherein the first financial authorization request also includes a cacheable data field containing data that is added to said cache of merchant invariant data; a gateway processor that processes the first financial transaction authorization request by comparing said contract identified in the contract identification field to the listing of valid contract identifications, and wherein the gateway processor is configured to reject the first financial transaction authorization request based upon a determination that the contract identified in the contract identification field does not match any valid contract identification in the listing of valid contract identifications; a financial network interface coupled to a financial network such that the payment processing gateway server transmits, over the financial network interface and over the financial network, a second financial transaction authorization request to a financial institution coupled to the financial network, the second financial transaction authorization request being generated by the gateway processor so as to correspond to and be indicative of information contained in the first financial transaction authorization request, and wherein the payment processing gateway server receives from the financial institution, by way of the financial network interface and the financial network, a response to the second financial transaction authorization request in the form of a first financial transaction authorization result; wherein the gateway processor sends a second financial transaction authorization result to the merchant as a response to the first financial transaction authorization request received from the merchant, the second financial transaction authorization result corresponding to and being indicative of information contained in the first financial transaction authorization result; and wherein the payment processing gateway server is implemented across a plurality of servers, a portion of the plurality of servers being web servers organized in a web cluster, at least one of the plurality of servers being a shared server, and wherein the web servers access state information from the shared server, the shared server maintaining consistency of the cache of merchant invariant data and monitoring replication across the web servers.