Patent ID: 6363426
Filing Date: 2002-03-26
Classification: H04L,H04M

Abstract:
A method of distributing the allocation of a data pump to a modem controller communicating with a software application running on a computer communicating with a data pump allocation system over a computer network, said method comprising the steps of:distributing conventional modem functionality over a computer network, wherein modem control functions are provided locally by at least one local modem controller associated with each computer connected to the network and wherein data pump functions are provided by a plurality of data pumps distributed over said computer network; issuing a modem request by a software application running on a networked computer and receiving said request by said local modem controller associated with said computer issuing the modem request; receiving and responding to modem commands issued by the software application at said local modem controller until a â€œdial-outâ€  command is received by said modem controller; issuing a data pump allocation request to a data pump allocation system linked to said computer over said computer network; identifying a best fit data pump to assign to the requesting modem controller based on information included in the data pump allocation request; initializing and indexing the assigned best fit data pump to a state corresponding to a modem state expected by the requesting modem controller; turning control of the data pump over to the modem controller until the data pump is no longer needed; releasing the data pump when it is no longer needed; and notifying the data pump allocation system that the data pump has been released.