Patent ID: 7107310

Claim:
A communications system comprising: an application server and at least one communications device for processing requests from one another, said at least one communications device processing requests using a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) client application; an HTTP server for interfacing said HTTP client application with said application server; said HTTP server and said HTTP client application formatting requests to be communicated therebetween via the Internet in an HTTP format, and each providing additional state information with the HTTP formatted requests recognizable by the other for authenticating the application server and said HTTP client application to one another; and said HTTP client application accepting work jobs from said application server by sending a GET request to a first universal resource locator (URL) associated with said HTTP server to establish a semi-permanent connection between said HTTP client application and said HTTP server, and responding to the work jobs from said application server by sending a POST request with results for the work jobs to a second URL different from the first URL and also associated with said HTTP server.