Patent ID: 7523164

Claim:
A message brokering mechanism, comprising first and second stages operable to exchange message requests and responses, wherein the first stage is operable to screen the message requests to be sent to the second stage, wherein to screen the message requests, the first stage is operable to determine if a message request of the message requests received from a message source corresponds to a message request previously sent to the second stage by the first stage, and, if the message request corresponds to the message request previously sent to the second stage, the first stage is operable to send a first stage response to the message source of the message request, wherein the first stage is operable to generate the first stage response independent of a message received from the second stage, and wherein the first stage is further operable to send the first stage response to the message source in response to subsequent message requests received from the message source that correspond to the message request previously sent to the second stage; and if the message request does not correspond to a message request previously sent to the second stage, the first stage is operable to send the message request to the second stage.