Patent ID: 7532577

Claim:
An apparatus to manage a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection established between two applications, comprising: a TCP/IP (Internet Protocol) kernel to: store establishment information of the TCP connection and an established value for a TCP session connectivity check with respect to the TCP connection; create a Session Connectivity Check (SCC) message according to the establishment information and established value, wherein the established value for the TCP session connectivity check includes a strict value indicating a transmission condition of the SCC message; periodically transmit the SCC message to a TCP/IP kernel of another party when the strict value has been established and the TCP connection between the two applications is determined to be closed because the SCC response message has not been received from the TCP/IP kernel of the other party within a predetermined time interval, and determine whether or not the TCP connection is operating normally in dependence upon whether an SCC response message has been received from the TCP/IP kernel of the other party; and upon a determination that the strict value has not been established, enable the TCP/IP kernel to transmit the SCC message when a signal does not exist on the TCP connection between the two applications and the TCP connection between the two applications is determined to be closed because the SCC response message has not been received from the TCP/IP kernel of the other party within a predetermined time interval, and determine whether or not the TCP connection is operating normally according to whether an SCC response message has been received from the TCP/IP kernel of the other party.