Patent ID: 7051103

Claim:
A method for providing seamless connection over a communication network for a Systems Network Architecture (SNA) session between a SNA Client and a remote SNA server, said method comprising the steps of: for each SNA client, defining a configuration table with an identification of the SNA client including a SNA Logical Unit (LU) name, one or more communication paths from the access device to the one or more servers associated with said SNA client, and an identification of said one or more servers including an Internet Protocol (IP) address; receiving at an access device for said communications network a request from said SNA client for establishing a session with a SNA server that provides services to said SNA client, said request including an identification of the SNA client, said access device being a separate functional device from said SNA server and said SNA client and which intercepts session requests from attached SNA clients and determines to which SNA server among multiple SNA servers to forward said session requests; selecting a communication path among multiple communication paths within the communication network to access said SNA server by referring to a configuration table of said access device, said configuration table comprising entries of one or more communication paths leading to each of one or more SNA servers for each SNA client that is connected to said access device, and wherein the selected communication path is one that provides access to the particular SNA server as identified by the configuration table; and forwarding the session request to said SNA server along the selected communication path; wherein said step of defining said configuration table further comprises the step of specifying a default communication path to access a server for SNA clients that are not identified in the configuration table.