Patent ID: 7096252

Claim:
A method for client-server communications, comprising: implementing an interfacing method internal to a cable modem, comprising: providing the cable modem with server components and configuring the server components to implement a set of functions; providing the server components with a set of interface methods for initiating execution of the functions, wherein the set of interface methods correspond to the set of functions; providing a client component with references to the interface methods, wherein the client component indirectly invokes one of the interface methods by requesting that an interface manager, created by the client component during the initialization of the cable modem, invoke the interface method on behalf of the client component, and wherein the server components, client component, and interface manager execute within the cable modem; sending client component requests to the interface manager via a first message queue, wherein each request includes a component identifier, an interface identifier, and a function parameter; processing the client component requests by invoking the interface method corresponding to the interface identifier of the server component corresponding to the component identifier included in the request and passing the function parameter to the server component; and providing a response message regarding the execution of the interface method to the client component via a second message queue, wherein the response message comprises a status.