Patent ID: 8620989

Claim:
A method for processing messages in a gateway, comprising: receiving a message from a remote gateway, the message being associated with a message type and comprising a message header and a payload, wherein the message header comprises a set of blocks, each of which contain one or more fields of information, that comprise information to support processing by the gateway, wherein each message type comprises associated definitions of: one or more header blocks, that cannot be customized or extended, at least one header block that can be customized or extended by a service provider; and at least one header block that can be defined by a service provider; processing the message at the gateway by executing an appropriate module for each header block, wherein each appropriate module from a plurality of modules is identified by the message's message type and the corresponding header block; and wherein the message header contains a security block that indicates what portions of the message header or portions of a message body are encrypted and what portions of the message header or portions of the message body are digitally signed, and wherein any of the encrypted portions and any of the digitally signed portions comprises one or more fields.