Patent ID: 7130877

Claim:
A server participating in a communications network, the server comprising: means for generating a request object and a response object for each request message received from a data network node in the communications network; a plurality of request processing modules, each processing module being operable to examine at least one of the request object and the response object, and to modify at least the response object in servicing the request message; at least one switching module adapted to receive the request object and the response object from one of: the means for generating the request object and the response object; and a first processing module of the request processing modules, said at least one switching module being operable to examine at least one of the request object and the response object to determine a second request processing module of the plurality of request processing modules to which to forward the request and response objects; and response transmission means for sending via the communications network to the data network node information derived at least from the modified response object wherein said means for generating the request object and the response object, said plurality of request processing modules, said at least one switching module, and said response transmission means defines a network of request processing modules for dynamic processing of request messages in parallel.