Patent ID: 8199761

Claim:
A method comprising: at a first one of two packet-communicating devices, initiating a communications link over a packet-based network with a second one of the packet-communicating devices using a packet-based communications protocol and therein establishing a control communications channel with a control channel identifier; establishing a data communications channel in the communications link by at one of the first and second packet-communicating devices, sending a first communication over the communications link, the first communication being embedded in the packet-based communications protocol and indicating that a channel is to be established, receiving the first communication at the other of the first and second packet-communicating devices, and specifying a unique channel identifier for the indicated channel to be established; using the established data communications channel to pass data by embedding the data, together with information identifying the specified unique channel identifier, within the packet-based communications protocol, and passing the embedded data over the communications link; terminating the established data communications channel by passing a channel termination command embedded with the packet-based communications protocol and identifying the specified channel identifier; and using the control communications channel to pass control commands between the at least one of the first and second packet-communicating devices by embedding the control commands with the packet-based communications protocol and identifying the control channel identifier therein, wherein the control commands comprise a pause command to pause messages being sent via the established communications channel, a resume command to resume messages being sent after the pause command, and a shutdown command to shut-down a single transport control protocol connection including the control communications channel and the established data communications channel.