Patent ID: 8352548

Claim:
A communications system comprising: an application server; a plurality of communications devices within a protected network including at least one first communications device configured to process requests using a request-response protocol client application with the application server; and a request-response protocol server configured to interface the request-response protocol client application with the application server; the request-response protocol server and the request-response protocol client application configured to format requests to be communicated therebetween in a request-response protocol format, and provide state information with the request-response protocol formatted requests for authenticating the application server and the request-response protocol client application to one another; the request-response protocol client application configured to accept work jobs from the application server by sending a first request to a first resource locator associated with the request-response protocol server to establish a semi-permanent connection between the request-response protocol client application and the request-response protocol server, and respond to the work jobs from the application server by sending a second request with results for the work jobs to a second resource locator different from the first resource locator and also associated with the request-response protocol server.