Patent ID: 7254579

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for using an endpoint reference in a message for transmission to/from network nodes participating in a publish-subscribe (“pub-sub”) system, the computer-implemented method comprising: creating, in the message, an endpoint reference to identify an endpoint node in the pub-sub system, the endpoint reference comprising an address of the endpoint node to which messages published by the pub-sub system will be sent by one or more nodes in the pub-sub system; and encapsulating two or more contexts into the endpoint reference, wherein a first context in the endpoint reference referring to a first node or set of nodes of the pub-sub system and being decodable by the first node or set of nodes, but not decodable by one or more other nodes of the pub-sub system, a second context in the endpoint reference referring to a second node or set of nodes of the pub-sub system and being decodable by the second node, but not decodable by one or more other nodes of the pub-sub system; and whereby each context is transparent to its respective node or set of nodes and is selectively opaque to one or more other pub-sub system nodes.