Communication device, terminal device, and computer program product

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10044812-B2
Application number	US-201514750137-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 25, 2015
Priority date	Jul 9, 2014
Publication date	Aug 7, 2018
Grant date	Aug 7, 2018

Abstract

According to an embodiment, a communication device performs communication with a terminal device via a network and includes first and second connection maintaining units and a switch instructing unit. The first connection maintaining unit maintains a connection established with the terminal device and mediates communication between the terminal device and another terminal device. The second connection maintaining unit maintains a communicable state of the terminal device with the communication device according to a method different from a method implemented by the first connection maintaining unit. When a predetermined switching condition is satisfied, the switch instructing unit instructs the terminal device to switch a method for maintaining a communicable state either from a first method, which is a method implemented by the first connection maintaining unit, to a second method, which is a method implemented by the second connection maintaining unit, or from the second method to the first method.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A communication device comprising:
a plurality of first communication servers and a second communication server, each first communication server enabling a terminal device to maintain a communicable state with the communication device by maintaining a connection with the each first communication server, the second communication server enabling the terminal device to maintain a communicable state with the communication device by periodically accessing to the second communication server;
processing circuity coupled to a memory, wherein the processing circuity is configured to:
when a request for establishing the connection is issued by a first terminal device, determine a first communication server among the plurality of the first communication servers as a connection destination of the first terminal device;
register connection management information about the first terminal device in storage, the connection management information including identification information of the first communication server determined as the connection destination of the first terminal device;
determine whether or not the first terminal device is capable of maintaining the communicable state with the communication device by periodically accessing to the second communication server, wherein the storage stores therein a determination result of whether or not the first terminal device is capable of maintaining the communicable state with the communication device by periodically accessing to the second communication server, by associating the determination result with identification information of the first terminal device;
when the first terminal device is determined to be capable of maintaining the communicable state with the communication device by periodically accessing to the second communication server, instruct the first terminal device to maintain the communicable state with the communication device by periodically accessing to the second communication server;
when a request for establishing the connection is issued by the second terminal device which has a predetermined correspondence relationship with the first terminal device, determine, as a connection destination of the second terminal device, the first communication server determined as the connection destination of the first device by referring to the connection management information;
instruct the first terminal device, which maintains the communicable state with the communication device by periodically accessing to the second communication server, to connect to the first communication server determined as the connection destination wherein the connection protocol used to connect to the first communication server is different from the connection protocol used to periodically access the second communication server; and
instruct the second terminal device to connect to the first communication server determined as the connection destination, wherein
the first communication server connected to the first terminal device and the second terminal device mediates a communication between the first terminal device and the second terminal device using connection information of the first terminal device and the second terminal device that are cached in the memory.

2. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to, when a current time becomes a start time of a predetermined period of time during which a frequency of use of the first terminal device is high, instruct the first terminal device, which is maintaining the communicable state with the communication device by periodically accessing to the second communication server to connect to the first communication server determined as the connection destination.

3. The device according to claim 2 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to, when a current time becomes an end time of the period of time, instruct the first terminal device, which is maintaining the communicable state with the communication device by maintaining the connection with the first communication server, to maintain the communicable state with the communication device by periodically accessing to the second communication server.

4. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to, when a load state of the communication device exceeds a predetermined threshold value, instruct the first terminal device, which is maintaining the communicable state with the communication device by maintaining the connection with the first communication server, to maintain the communicable state with the communication device by periodically accessing to the second communication server.

5. The device according to claim 4 , wherein the load state represents either number of terminal devices maintaining a connection with the first communication servers, or memory usage, or processor utilization, or a combination thereof.

6. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to instruct the first terminal device, which is maintaining the communicable state with the communication device by maintaining the connection with the first communication server and which satisfies a predetermined switching target condition, to maintain the communicable state with the communication device by periodically accessing to the second communication server.

7. The device according to claim 6 , wherein the switching target condition is a condition set based on at least one of model of the first terminal device and access history of accesses to the first terminal device from the second terminal device which communicates with the first terminal device via the first communication server.

8. The device according to claim 1 , wherein
the processing circuitry is configured to, when the determination result for the first terminal device that issued a request for establishing a connection is stored in the memory, reuse the determination result to determine whether or not the first terminal device is capable of maintaining the communicable state with the communication device by periodically accessing to the second communication server.

9. The device according to claim 8 , wherein the processing circuity is configured to, even when the determination result for the first terminal device that issued a request for establishing a connection is stored in the memory, if a predetermined redetermination condition is satisfied, not reuse the determination result and redetermine whether or not the first terminal device is capable of maintaining the communicable state with the communication device by periodically accessing to the second communication server.

10. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to, when termination of connection between the second terminal device and the communication device is detected, instruct the first terminal device, which is maintaining the communicable state with the communication device by maintaining the connection with the first communication server, to maintain the communicable state with the communication device by periodically accessing to the second communication server.

11. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the first terminal device maintains the communicable state with the communication device by maintaining the connection with the first communication server until determination of whether or not the first terminal device is capable of maintaining the communicable state with the communication device by periodically accessing to the second communication server ends.

12. The device according to claim 1 , wherein communication server is a Web Socket server, and the second communication server

Assignees

• Toshiba Kk

Inventors

• Ajitomi Daisuke
• Minami Keisuke
• Kawazoe Hiroshi
• Aizu Hiroyuki

Classifications

• H04L67/142 Primary

  Managing session states for stateless protocols; Signalling session states; State transitions; Keeping-state mechanisms · CPC title

• H04L67/141

  Setup of application sessions (admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70) · CPC title

• H04L67/02

  based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP] · CPC title

• H04L41/12

  Discovery or management of network topologies · CPC title