Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Computer-to-computer session/connection establishing
Reexamination Certificate
1998-03-13
2001-06-05
Harrell, Robert B. (Department: 2756)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Computer-to-computer session/connection establishing
C709S217000, C709S227000, C340S870030, C370S431000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06243752
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method of transmitting data through a communications network between a host computer and a terminal computer.
2. Related Art
There is a requirement to transmit data from a plurality of application programs running on a host computer through a communications network to a terminal computer operating in a windowing environment. This requirement could be met by causing the terminal computer to log on to the host computer for each application program in turn. However, the solution adds to the workload of the user of the terminal computer and would require a user code for each application program. Another solution would be to connect the host and terminal computers in a common network-based windowing environment using a commercially available network-based window management system such as X Windows. However, this solution suffers from the disadvantage that a windowing environment connection between two computers requires a relatively high bandwidth which can be costly.
In WO 94/13086, there is described a system for multiplexing data transmissions between a host computer and a user workstation connected by a communications link. In this system, one or more program sessions can be transmitted between ther host computer and the user workstation through a single connection.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to one aspect of this invention, there is provided a method of transmitting data between a host computer and a computer acting as a terminal computer through a communications network, said data relating to a plurality of application programs running on the host computer, said terminal computer operating in a windowing environment, said method comprising the steps of:
said terminal computer establishing an initial connection between the terminal computer and the host computer;
said terminal computer creating an initial terminal emulator window for said initial connection;
said host computer transmitting a menu of its application programs to the terminal computer over said initial connection using a character-based protocol;
said terminal computer displaying said menu in said initial terminal emulator window; and
for each application program selected by the user of the terminal computer:
transmitting a request over said initial connection from the terminal computer to the host computer to open the selected application program;
said host computer establishing an additional connection between the host computer and the terminal computer;
said terminal computer creating an additional terminal emulator window for said additional connection;
transmitting data relating to said selected application program between the host computer and the terminal computer over said additional connection using a character-based protocol; and
displaying data relating to said selected application programs in said additional terminal emulator window.
Because the request to open each selected application program is transmitted over the initial connection, the host computer creates an additional connection for each selected application program, and the terminal computer creates an additional terminal emulator window for each selected application program, the user does not log on for each desired application program. Also, because the data for each application program is transmitted using a character-based protocol, the data is transmitted without using the high bandwidth which is required where two computers are connected in a windowing environment.
According to another aspect of this invention, there is provided a computer system comprising a host computer, a computer acting as a terminal computer and a telecommunications network for transmitting data between said computers, said terminal computer operating in a windowing environment, each of said computers being controlled by a respective program, and said programs being arranged so as to cause said computers to perform the following operations in order to transmit data relating to a plurality of application programs running on said host computer between said computers:
said terminal computer establishes an initial connection between the terminal computer and the host computer;
said terminal computer creates an initial terminal emulator window for said initial connection;
said host computer transmits a menu of its application programs to the terminal computer over said initial connection using a character-based protocol;
said terminal computer displays said menu in said initial terminal emulator window; and
for each application program selected by the user of the terminal computer:
said terminal computer transmits a request over said initial connection to the host computer to open the selected application program;
said host computer establishes an additional connection between the host computer and the terminal computer;
said terminal computer creates an additional terminal emulator window for said additional connection;
data relating to said selected application program is transmitted between the host computer and the terminal computer over said additional connection using a character-based protocol; and
data relating to said selected application program is displayed in said additional terminal emulator window.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5241686 (1993-08-01), Charbonnier
patent: 5325361 (1994-06-01), Lederer et al.
patent: 5347632 (1994-09-01), Filepp et al.
patent: 5598570 (1997-01-01), Ho et al.
patent: 5675507 (1997-10-01), Bobo, II
patent: 5742668 (1998-04-01), Pepe et al.
patent: 5784683 (1998-07-01), Sistanizadeh et al.
patent: 5805997 (1998-09-01), Farris
patent: 5956651 (1999-09-01), Willkie et al.
patent: 6028848 (2000-02-01), Bhatia et al.
patent: 6029203 (2000-02-01), Bhatia et al.
patent: 6064666 (2000-05-01), Willner et al.
patent: WO 94/13086 (1994-06-01), None
British Telecommunications PLC
Harrell Robert B.
Nixon & Vanderhye P.C.
Willett Stephan
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