User datagram protocol tunneling in distributed application instances

A computer implemented method for intra-application connectivity of distributed applications over a wide area network, comprising:

• operating a server cluster formed from a plurality of servers wherein each server includes a tunnel gateway application and wherein each tunnel gateway application includes a plurality of Terminal Control Protocol (TCP) listeners;
• instantiating on each of the plurality of servers in the server cluster a separate instance of a distributed application wherein each separate instance of the distributed application communicates with the tunnel gateway application resident on that server through a direct layer-4 TCP network route;
• conveying client application data between the distributed application instance to the tunnel gateway application on each server using a TCP transport suitable format;
• communicatively coupling each instantiation of the distributed application to each other instantiation of the distributed application at each tunnel gateway application using a TCP listener through a loopback port assigned to the application instance on each server;
• and
• transporting client application data between each tunnel gateway application over the wide area network through a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) datagram-orientated communication channel.

A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions for intra-application connectivity of distributed applications over a wide area network, comprising machine executable code, which when executed by at least one machine, causes the machine to:

• operate a server cluster formed from a plurality of servers wherein each server includes a tunnel gateway application and wherein each tunnel gateway application includes a plurality of Terminal Control Protocol (TCP) listeners;
• instantiate on each of the plurality of servers in the server cluster a separate instance of a distributed application wherein each separate instance of the distributed application communicates with the tunnel gateway application resident on that server through a direct layer-4 TCP network route;
• convey client application data between the tunnel gateway application on each server using a TCP transport suitable format;
• communicatively couple each instantiation of the distributed application to each other instantiation of the distributed application at each tunnel gateway application using a TCP listener through a loopback port assigned to the application instance on each server;
• and
• transport client application data between each tunnel gateway application over the wide area network through a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) datagram-orientated communication channel.