Method and apparatus for data interchange

Abstract

The method according to the invention for data exchange using a stateless transfer protocol, in particular HTTP, provides an enhancement of a message header of the message by one or more quality-of-service attributes, which are utilized by network nodes involved in the data exchange to determine the handling of each message according to the specifications of the quality-of-service attribute. In this way, a quality-of-service can be implemented on a transfer and/or application layer. The implementation of a quality-of-service on an application layer guarantees an annotation of each individual message, in terms of its characteristics and expectations, during a data transfer of messages associated with a plurality of different applications. In this way, the end-points can control the data exchange in detail. The quality-of-service settings achieved by the quality-of-service attributes can also be passed on to deeper application layers, if required. In this way, improved quality-of-service results can be achieved in the network, in particular in load situations.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.