Scalable wireless messaging system

A method for operating a wireless messaging system having a plurality of mobile wireless clients, a core messaging system, at least two gateway processes or gateways, a common data store configured to store a session context, said session context having the status of a session established between the core messaging system and one of the clients, said session context having a state of the client connection associated with the session, and said session context having a session identifier;

• the method comprising a two-phase connect procedure with the steps of:
• said client maintaining a list of access points, each access point defining an address at one of at least two gateway processes or gateways within a core messaging system, wherein said gateways act as proxies for said client, wherein said messaging system maintains sessions, wherein said gateways receive inbound messages from said clients over a wireless bearer using a wireless protocol and forward said inbound messages to said core messaging system over a connection using a wirebound protocol, and wherein said gateways receive outbound messages from said core messaging system over a connection using a wirebound protocol and forward said outbound messages to said clients over connections using a wireless protocol;
• upon a need for said client to establish, a connection with one of said gateways, said client sending, over a wireless connection, a phase-one connection request to one of said access points;
• said gateway that is addressed by said phase-one connection request, sending, in response to said phase-one connection request, over a wireless bearer, a list of connect points to said client, each connect point defining an address at one of said gateways;
• said client sending, over a wireless bearer, a phase-two connection request to at least one of said connect points;
• said gateway that is addressed by said phase-two connection request responding to said phase-two connection request;
• said client establishing a connection with said gateway specified by said connect point;
• a first gateway maintaining a session;
• said first gateway updating and maintaining, for said session, an associated session context in the common data store;
• said first gateway no longer maintaining said session;
• a second gateway retrieving for said session, the associated session context from the common data store;
• and said second gateway maintaining said session.

A wireless messaging system, the messaging system being configured to comprise a plurality of mobile wireless, a core messaging system and at least two gateway processes or gateways, the gateways acting as proxies on behalf of the clients and comprising a client session manager for, in the course of normal operation of the messaging system, maintaining client sessions by

• receiving inbound messages from the clients over wireless bearers using a wireless protocol and forwarding said inbound messages to the core messaging system over a connection using a wirebound protocol;
• receiving outbound messages from the core messaging system over a connection using a wirebound protocol and forwarding said outbound messages to the clients over a wireless bearer using a wireless protocol;
• the wireless messaging system further comprising, in order for a client to establish a connection with one of the gateways, a distributed logic for implementing a two phase connect procedure, said distributed logic comprising;
• in the client, a client library providing an application program interface for, among others, accepting, access points, each access point defining an address at one of the gateways;
• in the client, the client library comprising a phase one routine for sending, over a wireless bearer, a phase one connection request to one of the access points;
• in the gateway that addressed by the phase one connection request, a servlet for sending, in response to the phase one connection request, over a wireless bearer, a list of connect points to the client, each connect point defining an address at one of the gateways;
• the client library also comprising a phase two connection request comprising wireless bearer, a phase two connection request to at least one of the connect points and;
• the gateway that is addressed by the phase two connection request comprising a response logic for responding to the phase two connection request, and for establishing a connection between the client and the gateway.

A computer readable medium encoded with a computer program for operating a wireless messaging system having a plurality of mobile wireless clients, a core messaging system, and at least two gateway processes or gateways for providing message forwarding from said clients to the messaging server and vice versa, wherein said computer program is loadable and executable on a data-processing unit on at least one of said gateway computers, and wherein said computer program, when being executed on one of at least one of said gateway computers, performs a two-phase connect procedure with the steps of;

• causing said client to maintain a list of access points, each access point defining an address at one of the at least two gateway processes or gateways wtthin a core messaging system, wherein said gateways act as proxies for said client, wherein said messaging system maintains sessions, wherein said gateways receive inbound, messages from said clients over a wireless bearer using a wireless protocol and forward said inbound messages to said core messaging system over a connection using a wirebound protocol, and wherein said gateways receive outbound messages from said core messaging system over a connection using a wirebound protocol and forward said outbound messages to said clients over connections using a wireless protocol;
• upon a need for said client to establish a connection with one of said gateways, causing said client to send, over a wire less connection, a phase-one connection request to one of said access points;
• causing said gateway that is addressed by said phase-one connection request to send in response to said phase-one connection request, over a wireless bearer, a list of connect points to said client, each connect point defining an address at one of said gateways;
• causing said client to send, over a wireless bearers a phase-two connection request to at least one of said connect points;
• causing said gateway that is addressed by said phase-two connection request to respond to said phase-two connection request, and causing said client to establish a connection with said gateway specified by said connect point.