US 7,624,193 B2Granted

Multi-vendor mediation for subscription services

AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation

InventorsBret E. Harrison, Brett G. King, Timothy J. Smith, David E. Taber, Aaron J. Tarter

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Abstract

A mediation server assigns customized “plug-ins” to particular network access servers (NAS) that allow a service provider application to use a single interface to communicate with multiple types of NASs. Vendor specific details of NAS transaction processing are hidden in the customized plug-ins implementations in which a service provider application has no knowledge of such transaction processing information. The mediation server extracts a user identifier from a call request, and uses the user identifier to select a mediation handler plug-in. The mediation server then uses the mediation handler plug-in to communicate with a particular NAS. In addition, a RADIUS server uses a NAS identifier to assign a RADIUS handler plug-in to a NAS session, and uses the assigned RADIUS handler plug-in to communicate with the NAS.

Claims18

Dependent claims

A method comprising:

receiving a call request from a service provider application at a mediation server, the call request including a user identifier;
determining whether one of a plurality of mediation handlers corresponds to both the user identifier and a second server, wherein each of the plurality of mediation handlers is different;
in response to determining that one of the plurality of mediation handlers corresponds to both the user identifier and the second server:
selecting a mediation handler from the plurality of mediation handlers that corresponds to the user identifier and the second server;
and
using the selected mediation handler to execute the call request, which results in sending the call request from the mediation server to the second server;
and
in response to determining that the mediation handler is not included in the mediation handler pool:
creating a new mediation handler at the mediation server, wherein the new mediation handler is adapted to interface the service provider application to the second server, the second server being a network access server and different than the mediation server;
and
using the new mediation handler to execute the call request, which results in sending the call request from the mediation server to the second server.

8 more elements

An information handling system comprising:

one or more processors;
a memory accessible by at least one of the processors;
a nonvolatile storage area accessible by at least one of the processors;
a set of instructions stored in the memory and executed by at least one of the processors in order to perform actions of:
receiving a call request from a service provider application at the information handling system, the call request including a user identifier;
determining whether one of a plurality of mediation handlers corresponds to both the user identifier and a second server, wherein each of the plurality of mediation handlers is different;
in response to determining that one of the plurality of mediation handlers corresponds to both the user identifier and the second server:
selecting a mediation handler from the plurality of mediation handlers that corresponds to the user identifier and the second server;
and
using the selected mediation handler to execute the call request, which results in sending the call request from the information handling system to the second server;
and
in response to determining that the mediation handler is not included in the mediation handler pool:
creating a new mediation handler at the information handling system, wherein the new mediation handler is adapted to interface the service provider application to the second server, the second server being a network access server and different than the information handling system;
and
using the new mediation handler to execute the call request, which results in sending the call request from the information handling system to the second server.

12 more elements

A computer program product stored in a computer readable medium, comprising functional descriptive material that, when executed by an information handling system, causes the information handling system to perform actions that include:

receiving a call request from a service provider application at the information handling system, the call request including a user identifier;
determining whether one of a plurality of mediation handlers corresponds to both the user identifier and a second server, wherein each of the plurality of mediation handlers is different;
in response to determining that one of the plurality of mediation handlers corresponds to both the user identifier and the second server:
selecting a mediation handler from the plurality of mediation handlers that corresponds to the user identifier and the second server;
and
using the selected mediation handler to execute the call request, which results in sending the call request from the information handling system to the second server;
and
in response to determining that the mediation handler is not included in the mediation handler pool:
creating a new mediation handler at the information handling system, wherein the new mediation handler is adapted to interface the service provider application to the second server, the second server being a network access server and different than the information handling system;
and
using the new mediation handler to execute the call request, which results in sending the call request from the information handling system to the second server.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.