Bidirectional asynchronous data communication

An article of manufacturing for use by a client computer and a server computer operatively connected to one another in a data communications network, the article of manufacturing comprising computer-readable media containing computer-readable program code comprising instructions for providing bidirectional asynchronous data communication between the client computer and the server computer, the computer-readable program code when executed by said computers performs a method comprising:

• receiving a first request for setting up one communication channel in the data communications network by the client computer;
• sending a first response comprising a first productive response when the server has communication data packets to send to the client computer in response to the first request;
• receiving a second request from the client computer, wherein at least the second request comprises a pipelining request;
• terminating the first request from the client computer by sending an end of the first request by way of a zero-chunk packet, the terminating of the first request being performed notwithstanding of any communication data packets waiting to be sent from the first request;
• and
• sending a second response comprising a second productive response when the server has further communication data packets to send to the client computer in response to the second request, wherein the second productive response contains any said communication data packets waiting to be sent from a presently ended first request,
• wherein the first productive response and the second productive response are selected from the group consisting of:
• a partial response identifying an end of at least one of the first and second productive responses by way of a zero-chunk packet, and
• a plurality of partial responses wherein one of the partial responses identifies an end of at least one of the first and second responses by way of a zero-chunk packet,
• coupling a firewall to said one communication channel, the firewall configured with a time window lasting a predefined time interval for closing said one communication channel when the server has no data to send to the client;
• wherein at least one of the client requests is a wakeup packet, and further wherein the server computer acknowledges said at least one client request with a dummy response sent after a timeout time;
• and
• selecting a duration of the timeout time for sending the dummy response, wherein the duration of the selected timeout time for sending the dummy response is less than the predefined time interval of the firewall window to impede the firewall from closing said one communication channel, the sending of the dummy response maintaining the one communication channel open between the client and the server when the server has no data to send to the client;
• wherein the bidirectional data communication including communication data packets for each productive response and dummy response between the client and the server occurs only over said one communication channel.

A system comprising a client computer and a server computer in a data communications network, the client computer and the server computer operatively connected to one another via a bidirectional asynchronous data communication, the communication initiated by the client computer over the data network via a hypertext transfer protocol based on a request/response paradigm, comprising:

• a first request sent to the server computer from the client computer for setting up one communication channel in the communications network;
• a response sent to the client computer, the response comprising a productive response from the server computer in at least one partial response when the server computer has communication data packets to send in response to the first client request, at least one of the partial responses identifying an end of response by way of a zero-chunk packet;
• a firewall coupled to said one communication channel, the firewall configured with a time window lasting a predefined time interval for closing said one communication channel when the server has no data to send to the client;
• a dummy response sent to the client computer from the server computer when the server computer has no data to be sent in response to the first client request, the dummy response sent after a timeout time;
• a duration of the timeout time selected for sending the dummy response, wherein the duration of the selected timeout time for sending the dummy response is less than the predefined time interval of the firewall window to impede the firewall from closing said one communication channel, the sending of the dummy response maintaining the one communication channel open between the client and the server when the server has no data to send to the client;
• and
• a second request sent to the server computer, the second request comprising a productive request by the client computer when the client computer has communication data packets to send to the server computer, wherein at least the second request comprises a pipelining request,
• wherein the first request is terminated by the server computer via a partial response identifying an end of the response by way of a zero-chunk packet, the terminating of the first request being performed notwithstanding of any communication data packets waiting to be sent from the first request, and
• wherein the communication to the client computer after the second request is via at least one second partial response, wherein said at least one second partial response contains any said communication data packets waiting to be sent from a presently ended first request, wherein the bidirectional data communication including communication data packets for each productive request, communication data packets for each productive response and dummy response between the client and the server occurs only over said one communication channel.