DAVID RUSSELL HEATH
Pilots at Casey Cir, Nashua, NH

5553239, Sep 3, 1996

Nov 10, 1994

8/337943

David M. Heath - Nashua NH
Michael F. Kraley - Lexington MA
Sangam Pant - Winchester MA

AT&T Corporation - Basking Ridge NJ

G06F 1134

39518701

Disclosed is a server architecture for connecting to a plurality of remote client computers each seeking access to applications resident on the server. The architecture provides (1) a reliable, single point of entry for client users that enforces security and recovers immediately from failures; (2) connection management that monitors the user's level of online activity, terminating inactive connections both to save system resources and to limit unnecessary connection charges to the user; (3) application management that spreads users optimally among active application instances, maintaining a pool of available applications, initiating new instances when the pool is low, and which records a user's utilization of different applications for billing purposes; (4) system integrity, which is achieved through division of transaction-management responsibility among the various interrelated components of the invention; and (5) continuous, uninterrupted operation. The invention distributes tasks to different functional modules in a manner that promotes efficiency and ready accommodation of large numbers of users without processing delays.

5491820, Feb 13, 1996

Nov 10, 1994

8/337078

Edward Belove - Cambridge MA
James A. Culbert - Lynnfield MA
R. Patrick Johnson - Manchester MA
David M. Heath - Nashua NH
Michael F. Kraley - Lexington MA
Deborah Mendez - Malden MA
Sangam Pant - Winchester MA
Stephen Zagieboylo - Norfolk MA

AT&T Corporation - Basking Ridge NJ

G06F 1300

395600

Disclosed is an object-oriented approach to storage and transmission of retrievable items in a client-server computer environment. Special processing modules manage retrieval and permanent storage, on client computers, of requested objects in a manner that minimizes unnecessary transmission and storage. The user enters a "subscription" in connection with items related to hierarchically inferior items. The subscription specifies the amount of information the user desires to download and store locally with respect to a specified hierarchical depth level. The invention also includes a pruning module for deleting, from local storage, items inconsistent with the subscription and which the user does not explicitly indicate a desire to store, and a facility for updating locally stored items upon re-establishment of communication with the server.