Connection Pool Manager for Microservice Authentication
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Solution Overview
Problem
Micro-services implemented on different platforms with varying security constraints face challenges in secure intercommunication, especially when scaling independently, leading to potential resource overload and complex authentication management.
Innovation Solution
A connection manager service provides a connection pool that allows independent scaling of services, securely traverses isolated networks, and reuses existing authentication information, decoupling authentication between services and eliminating the need for manual storage and reconfiguration.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If micro-services are implemented on different platforms with varying security constraints, then service independence and flexibility are improved, but secure intercommunication becomes difficult and complex
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a gateway as an intermediary component that mediates authentication between micro-services on different platforms. The gateway centralizes security management by handling authentication requests from multiple services, eliminating the need for each service to implement its own authentication logic. This resolves the contradiction by maintaining service independence while simplifying authentication management through centralized mediation.
Solution Approach 2:
The gateway is designed as a universal authentication mechanism that can handle multiple authentication protocols and security constraints simultaneously. It provides a single authentication interface that works across different micro-service platforms, making the system both adaptable to various platforms and simple to manage. The gateway's multi-functional design allows it to serve multiple services with varying security requirements through a unified approach.
2Productivity
If micro-services scale independently, then service flexibility and resiliency are improved, but resource overload and integration difficulties arise
Solution Approach 1:
The gateway implements feedback mechanisms that monitor resource usage across micro-services and dynamically adjust authentication capacity and connection management. When services scale independently, the gateway receives feedback about resource consumption patterns and can throttle or prioritize authentication requests accordingly. This prevents resource overload while maintaining the ability of services to scale independently, resolving the contradiction between productivity and reliability.
3Reliability
If authentication information is manually stored and reconfigured for each service, then security control is improved, but operational complexity and time consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The gateway enables services to authenticate themselves automatically without manual configuration. Services present their credentials to the gateway, which automatically verifies them against stored authentication information and establishes secure connections. This self-service authentication mechanism maintains strong security control while eliminating the time-consuming manual setup and reconfiguration of authentication for each service.
Solution Approach 2:
Authentication information is pre-configured and stored in the gateway before services need to connect. The gateway maintains a repository of valid authentication credentials in advance, so when services need to authenticate, the verification process is immediate and automated. This preliminary preparation of authentication data maintains security control while dramatically reducing the time required for authentication setup.
Data Source
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AI summary
Systems and methods are described for providing connection pools between source network devices and a target, connection-limited service. Each connection pool can facilitate connections between source devices and the target service, while ensuring that connections to the connection-limited service do not exceed a defined limit. A connection manager service can initialize a connection pool for a target service on request by a client device, and provide an identifier for the connection pool to the client device. Source network devices can then transmit operations for the target service to the connection manager service, which can route the operations to an appropriate connection pool based on the identifier.