Hub-and-Spoke Message Routing System
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional communication arrangements between lines of business (LOBs) and external entities require multiple proprietary connections, leading to fiscal inefficiency due to associated fees, as each LOB establishes its own connection without knowledge of others' activities.
Innovation Solution
A hub-and-spoke communication system where a server computer system acts as a central hub routing all messages, reducing the need for proprietary connections and providing protocol, payload, encryption, and archival functionalities, thus minimizing the logic and resources required by spoke computers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If each LOB establishes its own proprietary connection with external entities, then communication reliability is improved, but communication cost increases due to multiple connection fees
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple proprietary connections into a single shared connection by introducing a hub server that consolidates communication channels. Multiple LOBs share common connections to external entities through the hub, reducing the total number of connections while maintaining communication reliability through the centralized routing mechanism.
Solution Approach 2:
The hub server acts as an intermediary between LOBs and external entities. It receives messages from multiple LOBs, determines appropriate routing paths, and forwards them through shared proprietary connections to external entities, thereby reducing the number of direct connections needed while preserving communication reliability.
2Adaptability or versatility
If each LOB establishes its own proprietary connection, then message routing flexibility is improved, but device complexity increases due to multiple connection management requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the connection management functionality from individual LOBs and concentrates it in the hub server. The hub handles all connection establishment, maintenance, and routing decisions, thereby reducing the complexity at each LOB while preserving routing flexibility through the centralized intelligence.
Solution Approach 2:
The hub server provides universal connection management capabilities for multiple LOBs. It performs protocol conversions, determines routing paths, and manages shared proprietary connections for diverse LOBs, thereby reducing individual LOB complexity while maintaining routing flexibility through multi-functional operations.
3Ease of operation
If LOBs are unaware of other LOB activities, then operational independence is improved, but fiscal efficiency deteriorates due to redundant connection fees
Solution Approach 1:
The hub server implements self-service routing by automatically determining the optimal paths for messages based on destination information without requiring LOBs to have knowledge of each other's activities. The hub independently makes routing decisions and manages shared connections, thereby maintaining operational independence while improving fiscal efficiency through connection sharing.
4Adaptability or versatility
If spoke computers provide protocol conversion and encryption functionality, then message compatibility is improved, but device complexity and resource requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The hub server acts as an intermediary that performs protocol conversion and encryption/decryption operations. It receives messages in various protocols from different LOBs, converts them to appropriate formats, and handles security transformations, thereby improving message compatibility without requiring spoke computers to implement these complex functions.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements functionality copying by centralizing protocol conversion and encryption capabilities in the hub server. Instead of each spoke computer maintaining its own conversion and security modules, the hub provides these functions as shared services, reducing spoke complexity while preserving message compatibility through the hub's intelligent processing.
Data Source
AI summary
A hub-and-spoke communication arrangement is provided, in which the “hub” includes a server computer system. The “spokes” are other computers that act as message originators and/or destinations. All internal-to-external messages, and vice versa, are routed through the server computer system to reduce the number of proprietary connections needed between the internal and external entities. In addition, the server computer system provides protocol conversion, message payload conversion, encryption conversion, message broadcast, and/or message archival functionality, so that the “spoke” computers need not be concerned with providing such functionality on their own.