Smart Connection Pool Session Sharing for Microservice Authentication
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Solution Overview
Problem
In client-server architectures where microservices act as clients and an application server acts as the server, authenticating credentials for microservices requires significant computational expense, and there is a need for improved authentication and communication between clients and servers, especially when multiple services share the same session.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a Smart Connection Pool Manager (SCPM) that authenticates microservices and provides session identification, facilitating secure and efficient communication by managing session creation and maintenance between microservices and application servers using web services.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If credentials are authenticated at the application server for each microservice, then security is maintained, but computational overhead increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a session manager as an intermediary component between microservices and the application server. The session manager handles authentication and credential verification, acting as a mediator that offloads computational tasks from the application server. This allows the application server to maintain security requirements while reducing its direct computational burden in authentication operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements session creation and authentication as preliminary actions that occur before microservices need to access the application server. By pre-authenticating microservices and creating sessions in advance, the system avoids repeated authentication computations during actual data operations, thereby reducing ongoing computational overhead while maintaining security.
2Adaptability or versatility
If each microservice establishes its own session with the application server, then service independence is maintained, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges session management functionality into a centralized session manager that handles sessions for multiple microservices. Instead of each microservice independently managing its own session, the session manager consolidates session creation, maintenance, and termination operations. This reduces overall system complexity while allowing microservices to maintain their independence through the unified session management interface.
3Reliability
If authentication is performed for every communication between microservice and application server, then security is ensured, but communication efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent establishes continuous authenticated sessions between microservices and the application server through the session manager. Once authentication is performed and a session is created, the session remains active for multiple communications, allowing continuous data exchange without repeated authentication overhead. This maintains security through initial authentication while significantly improving communication efficiency during the session lifecycle.
Data Source
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AI summary
An information processing method, comprising: receiving, by a smart connection pool manager (SCPM) (20), a request from a microservice (12) for a web services connection to communicate with an application server (14); requesting, by the SCPM (20), a creation of a web services session from an application server (14); receiving, by the SCPM (20), a session identification from the application server (14); and sending the session identification to the microservice (12) in response to the request for a web services connection.