1. A method for configuring one or more global server load balancing (GSLB) appliances and one or more load balancing appliances via a single configuration to represent a GSLB site hierarchy, the method comprising:
a) receiving, by each of a plurality of appliances, a single configuration representing a GSLB site hierarchy, comprising a plurality of levels, the GSLB site hierarchy comprising a plurality of sites, each site of the plurality of sites having one or more appliances of the plurality of appliances, each of the appliances deployed at a level of the plurality of levels;
b) identifying, by a first appliance of the plurality of appliances, from the single configuration during configuration of the first appliance that the first appliance is a first node corresponding to a first GSLB site in the GSLB site hierarchy, the first appliance providing GSLB to the plurality of sites in the GSLB site hierarchy;
c) identifying, by a second appliance of the plurality of appliances, from the single configuration during configuration of the second appliance that the second appliance is a second node corresponding to a second site in the GSLB site hierarchy, the second appliance providing load balancing for a plurality of servers at the second site in the GSLB site hierarchy;
d) identifying, by the second appliance, from the single configuration during configuration of the second appliance that the first node of the first GSLB site is a parent node at a first level of the plurality of levels in the GSLB site hierarchy to the second node of the second appliance at the second site at a second level of the plurality of levels;
e) establishing, by each of the plurality of appliances, a metric exchange connection with at least one appliance at a different level of the plurality of levels of the GSLB site hierarchy based on the topology of the GSLB site hierarchy to exchange load balancing statistics via transport layer connections; and
f) exchanging, by each of the plurality of appliances, load balancing statistics with the at least one appliance at the different level of the plurality of levels of the GSLB site hierarchy based on the topology of the GSLB site hierarchy.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein step (a) further comprises receiving, by each of the plurality of appliances, the single configuration identifying peer GSLB nodes in the GSLB site hierarchy.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein step (a) further comprises receiving, by each of the plurality of appliances, the single configuration identifying one or more child nodes of one or more sites of the plurality of sites and a parent node of a GSLB site for each of the one or more sites.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein step (b) further comprises identifying, by the first appliance, from the single configuration one or more peer GSLB sites.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein step (c) further comprises identifying, by the second appliance, from the single configuration one or more parent nodes in the GSLB site hierarchy that are peer GSLB sites to the parent node of the second site of the second appliance.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein step (c) further comprises identifying, by the second appliance, from the single configuration one or more child nodes in the GSLB site hierarchy that are child nodes to a third site.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein step (d) further comprises identifying, by the second appliance, from the single configuration a second child node to the parent node of the second appliance.
8. The method of claim 1, further comprising establishing, responsive to the single configuration, a metric exchange connection between the first appliance and the second appliance.
9. The method of claim 1, further comprising not accepting, by the second appliance responsive to the single configuration, a request for a metric exchange connection from a child node in a second site in the plurality of sites.
10. The method of claim 1, wherein step (c) further comprises establishing, responsive to the single configuration, a metric exchange connection between the first appliance and one or more appliances that are peer nodes of the first GSLB site.
11. A system for configuring one or more global server load balancing (GSLB) appliances and one or more load balancing appliances via a single configuration to represent a GSLB site hierarchy the system comprising:
a plurality of appliances of one or more networks, each of the plurality of appliances having a configuration interface for receiving a configuration representing a GSLB site hierarchy, comprising a plurality of levels, the GSLB site hierarchy comprising a plurality of sites, each site of the plurality of sites having one or more appliances of the plurality of appliances, each appliance at a level of the plurality of levels;
a first appliance of the plurality of appliances identifying during configuration of the first appliance from a single configuration received by the first appliance that the first appliance comprises a first node corresponding to a first GSLB site in the GSLB site hierarchy, the first appliance providing GSLB for a plurality of sites in the GSLB site hierarchy; and
a second appliance of the plurality of appliances identifying during configuration of the second appliance from the single configuration that the second appliance comprises a second node corresponding a second site in the GSLB site hierarchy that provides load balancing for a plurality of servers at the second site and identifying during configuration of the second appliance from the single configuration that the first node of first GSLB site of the first appliance, at a first level of the plurality of levels, is a parent node in the GSLB site hierarchy to the second node of the second appliance at the second site at a second level of the plurality of levels;
wherein each of the plurality of appliances establishes a metric exchange connection with at least one appliance at a different level of the plurality of levels of the GSLB site hierarchy based on the topology of the GSLB site hierarchy to exchange load balancing statistics via transport layer connections and exchanges load balancing statistics with the at least one appliance at the different level of the plurality of levels of the GSLB site hierarchy.
12. The system of claim 11, wherein the configuration interface of each of the plurality of appliances receives the single configuration identifying peer GSLB nodes in the GSLB site hierarchy.
13. The system of claim 11, wherein the configuration interface of each of the plurality of appliances receives the single configuration identifying one or more child nodes of one or more sites of the plurality of sites and a parent node of a GSLB site for each of the one or more sites.
14. The system of claim 11, wherein the first appliance identifies from the received single configuration one or more peer GSLB sites.
15. The system of claim 11, wherein the second appliance identifies from the received single configuration one or more parent nodes in the GSLB site hierarchy that are peer GSLB sites to the parent node of the second site of the second appliance.
16. The system of claim 11, wherein the second appliance identifies from the received single configuration one or more child nodes in the GSLB site hierarchy that are child nodes to a third site.
17. The system of claim 11, wherein the second appliance identifies from the received single configuration a second child node to the parent node of the second appliance.
18. The system of claim 11, wherein the first appliance and the second appliance establish responsive to the single configuration, a metric exchange connection between the first appliance and the second appliance.
19. The system of claim 11, wherein the second appliance responsive to the single configuration does not accept a request for a metric exchange connection from a child node in a second site in the plurality of sites.
20. The system of claim 11, wherein step (c) further comprises establishing, responsive to the single configuration, a metric exchange connection between the first appliance and one or more appliances that are peer nodes of the first GSLB site.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A system comprising:
an electronic device including an acoustic receiver to receive acoustic data, the electronic device being associated with an identification of a merchant;
a central server including programmed processing circuitry that implements
a payment processing module to coordinate a payment between a user’s account and a merchant’s account, the merchant’s account being associated with the identification of the merchant, and
a token generator to generate a token that confirms the payment being received at the merchant’s account; and
a mobile device including
a communications network interface,
a user interface,
programmed processing circuitry that implements
a request module to send a request message to the central server through the network interface, the request message including the identification of the merchant and a purchase amount,
a token receiver module to receive the token from the central server through the network interface, and
a translator module to translate the token into the acoustic data, and
an acoustic transmitter to transmit the acoustic data to the electronic device.
2. The system of claim 1, wherein the request message further includes at least one of: a requestor identification that identifies the user, an authorization duration, an authorization start time, an authorization end time, and an order summary.
3. The system of claim 1, wherein the token includes at least one of: a requestor identification that identifies the user, the identification of the merchant, a transaction identification, a time stamp, the purchase amount, and a digital signature.
4. The system of claim 1, wherein the user interface of the mobile device to receive the identification of the merchant and the purchase amount inputted by the user.
5. The system of claim 1, wherein the identification of the merchant is at least one of: a Web Uniform Resource Locator (URL), an email address, a phone number, an account number, a barcode, and an address of the merchant.
6. The system of claim 1, wherein the identification of the merchant obtained using at least one of: a global positioning system (GPS), optical analysis and infrared analysis.
7. The system of claim 1, wherein the electronic device further includes a decryption module to decrypt the acoustic data and to confirm authenticity of the acoustic data.
8. The system of claim 7, wherein the electronic device further includes an activation means that is activated when the acoustic data is confirmed to be authentic.
9. The system of claim 1, wherein the programmed processing circuitry included in the central server further implements:
a security module that generates a digital signature and includes the digital signature in the token.
10. The system of claim 1, wherein the acoustic receiver included in the electronic device further includes a detection circuitry to detect elements of the acoustic data, the elements including at least one of amplitude, phase shifts and other acoustic phenomena.
11. The system of claim 1, wherein the electronic device further includes a display interface to provide a display that confirms the payment being received.
12. A method of completing a purchase with a merchant using a mobile device, the method comprising:
sending a request message from the mobile device to a central server through a network interface, the request message including an identification of a merchant and a purchase amount;
receiving a token by the mobile device from the central server through the network interface, the token confirming a payment in the purchase amount being received at an account associated with the merchant;
translating the token into an acoustic data; and
transmitting the acoustic data from the mobile device to an electronic device being associated with the identification of a merchant.
13. The method of claim 12, further comprising: decrypting by the electronic device the acoustic data and confirming authenticity of the acoustic data by the electronic device to complete the purchase.
14. The method of claim 12, wherein the request message further includes at least one of: a requestor identification that identifies the user, an authorization duration, an authorization start time, an authorization end time, and an order summary.
15. The method of claim 12, wherein the token includes at least one of: a requestor identification that identifies the user, the identification of the merchant, a transaction identification, a time stamp, the purchase amount, and a digital signature.
16. The method of claim 12, further comprising: receiving at a user interface of the mobile device the identification of the merchant and the purchase amount inputted by the user.
17. The method of claim 12, wherein the identification of the merchant is at least one of: a Web Uniform Resource Locator (URL), an email address, a phone number, an account number, a barcode, and an address of the merchant.
18. The method of claim 12, further comprising: obtaining the identification of the merchant using at least one of: a global positioning system (GPS), optical analysis and infrared analysis.
19. A system comprising:
an electronic device including
an acoustic receiver to receive acoustic data,
a decoder, and
a processor; and
a mobile device including
a communications network interface,
a user interface to display a program associated with the electronic device and receive input from a user,
programmed processing circuitry that implements
a control module to generate a digital program including the input from the user, and
a translator module to translate the digital program into the acoustic data, and
an acoustic transmitter to transmit the acoustic data to the electronic device,
wherein the decoder included in the electronic device decodes the acoustic data to retrieve the digital program, and the processor included in the electronic device executes the digital program.
20. The system of claim 19, wherein the mobile device downloads the program associated with the electronic device though the network interface.
21. The system of claim 19, wherein the electronic device is an access device, and wherein executing the digital program includes authenticating the user to activate the access device and provide entry to the user.
22. The system of claim 19, wherein executing the digital program includes programming a function of the electronic device.