Method and device for establishing network communication compatibility of terminals

1. A method of establishing a communication channel via a connection between a client application executing on a client machine and a service application executing on a communicating device that is dependent on a terminal, the client machine including a representative of the service application, comprising the following steps:

formatting messages from the client application at the client machine, downstream of said representative, in a form that can be read by the service application; and

receiving said formatted messages at a gateway and transmitting them to the service application.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the communicating device is a smart card, and the service application is a card application.

3. The method according to claim 1 , further including the step of encrypting the messages during or before the formatting step to enable encrypted messages issuing from the formatting module to pass in encrypted form through the gateway and to the communicating device.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the client machine is connected to the terminal by a network, and the formatting step is followed, at the client machine, successively by the steps of:

receiving formatting commands from the formatting step at a representative of said gateway and producing formatting commands from said received commands according to a format that can be read by said gateway;

formatting the messages issuing from said representative of the gateway into messages having a network format; and

adapting said messages to standards for communicating via the network;

and wherein the messages received from the network at the terminal are processed successively by steps of:

retrieving said messages from the messages issuing from the network;

retrieving the commands from the representative of said gateway; and

transmitting messages containing said retrieved commands to said gateway.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein:

the formatting step is followed directly by a step of adapting said messages to standards for communicating over the network and

further including the step of processing the adapted messages at the terminal to retrieve said messages issuing from the formatting step and retransmit said messages directly to said gateway.

6. A system establishing a communication channel via a connection between a client application executing on a client machine and a service application executing on a communicating device dependent on a terminal, comprising:

a representative of the service application installed in the client machine;

a formatting module situated at the client machine, downstream of said representative, for formatting messages of the client application in a form that can be read by the service application; and

a gateway situated at the terminal for taking delivery of said messages that can be read by the communicating device and transmitting said messages to the service application.

7. The system according to claim 6 , wherein the communicating device is a smart card, and the service application is a card application installed in the smart card.

8. The system according to claim 6 , further including means for making the messages secure at least by the time they issue from the formatting module to enable said messages to pass in secure form through the gateway and to the communicating device.

9. The system according to claim 6 , wherein said connection comprises a network connecting the client machine and the terminal, and said gateway is capable of communicating over said network.

10. The system according to claim 9 , wherein the formatting module is connected to the network via a sequence of modules successively comprising:

a representative of said gateway, for receiving formatting commands from the formatting module and producing formatting commands from said received commands according to a format that can be read by said gateway;

a network formatting module for formatting said commands from the gateway representative into messages having a network format; and

a transport module for adapting said messages to standards for communicating via the network;

and wherein said gateway is connected to the network via a sequence of modules successively comprising:

a first module which performs an inverse function of the transport module, and which is connected to the network for retrieving said messages communicated over the network;

a second module which performs an inverse function of the network formatting module for retrieving the commands from the representative of said gateway; and

a network command driver for transmitting the messages coming from said second module to said gateway.

11. The system according to claim 9 , wherein:

the formatting module is connected to the network via a transport module to directly receive said messages from the formatting module and format them to standards for communicating over the network,

and said gateway is connected to the network via a module which performs an inverse function of the transport module for directly retrieving said messages from the network and retransmitting said messages directly to said gateway.

12. The system according to claim 6 , wherein said client machine and said terminal are combined in a single physical medium and connected by an internal connection, and wherein the formatting module directly transmits via said internal connection the formatted client application messages.