Communications system providing enhanced client-server communications and related methods

1. A communications system comprising:

an application server;

a plurality of communications devices within a protected network including at least one first communications device processing requests using a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) client application with said application server; and

an HTTP server for interfacing said HTTP client application with said application server;

said HTTP server and said HTTP client application formatting requests to be communicated therebetween in an HTTP format, and each providing additional state information with the HTTP formatted requests for authenticating said application server and said HTTP client application to one another;

said HTTP client application accepting work jobs from said application server by sending a first request to a first universal resource locator (URL) associated with said HTTP server, and responding to the work jobs from said application server by sending a second request with results for the work jobs to a second URL different from the first URL and also associated with said HTTP server;

said at least one first communications device also functioning as a gateway for said application server to communicate with at least one second communications device of said plurality of communications devices.

2. The communications system of claim 1 wherein the additional state information comprises a global unique identifier (GUID) associated with said HTTP client application.

3. The communications system of claim 1 wherein said HTTP client application and said HTTP server further provide sequencing information with the HTTP formatted requests.

4. The communications system of claim 1 wherein said HTTP client application and said HTTP server format the additional state information as HTTP headers for respective HTTP formatted requests.

5. The communications system of claim 1 wherein said HTTP server and said HTTP client application communicate via the Internet.

6. A communications system comprising:

an application server;

a plurality of communications devices within a protected network including at least one first communications device processing requests using a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) client application with said application server; and

an HTTP server for interfacing said HTTP client application with said application server;

said HTTP server and said HTTP client application formatting requests to be communicated therebetween in an HTTP format, and each providing additional state information with the HTTP formatted requests for authenticating said application server and said HTTP client application to one another;

said HTTP client application accepting work jobs from said application server by sending a first request to a first universal resource locator (URL) associated with said HTTP server, and responding to the work jobs from said application server by sending a second request with results for the work jobs to a second URL different from the first URL and also associated with said HTTP server, and said HTTP client application and said HTTP server further providing sequencing information with the HTTP formatted requests;

said at least one first communications device also functioning as a gateway for said application server to communicate with at least one second communications device of said plurality of communications devices.

7. The communications system of claim 6 wherein said HTTP client application and said HTTP server format the additional state information as HTTP headers for respective HTTP formatted requests.

8. The communications system of claim 6 wherein said HTTP server and said HTTP client application communicate via the Internet.

9. A method for interfacing an application server and at least one first communications device, among a plurality of communications devices within a protected network, using a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) server, the application server and the at least one first communications device for processing requests from one another, the at least one first communications device processing requests using an HTTP client application, the method comprising:

formatting requests to be communicated between the HTTP server and the HTTP client application in an HTTP format;

providing additional state information with the HTTP formatted requests communicated between the HTTP server and the HTTP client application for authenticating the application server and the HTTP client application to one another, the respective additional state information of the HTTP server and the HTTP client application being recognizable by the other;

at the HTTP client application, accepting work jobs from the application server by sending a first request to a first universal resource locator (URL) associated with the HTTP server, and responding to the work jobs from the application server by sending a second request with results for the work jobs to a second URL different from the first URL and also associated with the HTTP server; and

communicating with at least one second communications device of the plurality of communications devices using the at least one first communications device as a gateway for the application server.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the additional state information comprises a global unique identifier (GUID) associated with the HTTP client application.

11. The method of claim 9 further comprising providing sequencing information with the HTTP formatted requests.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein formatting comprises formatting the additional state information as HTTP headers for respective HTTP formatted requests.

13. The method of claim 9 wherein the HTTP server and the HTTP client application communicate via the Internet.