Enables clients to be used through firewalls
An XMPP client normally connects to the server via an unrestricted persistent TCP connection. However clients running on computers behind firewalls are often able to connect to the Internet only via HTTP.

ClientSide's BreakThru proxy server provides the solution. XEP-0124 compatible clients, like Chatterbox, can communicate with XMPP servers via BreakThru using HTTP.

XMPP client
     |
 firewall
     |       (XMPP stanzas over HTTP POST requests/responses)
 Internet
     |
 BreakThru
     |
     |       (XMPP stream over persistent TCP connection)
     |
XMPP server

Optimum user experience
BreakThru offers performance as close as possible to a standard TCP connection. When compared to other solutions, the increase in responsiveness and decrease in bandwidth consumption are typically one or two orders of magnitude!

The result is a vastly improved user experience, and significant cost savings for the service operator.

Passive control panel

• BreakThru forwards messages to the client the instant they arrive from the XMPP server.
• Most of the time, client and server are not communicating. During these quiet periods almost no packets are transfered.

These abilities come from enabling clients to avoid polling (by employing two HTTP connections at the same time).

Open standard protocol
BreakThru implements XEP-0124 (a standards-track Jabber Enhancement Protocol). This was designed for clients running in constrained network or runtime environments (e.g. Web browsers or J2ME mobile phones). It enables a session to be recovered even after an underlying TCP connection breaks during an HTTP request.

All communication between BreakThru and the client may be secured via standard SSL/TLS encryption.

Development roadmap
Today BreakThru v1.0 operates only in Proxy mode. The Java application maintains an XMPP connection to the server for each active client session.

• BreakThru v2.0 will offer a Connection Manager mode that is compatible with popular XMPP servers. It will act as a combined HTTP proxy and native client-to-server (c2s) server component. All communications will pass over a single connection to the core server. This will simplify the system and reduce the load on the standard c2s components.
• BreakThru v3.0 will be re-written in highly optimised C for optimum scalability.

Pricing policy
The cost of BreakThru depends on the total number of CPUs in the machines it is installed on.

ClientSide is currently offering free support to developers of XEP-0124 compatible XMPP clients (including test accounts on a BreakThru server installation).

Please contact us if you have any questions about BreakThru.