We use Apache to front-end a JBoss App Server. All browser accesses go through Apache.

For one of our applications, we have a need to keep a persistent connection between a logged in browser client and the server app. The server app needs to send chunks of data to the browser client periodically without requiring the browser client to issue a new request. In WebLogic and Webphere we are able to do this reliably by sending an application message as a chunk without delimiting it by a end-of-message marker. The proxy plug-ins for WebLogic and Websphere deliver the chunk to the browser without expecting the end-of-message-marker. Unfortunately the Apache proxy plug-in buffers a chunk and does not pass it along to the browser in real-time. If the server app sends the end-of-message marker with a chunk, the proxy delivers the message but also closes the connection.

We are not in a position to use the other alternative, namely mod jk, which also acts as a plug-in, but delivers messages to the back-end in ajp13 protocol. We need it delivered in HTTP /1.1 since we have our own socket listener to handle messages in the channel.

We are therefore looking for an alternative to Apache mod proxy and mod jk to deliver HTTP on the back-end and to deliver HTTP responses without buffering chunks.