I've had great luck with using xmpp with pubsub as a method of client/server communication. It has a number of advantages in that once you've converted your commands to xml in an xmpp payload you can route to a variety of backend services that speak xmpp. You also get things like presence for free which can be useful in many cases. This might be useful: http://code.google.com/p/xmppframework/wiki/iPhone Here's an excellent scalable xmpp server that's highly extensible: http://ejabberd.im