Subscribing to multiple resources through a common connection

• US 10,063,663 B2
• Filed: 08/06/2015
• Issued: 08/28/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/07/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Burkhardt, John R, Richardson, Ransom, Schleifer, Jason, Lees, Steven
• Primary Examiner(s): Li, Guang W
• Application Number:
  US14/820,362
• Publication Number:
  US 20150341470A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,118 Days
• Field of Search: 709203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/544 Remote
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/125 by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/165 Combined use of TCP and UDP protocols; selection criteria therefor

Abstract

Methods, systems, and computer-readable media are provided to allow multiple server resources to share a single connection to a client device. The single connection may be maintained between a notification queue on the server side and the client device. Multiple server resources share the notification queue. When a resource changes or a service wants to communicate information to a client, corresponding messages are sent to the notification queue over a connection within the data center. Once in the notification queue, the updates are communicated to the client device.

Claims

1. A method for aggregating notifications from multiple server resources addressed to a client that is subscribed to the multiple server resources, the method comprising:

receiving, at a notification queue associated with a first client device based on the first client device being subscribed to a server resource in a first data center, a notification message from the server resource in response to an update of information at the server resource by a second client device, the notification queue residing in a second data center, a content communicated by the second client device causing the update of information at the server resource, the notification message comprising the update of information and being received from the server resource through a data-center intermediary server at the first data center that aggregates notification messages from the multiple server resources within the first data center that are addressed to multiple clients that have notification queues in the second data center; and

in response to a request from the first client device for updates to the server resource, communicating the notification message from the notification queue to the first client device through a single connection between the notification queue and the first client.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the server resource comprises chat room content.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the notification queue is located within a data center and on a different computing device than the server resource.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises receiving a subscription request from the first client device for the server resource.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the notification message is communicated between the notification queue and the first client device using one or more of a comet-style hypertext transfer protocol (“

HTTP”

) connection and a transmission control protocol (“

TCP”

) connection.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises generating a presence that communicates to the server resource that the first client device is no longer connected to the server resource.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the notification message is communicated between the notification queue and the first client device through a stateless front-end machine that performs a load balancing function.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the notification queue does not query the server resource for the notification message.

9. A method of communicating with resources in a remote data center, the method comprising:

subscribing a first client device to a first server resource associated with a service operating in the remote data center; and

receiving, at a notification queue in a second data center, a notification message from the first server resource in response to an update of information at the first server resource based on the first client device being subscribed to the first server resource, a content communicated by a second client device subscribed to the first server resource causing the update of information, the notification message comprising the update of information and received through an aggregation component established by the remote data center, the aggregation component aggregating notification messages from multiple server resources within the remote data center that are addressed to multiple clients that have notification queues in the second data center, the aggregation component having a single connection with the first client and a plurality connections to the multiple server resources.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the method further comprises communicating a subscription request from the first client device for the remote server resource.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the method further comprises communicating an HTTP Get request to the notification queue operating on the aggregation component.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the method further comprises maintaining a connection to the service.

13. A computing system comprising:

one or more processors;

memory, the memory comprising instructions to perform a service, the service configured to;

subscribe a first client device to the service provided by a resource in a first data center, the service being associated with multiple resources that individual client devices subscribe to, the first client device subscribing to a first resource that is provided by the service; and

a notification queue at a second data center, the first client device being assigned to the notification queue, the notification queue configured to;

receive a first event notification from the first resource for the first client device in response to an update of information at the first resource based on the first client device being subscribed to the first resource, the update of information from a second client subscribed to the first resource, a content communicated by the second client device causing the update of information, the first event notification being automatically routed from the first resource to the notification queue, the first event notification comprising the update of information and being received from the first resource through a data-center intermediary server that aggregates event notifications from the multiple resources within the first data center that are addressed to multiple clients that have notification queues in the second data center, the notification queue having a single connection to the first client device.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the service operates in a data center comprising multiple computing devices, and wherein the notification queue is assigned to a different computing device than the service.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the first event notification describe a change in state within the first resource.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the client is a media playback device and the service synchronizes a media play state.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the service is further configured to poll the notification queue to determine whether the first client device is still connected to the service and generating a presence notification that communicates a connection status for the first client device.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the first resource operates in a first data center, wherein the notification queue operates in the first data center, and wherein the first event notification from the first resource is aggregated with multiple event notifications from the first data center and communicated to the second data center.

19. The system of claim 13, wherein the first resource is a shared data resource.

20. The system of claim 13, wherein the event notifications are carried between the first data center and the second data center via a single connection.