Mechanism for servicing connections by disassociating processing resources from idle connections and monitoring the idle connections for activity

• US 20020156897A1
• Filed: 02/23/2001
• Published: 10/24/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 02/23/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Chintalapati, Murthy, Bhattacharya, Pallab
• Granted Patent: US 6,988,140 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/142 Managing session states for stateless protocols; Signalling session states; State transitions; Keeping-state mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/16 Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/162 involving adaptations of sockets based mechanisms secure socket layer H04L63/168
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A mechanism for servicing connections by disassociating processing resources from idle connections and monitoring the idle connections for activity is described. In one embodiment, a connection that is being serviced by a processing resource is disassociated from the processing resource when the connection is idle. The connection is handed to a poll manager for placement into one of several poll subsets. A poll thread associated with each poll subset is sends the poll subsets and poll requests to a poll adapter. The poll adapter uses the features of the operating system to monitor the connection for activity, such as by polling the connections to identify any pending events. The approach may be implemented on different operating systems by changing the poll adapter. The poll manager passes active connections to a work queue to wait for servicing. The present invention avoids wasting resources on connections that are idle.

Claims

1. In a computer system wherein a plurality of connections have been established with a plurality of entities, a computer-implemented method for servicing a connection, comprising:

servicing said connection with a first processing resource;

when said connection is idle, disassociating said first processing resource from said connection;

monitoring said connection for activity; and

when there is activity on said connection, servicing said connection with a second processing resource.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said monitoring comprises:

polling said connection for one or more events that are pending for said connection; and

when one or more events are pending for said connection, servicing said connection with a second processing resource.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said first processing resource and said second processing resource are the same processing resource.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said first processing resource and said second processing resource are different processing resources.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said first processing resource comprises a first worker thread, and wherein said second processing resource comprises a second worker thread.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein an X number of connections have been established by said computer system, and wherein said computer system has a Y number of processing resources, wherein Y is less than X.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

after disassociating said first processing resource from said connection, associating said connection with a queue.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said queue comprises a plurality of subsets, wherein said connection is associated with a particular subset of said plurality of subsets, and wherein each subset of said plurality of subsets can be locked without affecting any other subset.

9. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

when one or more events are not pending for said connection, repeating said polling of said connection.

10. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

when one or more events are not pending for said connection for a predetermined time period, closing said connection.

11. The method of claim 2, wherein said one or more events indicates that said connection has been closed at an entity associated with said connection, and further comprising:

when said connection has been closed at said entity associated with said connection, closing said connection.

12. The method of claim 2, wherein said polling is in response to a request that comprises first data that identifies one or more connections to be polled.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said request further comprises second data that identifies one or more event types for which said one or more connections are to be polled.

14. The method of claim 2, wherein said polling comprises:

polling said connection using one or more synchronous features of an operating system that is associated with said computer system.

15. The method of claim 2, wherein said polling comprises:

polling said connection using one or more asynchronous features of an operating system that is associated with said computer system.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

prior to servicing said connection with said first processing resource, associating said connection with a particular sub-queue from among a plurality of sub-queues, wherein each sub-queue of said plurality of sub-queues can be locked without affecting any other sub-queues.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein said interface monitors said connection for activity by polling said connection for one or more events that are pending for said connection and wherein said second processing resource services said connection when one or more events are pending for said connection.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein said first processing resource and said second processing resource are the same processing resource.

20. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein said first processing resource and said second processing resource are different processing resources.

21. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein said first processing resource comprises a first worker thread, and wherein said second processing resource comprises a second worker thread.

22. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein an X number of connections have been established by said computer system, and wherein said computer system has a Y number of processing resources, wherein Y is less than X.

23. The apparatus of claim 17, further comprising:

a first queue for holding said connection after said managing agent receives said connection.

24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein said first queue comprises a plurality of subsets, wherein said connection is associated with a particular subset of said plurality of subsets, and wherein each subset of said plurality of subsets can be locked without affecting any other subset.

25. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein said interface repeats said polling of said connection when one or more events are not pending for said connection.

26. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein said managing agent closes said connection when one or more events are not pending for said connection for a predetermined time period.

27. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein said one or more events indicates that said connection has been closed at an entity associated with said connection, and wherein said managing agent closes said connection when said connection has been closed at said entity associated with said connection.

28. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein said interface polls said connection in response to a request that comprises first data that identifies one or more connections to be polled.

29. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein said request further comprises second data that identifies one or more event types for which said one or more connections are to be polled.

30. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein said interface polls said connection using one or more synchronous features of an operating system that is associated with said computer system.

31. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein said interface polls said connection using one or more asynchronous features of an operating system that is associated with said computer system.

32. The apparatus of claim 17, further comprising:

a second queue for holding said connection when one or more events are pending for said connection.

33. The apparatus of claim 32, wherein said second queue receives said connection from said managing agent and wherein said second processing resource retrieves said connection from said second queue prior to servicing said connection.

34. The apparatus of claim 32, wherein

said second queue is comprised of a plurality of sub-queues,

each sub-queue of said plurality of sub-queues can be locked without affecting any other sub-queues, and

said connection is associated with a particular sub-queue from among said plurality of sub-queues prior to said first processing resource servicing said connection.

36. The computer-readable medium of claim 35, wherein said instructions for causing one or more processes to monitor said connection for activity comprises:

instructions for causing one or more processors to poll said connection for one or more events that are pending for said connection; and

when one or more events are pending for said connection, instructions for causing said one or more processors to service said connection with a second processing resource.

37. The computer-readable medium of claim 35, wherein said first processing resource and said second processing resource are the same processing resource.

38. The computer-readable medium of claim 35, wherein said first processing resource and said second processing resource are different processing resources.

39. The computer-readable medium of claim 35, wherein said first processing resource comprises a first worker thread, and wherein said second processing resource comprises a second worker thread.

40. The computer-readable medium of claim 35, wherein an X number of connections have been established by said computer system, and wherein said computer system has a Y number of processing resource s, where in Y is less than X.

41. The computer-readable medium of claim 35, further comprising:

instructions for causing one or more processors to associate said connection with a queue after disassociating said first processing resource from said connection.

42. The computer-readable medium of claim 41, wherein said queue comprises a plurality of subsets, wherein said connection is associated with a particular subset of said plurality of subsets, and wherein each subset of said plurality of subsets can be locked without affecting any other subset.

43. The computer-readable medium of claim 36, further comprising:

instructions for causing one or more processors to repeat said polling of said connection when one or more events are not pending for said connection.

44. The computer-readable medium of claim 36, further comprising:

instructions for causing one or more processors to close said connection when one or more events are not pending for said connection for a predetermined time period.

45. The computer-readable medium of claim 36, wherein said one or more events indicates that said connection has been closed at an entity associated with said connection, and further comprising:

instructions for causing one or more processors to close said connection when said connection has been closed at said entity associated with said connection.

46. The computer-readable medium of claim 36, wherein said connection is polled in response to a request that comprises first data that identifies one or more connections to be polled.

47. The computer-readable medium of claim 46, wherein said request further comprises second data that identifies one or more event types for which said one or more connections are to be polled.

48. The computer-readable medium of claim 36, wherein said instructions for causing one or more processors to poll said connection comprises:

instructions for causing one or more processors to poll said connection using one or more synchronous features of an operating system that is associated with said computer system.

49. The computer-readable medium of claim 36, wherein said instructions for causing one or more processors to poll said connection comprises:

instructions for causing one or more processors to poll said connection using one or more asynchronous features of an operating system that is associated with said computer system.

50. The computer-readable medium of claim 35, further comprising:

instructions for causing one or more processors to associate said connection with a particular sub-queue from among a plurality of sub-queues prior to servicing said connection with said first processing resource, wherein each sub-queue of said plurality of sub-queues can be locked without affecting any other sub-queues.

17. An apparatus for servicing connections in a computer system, comprising:

a first processing resource that services a connection;

a managing agent that receives said connection after said connection is disassociated from said first processing resource when said connection is idle;

an interface that monitors said connection for activity; and

a second processing resource that services said connection when there is activity on said connection.

35. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to service a connection in a computer system wherein a plurality of connections have been established with a plurality of entities, said computer-readable medium comprising:

instructions for causing one or more processors to service said connection with a first processing resource;

instructions for causing one or more processors to disassociate said first processing resource from said connection when said connection is idle;

instructions for causing one or more processors to monitor said connection for activity; and

instructions for causing one or more processors to service said connection with a second processing resource when there is activity on said connection.