Application network communication method and apparatus

• US 20040019696A1
• Filed: 05/22/2003
• Published: 01/29/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 05/22/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: Ironhide Inc.
• Inventors: Mitra, Samir G., Singhal, Nikhyl P., Scott, George M.
• Granted Patent: US 7,610,404 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/242
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/561 Adding application-functional data or data for application control, e.g. adding metadata
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A method and apparatus is provided to discover and integrate applications in an application router framework. The discovery operation includes receiving a registration notification for an application on a network, adding information describing the application to a repository into a data structure and publishing the data structure onto an application router. The association operations include querying one or more application routers on an application network for meta-data and other information on applications, exchanging the meta-data and other information between the application routers and associating the applications together automatically using their respective application protocols. Routing operations include receiving application information in an application protocol format, converting the application information in the application protocol format into a neutral protocol format and forwarding the application information in the neutral protocol format along with state information to other application router devices on the network.

Claims

1. A method of discovering applications on a network for integration, comprising:

receiving a registration notification for an application on a network having information on the application;

adding the information describing the application to a repository used to reference the application;

organizing the repository information into a data structure accessible through a user-interface; and

publishing the data structure onto an application router.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the information on the application includes structures, interfaces and protocols used by the application.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the information added to the repository includes meta-data describing aspects of the application.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the data structure is organized in a hierarchical arrangement with each application having a node with corresponding information.

5. The method claim 1 wherein publishing the data structure involves distributing the publication of information to one or more application routers.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the applications can be categorized into at least one category selected from a set of categories including:

web services, CORBA Objects, Database Systems, File/Document Based Interfaces and Packaged Applications.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the application router broadcasts invitations over the application network inviting applications to submit a registration notification and join the application network.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein each application broadcasts and/or multicasts a registration notification over the application network notifying one or more application routers of their availability to join the application network.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the application router probes a set of nodes on a conventional network inviting applications found on each node to join the application network.

6. The method of claim 6 wherein at least one application router is capable of operating as a standby application router in the event one or more application router becomes temporarily or permanently unavailable.

11. A method of associating applications together to facilitate the exchange of application information, comprising:

querying one or more application routers on an application network for meta-data and other information on applications in the corresponding application router repositories;

exchanging the meta-data and other information on the applications between the application routers; and

associating two or more applications together automatically using a communication path wherein each of the two or more applications individually can communicate over the application communication path using their respective application protocols.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the application routers query, exchange data or otherwise communicate with each other using an application router exchange protocol.

13. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

allocating resources on a system to accommodate the communication path bandwidth and processing requirements.

14. The method of claim 11 wherein the associating further comprises:

determining a communication bandwidth requirement to carry the communication path between the two or more applications;

provisioning the communication bandwidth requirement using one or more application router devices on a network.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising:

allocating monitors capable of gathering information on the communication bandwidth requirement when the two or more applications are communicating to match the bandwidth provisioned with the bandwidth requirement over the communication path.

16. The method of claim 11 wherein the associating further comprises:

identifying storage requirements to handle the information being processed over the communication path when the two or more applications are communicating information; and

provisioning the storage requirements on one or more application router devices on a network.

17. The method of claim 11 wherein the associating further comprises:

determining the processing requirements to process information on the one or more application router devices carrying information over the communication path; and

provisioning processor cycles from processors located on one or more application routers to process the information being carried over the bi-direction communication path.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the processing requirements further includes:

converting information from a proprietary application protocol used by at least one application into a neutral application protocol; and

converting information from the neutral application protocol back into the respective proprietary application protocol for the at least one application.

19. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

establishing security measures over the application communication path using information associated with at least one of the applications.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein establishing security measures further includes at least one of the security measures from the following set of security measures:

incorporating rules that determine authentication and authorization of the user and the application, specifying a public-key and exchanging a password.

21. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

displaying information describing one or more applications on a user-interface; and

presenting information on a structure, an interface and a protocol used for communicating with the one or more applications.

22. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

incorporating a workflow in the association between the applications on the application network that automatically sequences the occurrence of events on one application with the occurrence of events on another application.

24. The method of claim 21 wherein the application protocol format is compatible with one or more protocols selected from the set of SOAP, XML/HTTP, IIOP, RMI, SQL, EDI and SNMP.

23. A method of routing application information, comprising:

receiving application information in an application protocol format over a network;

converting the application information in the application protocol format into a neutral protocol format compatible with one or more application router devices on the network; and

forwarding the application information in the neutral protocol format along with state information describing the status of processing the application information to one or more application router devices on the network.

25. The method of claim 23 wherein the neutral protocol format is compatible with XML.

26. The method of claim 23 wherein converting the application information further comprises:

referencing meta-data to identify application information in the application protocol format wherein the meta-data depends on the application protocol format and the underlying application providing the information; and

mapping the application information to one or more structures in the neutral protocol format according to the meta-data.

27. The method of claim 23 wherein the meta-data used to identify application information is stored in a hierarchical data structure format.

28. The method of claim 23 wherein forwarding the state information further comprises:

determining if the processing of the application information has been completed based on the state information; and

transmitting status of the processing to one or more application routers indicating failure or success in processing of the application information based on the determination.

29. The method of claim 23 wherein the forwarding further comprises:

identifying application router devices in a virtual application area network (VAAN) as candidates for receiving application information in the neutral protocol format; and

limiting the transmission of application information in the neutral protocol format to router devices in the VAAN.

30. The method of claim 23 wherein the forwarding further comprises:

directing application information to a standby application router to act as a backup in the event an active application router device fails to operate properly.

31. A system for integrating the processing of applications, comprising:

an application network having at least one application router capable of communicating information about one or more applications with other application routers in a neutral protocol format;

an application associated with the at least one application router that communicates in a proprietary application protocol and is converted by the at least one application router into the neutral protocol format.

32. The system of claim 31 further comprising:

a standby application router that takes over communicating information from the at least one application router when the at least one application router experiences a temporary or permanent failure.

33. The system of claim 31 further comprising:

a virtual application area network within the application network that provides secure communication between the at least one application router and only selected application routers on the application network.

34. The system of claim 31 further including:

an application router configured to provide a dynamic application communication protocol to the at least one application router wherein the dynamic application communication protocol automatically assigns a registered application an application identifier for identifying the application in the application network.

35. A user interface for integrating applications, comprising:

displaying a set of options for configuring at least one application router on an application network;

providing settings to configure the at least one application router automatically discover, associate and route application information from one or more applications.

36. An application router that discovers applications on a network for integration, comprising:

a processor;

memory containing instructions when executed on the processor receive a registration notification for an application on a network having information on the application, add the information describing the application to a repository used to reference the application, organize the repository information into a data structure accessible through a user-interface; and

publish the data structure onto an application router.

37. The application router of claim 36 wherein the information added to the repository includes meta-data describing aspects of the application.

38. The application router of claim 36 further including instructions when executed cause the application router to operate as a standby application router in the event a different application router becomes temporarily or permanently unavailable.

39. The application router of claim 36 further including instructions when executed cause the application router to broadcast invitations over the application network inviting applications to submit a registration notification and join the application network.

40. A application router that associates applications together to facilitate the exchange of application information, comprising:

a processor;

memory containing instructions when executed on the processor cause the application router to query one or more application routers on an application network for meta-data and other information on applications in the corresponding application router repositories, exchange the meta-data and other information on the applications between the application routers and associate two or more applications together automatically using a communication path wherein each of the two or more applications individually can communicate over the application communication path using their respective application protocols.

41. The application router of claim 40 wherein the one or more application routers query, exchange data or otherwise communicate with each other using an application router exchange protocol.

42. The application router of claim 40 further comprising instructions when executed:

allocate monitors capable of gathering information on a communication bandwidth requirement when the two or more applications are communicating to match a bandwidth provisioned with the bandwidth required over a communication path.

43. The application router of claim 40 further comprising instructions when executed:

incorporate a workflow in the association between the applications on the application network that automatically sequences the occurrence of events on one application with the occurrence of events on another application.

44. A application router that routes application information, comprising:

a processor;

memory containing instructions when executed on the processor cause the application router to receive application information in an application protocol format over a network, convert the application information in the application protocol format into a neutral protocol format compatible with one or more application router devices on the network and forward the application information in the neutral protocol format along with state information describing the status of processing the application information to one or more application router devices on the network.

45. The application router of claim 44 wherein the neutral protocol format is compatible with XML.

46. The application router of claim 44 wherein converting the application information further comprises instructions when executed:

reference meta-data to identify application information in the application protocol format wherein the meta-data depends on the application protocol format and the underlying application providing the information and map the application information to one or more structures in the neutral protocol format according to the meta-data.