Method and system for distributed processing management

• US 20040078420A1
• Filed: 08/21/2003
• Published: 04/22/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/01/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: British Telecommunications PLC (BT Group PLC)
• Original Assignee: British Telecommunications PLC (BT Group PLC)
• Inventors: Marrow, Paul, Wang, Fanf, Hoile, Cefn R, Bonsma, Erwin R
• Granted Patent: US 7,805,731 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/201
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/468 Specific access rights for resources, e.g. using capability register
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/485 Task life-cycle, e.g. stopping, restarting, resuming execution G06F9/4881 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4862 the task being a mobile agent, i.e. specifically designed to migrate
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/544 Buffers; Shared memory; Pipes

Abstract

A system for distributed process management comprising a plurality of units of software for installation on computing platform, and further software for controlling the operation of the plurality of units in use of the system,

wherein each unit of software is provided with means for communicating with other units of software, and at least some of the units of software are further provided with means for providing one or more elements of a software process,

said further software being capable of defining at least one set of software units and controlling communications by the units in the set to be limited to communication only with other units of the set.

Claims

1. A system for distributed process management comprising a plurality of units of software for installation on a computing platform, and further software for controlling the operation of the plurality of units in use of the system, wherein:

each unit of software is provided with means for communicating with other units of software by the sending and receiving of messages;

at least some of the units of software are further provided with means for providing one or more elements of a software process; and

said further software is capable of defining a plurality of environments, each of said environments containing a respective set of said units of software and being resident on a single computer of the computing platform, and wherein, for each said environment, a unit of software of its respective set can request a connection to an identified unit of software, and that request will be rejected if that identified unit of software is not a current member of that respective set.

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein each of said plurality of units of software is provided with an event portal having a buffer for storing events incoming to that unit of software from initiating ones of said units of software, wherein the buffer has a predetermined capacity for storing events and incoming events exceeding that capacity result in the generation of respective rejection notifications for the corresponding initiating units of software.

3. A system according to claim 2, wherein the event portal is provided with a plurality of buffers and events are stored for processing in a selected buffer, each said buffer having a predetermined capacity.

4. A system according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein at least one unit of software is provided with code to provide a software process for establishing a connection between first and second other units of software, said process including translation of the identity of at least the first of said other units of software, such that the identity is hidden from the second of said other units of software while the connection is established.

5. A system according to claim 1, wherein the further software defines more than one said set, and wherein communication between a first said unit of software, referred to hereafter as the first unit, in a first said set and a second said unit of software, referred to hereafter as the second unit, in a second said set is by means of messages sent from the first unit to a said unit of software in the first set and representing the second unit, referred to hereafter as the second unit representative, relayed from the second unit representative to a said unit of software in the second set and representing the first unit, referred to hereafter as the first unit representative, and forwarded from the first unit representative to the second unit, and mutatis mutandis for messages sent from the second unit to the first unit.

6. A system according to claim 5, wherein the first unit is capable of (a) requesting the further software to establish the first unit representative in the second set by creating the first unit representative initially in the first set, the first unit representative so created comprising a software process which is capable of migrating that unit from said first set to a specified said set, and (b) specifying that the first unit representative so created is to migrate to the second set.

7. A system according to claim 5, wherein the first unit is capable of (a) requesting the further software to establish the first unit representative in the second set by creating a said unit of software in the first set, the unit of software so created comprising a said migrating process which is capable of migrating that unit to a specified said set, and (b) specifying that the unit of software so created is to migrate to the second set and, when resident in the second set, is to create the first unit representative.

8. A system according to either claim 6 or claim 7, wherein the first unit representative is capable of (a) requesting the further software to establish the second unit representative in the first set by creating the second unit representative initially in the second set, the second unit representative so created comprising a software process which is capable of migrating that unit from said second set to a specified said set, and (b) specifying that the second unit representative so created is to migrate to the first set, and wherein the second unit representative is capable, when resident in the first set, of establishing a connection to the first unit.

9. A system according to either claim 6 or claim 7, wherein the first unit representative is capable of (a) requesting the further software to establish the second unit representative in the first set by creating a said unit of software in the second set, the unit of software so created comprising a software process which is capable of migrating that unit to a specified said set, and (b) specifying that the unit of software so created is to migrate to the first set, and, when resident in the first set, is to create the second unit representative, and wherein the second unit representative is capable of establishing a connection to the first unit.

10. A system according to claim 5, wherein the first unit is capable of (a) requesting the further software to establish the first unit representative in the second set by creating a said unit of software in the first set and (b) specifying that the unit of software so created is to be the second unit representative, and that the second unit representative so created is to be capable of requesting the further software to establish the first unit representative in the second set.

11. A system according to claim 10, wherein the second unit representative so created is capable of requesting the further software to establish the first unit representative in the second set by creating the first unit representative initially in the first set, and wherein the first unit representative so created comprises a software process which is capable of migrating that unit from said first set to a specified said set, and wherein the first unit specifies that the first unit representative so created is to migrate to the second set, and wherein the first unit representative is capable, when resident in the second set, of establishing a connection to the second unit.

12. A system according to claim 10, wherein the second unit representative so created is capable of (a) requesting the further software to establish the first unit representative in the second set by creating a said unit of software in the first set, the unit of software so created comprising a software process which is capable of migrating that unit to a specified said set, and (b) specifying that the unit of software so created is to migrate to the second set and, when resident in the second set, is to create the first unit representative, and wherein the first unit representative is capable of establishing a connection to the second unit.

13. A system according to any one of claims 6 to 12, wherein in each said set the units of software have unique local identities.

14. A system according to claim 13, wherein the local identity of said first unit includes a specific family identifier identifying a function to be provided by said first unit for other units of software of said first set;

and said further software is capable of creating said first unit representative such as to have either said specific family identifier or a non-specific family identifier in accordance with a specifier in said request by said first unit in dependence upon whether or not said function is to be made available to units of software of said second set.

15. A system according to either claim 13 or claim 14, when claim 13 is dependent upon either claim 8 or claim 9, wherein the local identity of said second unit includes a specific family identifier identifying a function to be provided by said second unit for other units of software of said second set;

and said further software is capable of creating said second unit representative such as to have either said specific family identifier or a non-specific family identifier in accordance with a specifier in said request by said first unit representative in dependence upon whether or not said function is to be made available to units of software of said first set.

16. A system according to either claim 13 or claim 14, when claim 13 is dependent upon any one of claims 10 to 12, wherein the local identity of said second unit includes a specific family identifier identifying a function to be provided by said second unit for other units of software of said second set;

and said further software is capable of creating said second unit representative such as to have either said specific family identifier or a non-specific family identifier in accordance with a specifier in said request by said first unit in dependence upon whether or not said function is to be made available to units of software of said first set.

17. A system according to any one of claims 6 to 16, wherein each of said unit representatives is capable of (a) requesting the further software to create a unit of software, referred to hereafter as a carrier unit, the said carrier unit so created being capable of carrying a said message and comprising a software process which is capable of migrating that unit to a specified said set, and (b) specifying that the carrier unit so created is to migrate to the set of the other of said unit representatives, connect to the other of said unit representatives and deliver the carried message.

18. A system according to claim 17, wherein a said carrier unit is capable of reuse for carrying a message in the reverse direction.

19. A system according to either claim 17 or claim 18, when both of claims 13 and 17 are dependent upon any one of claims 8 to 12, wherein a said unit representative, so created and capable of requesting the further software to establish the other of said unit representatives, is further capable of (a) requesting the further software to create directly or indirectly said other of said unit representatives to be capable of requesting the further software to create the said carrier unit to have an identifier specific to the said unit representative, and of (b) requesting the further software to create a said carrier unit to have said specific identifier, and wherein each of said unit representatives is capable of determining the future handling of a message received via a carrier unit in dependence upon whether or not that carrier unit has said specific identifier.

20. A system according to any one of claims 6 to 9 and 11 to 19, wherein the software process which is capable of migrating its unit to a specified set is arranged to migrate that created unit upon its creation.

21. A system according to any one of claims 6 to 9 and 11 to 19, wherein the software process which is capable of migrating its unit to a specified set is arranged to migrate that created unit upon receipt of a migration command.

22. A system according to any one of claims 6 to 21, wherein communication between units of software is indirect, being established by means of connection proxies, and wherein, for each respective connection that a said unit of software establishes with other said units of software, a respective pair of connection proxies is generated.

23. A system according to claim 22, wherein at least one connection proxy of at least one of said respective pairs has a reference to a transaction state.

24. A system according to either claim 22 or claim 23, wherein at least one unit of software is provided with a respective proxy having means to monitor and control any connection that the unit of software establishes via said connection proxies.

39. A platform according to any one of claims 22 to 38, wherein each software unit in a community is provided with a portal provided with means to store event data in relation to events yet to be processed by the software unit.

40. A platform according to claim 39, wherein said event data includes a count of events yet to be processed.

41. A platform according to claim 40, wherein the portal maintains a maximum in relation to the count of events yet to be processed, any incoming event being rejected once the count has reached its maximum.

42. A platform according to claim 41, wherein the portal maintains multiple counts of events in different type categories, and a maximum for each of said multiple counts.

43. A platform according to any one of claims 32 to 42, when claim 39 is dependent upon any one of claims 23 to 38, wherein if an event requires that a software unit be allocated a unit of processing capacity and that software unit is not currently allocated a unit of processing capacity, the computing environment will automatically allocate that software unit an available unit of processing capacity.

44. A platform according to any one of claims 32 to 42, when claim 39 is dependent upon any one of claims 23 to 38, wherein if an event requires that a software unit be allocated a unit of processing capacity, that software unit is not currently allocated a unit of processing capacity, and the computing environment does not have a unit of processing capacity available for allocation, that event is rejected by the software unit.

45. A platform according to any one of claims 22 to 44, wherein the support software environment is adapted to support:

creation of software units to add to a community,

migration of software units out of the community to a community supported by a different software environment, and

communications connections between software units of the community.

46. A platform according to claim 45, wherein the support software environment is further adapted to support destruction of software units of the community.

25. An applications platform for installation in a computing environment to support the running of an application by use of processing and data storage capacity of the computing environment, the platform comprising means to create a community of software units and means to provide a support software environment to the community, wherein an application to be run on the platform is installed as processes of a selected plurality of the community of software units, and processes for support of the application in use are themselves installed on further software units of the community.

26. A platform according to claim 25, wherein the means to provide a support software environment to the community maintains a plurality of units of processing capacity of the computing environment for allocation to selected units of the community of software units during running of an application.

27. A platform according to claim 26, wherein the number of units of processing capacity is less than the number of software units in the community.

28. A platform according to either claim 26 or claim 27, wherein said plurality has a maximum number which is determined when an application is first started.

29. A platform according to any one of claims 26 to 28, wherein each software unit in the community is provided with an identity.

30. A platform according to claim 29, wherein communication between the software units in the community is enabled using their identities.

31. A platform according to any one of claims 25 to 30, wherein each software unit is arranged such that, regardless of whether or not it is currently allocated a unit of processing capacity of the computing environment, communication therewith can be initiated by another software unit.

32. A platform according to claim 31, wherein each software unit is provided with means to maintain state information in relation to a communication with another software unit and each software unit maintains that state information whether or not it is currently allocated a unit of processing capacity of the computing environment.

33. A platform according to claim 32, wherein each software unit is provided with at least one dedicated software unit for performing a dedicated function.

34. A platform according to claim 33, wherein at least one dedicated software unit is arranged for reception and transmission of messages for its software unit.

35. A platform according to either claim 33 or claim 34, wherein said at least one dedicated software unit maintains at least one element of data relevant to its associated software unit.

36. A platform according to claim 35, wherein one element of data maintained by a dedicated software unit is the state information in relation to a communication with another software unit.

37. A platform according to either claim 35 or claim 36, wherein one element of data maintained by a dedicated software unit is the identity.

38. A platform according to any one of claims 33 to 37, wherein one element of data maintained by a dedicated software unit provides a measure of success of the software unit to which it is dedicated, said measure of success being a factor in replication or destruction of the software unit such that the community is capable of adaptation.