Method and apparatus using connection pools in communication networks

• US 20040221031A1
• Filed: 04/29/2003
• Published: 11/04/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 04/29/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Desai, Arun K.
• Granted Patent: US 8,621,031 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/14 Multichannel or multilink protocols

Abstract

An apparatus and method are provided of communicating between an application and a server including, on a client side, establishing a connection pool to the server. In an embodiment, a communication request from a client-side entity is served by a connection that was established in the connection pool prior to the issuance of the request. Subsequent communication requests may reuse the connection that serviced the first request.

Claims

1. A method of communicating between an application and a server comprising:

on a client side, establishing a connection pool to the server; and

in response to a request issued by a client-side entity to communicate with the server, using a connection in the connection pool to service said request, wherein the connection was established with said server prior to said first request.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said request is a first request, and the method further comprises reusing said connection to service a second request to communicate with the server.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein:

the first request is issued by a first client-side entity; and

the second request is issued by a second client-side entity different from the first client side entity.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the first request and the second request are issued by the same client-side entity.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the first client-side entity is a first thread in a multi-threaded application and the second-client side entity is second thread different from the first thread in said multi-threaded application.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the client-side entity is a thread in a multi-threaded application.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the client-side entity is a thread in a multi-threaded application.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

using a precompiler to process a program, wherein

the program contains an embedded statement, and

the precompiler converts the embedded program statement to a call in a runtime library,

wherein the step of establishing a pool is performed in response to said call to said runtime library.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the application is a multi-threaded application, and a second thread of the multi-threaded application reuses a connection in the connection pool that was used by a first thread of the multi-threaded application.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the server is a database server.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the application is a database application.

12. The method of claim 1,

wherein said request is a first request and said connection is a first connection, and,

wherein said connection pool is established in response to a second request that is received prior to the first request and a second connection in the connection pool is used to service said second request, the method further comprising:

reusing said second connection to service a third request to communicate with the server.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether there are unassigned connections in the connection pool; and

if there are not unassigned connections in the connection pool, adding at least one connection to the connection pool.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether there are more connections than are needed in the connection pool; and

if there are more connections than are needed, removing at least one connection from the connection pool.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether a connection in the connection pool that is assigned to a client-side entity has been idle for a duration of time equal to or greater than a time out parameter; and

if said connection in the connection pool that is assigned to a client-side entity has been idle for a duration of time equal to or greater than a time out parameter, unassigning from the client-side entity said connection.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising the step of:

if said connection in the connection pool that is assigned to a client-side entity has been idle for a duration of time equal to or greater than a time out parameter, not unassigning said connection from the client-side entity.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising removing said connection from the connection pool.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the quantity of connections in the connection pool is less than a maximum quantity of connections; and

if the quantity of connections is less than the maximum quantity of connections, adding a connection to the connection pool.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein establishing the connection pool comprises:

determining whether the quantity of connections in the connection pool is greater than a minimum amount of connections; and

if the quantity of connections is greater than the minimum amount of connections, removing a connection from the connection pool.

20. The method of claim 13, further comprising incrementing, by a value of one or more, the maximum quantity of connections in the connection pool.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein establishing the connection pool comprises:

setting a time out parameter, the time out parameter to be used to determine whether a connection is to be unassigned from a client-side entity after the connection is idle for a duration of time equal to or greater than the time out parameter.

22. The method of claim 1, further comprising establishing at least one additional connection pool so as to form a plurality of connection pools.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

associating a first group of client-side entities with a first connection pool in the plurality of connection pools; and

associating a second group of client-side entities with a second connection pool in the plurality of connection pools.

27. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 1.

28. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 2.

29. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 3.

30. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 4.

31. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 5.

32. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 6.

33. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 7.

34. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 8.

35. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 9.

36. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 10.

37. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 11.

38. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 12.

39. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 13.

40. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 14.

41. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 15.

42. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 16.

43. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 17.

44. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 18.

45. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 19.

46. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 20.

47. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 21.

48. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 22.

49. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 23.

24. A system comprising:

a library of software routines,

a mechanism to convert a first set of code to a second set of code,

wherein said mechanism is configured to convert an embedded program statement in the first set of code to a call to a routine in the library, said embedded program statement specifying an operation that involves communication with a server,

wherein the routine contains logic for establish in a connection pool in response to said call.

25. The system of claim 24 wherein the mechanism is a precompiler.

26. The system of claim 26, wherein the library is a runtime library.