Dynamic links in content-based networks

• US 20050138038A1
• Filed: 12/16/2004
• Published: 06/23/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Solace Corp.
• Original Assignee: Solace Systems, Inc. (United Kingdom)
• Inventors: Barnes, Martin, Ashton, Peter, Bertin, Greg, Pochopsky, David, Burwell, Wayne, Betts, Craig
• Granted Patent: US 7,895,299 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context

Abstract

In a method of managing a content-based network including a plurality of content routers, such as XML routers, dynamic links are established between the content routers which are not direct neighbors.

Claims

1. A method of managing a content-based network including a plurality of content routers, comprising:

at an originating router examining an incoming document to identify a destination router for said document, said originating router and said destination router forming a pair of routers;

establishing at least one dynamic link between said pair of routers when said destination router is not a direct neighbor of said originating router; and

transferring said document over said at least one dynamic link.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said dynamic link is established by a network administrator configuring a virtual connection between said pair of content routers.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said virtual connection is a TCP connection.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said content routers detect a condition when more than one dynamic link is established substantially simultaneously between the same pair of routers, and in response to the detection of said condition tear down one of said dynamic links.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said content routers tear down the link originating from the content router based on a comparison of the IP addresses of the pair of routers.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said content routers tear down the link originating from the content router with the lowest IP address.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said originating router buffers said document initiating the establishment of said dynamic link and any subsequent documents destined for the destination router until they can be transmitted over said dynamic link.

8. The method of claim 1, comprising establishing filtering rules to determine which documents are transferred over said dynamic link.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said documents are XML documents, and said filtering rules are XML filtering rules based on the content of said XML documents.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said filtering rules are entered in the form of XPath Expressions.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein said documents are assigned one or more priorities and only documents with corresponding priorities are transferred over said dynamic link.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein multiple dynamic links are established between said pair of content routers, each dynamic link between said pair is associated with one or more different priorities, and each document is transferred over the dynamic link associated with a priority corresponding to the priority assignment of that particular document.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the originating content router determines the bandwidth of a flow of said documents, and only establishes said dynamic link when said bandwidth exceeds a first predetermined threshold.

14. The method of claim 15, wherein said dynamic link is torn down in the event said bandwidth subsequently falls below a second predetermined threshold.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein said dynamic link is torn down after a predetermined period of time.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein said content routers are XML routers, and said documents are XML documents.

17. A method of managing a content-based network including a plurality of XML content routers, comprising:

at an originating router receiving an XML document;

examining said XML document to identify the destination router therefor;

establishing a dynamic link between said originating router and said destination router when said destination router is a not a direct neighbor of said originating router; and

transferring said document over said dynamic link.

18. The method of claim 17, comprising tearing down said dynamic link after a predetermined period of time.

19. A content routed network, comprising:

a plurality of content routers interconnected by static links;

one or more publishers connected to said content routed network;

a plurality of subscribers connected to said content routed network; and

said content routers being configured such that an originating router receiving an incoming document identifies the destination router therefor and establishes a dynamic link to said destination router when said destination router is not a direct neighbor of the originating router, whereby documents received from said one or more publishers can be transferred over said dynamic link.

20. The content routed network of claim 19, wherein said content routers are configured to detect a condition when more than one dynamic link is established substantially simultaneously between the same pair of routers and tear down one of said links in response to the detection of said condition.

21. The content routed network of claim 20, wherein said content routers are configured to tear down the link originating from the content router by comparing the IP addresses of the originating and destination routers.

22. The content routed network of claim 21, wherein said originating router includes a buffer for storing the document initiating the establishment of said dynamic link and any subsequent documents are destined for the destination router until said documents can be transferred over said dynamic link.

23. The content routed network of claim 19, further comprising a filter selecting the documents to be transferred over said dynamic link.

24. The content routed network of claim 23, wherein said documents are XML documents, and said filter is XML based.

25. A router for use in a content routed network, said content router being configured such upon receipt of an incoming document it identifies the destination router for said document and establishes a dynamic link to said destination router when said destination router is not a direct neighbor, whereby documents received from one or more publishers can be transferred over said dynamic link.

26. The router of claim 25, which is configure to detect a condition when more than one dynamic link is established substantially simultaneously between the same pair of routers and tear down one of said links in response to the detection of said condition.