Queued sessions for communicating correlated messages over a network

• US 20060177069A1
• Filed: 02/04/2005
• Published: 08/10/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Srinivasan, Krishnan, Critchley, Craig A., Dievendorff, Richard, Hill, Richard, Hedge, Uday
• Granted Patent: US 7,421,501 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 380/283
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/16 Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]

Abstract

Systems and methods in accordance with the present invention allow for messages to be delivered from one application to another over a network in discrete groupings or communication sessions. For example, a sending computer system sends a group of related messages to a queue at a recipient computer system. The recipient computer system identifies that the messages of the group are related, and initiates a session-oriented communication channel. The recipient computer passes the group of messages to an appropriate application, and opens a different, new session-oriented communication channel for a new group of messages that are not necessarily related to the first group of messages. In one implementation, an order identifier in each of the received messages instructs the recipient computer system on what order, if any, the messages in a group are to be processed by the specific application.

Claims

1. At a sending computer system in a computerized environment in which an application at a sending system sends a group of correlated messages to be processed at a recipient computer system, a method of communicating the plurality of messages in a resource-efficient manner, such that the correlated messages can be processed as intended, comprising the acts of:

creating a group of correlated messages to be processed at a recipient computer system, wherein one message in the group is a first message, and another message in the group is a last message;

creating a session-oriented communication channel for the group of messages;

sending the group of messages to an addressable queue at a recipient computer system; and

creating a different session-oriented communication channel for a different group of correlated messages

2. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising sending the group of messages through the session-oriented communication channel, and sending the different group of correlated messages through the different session-oriented communication channel.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein a queue manager maintains state of the session-oriented communication channel that the group of correlated messages is associated with the session.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an indication that at least one of the messages in the group has not been sent to the recipient computer system appropriately;

resending the message with the corresponding session identifier to indicate that the message is part of the group of correlated messages.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein each of the messages of the group are associated with a session identifier, and wherein each of the messages of the different group are associated with a different session identifier.

6. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein the application at the sending computer system fails, the method further comprising:

initiating a new session-oriented communication channel upon restarting the application; and

recovering the session identifier associated with the session-oriented communication channel, such that the new session-oriented channel is associated with the session identifier that was used with the application before the application failed, and such that the application is reattached to the prior session.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising encapsulating any of the group of messages or different group of messages, such that the encapsulated group of messages or different group of messages are relayed through a tunneling protocol.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein a router relays at least one of the messages in the group of correlated messages, at least a second of the messages in the group of correlated messages, and another message that is not part of the group of correlated messages, and wherein the router identifies that the at least one message and the at least a second message are associated with a common communication session, and that the another message is not associated with the common communication session.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein at least the group of correlated messages is sent to the recipient computer system using a SOAP messaging protocol, the method further comprising inserting one or more Vias into a message header of each of the messages in the group.

10. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the session-oriented channel is created for an ordered session, the method further comprising inserting an order identifier into each of the messages in the group of correlated messages.

11. At a recipient computer system in a computerized environment in which a plurality of received messages are correlated, a method of receiving and processing the plurality of correlated messages in a resource-efficient manner, such that the plurality of correlated messages can be processed as intended, comprising the acts of:

receiving one or more messages at a queue, wherein at least one of the one or more messages is identifiable as a first message of a group of correlated messages;

creating a session-oriented communication channel for the group of correlated messages;

receiving a last message of the group of correlated messages; and

upon receiving a first message of a different group of correlated messages, creating a different session-oriented communication channel.

12. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein the messages of the group of correlated messages comprise a communication session identifier, such that the recipient computer system initiates the session-oriented communication channel based on identifying the communication session identifier in any of the messages in the group of correlated messages.

13. The method as recited in claim 12, further comprising:

identifying a different, new communication session identifier in the first message of the different group; and

initiating the different session-oriented communication channel based on the new communication session identifier.

14. The method as recited in claim 11, further comprising:

passing at least the first message of the group of correlated messages to a specific application through the session-oriented communication channel; and

processing the at least the first message of the group of correlated messages at the specific application before receiving the last message of the group of correlated messages, such that the correlated messages of the group are partially processed.

15. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein the session-oriented communication channel is created for an ordered session, the method further comprising:

identifying an order identifier in each of the messages of the group; and

processing the messages of the group at the specific application in accordance with the order identifier.

16. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein the application at the recipient computer system fails, the method further comprising:

initiating a new session-oriented communication channel upon restarting the application; and

recovering the session identifier associated with the session-oriented communication channel, such that the new session-oriented channel is associated with the session identifier that was used with the application before the application failed, and such that the application is re-attached to the prior session.

17. The method as recited in claim 11, further comprising:

receiving an indication that transmission of one of the messages in the group of correlated messages has failed;

buffering other messages of the group of correlated messages that have been received;

receiving a new message; and

identifying that the new message is part of the group of correlated messages based on a session identifier in the new message.

18. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein the session-oriented channel is initiated by a listener module associated with the specific application.

19. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein the group of messages are received and maintained at a destination queue of the recipient computer system, wherein the queue was specifically addressed by a sending computer system.

20. A computer program product for use at a recipient computer system in which a plurality of received messages are to be processed by a specific application, the computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the recipient computer system to perform a method of receiving and processing the plurality of correlated messages in a resource-efficient manner as intended, comprising the following:

receiving one or more messages at a queue, wherein at least one of the one or more messages is identifiable as a first message of a group of correlated messages;

creating a session-oriented communication channel for the group of correlated messages;

receiving a last message of the group of correlated messages; and

upon receiving a first message of a different group of correlated messages, creating a different session-oriented communication channel.