MOBILE HUB AND MANAGING EVENTS IN A MOBILE HUB

• US 20060242295A1
• Filed: 05/25/2006
• Published: 10/26/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/25/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Husemann, Dirk, Nidd, Michael E., Waddilove, Jonathan T.
• Granted Patent: US 7,757,019 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/14 using intermediate storage
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/14 Backbone network devices

Abstract

A mobile hub is proposed, the mobile hub includes a circular buffer for storing events, a timer for monitoring the storage period of an event stored in the buffer, and an event manager designed for discarding an event from the buffer when a time-out of the associated timer is exceeded. As no event can block the buffer any more a small-scale buffer can be used for the mobile hub.

Claims

1. A mobile hub comprising:

a circular buffer configured to store events;

a timer configured to monitor the storage period of an event stored in the buffer; and

an event manager configured to discard an event from the buffer when a time-out of the associated timer is exceeded.

2. The mobile hub according to claim 1, wherein the time-out is a variable time-out that depends on an event arrival rate.

3. The mobile hub according to claim 1, wherein the time-out differs for events associated to different applications.

4. The mobile hub according to claim 1, wherein every event stored in the buffer has a timer associated.

5. The mobile hub according to claim 1, wherein the buffer has a capacity for storing less than 200 events.

6. The mobile hub according to claim 5, wherein the buffer has a capacity for storing less than 100 events.

7. The mobile hub according to claim 1, further comprising an interface to a wireless local area network for receiving and/or transmitting events from/to external entities.

8. The mobile hub according to claim 1, further comprising an interface to a wireless wide area network configured to receive and/or transmit events from/to external entities.

9. The mobile hub according to claim 1, further comprising an adapter configured to convert an internal representation of an event into a representation of the event comprehensible to an external entity and vice versa.

10. The mobile hub according to claim 1, further comprising an internal entity configured to process events.

11. The mobile hub according to claim 1, wherein the event manager is configured to store an arriving event in the buffer and to start the associated timer.

12. The mobile hub according to claim 1, further comprising a registration list configured to identify entities that should be notified at the appearance of an event.

13. The mobile hub according to claim 12, wherein the event manager is configured to notify entities according to the registration list upon the arrival of an event.

14. The mobile hub according to claim 1:

wherein the event manager is configured to monitor acknowledgment messages received from entities in response to a notification that was sent to these entities;

wherein the event manager is configured to discard an event from the buffer when an acknowledgement message was received before the time-out of the timer from each of the entities notified with regard to this particular event; and

wherein the event manager is configured to discard the event from the buffer when the time-out of the associated timer is exceeded and when an acknowledgement message was not received before the time-out of the timer from all the entities notified with regard to this particular event.

15. A method for managing events in a mobile hub, the method comprising:

storing an event in a circular buffer;

monitoring a storage period of the stored event; and

discarding the event from the buffer when the storage period exceeds a time-out.

16. The method according to claim 15, further comprising notifying registered entities upon the arrival of an event.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein an entity is an external entity communicating with the mobile hub via a wireless network.

18. The method according to claim 16, wherein an entity is an internal entity of the mobile hub for processing events.

19. The method according to claim 15, further comprising:

monitoring acknowledgement messages received from entities in response to a notification that was sent to these entities;

discarding an event from the buffer when an acknowledgement message was received before the time-out of the timer from each entity notified with regard to this particular event; and

else discarding the event from the buffer when the time-out of the associated timer is exceeded and when an acknowledgement message was not received before the time-out of the timer from all the entities notified with regard to this particular event.

20. The method according to claim 15, further comprising distributing an annotation to registered entities which annotation was received in combination with an acknowledgement message.

21. The method according to claim 15, further comprising distributing an annotation to registered entities which annotation was received in combination with an event.

22. The method according to claim 15, further comprising distributing an event to registered entities which event comprises an annotation attached to the original event.

23. The method according to claim 15, further comprising distributing an annotation to registered entities which annotation was received in combination with an event.

24. The method according to claim 15, wherein the appearance of an event follows an event notation which notation comprises different fields per event, each field specifying a certain category of information.

25. The method according to claim 24, wherein at least some of the fields follow a hierarchy.

26. A computer program product embodied in a tangible media comprising:

computer readable program codes coupled to the tangible media for managing events in a mobile hub, the computer readable program codes configured to cause the program to;

store an event in a circular buffer;

monitor a storage period of the stored event; and

discard the event from the buffer when the storage period exceeds a time-out.

27. The computer program product as claimed in claim 26, further comprising computer readable program codes configured to cause the program to:

monitor acknowledgement messages received from entities in response to a notification that was sent to these entities;

discard an event from the buffer when an acknowledgement message was received before the time-out of the timer from each entity notified with regard to this particular event; and

else discard the event from the buffer when the time-out of the associated timer is exceeded and when an acknowledgement message was not received before the time-out of the timer from all the entities notified with regard to this particular event.