Transport-neutral in-order delivery in a distributed system

• US 20060274727A1
• Filed: 06/06/2005
• Published: 12/07/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/06/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Paramasivam, Kartik, Elien, Jean-Emile, Smith, Kevin Bowen, Graber, Lee B., Saha, Sanjib, Thatte, Satish R., Musayev, Eldar A.
• Granted Patent: US 7,747,894 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/352
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/60 Scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests, e.g. requests for application data transmissions using the analysis and optimisation of the required network resources admission control or resource allocation H04L47/70

Abstract

A transport-neutral in-order delivery in a distributed environment is provided. Typically, in-order delivery guarantees that sequential orders received by a transport engine are sent out in the same order they are received. Such delivery may be forwarded either to another transport engine or to some application. In case there is a failure of delivery of messages in a stream, the messages are either resubmitted, suspended, or moved to backup. A user or administrator can configure the desired action. Additionally, any stream can be manually aborted or a specified port can be unenlisted. Deliverable streams of messages are locked on to a back-end transport engines or applications and dequeued sequentially unless one of the above mentioned failure scenarios occurs.

Claims

1. A system for managing transport-neutral in-order information in a distributed environment, comprising:

a transport engine, wherein the transport engine receives in-order information and sends in-order information, wherein the in-order information is in a stream, wherein the stream contains at least one message;

a port coupled to the transport engine, wherein the port allows for the stream of in-order information to be sent from the transport engine to a designated destination, wherein the stream of in-order information is locked to the designated destination; and

an error handling mechanism coupled to the transport engine, wherein the error handling mechanism takes at least one action in case a message in the stream of in-order information fails to deliver to the designated destination.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one action is to resubmit the message to the designated destination after a specified event.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one action is to suspend the message from delivery to the designated destination.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one action is to move the message to a backup destination.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one action is to unenlist a receiving port at the designated destination and prevent sending the in-order information to the receiving port.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein the designated destination is a back-end transport engine, wherein the back-end transport engine contains a receive port for receiving the in-order information according to some transport adapter.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein the designated destination is an application residing on the same server as the transport engine.

8. A method for managing transport-neutral in-order information in a distributed environment, comprising:

using a transport engine to receive in-order information and to send the in-order information, wherein the in-order information is a stream of at least one message, wherein the stream of in-order information is locked to a designated destination; and

invoking an error handling mechanism coupled to the transport engine, wherein the error handling mechanism takes at least one action in case the at least one message in the stream fails to arrive at the designated destination.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the at least one action is to resubmit the message to the designated destination after a specified event.

10. The method according to claim 8, wherein the at least one action is to suspend the message from delivery to the designated destination.

11. The method according to claim 9, wherein the at least one action is to move the message to a backup destination.

12. The method according to claim 8, wherein the at least one action is to unenlist a receiving port at the designated destination and prevent sending the in-order information to the receiving port.

13. The method according to claim 8, wherein the designated destination is a back-end transport engine, wherein the back-end transport engine contains a receive port for receiving the in-order information according to some transport adapter.

14. The method according to claim 8, wherein the designated destination is an application residing on the same server as the transport engine.

15. A computer readable medium bearing computer executable instructions for managing transport-neutral in-order information in a distributed environment, comprising:

employing a transport engine to transport in-order information, wherein the in-order information is in a stream, wherein the in-order information is transported from a first location to a second location while being locked between the first location and the second location; and

providing an error handling mechanism coupled to the transport engine, wherein the error handling mechanism takes at least one action in case a message in the stream of in-order information fails to deliver from the first location to the second location.

16. The computer readable medium according to claim 15, wherein the at least one action is to resubmit the message to the second location after a specified event.

17. The computer readable medium according to claim 15, wherein the at least one action is to suspend the message from delivery to the second location.

18. The computer readable medium according to claim 15, wherein the at least one action is to move the message to a backup destination located at the first location.

19. The computer readable medium according to claim 15, wherein the at least one action is to unenlist a receiving port at the second location and prevent sending the in-order information to the receiving port.

20. The computer readable medium according to claim 15, wherein the second location is one of (a) a back-end transport engine, wherein the back-end transport engine contains a receive port for receiving the in-order information according to some transport adapter and (b) an application residing on the same server as the transport engine.