Distributed kernel operating system

• US 20060277284A1
• Filed: 06/03/2005
• Published: 12/07/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/03/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: 8758271 Canada Inc. (Blackberry Limited)
• Inventors: Boyd, Andrew
• Granted Patent: US 8,667,184 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control

Abstract

An improved distributed operating system over a network of computer systems is described. Existing distributed operating systems have transmission performance limitations dictated by their inability to (1) reliably handle transient communication failures and rapid node reboots, (2) provide a transmission protocol that adapts to link reliability, and (3) allow transmissions to occur over an arbitrary combinations of communication links. The systems and methods described herein solve these problems by providing a reliable node-to-node session protocol that offers high performance message delivery and multi-interface management and support. This is done by transmitting all data between two nodes of the operating system over a single connection that may dynamically exploit multiple interfaces between the nodes.

Claims

1. A method of managing communication between multiple nodes in a distributed message-passing operating system comprising:

maintaining, at a local node, a pool of available communications networks that interconnect the local node with a remote node; and

sharing transmission of a plurality of packets between the local network and the remote network via networks in the pool of available communication networks.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising

selecting a subset of communication networks from the pool of available communication networks;

and

sharing transmission of a plurality of packets between the local node and the remote node over networks in the subset of communication networks.

3. The method of claim 2, where the subset of communication networks includes networks with similar performance characteristics.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

determining, for each of the plurality of packets, a fastest communication network from the subset of communication networks, the fastest communication network capable of transmitting a packet faster than other communication networks in the subset of communication networks; and

transmitting the corresponding packets over the determined fastest communication networks

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

designating one of the pool of communications networks as a preferred communication network; and

transmitting a plurality of packets via any other communication network in the pool if the preferred communication network fails.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

designating a subset of the pool of communications networks as preferred communication networks; and

transmitting the plurality of packets via any other communication protocol in the pool if each of the subset of preferred communication networks fails.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

designating one of the pool of communications networks as an exclusive communication network; and

transmitting the plurality of packets over the exclusive communication network.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

designating a subset of the pool of communications networks as exclusive communication networks; and

transmitting the plurality of packets only over the subset of exclusive communication networks.

9. A distributed message passing operating system embodied on a computer readable medium comprising:

a local node including a local thread running on a local processor, the local node operable to pass messages and receive messages;

a remote node in communication with the local node via at least one network, the remote node including a remote thread running on a remote processor, the remote node operable to pass messages and receive messages;

where the local node is further operable to;

establish, in response to receiving a transmission request from the local thread, a node-to-node connection with the remote node,

manage message passing from the local node to the remote node over the at least one network, and

receive messages from the remote node and forward the messages to the local thread, and

where the remote node is further operable to;

establish, in response to receiving a transmission request from the remote thread, a node-to-node connection with the local node,

manage message passing from the remote node to the local node over the plurality of networks, and

receive messages from the local node and forward the messages to the remote thread.

10. The operating system of claim 9, where the local node is further operable to managing message passing from the local node to the remote node by sharing transmission of a plurality of packets between the local node and the remote node via the at least one network.

11. The operating system of claim 9, where the at least one network includes a plurality of networks, and where the local node is further operable to manage message passing from the local node to the remote node by selecting a subset of the plurality of networks and sharing transmission of a plurality of packets between the local node and the remote node over the subset of networks.

12. The operating system of claim 11, where the subset of networks include similar performance qualities.

13. The operating system of claim 11, where the sharing transmission includes:

determining, for each of the plurality of packets, a fastest network from the plurality of networks, the fastest network capable of transmitting a corresponding packet faster than the other networks in the plurality; and

transmitting the corresponding packets over the fastest network.

14. The operating system of claim 9, where the at least one network includes a plurality of networks, and where the local node is further operable to manage message passing from the local node to the remote node by designating one of the at least one network as a preferred network and transmitting the plurality of packets via another network in the plurality if the preferred network fails.

15. The operating system of claim 14, where the local node is further operable to manage message passing from the local node to the remote node by designating a subset of the plurality of networks as preferred communication networks and transmitting the plurality of packets via another communication protocol not in the subset only if each of the subset of preferred communication networks fail.

16. The operating system of claim 9, where the at least one network includes a plurality of networks, and where the local node is further operable to manage message passing from the local node to the remote node by designating one of the plurality of networks as an exclusive communication network and transmitting the plurality of packets over the exclusive communication network.

17. The operating system of claim 16, where the local node is further operable to manage message passing from the local node to the remote node by designating a subset of the plurality of networks as exclusive communication networks and transmitting the plurality of packets over the subset of exclusive communication network.

18. The operating system of claim 9, where the local node is further operable to manage message passing from the local node to the remote node by determining an availability of the networks and only passing messages over available networks.

19. A method of managing communication between multiple nodes in a distributed message-passing operating system comprising:

maintaining, at a local node, a pool of available communications networks that interconnect the local node with a remote node;

determining if one of the available communication networks has failed;

removing the failed communication network from the pool;

transmitting, periodically across the failed communication network, maintenance packets from the local network to the remote network;

determining whether the failed communication network has recovered;

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

adding the recovered communication network to the pool if the failed communication network has recovered.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the determining if one of the plurality of communication networks has failed further comprises receiving notification that a network driver has died.

22. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

sharing transmission of a plurality of packets between the local node and the remote node via networks in the pool of available communication networks.

23. The method of claim 19, further comprising

selecting a subset of communication networks from the pool of available communication networks;

and

sharing transmission of a plurality of packets between the local node and the remote node over networks in the subset of communication networks.

24. The method of claim 23, where the subset of communication networks includes networks with similar performance characteristics.

25. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

determining, for each of the plurality of packets, a fastest communication network from the subset of communication networks, the fastest communication network capable of transmitting a packet faster than other communication networks in the subset of communication networks; and

transmitting the corresponding packets over the determined fastest communication networks.

26. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

designating one of the pool of communications networks as a preferred communication network; and

transmitting a plurality of packets via any other communication protocol in the pool if the preferred communication network fails.

27. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

designating a subset of the pool of communications networks as preferred communication networks; and

transmitting the plurality of packets via any other communication protocol in the pool if each of the subset of preferred communication networks fails.

28. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

designating one of the pool of communications networks as an exclusive communication network; and

transmitting the plurality of packets over the exclusive communication network.

29. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

designating a subset of the pool of communications networks as exclusive communication networks; and

transmitting the plurality of packets only over the subset of exclusive communication networks.