Information routing in a distributed environment

• US 20070011349A1
• Filed: 06/09/2006
• Published: 01/11/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lockheed Martin Corporation (Martin Marietta Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Lockheed Martin Corporation (Martin Marietta Corporation)
• Inventors: Gaug, Mark
• Granted Patent: US 7,684,421 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/238
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/00 Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context

Abstract

An information management system for a device network is disclosed. The information management system may include a service requester node, a monitoring node, and a service provider node. The system may include a service oriented request message including a message header, having a list of destination nodes, including the service provider node, to which the service oriented request message is addressed, and a service request. The system may include a routing module disposed in the monitoring node and configured to analyze the list of destination nodes in the message, create a modified message including at least one child node selected from the service provider nodes based on a fan-out of the device network, and forward the modified message to the at least one child node, the modified message including a message header, having an updated list of one or more destination nodes, including the service provider nodes, to which the modified message is addressed, and the service request. The routing module may be configured to receive a response to the service request from the at least one child node, aggregate the response received into a single message, and send the single message to a parent node in the device network.

Claims

1. An information management system for a device network comprising:

a service requestor node that is individually network addressable;

one or more monitoring nodes that are each individually network addressable and disposed in a tiered network arrangement and coupled to the service requester node via the device network;

one or more service provider nodes that are each individually network addressable and disposed in the tiered network arrangement and coupled to the monitoring nodes via the device network, the service provider nodes configured to provide a service via the device network in response to a request for service;

a service oriented request message having a list of destination nodes, including one of the service provider nodes to which the service oriented request message is addressed, and a service request; and

a routing module disposed in the one or more monitoring nodes and configured to analyze the list of destination nodes in the message, create a modified message including at least one child node selected from the service provider nodes based on a fan-out of the device network, and forward the modified message to the at least one child node, the modified message having an updated list of one or more destination nodes, including one of the service provider nodes, to which the modified message is addressed, and the service request,

wherein the routing module is configured to receive a response to the service request from the at least one child node, aggregate the response received into a single message, and send the single message to a parent node in the device network.

2. The information management system of claim 1, wherein the device network is a network of airport threat scanning machines.

3. The information management system of claim 1, wherein the service oriented request message includes extensible mark-up language.

4. The information management system of claim 1, wherein the list of destination nodes is included in a header of the service oriented request message.

5. The information management system of claim 1, wherein the service provider node is a web service.

6. The information management system of claim 1, wherein the tiered network arrangement is dynamically configured.

7. An information management method for a device network, the method comprising:

analyzing a service request message at a receiving node, the service request message including a first list of one or more destination nodes to which the message is addressed and a service request;

if the first list represents a number of destination nodes greater than a number of child nodes in a fan-out, generating a plurality of modified messages corresponding to the number of child nodes in the fan-out and including a second list of one or more child nodes, the second list of destination nodes representing a portion of the first list of destination nodes, the modified message being addressed to a destination node in the second list of destination nodes to which the modified message is addressed;

otherwise, if the first list contains one or more destination nodes in addition to the receiving node, generating a plurality of modified messages corresponding to the number of destination nodes in the first list and including a second list of at least one child node, the second list of destination nodes representing a child node to which the modified message is addressed;

forwarding the modified message, if any, to child nodes on the second list;

acting on the service request;

waiting on a response from each child node in the fan-out where a modified message has been forwarded;

aggregating responses from child nodes into a single response message; and

forwarding the single response message to a service requester.

8. The information management method of claim 7, wherein the device network is a network of airport threat scanning machines.

9. The information management method of claim 7, wherein the service request message includes extensible mark-up language.

10. The information management method of claim 7, wherein the service request message includes simple object access protocol.

11. The information management method of claim 7, wherein the at least one of the one or more destination nodes is a web service.

12. The information management method of claim 7, wherein the first list is disposed in a header of the service request message.

13. The information management method of claim 7, further comprising aggregating response messages into a database.

14. A computer program product for enabling a computer to manage routing of information in a distributed system, the computer program product comprising:

software instructions for enabling the computer to perform predetermined operations; and

a computer readable medium bearing the software instructions;

the predetermined operations including the steps of;

analyzing a service request message at a receiving node, the service request message including a header having a first list of one or more destination nodes to which the message is addressed and a service request;

if the first list represents a number of destination nodes greater than a number of child nodes in a fan-out, generating a plurality of modified messages corresponding to the number of child nodes in the fan-out and including a second list of one or more child nodes, the second list of destination nodes representing a portion of the first list of destination nodes, the modified message being addressed to a destination node in the second list of destination nodes to which the modified message is addressed;

otherwise, if the first list contains one or more destination nodes in addition to the receiving node, generating a plurality of modified messages corresponding to the number of destination nodes in the first list and including a second list of at least one child node, the second list of destination nodes representing a child node to which the modified message is addressed;

forwarding the modified message, if any, to child nodes on the second list;

acting on the service request;

waiting on a response from each child node in the fan-out where a modified message has been forwarded;

aggregating responses from child nodes into a single response message; and

forwarding the single response message to a service requester.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the distributed system is a network of airport threat scanning machines.

16. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the service request message includes extensible mark-up language.

17. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the service request message includes simple object access protocol.

18. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein at least one of the one or more destination nodes is a web service.

19. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the computer program product is configured to be executed by a threat scanning machine.

20. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the computer program product is configured to be executed by a threat scanning machine control center.