Modular Event-Driven Processing

• US 20070061811A1
• Filed: 08/31/2006
• Published: 03/15/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/17/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intellectual Ventures I LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Shaw Parsing LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Rumelhart, Karl, Huang, Alex, Tuttle, Timothy, Benevidez, J., Cano, Charles, Lueck, Jeremy
• Granted Patent: US 8,356,305 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/506 Constraint
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5038 considering the execution order of a plurality of tasks, e.g. taking priority or time dependency constraints into consideration scheduling strategies G06F9/4881 and subgroups
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/505 considering the load

Abstract

Each of a plurality of thread boundaries comprises functionality to be performed for a given event by a single thread. A plurality of queues through which events may be routed may be coupled to the thread boundaries. A plurality of tasks may be configured in a defined relationship, each task being associated with a thread boundary and comprising a unit of code for performing a specific function. Resources may be allocated to thread boundaries based on queue depth.

Claims

1. A computer system for processing events, the computer system comprising:

a plurality of thread boundaries, wherein the plurality of thread boundaries are capable of performing a service, wherein a first thread boundary in the plurality of thread boundaries includes at least one task capable of performing at least a part of the service;

a plurality of thread boundary queues coupled to the respective thread boundaries, wherein the first thread boundary includes a first thread boundary queue capable of holding one or more events for routing to the first thread boundary;

a resource allocation module capable of allocating one or more resources to the first thread boundary based on a first thread boundary queue depth of the first thread boundary queue, wherein the first thread boundary queue depth is based on a number of events being held in the first thread boundary queue;

an administrative module adapted for controlling the operation of the plurality of thread boundaries and tasks included within each of the thread boundaries.

2. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the administrative module is adapted for modifying defined relationships comprising communicative couplings between the tasks.

3. The computer system of claim 1, further including one or more service utilities, each of which is communicatively coupled to a thread boundary and is adapted for performing at least a part of the service performed by the thread boundary.

4. The computer system of claim 3, wherein at least one of the service utilities is communicatively coupled to a task and is capable of performing at least a part of the service performed by the task.

5. The computer system of claim 4, wherein the at least one of the service utilities is capable of initiating an event held at a thread boundary for processing.

6. The computer system of claim 3, wherein the at least one of the service utilities is communicatively coupled to multiple thread boundaries.

7. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the at least one task of the first thread boundary modifies a first event held in the first thread boundary queue for processing and then forwards the modified first event to a different task for additional processing.

8. A computer method for processing events, the computer method comprising:

processing a high level description of an event processing system that specifies communicative couplings relating to

a plurality of thread boundaries, wherein the plurality of thread boundaries are capable of performing a service, wherein each of the thread boundaries includes at least one task capable of performing at least a part of the service performed by the respective thread boundary,

a plurality of thread boundary queues coupled to the respective thread boundaries, wherein the each thread boundary queue is capable of holding one or more events for routing to the thread boundary to which the thread boundary is coupled,

a resource allocation module capable of allocating one or more resources to the respective thread boundaries based on thread boundary queue depth of each respective thread boundary queue, wherein the thread boundary queue depth is based on a number of events being held in the thread boundary queue;

configuring the at least one task of each thread boundary in accordance with the high level description;

receiving a modification to the high level description;

dynamically modifying the task configuration in accordance with the received modification.

9. The computer method of claim 8, wherein dynamically modifying comprises modifying the performance of the task.

10. The computer method of claim 8, wherein dynamically modifying comprises modifying defined relationships between the tasks included in a thread boundary.

11. The computer method of claim 10 further including:

determining whether the modified defined relationships between tasks of the thread boundary is logically consistent.

12. The computer method of claim 8, wherein dynamically modifying comprises modifying at least communicative coupling between tasks associated with at least one of the thread boundaries.