SELECTING APPLICATION MESSAGES FROM AN ACTIVE FEED ADAPTER AND A BACKUP FEED ADAPTER FOR APPLICATION-LEVEL DATA PROCESSING IN A HIGH SPEED, LOW LATENCY DATA COMMUNICATIONS ENVIRONMENT

• US 20070300234A1
• Filed: 06/27/2006
• Published: 12/27/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Dekel, Eliezer, Duigenan, John J., Gershinsky, Gidon, Harpaz, Avraham, Naaman, Nir, Okunseinde, Foluso O., Pike, Hilary A., Tock, Yoav, Wright, Cornell G.
• Application Number:
  US11/426,819
• Publication Number:
  US 20070300234A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/313
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/546 Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1868 Measures taken after transmission, e.g. acknowledgments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06

Abstract

Selecting application messages from redundant feed adapters for application-level data processing in a high speed, low latency data communications environment, including brokering establishment of an active message stream to a subscribing client device from an active feed adapter; brokering establishment of a backup message stream to the subscribing client device from a backup feed adapter; receiving active transport packets in a transport engine of the subscribing client device from the active feed adapter; receiving and buffering backup transport packets; identifying a missing active transport packet; determining whether a corresponding backup transport packet for the missing active transport packet has been received from the backup transport adapter; and replacing the missing active transport packet with the corresponding backup transport packet for further data processing if the corresponding backup transport packet for the missing active transport packet has been received.

Claims

1. A method of selecting application messages from an active feed adapter and a backup feed adapter for application-level data processing in a high speed, low latency data communications environment, the method comprising:

brokering, by a stream administration server, establishment of an active message stream to a subscribing client device from an active feed adapter, the active message stream comprising active application messages;

brokering, by the stream administration server, establishment of a backup message stream to the subscribing client device from a backup feed adapter, the backup message stream comprising backup application messages representing duplicates of the active application messages;

receiving active transport packets in a transport engine of the subscribing client device from the active feed adapter, each active transport packet including one or more active application messages, each active transport packet characterized by an active packet sequence number, the active application messages from the active transport packets used for further data processing by an application of the subscribing client device;

receiving and buffering backup transport packets in the transport engine of the subscribing client device from the backup feed adapter, each backup transport packet including one or more backup application messages, each backup transport packet characterized by a backup packet sequence number and representing a duplicate of a corresponding active transport packet;

identifying, by the transport engine in dependence upon the active packet sequence numbers, a missing active transport packet;

determining, by the transport engine, whether a corresponding backup transport packet for the missing active transport packet has been received from the backup transport adapter; and

replacing, by the transport engine, the missing active transport packet with the corresponding backup transport packet for further data processing if the corresponding backup transport packet for the missing active transport packet has been received from the backup feed adapter.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the high speed, low latency data communications environment comprises a high speed, low latency data communications network, the network further comprising the active feed adapter, the backup feed adapter, the stream administration server, at least one subscribing client device, and no router.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein each feed adapter comprises a device having the capabilities of converting messages on a feed adapter input stream having a first format to messages on a feed adapter output stream having a second format and transmitting the messages on the feed adapter output stream to subscribing client devices.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising requesting, by the transport engine of the subscribing client device, retransmission of the missing active transport packet from at least one of the feed adapters if the corresponding backup transport packet for the missing active transport packet has not been received from the backup feed adapter.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

measuring, by the transport engine, performance of the active message stream and performance of the backup message stream; and

switching, by the transport engine, from further data processing with active application messages to further data processing with the backup application messages in dependence upon the performance of the active message stream, the performance of the backup message stream, and predetermined performance criteria.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein:

the performance of the active message stream further comprises transmission errors of the active message stream;

the performance of the backup message stream further comprises transmission errors of the backup message stream; and

measuring, by the transport engine, performance of the active message stream and performance of the backup message stream further comprises measuring transmission errors of the active message stream and transmission errors of the backup message stream.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein:

the performance of the active message stream further comprises latency of the active message stream;

the performance of the backup message stream further comprises latency of the backup message stream; and

measuring, by the transport engine, performance of the active message stream and performance of the backup message stream further comprises measuring latency of the active message stream and latency of the backup message stream.

8. The method of claim 5 wherein:

the performance of the active message stream further comprises a most recently received active transport packet in the subscribing client device from the active feed adapter on the active message stream;

the performance of the backup message stream further comprises a most recently received backup transport packet in the subscribing client device from the backup feed adapter on the backup message stream; and

measuring, by the transport engine, performance of the active message stream and performance of the backup message stream further comprises identifying the most recently received active transport packet in the subscribing client device from the active feed adapter on the active message stream and the most recently received backup transport packet in the subscribing client device from the backup feed adapter on the backup message stream.

9. Apparatus for selecting application messages from an active feed adapter and a backup feed adapter for application-level data processing in a high speed, low latency data communications environment, the apparatus comprising one or more computer processors, one or more computer memories operatively coupled to the one or more computer processors, the computer memories having disposed within them computer program instructions capable of:

brokering, by a stream administration server, establishment of an active message stream to a subscribing client device from an active feed adapter, the active message stream comprising active application messages;

brokering, by the stream administration server, establishment of a backup message stream to the subscribing client device from a backup feed adapter, the backup message stream comprising backup application messages representing duplicates of the active application messages;

receiving active transport packets in a transport engine of the subscribing client device from the active feed adapter, each active transport packet including one or more active application messages, each active transport packet characterized by an active packet sequence number, the active application messages from the active transport packets used for further data processing by an application of the subscribing client device;

receiving and buffering backup transport packets in the transport engine of the subscribing client device from the backup feed adapter, each backup transport packet including one or more backup application messages, each backup transport packet characterized by a backup packet sequence number and representing a duplicate of a corresponding active transport packet;

identifying, by the transport engine in dependence upon the active packet sequence numbers, a missing active transport packet;

determining, by the transport engine, whether a corresponding backup transport packet for the missing active transport packet has been received from the backup transport adapter; and

replacing, by the transport engine, the missing active transport packet with the corresponding backup transport packet for further data processing if the corresponding backup transport packet for the missing active transport packet has been received from the backup feed adapter.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the high speed, low latency data communications environment comprises a high speed, low latency data communications network, the network further comprising the active feed adapter, the backup feed adapter, the stream administration server, at least one subscribing client device, and no router.

11. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein each feed adapter comprises a device having the capabilities of converting messages on a feed adapter input stream having a first format to messages on a feed adapter output stream having a second format and transmitting the messages on the feed adapter output stream to subscribing client devices.

12. The apparatus of claim 9 further comprising computer program instructions capable of requesting, by the transport engine of the subscribing client device, retransmission of the missing active transport packet from at least one of the feed adapters if the corresponding backup transport packet for the missing active transport packet has not been received from the backup feed adapter.

13. The apparatus of claim 9 further comprising computer program instructions capable of:

measuring, by the transport engine, performance of the active message stream and performance of the backup message stream; and

switching, by the transport engine, from further data processing with active application messages to further data processing with the backup application messages in dependence upon the performance of the active message stream, the performance of the backup message stream, and predetermined performance criteria.

14. A computer program product for selecting application messages from an active feed adapter and a backup feed adapter for application-level data processing in a high speed, low latency data communications environment, the computer program product disposed upon a signal bearing medium, the computer program product comprising computer program instructions capable of:

brokering, by a stream administration server, establishment of an active message stream to a subscribing client device from an active feed adapter, the active message stream comprising active application messages;

brokering, by the stream administration server, establishment of a backup message stream to the subscribing client device from a backup feed adapter, the backup message stream comprising backup application messages representing duplicates of the active application messages;

receiving active transport packets in a transport engine of the subscribing client device from the active feed adapter, each active transport packet including one or more active application messages, each active transport packet characterized by an active packet sequence number, the active application messages from the active transport packets used for further data processing by an application of the subscribing client device;

receiving and buffering backup transport packets in the transport engine of the subscribing client device from the backup feed adapter, each backup transport packet including one or more backup application messages, each backup transport packet characterized by a backup packet sequence number and representing a duplicate of a corresponding active transport packet;

identifying, by the transport engine in dependence upon the active packet sequence numbers, a missing active transport packet;

determining, by the transport engine, whether a corresponding backup transport packet for the missing active transport packet has been received from the backup transport adapter; and

replacing, by the transport engine, the missing active transport packet with the corresponding backup transport packet for further data processing if the corresponding backup transport packet for the missing active transport packet has been received from the backup feed adapter.

15. The computer program product of claim 14 wherein the signal bearing medium comprises a recordable medium.

16. The computer program product of claim 14 wherein the signal bearing medium comprises a transmission medium.

17. The computer program product of claim 14 wherein the high speed, low latency data communications environment comprises a high speed, low latency data communications network, the network further comprising the active feed adapter, the backup feed adapter, the stream administration server, at least one subscribing client device, and no router.

18. The computer program product of claim 14 wherein each feed adapter comprises a device having the capabilities of converting messages on a feed adapter input stream having a first format to messages on a feed adapter output stream having a second format and transmitting the messages on the feed adapter output stream to subscribing client devices.

19. The computer program product of claim 14 further comprising computer program instructions capable of requesting, by the transport engine of the subscribing client device, retransmission of the missing active transport packet from at least one of the feed adapters if the corresponding backup transport packet for the missing active transport packet has not been received from the backup feed adapter.

20. The computer program product of claim 14 further comprising computer program instructions capable of:

measuring, by the transport engine, performance of the active message stream and performance of the backup message stream; and

switching, by the transport engine, from further data processing with active application messages to further data processing with the backup application messages in dependence upon the performance of the active message stream, the performance of the backup message stream, and predetermined performance criteria.