Transactional application processing in a distributed environment

• US 20080177879A1
• Filed: 01/19/2007
• Published: 07/24/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/19/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Raghavan, Kollivakkam, Krishnan, Mayilraj
• Granted Patent: US 8,103,773 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0896 Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76

Abstract

Transactional application processing in a distributed environment using an application-aware network infrastructure element is described. In an embodiment, an apparatus comprises a plurality of network interfaces, forwarding logic, and transaction manager logic. The plurality of network interfaces are operable to communicatively connect to one or more packet-switched networks. The forwarding logic is coupled to the plurality of network interfaces and, when executed, is operable to receive packet flows therefrom and to forward the packet flows thereto. The transaction manager logic is encoded in one or more tangible media for execution and when executed is operable to: receive first information that specifies one or more remote resources associated with an extended transaction, where the extended transaction comprises a plurality of child transactions; and reserve the one or more remote resources by sending out one or more reservation requests over a network management protocol.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a plurality of network interfaces that are operable to communicatively connect to one or more packet-switched networks;

forwarding logic coupled to the plurality of network interfaces and when executed operable to receive packet flows and to forward the packet flows;

transaction service logic encoded in one or more tangible media for execution and when executed operable to;

receive a request from an upper-layer application that invokes a Java Transaction API (JTA) call, wherein the request includes first information that specifies one or more remote resources that are associated with an extended transaction, wherein the extended transaction comprises a plurality of child transactions; and

send the first information by invoking a Java Transaction Service (JTS) call;

transaction manager logic encoded in the one or more tangible media for execution and when executed operable to;

receive the first information from the transaction service logic through the JTS call; and

reserve the one or more remote resources associated with the extended transaction by sending out one or more reservation requests over a Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP) to any one of;

one or more resource managers that manage the one or more remote resources; and

one or more network infrastructure elements that are operable to cause reservation of the one or more remote resources.

2. An apparatus comprising:

a plurality of network interfaces that are operable to communicatively connect to one or more packet-switched networks;

forwarding logic coupled to the plurality of network interfaces and when executed operable to receive packet flows and to forward the packet flows; and

transaction manager logic encoded in one or more tangible media for execution and when executed operable to;

receive first information that specifies one or more remote resources that are associated with an extended transaction, wherein the extended transaction comprises a plurality of child transactions; and

reserve the one or more remote resources by sending out one or more reservation requests over a network management protocol.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the network management protocol is a Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP), wherein each of the one or more reservation requests is an RSVP message that includes a payload portion storing an RSVP object which specifies reservation of resources that are accessed in extended transactions.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the apparatus is any one of a router and a switch.

5. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein a particular reservation request of the one or more reservation requests includes any one of:

data which specifies a particular remote resource of the one or more remote resources that is to be reserved; and

data which specifies one or more operations that need to be performed to reserve a particular remote resource of the one or more remote resources.

6. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the plurality of child transactions includes any one of an ACID transaction and a business application transaction.

7. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the transaction manager logic that is operable to reserve the one or more remote resources further comprises logic which, when executed, is operable to:

receive responses to the one or more reservation requests; and

based on the responses, determine whether the one or more remote resources are going to be available at the time the extended transaction is executed.

8. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the transaction manager logic that is operable to reserve the one or more remote resources further comprises logic which, when executed, is operable to send a particular reservation request of the one or more reservation requests to a resource manager that manages a particular remote resource, of the one or more remote resources, that is specified in the particular reservation request.

9. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the transaction manager logic that is operable to reserve the one or more remote resources further comprises logic which, when executed, is operable to send a particular reservation request of the one or more reservation requests to a remote network infrastructure element, wherein the particular reservation request specifies a particular remote resource of the one or more remote resources, and wherein the remote network infrastructure element is operable to cause reservation of the particular remote resource.

10. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the transaction manager logic further comprises logic which, when executed, is operable to:

receive a particular reservation request from a remote network infrastructure element, wherein the particular reservation request specifies a particular resource; and

cause reservation of the particular resource by any one of;

re-sending the particular reservation request to a different network infrastructure element; and

accessing a particular resource manager that manages the particular resource.

11. The apparatus of claim 2, further comprising transaction service logic encoded in the one or more tangible media for execution and when executed operable to:

receive a first request from an upper-layer application, wherein the first request includes the first information; and

send the first information in a second request to the transaction manager logic.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein:

the transaction manager logic that is operable to reserve the one or more remote resources further comprises logic which, when executed, is operable to receive one or more confirmations that the one or more remote resources are going to be available at the time the extended transaction is going to be executed; and

the transaction manager logic further comprises logic which, when executed, is operable to respond to the second request by informing the transaction service logic, based on the one or more received confirmations, that the one or more remote resources are going to be available at the time the extended transaction is going to be executed.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein:

the transaction service logic comprises a Java Transaction API (JTA), wherein the first request comprises a JTA call invoked by the upper-layer application; and

the transaction manager logic comprises a Java Transaction Service (JTS) API, wherein the second request comprises a JTS call invoked by the transaction service logic.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein:

the transaction service logic further comprises an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) Transactioning API for Java (JAXTX); and

the first information conforms to an XML format, wherein the first information is received in a JAXTX call invoked by the upper-layer application.

15. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the one or more remote resources include any one of:

a slot in a message queue;

a storage space in a data structure, wherein the data structure is located in any one of volatile memory and persistent storage;

a call to a web service;

a connection to a database server;

a connection to a web server;

a connection to a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) server.

16. An apparatus comprising:

a plurality of network interfaces that are operable to communicatively connect to one or more packet-switched networks;

forwarding logic coupled to the plurality of network interfaces and when executed operable to receive packet flows and to forward the packet flows;

means for receiving first information that specifies one or more remote resources that are associated with an extended transaction, wherein the extended transaction comprises a plurality of child transactions; and

means for reserving the one or more remote resources by sending out one or more reservation requests over a network management protocol.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the network management protocol is a Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP), wherein each of the one or more reservation requests is an RSVP message that includes a payload portion storing an RSVP object which specifies reservation of resources that are accessed in extended transactions.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the apparatus is any one of a router and a switch.

19. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein a particular reservation request of the one or more reservation requests includes any one of:

data which specifies a particular remote resource of the one or more remote resources that is to be reserved; and

data which specifies one or more operations that need to be performed to reserve a particular remote resource of the one or more remote resources.

20. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the plurality of child transactions includes any one of an ACID transaction and a business application transaction.

21. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the means for reserving the one or more remote resources further comprise:

means for receiving responses to the one or more reservation requests; and

means for determining, based on the responses, whether the one or more remote resources are going to be available at the time the extended transaction is executed.

22. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the means for reserving the one or more remote resources further comprise means for sending a particular reservation request of the one or more reservation requests to a resource manager that manages a particular remote resource, of the one or more remote resources, that is specified in the particular reservation request.

23. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the means for reserving the one or more remote resources further comprise means for sending a particular reservation request of the one or more reservation requests to a remote network infrastructure element, wherein the particular reservation request specifies a particular remote resource of the one or more remote resources, and wherein the remote network infrastructure element is operable to cause reservation of the particular remote resource.

24. The apparatus of claim 16, further comprising:

means for receiving a particular reservation request from a remote network infrastructure element, wherein the particular reservation request specifies a particular resource; and

means for causing reservation of the particular resource by any one of;

re-sending the particular reservation request to a different network infrastructure element; and

accessing a particular resource manager that manages the particular resource.

25. The apparatus of claim 16, further comprising:

means for receiving a first request from an upper-layer application, wherein the first request includes the first information; and

means for sending the first information in a second request to the means for receiving the first information.

26. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein:

the means for reserving the one or more remote resources further comprise means for receiving one or more confirmations that the one or more remote resources are going to be available at the time the extended transaction is going to be executed; and

means for responding to the second request, based on the one or more received confirmations, with second information which indicates that the one or more remote resources are going to be available at the time the extended transaction is going to be executed.