Flow control protocol

• US 20080301706A1
• Filed: 05/30/2007
• Published: 12/04/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Ban, Bela
• Granted Patent: US 8,505,028 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/313
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/39 Credit based

Abstract

A method and apparatus for processing message is described. In one embodiment, an application programming interface is configured for receiving and sending messages. A message credit account of a sender is maintained. The message credit account of the sender is debited when a message is received from the sender to a receiver. The message credit account of the sender is credited when a replenishment message is sent to the sender in response to the receiver processing the received message. The sender is prevented from sending any messages to the receiver when a balance in the message credit account of the sender becomes negative.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for processing messages, the method comprising:

maintaining a message credit account of a sender;

debiting the message credit account of the sender when a message is received from the sender to a receiver;

crediting the message credit account of the sender when a replenishment message is sent to the sender in response to the receiver processing the received message; and

preventing the sender from sending any messages to the receiver when a balance in the message credit account of the sender becomes negative.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving messages from a plurality of senders;

forming a channel for each sender; and

processing messages from each sender in parallel with the corresponding channel.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein receiving messages further comprises:

receiving packets from the plurality of senders with a transport protocol stack, the transport protocol comprising a multicast receiver thread, a unicast receiver thread, and a connection table.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising:

sending packets marked as Out of Band to an Out of Band thread pool; and

sending all other packets to a regular thread pool.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising:

processing a packet with a thread from the regular thread pool.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

forming another thread to process the packet when all threads from the regular thread pool are busy.

7. The method of claim 2 wherein processing messages further comprises:

processing messages for each sender with one thread from a thread pool of a transport protocol stack.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the thread sends the messages up the transport protocol stack to a corresponding channel of a channel layer, a building block layered on top of the channel layer, and an application programming interface layered on top of the building block.

9. A computer-implemented method for processing messages, the method comprising:

preventing a sender from sending any messages to a receiver when a balance of a message credit account of the sender becomes negative,

wherein the message credit account of the sender is debited when a message is sent from the sender, and the message credit account of the sender is credited when a replenishment message is received from a receiver.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

receiving messages from a plurality of senders;

forming a channel for each sender; and

processing messages from each sender in parallel with the corresponding channel.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein receiving messages further comprises:

receiving packets from the plurality of senders with a transport protocol stack, the transport protocol comprising a multicast receiver thread, a unicast receiver thread, and a connection table.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

sending packets marked as Out of Band to an Out of Band thread pool; and

sending all other packets to a regular thread pool.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

processing a packet with a thread from the regular thread pool.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

forming another thread to process the packet when all threads from the regular thread pool are busy.

15. The method of claim 10 wherein processing messages further comprises:

processing messages for each sender with one thread from a thread pool of a transport protocol stack.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the thread sends the messages up the transport protocol stack to a corresponding channel of a channel layer, a building block layered on top of the channel layer, and an application programming interface layered on top of the building block.

17. An article of manufacture comprising:

a machine-accessible storage medium including data that, when accessed by a machine, cause the machine to perform a method comprising;

maintaining a message credit account of a sender;

debiting the message credit account of the sender when a message is received from the sender to a receiver;

crediting the message credit account of the sender when a replenishment message is sent to the sender in response to the receiver processing the received message; and

preventing the sender from sending any messages to the receiver when a balance in the message credit account of the sender becomes negative.

18. The article of manufacture of claim 17 further comprising:

receiving messages from a plurality of senders;

forming a channel for each sender; and

processing messages from each sender in parallel with the corresponding channel.

19. The article of manufacture of claim 18 wherein receiving messages further comprises:

receiving packets from the plurality of senders with a transport protocol stack, the transport protocol comprising a multicast receiver thread, a unicast receiver thread, and a connection table.

20. The article of manufacture of claim 19 further comprising:

sending packets marked as Out of Band to an Out of Band thread pool; and

sending all other packets to a regular thread pool.

21. An article of manufacture comprising:

a machine-accessible storage medium including data that, when accessed by a machine, cause the machine to perform a method comprising;

preventing a sender from sending any messages to a receiver when a balance of a message credit account of the sender becomes negative,

wherein the message credit account of the sender is debited when a message is sent from the sender, and the message credit account of the sender is credited when a replenishment message is received from a receiver.

22. The article of manufacture of claim 21 further comprising:

receiving messages from a plurality of senders;

forming a channel for each sender; and

processing messages from each sender in parallel with the corresponding channel.

23. The article of manufacture of claim 22 wherein receiving messages further comprises:

receiving packets from the plurality of senders with a transport protocol stack, the transport protocol comprising a multicast receiver thread, a unicast receiver thread, and a connection table.

24. The article of manufacture of claim 23 further comprising:

sending packets marked as Out of Band to an Out of Band thread pool; and

sending all other packets to a regular thread pool.

25. An apparatus for processing messages comprising:

an application programming interface for receiving and sending messages;

a building block layer coupled to the application programming interface;

a channel layer coupled to the building block layer;

a transport protocol stack coupled to the channel layer for implementing properties specified by the channel layer; and

a message credit account manager to maintain a message credit account of a sender, to debit the message credit account of the sender when a message is received from the sender to a receiver, to credit the message credit account of the sender when a replenishment message is sent to the sender in response to the receiver processing the received message, and to prevent the sender from sending any messages to the receiver when a balance in the message credit account becomes negative.

26. The apparatus of claim 25 wherein the transport protocol stack are based on a bidirectional Java protocol stack.

27. The apparatus of claim 25 wherein the transport protocol stack further comprises multicast receiver threads, unicast receiver threads, and a connection table.

28. The apparatus of claim 25 wherein the transport protocol layer is to receive messages from a plurality of senders.