USING AN UNSYNCHRONIZED EVENT POOL TO IMPROVE PERFORMANCE OF AN EVENT DRIVEN IM GATEWAY

• US 20090157817A1
• Filed: 12/12/2007
• Published: 06/18/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Williamson, Victor L.
• Application Number:
  US11/954,276
• Publication Number:
  US 20090157817A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1827 Network arrangements for conference optimisation or adaptation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]

Abstract

The present invention discloses a solution for using an unsynchronized event pool in an IM gateway. In the solution, a set of object pools can be established, each including a set of event objects ordered relative to each other in a circular fashion. The IM gateway can detect an incoming message. A CPU processing thread for handling the incoming message can be determined. One of the unsynchronized event object pools associated with the thread can be ascertained. A current one of the ordered event objects within the pool can then be determined. The current one can be an object ordered after a last event object used from the pool. The thread can utilize the determined event object to handle a task for the incoming message, which negates a need and a time to create a new event object for the thread.

Claims

1. An instant messaging (IM) gateway comprising:

a plurality of threads for handing IM events; and

a plurality of unsynchronized event object pools, wherein a one-to-one correspondence exists between the threads and the unsynchronized event object pools, wherein each unsynchronized event object pools comprises a set of event objects utilized by the IM gateway when handling received requests.

2. The gateway of claim 1, wherein said IM gateway creates the set of event objects contained in each of the unsynchronized event object pools when initiated, wherein the created set of event objects are maintained while the IM gateway operates so that available ones of the set of event objects are used to handle received requests so that the IM gateway does not need to create new event objects for each received request.

3. The gateway of claim 1, further comprising:

at least one array of event objects corresponding to each of the unsynchronized event object pools, wherein an array element exists for each of the set of event objects in the associated unsynchronized event pool; and

a counter associated with the array of event objects, wherein a value of the counter is matched against the event object of the array position having a value the same as the counter to determine which of the event objects is to be selected from the unsynchronized event object pool, wherein said counter is incremented after being utilized to reference a next event object in event pool, and wherein when incrementing the counter would cause the counter to exceed an array length of the associated array, the counter is reset to a value indicating a first position of the associated array.

4. The gateway of claim 3, wherein the at least one array associated with each of the unsynchronized event object pools comprises an IM event array and an IM status array, each having an array specific counter.

5. The gateway of claim 4, wherein a number of event objects included in each of the unsynchronized event object pools is user configurable.

6. The gateway of claim 4, wherein different ones of the unsynchronized event object pools include a different number of event objects.

7. A method for an event driven IM gateway to obtain event objects comprising:

during an initialization process, an IM gateway creating a set of event objects, said event objects being associated with a plurality of unsynchronized event object pools;

within each unsynchronized event object pool, ordering the event objects relative to each other in a circular fashion;

the IM gateway detecting an incoming message from a remotely located client for at least one of an IM status notification and an IM;

determining a CPU processing thread for handling the incoming message;

ascertaining one of the unsynchronized event object pools associated with the thread;

determining a current one of the ordered event objects, where the current one is an object ordered after a last event object used from the ascertained pool; and

the thread utilizing the determined event object to handle a task for the incoming message.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein a number of event objects contained in each of the unsynchronized event object pools is user configurable.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein each unsynchronized event object pool comprises a set of IM event objects and a set of IM status objects, wherein said ordering step orders each of the event object relative to each other in a circular fashion by object type, wherein said determining step determines one of the IM event objects and one of the IM status objects, and wherein the utilizing step utilizes both the IM event object and the IM status object.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

establishing an array for each of the unsynchronized event object pools and a counter, wherein a number of items of the array equals the number of event objects contained in the associated pool;

one event object being associated with one array item, wherein the determining step matches a current value of the counter with a current position in the array to determine the current one of the ordered event items; and

after the determining step, increasing a value of the counter, wherein when increasing the value of the counter would normally exceed a length of the associated array, the counter is reset to a value representing a beginning of the array.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein a one-to-one correspondence exists for the threads used by the IM gateway and the unsynchronized event object pools.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein said steps of claim 7 are performed by at least one machine in accordance with at least one computer program stored in a computer readable media, said computer programming having a plurality of code sections that are executable by the at least one machine.

13. A method for events in an event driven Instant Messaging (IM) gateway comprising:

detecting an IM event, which requires an IM gateway to utilize an even object;

obtaining an event object for the IM event from an unsynchronized event pool; and

utilizing the obtained event object when responding to the IM event.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein said IM event is at least one of an initial event and a returned status event.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

determining a next tread in a thread queue for handling the detected IM event;

identifying an unsynchronized event pool specific to the determined thread; and

obtaining the event object from the identified unsynchronized event pool, wherein each thread in the thread queue is associated with a different unsynchronized event pool containing a plurality of event objects.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

identifying an array associated with a plurality of event objects contained within the unsynchronized event pool, wherein each array element is associated with an event object included in the unsynchronized event pool;

determining a current value of a counter associated with the array;

determining one of the plurality of event objects specified within the array that has a value in the array of the current value;

wherein the event object of the obtaining step is the determined one of the event objects; and

increasing a value of the counter, wherein when increasing the value of the counter would normally exceed a length of the associated array, the counter is reset to a value representing a beginning of the array.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the IM event is one of an initial event and a returned status event, wherein the array is one of a event array associated with IM event objects and a status array associated with IM status objects;

said method further comprising;

determining whether the IM event is for the initial event or for the returned status event; and

utilizing a corresponding one of the event array and the status array based upon the determined type of IM event, wherein the event object of the obtaining and utilizing step is of an appropriate type for the determined type of IM event.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

determining a next tread in a thread queue for handling the detected IM event;

identifying an unsynchronized event pool specific to the determined thread; and

obtaining the event object from the identified unsynchronized event pool, wherein each thread in the thread queue is associated with a different unsynchronized event pool containing a plurality of event objects.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein said steps of claim 13 are performed by at least one machine in accordance with at least one computer program stored in a computer readable media, said computer programming having a plurality of code sections that are executable by the at least one machine.