MESSAGE PROCESSING METHODS AND SYSTEMS

• US 20090235325A1
• Filed: 11/01/2006
• Published: 09/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/02/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: British Telecommunications PLC (BT Group PLC)
• Original Assignee: British Telecommunications PLC (BT Group PLC)
• Inventors: Maierhofer, Andreas, Titkov, Leonid, Dimitrakos, Theo
• Granted Patent: US 8,856,862 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0715 in a system implementing multitasking multitasking per se G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1482 by means of middleware or OS functionality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/546 Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/02 Topology update or discovery

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for controlling the operation of a distributed application using message interception techniques are disclosed. The message interception software is independent of the software components making up the distributed application. The message interception software processes messages by carrying out a series of actions set out in an interceptor chain configuration policy, that policy being selected on the basis of the contents of the intercepted message. The interceptor chain configuration policy is divided into a separate enforcement configuration policy which dictates what actions should be carried out on a message and in what order, and an interceptor reference policy which indicates references to interceptors which are suitable for carrying out the actions specified in the enforcement configuration policy. In this way, the behaviour of the message interception software (and thus the distributed application) can be updated whilst both the interception software and the distributed application are running without requiring the person updating the behaviour of the message interception software to deal with esoteric references to interceptor software routines.

Claims

1. A method of controlling a distributed application executable on a distributed computer, said method comprising operating said distributed computer to:

intercept a message passing between computers within said distributed computer performing said distributed application;

read said message and in dependence upon the contents of said message identify a corresponding run-time-updatable message-handling policy indicating, for predetermined characteristics of the content of a message, lists of actions to be performed on said message;

read action-to-software module mapping data which indicates for each of the actions in said list a software module to carry out the action; and

perform said list of actions by triggering the execution of the corresponding software modules found in said mapping data.

19. A method according to claim 2, including updating associations or mappings between the enforcement actions and interceptors. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, including identifying utility services that can be invoked during processing of the message.

2. A method of processing a message during a message exchange in a distributed computing environment, the method including receiving a message and, on the basis of the content of the message and a specified set of conditions, selecting plural enforcement actions, from available enforcement actions, to be applied in a particular sequence to the message, identifying interceptors that correspond to each of the enforcement actions and deploying an interceptor chain, comprising a corresponding sequence of interceptor instances, for processing the message.

4. A method according to claim 2, wherein the conditions are associated with one or more of:

selecting enforcement actions;

ordering enforcement actions; and

configuring enforcement actions.

5. A method according to claim 2, wherein the conditions depend upon an intended destination of the message.

6. A method according to claim 2, wherein the conditions depend upon additional identification information that is stored in the message.

7. A method according to claim 2, including configuring or adapting the behavior of one or more interceptors or interceptor instances on the basis of the message.

8. A method according to claim 2, including configuring or adapting the behavior of one or more interceptors or interceptor instances on the basis of an enforcement state.

9. A method according to claim 2, including configuring or adapting the behavior of one or more of the interceptors or interceptor instances on the basis of at least one of:

the content of message;

the context of message;

meta-data associated with message;

results from previous interceptor instances;

conditions under which the message is received; and

an intended destination of the message.

10. A method according to claim 2, including configuring or adapting the behavior of an interceptor or an interceptor instance by at least one of:

varying an input parameter;

using information contained in the message to influence or provide an input;

introducing a dependency related to an earlier interceptor;

introducing a dependency related to a persisting enforcement state; and

specifying an external service to be invoked.

11. A method according to claim 9, including configuring or adapting the behavior of an interceptor or interceptor instance after the message is received.

12. A method according to claim 9, including configuring or adapting the behavior of an interceptor or interceptor instance when the interceptor chain is deployed.

13. A method according to claim 12, including providing an association or mapping between enforcement actions and respective interceptors.

14. A method according to claim 2, wherein an enforcement configuration policy provides the specified set of conditions.

15. A method according to claim 2, including dynamically loading and invoking each interceptor instance on receipt of the message.

16. A method according to claim 2, including inspecting the content of the message in order to determine specific functionality required of a respective interceptor instance.

17. A method according to claim 2, including selecting or deriving parameters from the message and using the parameters to invoke a specific interceptor instance of a respective interceptor.

18. A method according to claim 2, including selecting one from plural possible specified sets of conditions on the basis of the contents of the message.

20. A method according to claim 2, including updating utility services that can be invoked during processing of the message.

3. A method of exchanging messages in a distributed computing environment, the method including for each received message selecting, on the basis of the content of the message and a specified set of conditions, plural enforcement actions, from available enforcement actions, to be applied in a particular sequence to the message, identifying interceptors that correspond to each of the enforcement actions and deploying an interceptor chain, comprising a corresponding sequence of interceptor instances, for processing the message.

21. A method according to claim 3, including, in between received messages, at least one of:

updating the specified set of conditions

removing or deleting an existing specified set of conditions;

updating associations or mappings between the enforcement actions and interceptors;

identifying utility services that can be invoked during processing of the message;

updating utility services that can be invoked during processing of the message;

updating one or more of the available interceptors; and

providing a new specified set of conditions or updating an existing specified set of conditions.

22. A distributed computer for performing one or more distributed applications, said distributed computer comprising:

a plurality of computers connected to one another via communication links;

said distributed computer storing;

i) a run-time updatable message handling policy indicating, for predetermined characteristics of the content of a message, lists of actions to be performed on said message being passed between said computers in performance of said distributed application;

ii) an administrator-editable action assignment policy indicating one or more descriptions of software routines for performing actions in said lists of actions;

iii) message handling software executable, on receipt of said message, to select one of said lists of actions in dependence on the contents of said message and said message handling policy, and to trigger the execution of said software modules in accordance with said action assignment policy.

23. A system arranged to process a message during a message exchange in a distributed computing environment, the system including input means for receiving a message, output means for delivering a processed message and a store, the store storing a specified set of conditions and the system comprising means arranged to inspect the content of a received message, on the basis of the content of the message and the conditions, identify plural enforcement actions, from available enforcement actions, to be applied in a particular sequence to the message, use the associations to identify interceptors that correspond to each of the enforcement actions and deploy an interceptor chain, comprising a corresponding sequence of interceptor instances, for processing the message.

24. A system according to claim 23, comprising a first declarative policy which correlates each local or remotely deployed interceptor from the pool of interceptors with an assertion type denoting an enforcement action.

25. A system according to claim 24, comprising a second declarative policy which describes conditions based on the type of content and protocol context of an intercepted message that determines a sequence of enforcement actions.

26. A system according to claim 25, comprising means for dynamically forming the interceptor chain during the processing of an intercepted message, where the interceptors are selected from a pool of interceptors based on the content and a protocol context of the intercepted message, constraints set by the first declarative policy and a correlation described by the second declarative policy.

27. A system according to claim 25, including a third declarative policy which defines a network of addresses or endpoint references of external services that can be invoked during the processing of an intercepted message by an interceptor in the chain.

28. A system according to claim 27, including means for uploading the third declarative policy during execution of an interceptor in the chain in order to implement message exchanges with the external services.

29. A system according to claim 25, comprising means arranged to extend the second declarative policy with additional configuration parameters for the interceptors.

30. A system according to claim 25, comprising means to arrange the second declarative policy or an extended second declarative policy into instances, each associated with protecting a different network service or resource.

31. A system according to claim 30, comprising means arranged to bind each instance of the second declarative policy or the extended second declarative policy with the first declarative policy, in order to generate a configuration that is explicitly associated with a respective different network service or resource.

32. A system according to claim 31, comprising means arranged to bind each instance of the second declarative policy or the extended second declarative policy with a third declarative policy, which defines a network of addresses or endpoint references of external services that can be invoked during the processing of an intercepted message by an interceptor in the chain, in order to generate a configuration that is explicitly associated with a respective different network service or resource.

33. A method of deploying message processing middleware including:

generating an enforcement configuration policy associated with a protected resource;

deriving from the enforcement configuration policy a capability exposure policy associated with the protected resource;

generating a utility services policy for at least the protected resource;

generating an interceptor reference policy instance;

providing an interceptor pool; and

providing a common meta-model, to be shared by the enforcement configuration policy, the utility services policy and the interceptor reference policy, the common meta-model describing;

a common endpoint reference representation for remote services or resources common enforcement action types that are used in enforcement configuration policy and the interceptor reference policy; and

common utility service policy static references that serve as

rigid local identifiers of respective auxiliary infrastructure services that are available to be invoked.