SYNDICATION OF MULTIPLE SERVICE INSTANCES

• US 20110171938A1
• Filed: 01/11/2010
• Published: 07/14/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/11/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zhigu Holdings Limited
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Daugherty, Brian R., Callahan, David S., Copparam, Srivaths B.
• Granted Patent: US 8,548,442 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/414.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/10 Services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5051 Service on demand, e.g. definition and deployment of services in real time
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5054 Automatic deployment of services triggered by the service manager, e.g. service implementation by automatic configuration of network components
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/00 Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications user-to-user messaging H04L51/00; network arrangements, protocols or services for supporting real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/00

Abstract

Service provisioning tasks can be performed to provision or deprovision services for users, reconcile overlapping services, and apply effective service properties. A service can be provisioned by receiving a request to provision the service for a user, reconciling new service properties with current service properties, from one or more service instances, to determine effective service properties, and applying the effective service properties as properties to use for the service for the user. A service can also be provisioned by receiving a request to provision the service for a user, storing a new service instance, and reconciling the new service instance with one or more previously stored service instances for the same service to determine effective service properties. A service provisioning system can perform provisioning operations for one or more internal and external service providers.

Claims

1. A method, implemented at least in part by a service provisioning system, for provisioning services for users, the method comprising:

receiving, by the service provisioning system, a provisioning request, wherein the provisioning request comprises a request to provision a service, represented by a service identifier, for a user, represented by a user identifier, and wherein the provisioning request further comprises new service properties for the service;

reconciling, by the service provisioning system, the new service properties for the service with current service properties for the service, wherein the reconciling comprises;

obtaining, by the service provisioning system, the current service properties for one or more previously provisioned instances of the service for the user; and

based on the obtained current service properties and the new service properties, determining, by the service provisioning system, effective service properties for the service; and

applying, by the service provisioning system, the effective service properties as properties to use for the service for the user.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the applying the effective service properties for the service comprises storing, by the service provisioning system, the effective service properties in a database.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining the effective service properties for the service comprises:

comparing a new value for a service property from the new service properties with a current value for the service property from the current service properties to identify which of the new value and the current value represents a best relative level of service; and

based on the comparison, selecting the value, and its corresponding property, identified as representing the best relative level of service as an effective service property.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the new value for the service property is associated with a first relative weight, wherein the current value for the service property is associated with a second relative weight, and wherein the comparing the new value for the service property with the current value for the service property comprises comparing the first relative weight and the second relative weight.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining the effective service properties for the service comprises:

for each overlapping service property in the new service properties and the current service properties;

identifying which value of the overlapping service property represents the best relative level of service; and

adding the identified value and the overlapping service property as one of the effective service properties.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the service provisioning system provides provisioning services, and centralized storage of service instances, for a plurality of internal service providers and a plurality of external service providers.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving, by the service provisioning system, a second provisioning request, wherein the second provisioning request comprises a request to deprovision the service for the user;

removing, by the service provisioning system, an instance of the service representing the new service properties; and

reconciling, by the service provisioning system, the current service properties for the service.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the service is a webmail account service accessible by the user via the Internet.

9. A method, implemented at least in part by a service provisioning system, for provisioning services for users, the method comprising:

receiving, by the service provisioning system, a provisioning request, wherein the provisioning request comprises a request to provision a service, represented by a service identifier, for a user, represented by a user identifier, and wherein the provisioning request further comprises new service properties for the service;

storing, by the service provisioning system in a provisioning database, a new service instance comprising the service identifier, the user identifier, and the new service properties for the service; and

reconciling, by the service provisioning system, the new service instance with one or more previously stored service instances for the same service to determine effective service properties for the service, wherein a plurality of the new and previously stored service instances comprise a same service property with different values.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the reconciling the new service instance with the one or more previously stored service instances for the same service to determine the effective service properties for the service comprises:

comparing the different values for the same service property to identify which value of the different values represents a best relative level of service, wherein each value of the different values is associated with a respective relative weight used for the comparing the different values; and

based on the comparison, selecting the value identified as representing the best relative level of service, and its corresponding service property, as an effective service property.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein the provisioning request is part of a request to subscribe the user to an offer, wherein the offer comprises a plurality of services including the service to be provisioned.

12. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

receiving, by the service provisioning system, a second provisioning request, wherein the second provisioning request comprises a request to deprovision the service for the user;

removing, by the service provisioning system from the provisioning database, the new service instance; and

reconciling, by the service provisioning system, the one or more previously stored service instances to determine updated effective service properties for the service.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

receiving, by the service provisioning system, a third provisioning request, wherein the third provisioning requests comprises a request to deprovision the service for the user;

if only one previously stored service instance remains for the service;

removing, by the service provisioning system from the provisioning database, the one previously stored service instance; and

removing the service for the user; and

if more than one previously stored service instance remains for the service;

removing, by the service provisioning system from the provisioning database, one of the more than one previously stored service instances corresponding to the third provisioning request;

skipping the removing the service for the user; and

reconciling, by the service provisioning system, the remaining previously stored service instances to determine updated effective service properties for the service.

14. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

receiving, by the service provisioning system, a request to provision an offer for the user, wherein the offer comprises a plurality of services;

for each service of the plurality of services of the offer;

performing the method of claim 9 to provision the service for the user.

15. A service provisioning system for provisioning services for users, the system comprising:

one or more computing devices; and

one or more data repositories storing offer/service data and provisioning state data;

wherein the one or more computing devices are configured for performing service provisioning operations, comprising;

receiving, by the service provisioning system, a provisioning request, wherein the provisioning request comprises a request to provision a service, represented by a service identifier, for a user, represented by a user identifier, and wherein the provisioning request further comprises new service properties for the service;

reconciling, by the service provisioning system, the new service properties for the service with current service properties for the service, wherein the reconciling comprises;

obtaining, by the service provisioning system, the current service properties for one or more previously provisioned instances of the service for the user; and

based on the obtained current service properties and the new service properties, determining, by the service provisioning system, effective service properties for the service; and

applying, by the service provisioning system, the effective service properties as properties to use for the service for the user.

16. The service provisioning system of claim 15 wherein the provisioning request is received by the service provisioning system from an external service provider.

17. The service provisioning system of claim 15 further comprising:

a plurality of internal service providers; and

a plurality of external service providers;

wherein the service provisioning system stores offer/service data and provisioning state data for the plurality of internal service providers and the plurality of external service providers, and wherein the service provisioning system provides a centralized service syndication solution for the plurality of internal service providers and the plurality of external service providers.

18. The service provisioning system of claim 15 wherein the determining the effective service properties for the service comprises:

comparing a new value for a service property from the new service properties with a current value for the service property from the current service properties to identify which of the new value and the current value represents a best relative level of service; and

based on the comparison, selecting the value, and its corresponding property, identified as representing the best relative level of service as an effective service property.

19. The service provisioning system of claim 18 wherein the new value for the service property is associated with a first relative weight, wherein the current value for the service property is associated with a second relative weight, and wherein the comparing the new value for the service property with the current value for the service property comprises comparing the first relative weight and the second relative weight.

20. The service provisioning system of claim 15 wherein the determining the effective service properties for the service comprises:

for each overlapping service property in the new service properties and the current service properties;

identifying which value of the overlapping service property represents the best relative level of service; and

adding the identified value and the overlapping service property as one of the effective service properties.