SYSTEM FOR HIGH RELIABILITY AND HIGH PERFORMANCE APPLICATION MESSAGE DELIVERY

• US 20130173691A1
• Filed: 03/13/2012
• Published: 07/04/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amadeus (Amadeus Global Travel Distribution S.A.)
• Original Assignee: Amadeus (Amadeus Global Travel Distribution S.A.)
• Inventors: DE SCHACHT, Paul, PARE, Thomas, PASCAL, Matthieu
• Granted Patent: US 8,898,223 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1471 involving logging of persistent data for recovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes

Abstract

A computer-implemented method and system of providing application message delivery, includes the following steps performed with at least one data processor:

• • at a plurality of log servers coupled to at least an application server: receiving asynchronously from the server, application messages containing application information; and control messages at a predetermined interval;
  • at each log server: storing received application messages in a current application data file and received control messages in a control file; and upon receiving an open-close control message, closing the current application data file, storing the closed application data file and creating a new current application data file;
  • comparing the control files of the plurality of log servers for a given interval; and
  • based on this comparison, determining from a plurality of application data files from each log server, an application data file as a best-candidate for a given interval and forwarding the best-candidate file for post-processing.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of providing application message delivery, comprising the following steps performed with at least one data processor:

at a plurality of log servers (203 a-b) coupled to at least an application server (201 a-c),;

receiving asynchronously, from the at least one application server (201 a-c), application messages containing application information, each application message being received by at least some log servers (203 a-b) among the plurality of log servers (203 a-b);

receiving asynchronously, from the at least one application server (201 a-c), control messages at a predetermined interval, each control message being received by at least some log servers (203 a-b) among the plurality of log servers (203 a-b);

at each of the plurality of log servers (203 a-b);

storing the received application messages in a current application data file (209);

storing the received control messages in a control file (211) and upon receiving an open-close control message, closing the current application data file, storing said closed application data file and creating a new application data file as the current application data file;

comparing the control files of the plurality of log servers (203 a-b) for a given interval; and

based on this comparison, determining from among a plurality of application data files (209) from each of the log servers (203 a-b), an application data file as a best-candidate for a given interval and forwarding the best-candidate file for post-processing.

2. The computer-implemented method according to claim 1, wherein each log server (203a-b) is coupled to a plurality of application servers (201a-c) associated each to at least an application.

3. The computer-implemented method according to claim 1, wherein the control message comprises a number (309) of application messages transmitted by the application server (201a-c) and a control message number (307) identifying each control message in a sequence of control messages.

4. The computer-implemented method according to claim 3, wherein the control message comprises at least one of:

an identifier (303) of an application and a timestamp (305) of the application server.

5. The computer-implemented method according to claim 1, wherein the interval for forwarding a control message is a given time period.

6. The computer-implemented method according to claim 1, wherein the open/close control message is a Nth control message in a sequence of control messages, N being predetermined.

7. The computer-implemented method according to claim 6, wherein the Nth control message is the fifth control message in the sequence of control messages and the given time period is a two minute time period.

8. The computer-implemented method according to claim 1, wherein the best-candidate file is chosen from a set of application data files from the plurality of log servers (203a-b) and that have the same start and stop points.

9. The computer-implemented method according to claim 8, wherein the best-candidate file is chosen from among the chosen set of files, the application data file with the lowest application message loss rate.

10. The computer-implemented method according to claim 9, wherein in case some application data files have the same number of application messages, then the best-candidate file is chosen from among the application data files with the lowest application message loss rate, the application data file with the lowest control message loss rate.

11. The computer-implemented method according to claim 9, wherein the best-candidate file having lost application messages and not having lost more than x percent of application messages for the interval is augmented by the lost application messages existing in other files of the set of files, x being predetermined.

12. The computer-implemented method according to claim 11, wherein x is comprised between fifteen and forty five.

13. The computer-implemented method according to claim 1, wherein upon determining from among a plurality of application data files from each of the plurality of log servers, an application data file as a best-candidate for a given interval, the server forwards the best-candidate file for application processing.

14. The computer-implemented method according to claim 1, wherein the application is a billing transaction application and wherein the application messages relate to the billing of services and products related to the travel and tourism industry.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium that contains software program instructions, where execution of the software program instructions by at least one data processor results in performance of operations that comprise execution of the computer-implemented method as in claim 1.

16. A system for high reliability and high performance application message delivery, comprising:

a plurality of log servers (203 a-b) coupled to the output of at least one application server (201 a-c);

each log server (203 a-b) being configured to receive asynchronously, from the at least one application server (201 a-c);

application messages containing application information and control messages;

each log server (203 a-b) being also configured to;

store the received application messages in a current application data file (209) and to store the received control messages in a control file (211); and

upon receiving an open-close control message, to close the current application data file, to store said closed application data file and to create a new application data file as the current application data file;

a server coupled to the plurality of log servers (203 a-b), said server being configured to;

compare the control files of the plurality of log servers (203 a-b) for a given interval;

based on this comparison, determine from among a plurality of application data files (209) from each of the log servers (203 a-b), an application data file as a best-candidate for a given interval; and

forward the best-candidate file for post-processing.

17. The system according to claim 16, wherein the system comprises a plurality of application servers (201a-c) and a plurality of applications executing on a processor of any of the plurality of application servers (201a-c), each of the application servers (201a-c) having an output coupled to an input of each of the log servers (203a-b).

18. The system according to claim 16, wherein the control message comprises:

an identifier (303) of an application;

a timestamp (305) of the application server;

a control message number (307) that identifies the order of the control messages in a sequence of control messages sent by an application server; and

a number (309) of application messages transmitted by the application.

19. The system according to claim 18, wherein the best-candidate file is chosen from a set of application data files from the plurality of log servers (203a-b) and that have the same start and stop points.

20. The system according to claim 19, wherein the best-candidate file is chosen from among the chosen set of files, the file with the lowest application message loss rate.

21. The system according to claim 20, wherein in case some application data files have the same number of application messages, then the best-candidate file is chosen from among the application data files with the lowest application message loss rate, the application data file with the lowest control message loss rate.

22. The system according to claim 20, wherein the best-candidate file having lost application messages and not having lost more than x percent of application messages for the interval is augmented by the lost application messages existing in other files of the set of files, x being predetermined.

23. The system according to claim 16, wherein the application is an airline billing transaction application.

24. A system for high reliability and high performance billing message delivery, comprising:

at least one billing application executing at least part of a billing transaction on one billing server (201 a-c),

a plurality of log servers (203 a-b) coupled to the output of the at least one billing server (201 a-c);

the least one billing server (201 a-c) being configured to forward asynchronously to each of the plurality of log servers (203 a-b);

billing messages containing information for a billing transaction and control messages;

each log server (203 a-b) being configured to;

store the received billing messages in a current billing data file (209) and to store the received control messages in a control file (211); and

upon receiving an open-close control message, to close the current billing data file, to store said closed billing data file and to create a new billing data file as the current billing data file;

a server coupled to the plurality of log servers (203 a-b), said server being configured to;

compare the control files of the plurality of log servers (203 a-b) for a given interval;

based on this comparison, determine from among a plurality of billing data files (209) from each of the log servers (203 a-b), a billing data file as a best-candidate for a given interval; and

forward the best-candidate file for post-processing.