CONCURRENT PROCESS EXECUTION

• US 20130191434A1
• Filed: 01/19/2012
• Published: 07/25/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/19/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: MIOsoft Corporation
• Original Assignee: Mark Da Van Gulik
• Inventors: Van Gulik, Mark D.A., Smith, Todd Lyle
• Granted Patent: US 9,769,292 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/201
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5015 Service provider selection
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5018 Thread allocation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/544 Remote
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/548 Queue
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5027 the resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/546 Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/023 Delayed use of routing table updates
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/161 Implementation details of TCP/IP or UDP/IP stack architecture; Specification of modified or new header fields
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/165 Combined use of TCP and UDP protocols; selection criteria therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/326 in the transport layer [OSI layer 4] H04L69/16 takes precedence

Abstract

Among other things, a node is enabled to participate, with other nodes, in forming and using transport layer features in a communication network, the transport layer features being extensible to support ten million or more simultaneous reliable conversations between or among applications running on respective participant nodes.

Claims

1. A method comprising

enabling a node to participate, with other nodes, in forming and using transport layer features in a communication network, the transport layer features being extensible to support ten million or more simultaneous reliable conversations between or among applications running on respective participant nodes.

2. The method of claim 1 in which the conversations are reliable based on at least one of the following:

delivering notifications reliably, delivering data streams reliably, and delivering datagrams unreliably.

3. The method of claim 1 in which the node is enabled to participate without regard to the platform on which the node is running.

4. The method of claim 1 in which the transport layer features are provided at the application level of the communication network.

5. The method of claim 1 in which the participating node and other participating nodes are organized automatically to provide the extensible transport layer features.

6. The method of claim 1 in which the conversations are reliable based on at least one of (a) delivering notifications reliably or (b) delivering data streams reliably by delivering datagrams unreliably and applying a process to the unreliable datagram delivery to assure the reliability of the stream delivery.

7. A method comprising

enabling user applications that run in an application layer on nodes of a communication network to cooperate to implement network transport layer features on the communication network and to use the implemented network transport layer features.

8. The method of claim 7 in which the transport layer features comprise TCP features.

9. The method of claim 8 in which the TCP features are used to carry notifications reliably.

10. The method of claim 7 in which the transport layer features comprise UDP features.

11. The method of claim 10 in which the UDP features are used for autodiscovery of nodes and automatic organization of node topology.

12. A method comprising

enabling nodes of a small communication network to form and participate in transport layer features that provide as many as trillions of communication channels available for communication among applications hosted on the nodes.

13. The method of claim 12 in which the small communication network comprises fewer than all of the nodes on the Internet.

14. The method of claim 12 in which each of the communication channels comprises two communication endpoints each represented by a persistent service handle.

15. The method of claim 12 in which the service handle is maintained by a node that hosts an application that provides or uses an associated service through one of the communication channels.

16. The method of claim 12 in which the forming of the transport layer features by the nodes comprises managing service handles associated with endpoints of the communication channels.

17. The method of claim 16 in which the nodes cooperate to maintain a common global view of existing service handles.

18. The method of claim 12 in which the network transport features comprise TCP features.

19. The method of claim 12 in which the network transport features comprise UDP features.

20. A method comprising

as a configuration of a communication network changes, dynamically determining, at nodes of the network, tables to be used for routing communications from node to node through the network, the dynamic determining including

propagating neighborhood snapshots generated at respective nodes and

in response to the propagated neighborhood snapshots, iteratively delaying the determining of routing tables.

21. The method of claim 20 in which a node schedules, for an incrementally later time, a rebuilding of its routing table when another node joins or leaves its neighborhood.

22. The method of claim 21 in which the node reschedules, for a yet incrementally later time, a rebuilding of its routing table when yet another node joins or leaves its neighborhood.

23. A method comprising

at a node in a communication network, providing a service location facility for applications hosted on the node with respect to services offered or used by the applications hosted on the node or by applications hosted on other nodes of the communication network, the service location facility maintaining associations between services and corresponding service identifiers.

24. The method of claim 23 comprising propagating snapshots of the associations from the node to other nodes in the network.

25. The method of claim 23 in which the associations are maintained in a service catalog.

26. The method of claim 23 comprising providing alternate modes for an application to use the service catalog to locate services of interest.

27. The method of claim 23 comprising using the associations to provide anycast features.

28. The method of claim 23 comprising using the associations to provide multicast features.

29. The method of claim 23 comprising using the associations to provide load-balancing features with respect to use of the communication network.

30. The method of claim 23 comprising using the associations to provide proximity routing features.

31. A method comprising

in a node of a communication network, enabling maintenance of communication endpoints for use in establishing conversations of the nodes and of the applications of the network, the endpoints being maintained persistently as one or more of the following occur:

(a) conversations are established and terminated, (b) network transport software instances are shut down and restarted, (c) nodes on which network transport software instances are running are shut down and restarted, (d) an entire network transport layer mesh is shut down and restarted, or (e) the entire communication network is shut down and restarted.

32. The method of claim 31 comprising applying security techniques based on the persistence of the endpoints.

33. The method of claim 31 in which maintaining the endpoints persistently comprises maintaining associated service handles persistently.

34. The method of claim 33 comprising maintaining statistically unique global identity of the service handles.

35. The method of claim 34 comprising enabling service handles to be reused by transport software instances to represent given participants of a conversation.

36. The method of claim 31 comprising enabling applications on nodes of the communication network to provide and use services between them privately based on the persistence of the endpoints.

37. The method of claim 31 comprising migrating applications from one node to another node of the network and enabling the migrated applications to provide and use services to one another based on the persistence of the endpoints.

38. The method of claim 31 comprising analyzing static program correctness based on the persistence of the endpoints.

39. The method of claim 31 comprising re-establishing conversations of the nodes after a failure of the communication network based on the persistence of the endpoints.

40. A method comprising

in a communication network in which applications hosted on nodes of the network provide and use services through communication between nodes on the network, enabling nodes of the network to cooperate to provide reliable notification when failures at a node affect the availability of services from applications hosted on the node.

41. The method of claim 40 in which the failures comprise software restarts.

42. The method of claim 40 in which the failures comprise hardware resets.

43. The method of claim 40 in which the nodes of the network are enabled to cooperate to provide reliable notification by using transport layer software instances running on the nodes.

44. The method of claim 43 in which the failures comprise loss of operation of one or more of the instances.

45. The method of claim 40 in which the nodes comprise operating systems software running on hardware.

46. The method of claim 45 in which the failures comprise loss of operation of the operating system, the hardware, or both.

47. A method comprising

in a communication network, enabling applications hosted on a node of the network to publish the availability of services provided by the applications and to subscribe to services offered by other applications, the publication comprising

publishing in one mode when a service is subscribed by an application that is hosted on the same node as the application that publishes the service, and

publishing in a different mode when a service is subscribed by an application that is hosted on a different node from the node hosting the application that publishes the service.

48. The method of claim 47 comprising using the published service availability to respond to a request by an application for the location of the service.

49. The method of claim 48 in which the application requesting the location need have no a priori knowledge of whether the service is available on a local node or on a remote node.

50. The method of claim 48 comprising the application using a single location-neutral interface for requesting the location whether the service is available on a local node or on a remote node.

51. A method comprising

in a communication network, enabling applications hosted on a node of the network to subscribe to services published by applications on the network, the subscribing comprising:

subscribing in one mode when a service is published by an application that is hosted on the same node as the application that subscribes to the service, and

subscribing in a different mode when a service is published by an application that is hosted on a different node from the node hosting the application that subscribes to the service.

52. The method of claim 51 in which, in the different mode, the subscribing is registered locally by transport layer software running on the same node as the application that subscribes to the service.

53. The method of claim 52 in which, if any subscriptions have already been registered at the same node for the service published by the application hosted on the different node, the local node need not report the new subscriber to the remote publishing application.

54. A method comprising

when a first client application hosted by a local node of a network wants to subscribe to a service offered by a service application running on a remote node, a local transport layer software instance on the local node sending a subscription management message to the remote node to subscribe to the service on behalf of the first client application, and

the local transport layer software instance enabling other local applications to use the service without requiring any other subscription management message to be sent on the network to the other node.

55. The method of claim 54 comprising

the local transport layer software instance sending another subscription management message only when no local client application any longer uses the service.

56. The method of claim 54 comprising responding to a request for the location of a service in a way that depends on whether the service being sought by an application is hosted on the same node as the application that provides the service.

57. The method of claim 56 in which the responding is based on only services published in the one mode, or on services published in the one mode and in the different mode.

58. A method comprising

enabling communication by applications hosted on nodes of a communication network by a combination of notifications that are delivered reliably and datagrams that are delivered unreliably.

59. The method of claim 58 comprising using the enabled communication to reliably deliver streamed data.

60. The method of claim 58 comprising using the datagrams to deliver user data.

61. A method comprising

in a communication network in which

each of the nodes of the network (a) can engage in communications, on behalf of applications hosted on the node, with other nodes in the network and (b) provides an I/O system for physical delivery and receipt of the communications, and

the communications are in contention for use of the I/O system,

providing entirely deadlock-free asynchronous operation of the I/O system with respect to contending communications.