Synchronous task scheduler for corba gateway

• US 6,839,748 B1
• Filed: 04/21/2000
• Issued: 01/04/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/21/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Allavarpu, Sai V., Bhalerao, Anand J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Eng, David Y.
• Application Number:
  US09/557,072
• Time in Patent Office: 1,719 Days
• Field of Search: 709/223, 709/224, 710/20, 710/39, 710/52
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0226 Mapping or translating multiple network management protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0233 Object-oriented techniques, for representation of network management data, e.g. common object request broker architecture [CORBA]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/06 Management of faults, events, alarms or notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/564 Enhancement of application control based on intercepted application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests

Abstract

A system and method for a synchronous task scheduler. The synchronous task scheduler may be used with a CORBA Gateway between CORBA-based client manager applications and an enterprise manager. The CORBA Gateway may include components such as an Event Gateway which manages events from managed objects, and a Request Gateway which manages requests and responses of managed objects. The Event Gateway and the Request Gateway may be designed as multi-threaded systems. A thread pool may be used to increase efficiency and performance of the CORBA Gateway. To ensure ordered delivery of events or replies to the CORBA gateway clients in a multi-threaded environment using a thread pool, a synchronous task scheduler may be used. There may be a synchronous task scheduler associated with each client manager to preserve the chronology of messages sent to each. The synchronous task scheduler may maintain an internal message list, and deliver one message at a time from that internal list. The synchronous task scheduler may hold a reference to a thread pool and use that thread pool to deliver messages. When a message is scheduled, the synchronous task scheduler may check if any message is already being delivered. If no prior message is currently being delivered, an available thread may be assigned from the thread pool for delivery of the message and the scheduler may initiate delivery of the message. If a prior message is being delivered, it may enqueue the message in the message list. Then, when the prior message delivery is completed, the scheduler may dequeue the message, assign another thread from the thread pool, and initiate delivery of the message. This may continue until the message list is empty.

Claims

1. A network management system comprising:

a gateway which is coupled to one or more managed objects and which is configured to deliver messages between the managed objects and one or more managers;

a platform-independent interface to the gateway, wherein the gateway is configurable to communicate with the managers through the platform-independent interface to deliver the messages;

a thread pool which provides allocation of thread resources to each of the one or more managers; and

one or more synchronous task schedulers corresponding respectively to each of the managers, wherein each synchronous task scheduler is operable to receive and enqueue pending messages associated with the corresponding manager and to dequeue and deliver each of the pending messages using a thread from the thread pool upon completion of delivery of previous messages so that the messages are delivered in an order in which the messages were enqueued.

2. The network management system of claim 1, wherein the messages are communicated with the manager via Internet Inter-Object Protocol (IIOP).

3. The network management system of claim 1, wherein the platform-independent interface to the gateway is expressed in an interface definition language, and wherein the interface definition language comprises a language for defining interfaces to the managed objects across a plurality of platforms and across a plurality of programming languages.

4. The network management system of claim 3, wherein the interface definition language comprises OMG IDL.

5. The network management system of claim 1, wherein the managed objects comprise one or more objects corresponding to a telephone network.

6. The network management system of claim 1, wherein the managed objects comprise an object corresponding to a telecommunications device.

7. The network management system of claim 1, wherein the gateway comprises an event gateway, and wherein the messages comprise events associated with the managed objects.

8. The network management system of claim 1, wherein the gateway comprises a request gateway which is configured to deliver messages generated by one or more managers to the one or more managed objects, and wherein the messages comprise requests for the one or more managed objects.

9. The network management system of claim 8, wherein the requests comprise a query for information concerning one of the managed objects.

10. The network management system of claim 8, wherein the requests comprise a command to set one or more parameters of one of the managed objects.

11. The network management system of claim 8, wherein the requests are converted from the interface definition language to a Portable Management Interface (PMI) format prior to delivery to the managed objects.

12. The network management system of claim 8, wherein the requests are converted from the interface definition language to a platform-specific format prior to delivery to the managed objects.

13. The network management system of claim 1, wherein the gateway comprises an event gateway, and wherein the messages comprise events associated with the managed objects.

14. The network management system of claim 13, the events comprise an alert generated by one of the managed objects.

15. A network management method comprising:

receiving a current message from a managed object in a synchronous task scheduler;

enqueueing the current message in the synchronous task scheduler;

completing delivery of a previous message to a manager by the synchronous task scheduler after said enqueueing the current message in the synchronous task scheduler;

dequeueing the current message after said completing delivery of the previous message to the manager by the synchronous task scheduler through a platform-independent interface;

assigning a thread from a thread pool for sending the current message; and

sending the current message from the synchronous task scheduler to the manager using the assigned thread after said dequeueing the current message and assigning the thread from the thread pool so that the messages are delivered in an order in which the messages were enqueued.

16. The network management method of claim 15, wherein the message comprises an event generated by the managed object.

17. The network management method of claim 16, the event comprises an alert generated by the managed object.

18. The network management method of claim 16, wherein the event generated by the managed object is delivered to the manager through an Event Gateway, wherein the Event Gateway is operable to deliver events from the managed object to the manager using the synchronous task scheduler.

19. The network management method of claim 15, wherein the message comprises a reply generated by the managed object in response to a request sent by the manager to the managed object.

20. The network management method of claim 19, wherein the reply generated by the managed object is delivered to the manager through a Request Gateway, wherein the Request Gateway is operable to communicate requests and replies between the managed object and the manager, and wherein the Request Gateway delivers replies from the managed object to the manager using the synchronous task scheduler.

21. The network management method of claim 15, wherein the messages are communicated with the manager via Internet Inter-Object Protocol (IIOP).

22. The network management method of claim 15, wherein the platform-independent interface is expressed in an interface definition language, and wherein the interface definition language comprises a language for defining interfaces to the managed objects across a plurality of platforms and across a plurality of programming languages.

23. The network management method of claim 22, wherein the interface definition language comprises OMG IDL.

24. The network management method of claim 15, wherein the managed object comprises an object corresponding to a telephone network.

25. The network management method of claim 15, wherein the managed object comprises an object corresponding to a telecommunications device.

26. The network management method of claim 19, wherein the request comprises a query for information related to the managed object.

27. The network management method of claim 19, wherein the request comprises a command to set one or more parameters of the managed object.

28. The network management method of claim 19, wherein the request is converted from the interface definition language to a Portable Management Interface (PMI) format prior to delivery to the managed object.

29. The network management method of claim 19, wherein the request is converted from the interface definition language to a platform-specific format prior to delivery to the managed object.

30. A carrier medium comprising program instructions for network management, wherein the program instructions are computer-executable to perform:

receiving a current message from a managed object in a synchronous task scheduler;

enqueueing the current message in the synchronous task scheduler;

completing delivery of a previous message to a manager by the synchronous task scheduler after said enqueueing the current message in the synchronous task scheduler;

dequeueing the current message after said completing delivery of the previous message to the manager by the synchronous task scheduler through a platform-independent interface;

assigning a thread from a thread pool for sending the current message; and

sending the current message from the synchronous task scheduler to the manager using the assigned thread after said dequeueing the current message and assigning the thread from the thread pool so that the messages are delivered in an order in which the messages were enqueued.

31. The carrier medium of claim 30, wherein the message comprises an event generated by the managed object.

32. The carrier medium of claim 31, the event comprises an alert generated by the managed object.

33. The carrier medium of claim 31, wherein the event generated by the managed object is delivered to the manager through an Event Gateway, wherein the Event Gateway is operable to deliver events from the managed object to the manager using the synchronous task scheduler.

34. The carrier medium of claim 30, wherein the message comprises a reply generated by the managed object in response to a request sent by the manager to the managed object.

35. The carrier medium of claim 34, wherein the reply generated by the managed object is delivered to the manager through a Request Gateway, wherein the Request Gateway is operable to communicate requests and replies between the managed object and the manager, and wherein the Request Gateway delivers replies from the managed object to the manager using the synchronous task scheduler.

36. The carrier medium of claim 34, wherein the request comprises a query for information related to the managed object.

37. The carrier medium of claim 34, wherein the request comprises a command to set one or more parameters of the managed object.

38. The carrier medium of claim 34, wherein the request is converted from the interface definition language to a Portable Management Interface (PMI) format prior to delivery to the managed object.

39. The carrier medium of claim 34, wherein the request is converted from the interface definition language to a platform-specific format prior to delivery to the managed object.

40. The carrier medium of claim 30, wherein the messages are communicated with the manager via Internet Inter-Object Protocol (IIOP).

41. The carrier medium of claim 30, wherein the platform-independent interface is expressed in an interface definition language, and wherein the interface definition language comprises a language for defining interfaces to the managed objects across a plurality of platforms and across a plurality of programming languages.

42. The carrier medium of claim 41, wherein the interface definition language comprises OMG IDL.

43. The carrier medium of claim 31, wherein the managed object comprises an object corresponding to a telephone network.

44. The carrier medium of claim 31, wherein the managed object comprises an object corresponding to a telecommunications device.