Programming framework including queueing network

• US 7,114,158 B1
• Filed: 10/01/2001
• Issued: 09/26/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Geller, Alan S., Thompson, Donald
• Primary Examiner(s): An, Meng-Al T.
• Assistant Examiner(s): To, Jennifer N.
• Application Number:
  US09/968,672
• Time in Patent Office: 1,821 Days
• Field of Search: 718100-108, 709/206, 709/223, 719/317, 719/327, 707/1
• US Class Current: 718/106
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/548 Queue
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/546 Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing

Abstract

A queueing network framework for processing messages in stages in a multi-processor environment. An event source generates work packets that have information relating to the messages to be processed. The work packets are queued before processing by a plurality of application services. Each application service follows a queue and defines a processing stage. At each processing stage, the application service operates on a batch of the work packets queued for it by the respective queue.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented queueing system for processing messages in stages comprising:

an event source for generating work packets, each of said work packets including information relating to one of the messages to be processed;

a parser for parsing the information included in each of said work packets to determine a type of said work packets, said type including one or more attributes each corresponding to a single operation, said single operation being discrete and specific for processing each of the work packets according to the one or more attributes, said parser decomposing each of said work packets according to the attributes corresponding thereto;

a plurality of inbound queues for queueing the decomposed work packets according to the one or more attributes of the determined types of the work packets before processing, each of the plurality of inbound queues being associated with one of the attributes of the determined types of the work packets such that each individual inbound queue includes decomposed work packets corresponding to the single operation; and

a plurality of application services for processing the queued work packets, each of said application services being associated with one of the inbound queues, each of said application services defining a processing stage for executing the single operation for each of the work packets in a batch of the work packets queued therefor by the respective inbound queue, said single operation corresponding to the attribute associated with the respective inbound queue, wherein each of the plurality of application services processes the work packets serially using a single thread of execution.

2. The computer-implemented system of claim 1 further comprising a queueing network kernel component for initializing and operating the computer implemented system.

3. The computer-implemented system of claim 1 further comprising an event sink for terminating the work packets after processing by the application services.

4. The computer-implemented system of claim 3 wherein the event sink performs final processing of the work packets.

5. The computer-implemented system of claim 3 wherein the messages are requests and wherein the event source comprises a dynamic event sink to which the work packets are returned after processing by the application services for generating replies to the requests.

6. The computer-implemented system of claim 3 further comprising an inbound queue leading the event sink and wherein the event sink and the inbound queue leading the event sink define a passive node.

7. The computer-implemented system of claim 1 further comprising an outbound queue following each of the application services and wherein each of the application services and the respective inbound and outbound queues define a passive node.

8. The computer-implemented system of claim 1 further comprising an outbound queue following the event source and wherein the event source and the outbound queue following the event source define an active node.

9. The computer-implemented system of claim 1 wherein the work packets each include information relating to a message type and further comprising at least one routing queue for routing the work packets to the application services based on the message type information.

10. A computer-implemented method of processing a plurality of messages in a distributed processing system, said computer-implemented method comprising:

generating one or more work packets, each of said work packets including information relating to one of the messages to be processed;

parsing the information included in each of said work packets to determine a type of said work packets, said type including one or more attributes each corresponding to a single operation, said single operation being discrete and specific for processing each of the work packets according to the one or more attributes;

decomposing each of said work packets as a function of the attributes corresponding thereto by defining a plurality of processing stages, each of said processing stages including an application service corresponding to the single operation of one of the attributes of the determined types of the work packets;

queueing the decomposed work packets according to the attributes of the determined types of the work packets before each of the processing stages; and

executing each of the application services in a batch of the single operation of the determined types of work packets queued for the respective processing stage, wherein each of the application services processes the work packets serially using a single thread of execution.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10 wherein the work packets each include information relating to a message type and further comprising routing the work packets via at least one routing queue, said routing queue routing the work packets to the processing stages based on the message type information.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11 wherein parsing includes parsing the work packets for the message type information, said parsing being performed by the application service at one of the processing stages.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 11 wherein each work packet comprises a plurality of fields and further comprising populating one of the fields with the message type information.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 10 wherein executing each of the application services includes passing the work packets from processing stage to processing stage until the messages associated with the work packets are satisfied.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 10 wherein the messages are requests and further comprising generating responses to the messages via the processing stages.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 10 wherein further comprising dynamically adding one or more processing stages.

17. One or more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions for performing the method of claim 10.

18. One or more computer-readable storage media having computer-executable components for processing messages in stages comprising:

an event source component for generating work packets, each of said work packets including information relating to one of the messages to be processed;

a parsing component for parsing the information included in each of said work packets to determine a type of said work packets, said type including one or more attributes each corresponding to a single operation, said single operation being discrete and specific for processing each of the work packets according to the one or more attributes, said parsing component decomposing each of said work packets as a function of the attributes corresponding thereto;

a plurality of inbound queue components for queueing the decomposed work packets according to the one or more attributes of the determined types of the work packets before processing, each of the plurality of inbound queue components being associated with one of the attributes of the determined types of the work packets such that the decomposed work packets are processed according to the single operation; and

a plurality of application service components for processing the queued work packets, each of said application service components being associated with one of the inbound queue components, each of said application service components defining a processing stage for executing the single operation for each of the work packets in a batch of the work packets queued therefor by the respective inbound queue component, said single operation corresponding to the attribute associated with the respective inbound queue, wherein the plurality of application service components process the work packets serially each using a single thread of execution.

19. The computer-readable storage media of claim 18 further comprising a queueing network kernel component for initializing and operating the event source, application service, and inbound queue components.

20. The computer-readable storage media of claim 18 further comprising an event sink component for terminating the work packets after processing by the application service components.

21. The computer-readable storage media of claim 20 wherein the event sink component performs final processing of the work packets.

22. The computer-readable storage media of claim 20 wherein the messages are requests and wherein the event source component comprises a dynamic event sink component to which the work packets are returned after processing by the application service components for generating replies to the requests.

23. The computer-readable storage media of claim 20 further comprising an inbound queue component leading the event sink component and wherein the event sink component and the inbound queue component leading the event sink component define a passive node.

24. The computer-readable storage media of claim 18 further comprising an outbound queue component following each of the application service components and wherein each of the application service components and the respective inbound and outbound queue components define a passive node.

25. The computer-readable storage media of claim 18 further comprising an outbound queue component following the event source component and wherein the event source component and the outbound queue component following the event source component define an active node.

26. The computer-readable storage media of claim 18 wherein the work packets each include information relating to a message type and further comprising at least one routing queue component for routing the work packets to the application service components based on the message type information.

27. The computer-readable storage media of claim 26 wherein at least one of the application service components comprises a parser service for parsing the work packets for the message type information.

28. The computer-readable storage media of claim 26 wherein each work packet comprises a plurality of fields and wherein at least one of the application service components populates one of the fields with the message type information.

29. A computer-implemented method of developing server applications for use in a multi-processor environment comprising:

defining a plurality of processing stages for processing a plurality of requests, each of said processing stages including a dedicated application service, each of said application services having a single thread of execution, said single thread of execution of each dedicated application service being discrete and specific for processing the plurality of requests in each of the plurality of processing stages;

generating one or more work packets, each of said work packets including information relating to one of the requests to be processed;

parsing the information included in each of said work packets to determine a type of said work packets, said type including one or more attributes each corresponding to the single thread of execution;

decomposing each of said work packets according to the attributes corresponding thereto;

providing queues before each of the processing stages for queueing the decomposed work packets according to one of the attributes of the determined types of the work packets, each of the queues indicating one of the attributes of the determined types of the work packets, each of said application services being executed in a batch of the work packets queued for the respective processing stage corresponding to one of the attributes such that each individual queue includes decomposed work packets to be processed serially according to the single thread of execution; and

routing the work packets through the processing stages until the requests are satisfied.

30. The computer-implemented method of claim 29 wherein the work packets each include information relating to a request type and further comprising providing at least one routing queue for routing the work packets to the processing stages based on the request type information.

31. The computer-implemented method of claim 30 wherein at least one of the application services is a parser for parsing the work packets to determine the request type information.

32. The computer-implemented method of claim 31 wherein each work packet comprises a plurality of fields and wherein the parser populates one of the fields with the request type information.