Performance of channels used in communicating between senders and receivers

• US 7,140,017 B2
• Filed: 02/22/2001
• Issued: 11/21/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/22/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Lewis, Peter A, Sutton, Peter G, Keenaghan, Jason A, Williams-Obleton, Alice M, Hu, David Y, Dryfoos, Robert O, Wang, Mei-Hui, Chen, Shawfu, Feldman, Allan
• Primary Examiner(s): An, Meng-Al T.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Tang, Kenneth
• Application Number:
  US09/790,781
• Publication Number:
  US 20020116435A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,098 Days
• Field of Search: 718100-108, 718/1, 709200-253, 719/310
• US Class Current: 718/101
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/548 Queue
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/546 Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues

Abstract

A plurality of batch lists are maintained by a channel in order to improve the efficiency of the channel in performing messaging between a sender and a receiver. For example, a Next Batch list is used to prefetch messages to be sent to the receiver from the sender; a Current Batch list includes the messages currently being transmitted to the receiver or waiting confirmation; and an Acknowledged Batch List includes the messages confirmed by the receiver. This allows the functions of prefetching messages, sending messages and deleting confirmed messages to be performed in parallel.

Claims

1. A method of accessing memory to perform messaging using a channel coupled to a sender and a receiver, said method comprising:

assigning, by a separate process, one or more messages to a queue batch list in a first area of memory;

deleting one or more messages of an acknowledged batch list in a second area of memory, if said one or more messages of said acknowledged batch list exist;

transmittin a current batch list of one or more messages in a third area of memory from the sender to the receiver, wherein the first area of memory, second area of memory and third area of memory are accessed substantially in parallel such that said assigning, deleting and transmitting are performed substantially in parallel; and

changing the current batch list to the acknowledged batch list and the queue batch list to the current batch list, and repeating said assigning, deleting and transmitting, wherein the queue batch list overwrites the acknowledged batch list from which one or more messages were deleted.

2. A system of accessing memory to perform messaging using a channel coupled to a sender and a receiver, said system comprising:

means for assigning, by a separate process, one or more messages to a queue batch list in a first area of memory;

means for deleting one or more messages of an acknowledged batch list in a second area of memory, if said one or more messages of said acknowledged batch list exist;

means for transmitting a current batch list of one or more messages in a third area of memory from the sender to the receiver, wherein the first area of memory, second area of memory and third area of memory are accessed substantially in parallel such that said assigning, deleting and transmitting are performed substantially in parallel; and

means for changing the current batch list to the acknowledged batch list and the queue batch list to the current batch list, and means for repeating the assigning, deleting and transmitting, wherein the queue batch list overwrites the acknowledged batch list from which one or more messages were deleted.

3. At least one program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying at least one program of instructions executable by the machine to perform a method of accessing memory to perform messaging using a channel coupled to a sender and a receiver, said method comprising:

assigning, by a separate process, one or more messages to a queue batch list in a first area of memory;

deleting one or more messages of an acknowledged batch list in a second area of memory, if said one or more messages of said acknowledged batch list exist;

transmitting a current batch list of one or more messages in a third area of memory from the sender to the receiver, wherein the first area of memory, second area of memory and third area of memory are accessed substantially in parallel such that said assigning, deleting and transmitting are performed substantially in parallel; and

changing the current batch list to the acknowledged batch list and the queue batch list to the current batch list, and repeating said assigning, deleting and transmitting, wherein the queue batch list overwrites the acknowledged batch list from which one or more messages were deleted.