Transport-neutral in-order delivery in a distributed system

• US 7,747,894 B2
• Filed: 06/06/2005
• Issued: 06/29/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/06/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Smith, Kevin Bowen, Musayev, Eldar A., Paramasivam, Kartik, Elien, Jean-Emile, Graber, Lee B., Saha, Sanjib, Thatte, Satish R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Beausoilel; Robert
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lottich; Joshua P
• Application Number:
  US11/146,644
• Publication Number:
  US 20060274727A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,849 Days
• Field of Search: 714/4, 714/749, 709/219, 709/231
• US Class Current: 714/4.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/60 Scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests, e.g. requests for application data transmissions using the analysis and optimisation of the required network resources admission control or resource allocation H04L47/70

Abstract

A transport-neutral in-order delivery in a distributed environment is provided. Typically, in-order delivery guarantees that sequential orders received by a transport engine are sent out in the same order they are received. Such delivery may be forwarded either to another transport engine or to some application. In case there is a failure of delivery of messages in a stream, the messages are either resubmitted, suspended, or moved to backup. A user or administrator can configure the desired action. Additionally, any stream can be manually aborted or a specified port can be unenlisted. Deliverable streams of messages are locked on to a back-end transport engines or applications and dequeued sequentially unless one of the above mentioned failure scenarios occurs.

Claims

1. A system for managing the delivery of information in a distributed environment, the system comprising:

a processor programmed to implement a transport engine comprising;

a first port for receiving information from a plurality of sources, wherein the information includes a stream of messages having a plurality of protocols;

a first transport adapter that supports the plurality of protocols, the first transport adapter interpreting the information and relaying the information to an endpoint manager, the endpoint manager processing the information and presenting the information to a message agent;

a message box for receiving the information from the message agent and for queuing the stream of messages within a plurality of partitions, each of the plurality of partitions corresponding to one of a plurality of destinations;

a second transport adapter for receiving a portion of the stream of messages queued within a first partition of the plurality of partitions, from the message box, via the message agent, and encoding each of a plurality of messages contained within the portion of the stream of messages with a same specific protocol, the specific protocol having a corresponding port;

a second port, corresponding to the specific protocol, for sending the portion of the stream of messages to a first destination corresponding to the first partition, wherein the portion of the stream of messages is sent to the first destination in the same sequence in which the portion of the stream of messages was received at the first port, and wherein the portion of the stream of messages is locked to the first destination, wherein locking the portion of the stream of messages to the first destination causes the plurality of messages contained in the portion of the stream of messages to be processed at the first destination in an order in which the plurality of messages were received at the first destination; and

an error handling mechanism for taking at least one action when a message in the portion of the stream of messages is not delivered to the first destination.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one action includes resubmitting the message to the first destination after a specified event.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one action includes suspending delivery of the message to the first destination.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one action includes moving the message to a backup destination.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one action includes delisting a receiving port of the first destination to prevent the message from being delivered to the receiving port.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the first destination includes a back-end transport engine having a receiving port for receiving the portion of the stream of messages.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the transport engine resides on a server, and wherein the first destination includes an application that resides on the same server as the transport engine.

8. A processor-implemented method for managing the delivery of information in a distributed environment, the method comprising:

the processor receiving information from a plurality of sources, wherein the information includes a stream of messages having a plurality of protocols;

the processor interpreting the information using a first transport adapter that supports the plurality of protocols;

the processor queuing the stream of messages within a plurality of partitions, each of the plurality of partitions corresponding to one of a plurality of destinations;

the processor encoding a portion of the stream of messages queued within a first partition of the plurality of partitions using a second transport adapter, each of a plurality of messages contained within the portion of the stream of messages encoded with a same specific protocol, the specific protocol having a corresponding port;

the processor sending, from the corresponding port, the portion of the stream of messages corresponding to the first partition, wherein the portion of the stream of messages is sent in the same sequence in which the portion of the stream of messages was received, and wherein the portion of the stream of messages is locked to a first destination, wherein locking the portion of the stream of messages to the first destination causes the plurality of messages contained in the portion of the stream of messages to be processed at the first destination in an order in which the plurality of messages were received at the first destination; and

the processor invoking an error handling mechanism to take at least one action when a message in the stream of messages fails to arrive at the first destination.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the at least one action includes resubmitting the message to the first destination after a specified event.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the at least one action includes suspending delivery of the message to the first destination.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the at least one action includes moving the message to a backup destination.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the at least one action includes delisting a receiving port of the first destination to prevent the message from being delivered to the receiving port.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the first destination includes a back-end transport engine having a receiving port for receiving the portion of the stream of messages.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein the stream of messages are received, queued, and sent via a transport engine residing on a server, and wherein the first destination includes an application that resides on the same server as the transport engine.

15. A computer readable storage medium bearing computer executable instructions for managing the delivery of information in a distributed environment, the computer executable instructions comprising instructions for:

receiving information from a plurality of sources, wherein the information includes a stream of messages having a plurality of protocols;

interpreting the information using a first transport adapter that supports the plurality of protocols;

queuing the stream of messages within a plurality of partitions, each of the plurality of partitions corresponding to one of a plurality of destinations;

encoding a portion of the stream of messages queued within a first partition of the plurality of partitions using a second transport adapter, each of a plurality of messages contained within the portion of the stream of messages encoded with a same specific protocol, the portion of the stream of messages containing the plurality of messages and the specific protocol having a corresponding port;

sending, from the corresponding port, the portion of the stream of messages to a first destination corresponding to the first partition, wherein the portion of the stream of messages is sent in the same sequence in which the portion of the stream of messages was received, and wherein the portion of the stream of messages is locked to the first destination, wherein locking the portion of the stream of messages to the first destination causes the plurality of messages contained in the portion of the stream of messages to be processed at the first destination in an order in which the plurality of messages were received at the first destination; and

invoking an error handling mechanism for taking at least one action when a message in the portion of the stream of messages is not delivered to the first destination.

16. The computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the at least one action includes resubmitting the message to the first destination after a specified event.

17. The computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the at least one action includes suspending the message from delivery to the first destination.

18. The computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the at least one action includes moving the message to a backup destination.

19. The computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the at least one action includes delisting a receiving port of the first destination to prevent sending the message to the receiving port.

20. The computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the first destination includes a back-end transport engine having a receiving port for receiving the portion of the stream of messages.