Transactional application processing in a distributed environment

• US 8,656,024 B2
• Filed: 12/20/2011
• Issued: 02/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/19/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Krishnan, Mayilraj, Raghavan, Kollivakkam
• Primary Examiner(s): Backer, Firmin
• Assistant Examiner(s): EDWARDS, JAMES A
• Application Number:
  US13/331,315
• Publication Number:
  US 20120089738A1
• Time in Patent Office: 791 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0896 Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76

Abstract

Transactional application processing in a distributed environment using an application-aware network infrastructure element is described. In an embodiment, an apparatus comprises a plurality of network interfaces, forwarding logic, and transaction manager logic. The plurality of network interfaces is operable to communicatively connect to one or more packet-switched networks. The forwarding logic is coupled to the plurality of network interfaces and, when executed, is operable to receive packet flows therefrom and to forward the packet flows thereto. The transaction manager logic is encoded in one or more tangible media for execution and when executed is operable to: receive first information that specifies one or more remote resources associated with an extended transaction, where the extended transaction comprises a plurality of child transactions; and reserve the one or more remote resources by sending out one or more reservation requests over a network management protocol.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP) request from an upper-layer application that invokes a Java Transaction API (JTA) call, wherein the request includes first information that specifies one or more transaction-related remote resources that are associated with an extended transaction, wherein the extended transaction comprises a plurality of child transactions;

invoking a Java Transaction Service (JTS) call for the first information;

reserving the one or more transaction-related remote resources, which are specified in the first information and are associated with the extended transaction, by sending out one or more reservation requests to any one of;

one or more resource managers that manage the one or more transaction-related remote resources;

one or more network infrastructure elements that cause reservation of the one or more transaction-related remote resources, wherein the one or more reservation requests are sent to the one or more network infrastructure elements over the RSVP;

wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the one or more reservation requests is an RSVP message that comprises a payload portion storing an RSVP object which specifies reservation of resources that are accessed in extended transactions.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the method is executed on any one of a router and a switch.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein a particular reservation request of the one or more reservation requests includes any one of:

data which specifies a particular remote resource of the one or more remote resources that is to be reserved;

data which specifies one or more operations that need to be performed to reserve a particular remote resource of the one or more remote resources.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of child transactions includes any one of an ACID transaction and a business application transaction.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving responses to the one or more reservation requests;

based on the responses, determining whether the one or more transaction-related remote resources are going to be available at the time the extended transaction is executed.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending a particular reservation request to a resource manager that manages a particular remote resource, of the one or more transaction-related remote resources, that is specified in the particular reservation request.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending a particular reservation request of the one or more reservation requests to a remote network infrastructure element, wherein the particular reservation request specifies a particular remote resource of the one or more transaction-related remote resources, and wherein the remote network infrastructure element causes reservation of the particular remote resource.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a particular reservation request from a remote network infrastructure element, wherein the particular reservation request specifies a particular resource; and

causing reservation of the particular resource by any one of;

re-sending the particular reservation request to a different network infrastructure element; and

accessing a particular resource manager that manages the particular resource.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a first request from an upper-layer application, wherein the first request includes the first information; and

sending the first information in a second request to transaction manager logic.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

receiving one or more confirmations that the one or more transaction-related remote resources are going to be available at the time the extended transaction is going to be executed; and

responding to the second request by informing the transaction manager logic, based on the one or more received confirmations, that the one or more transaction-related remote resources are going to be available at the time the extended transaction is going to be executed.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the JTA call is made by executing a Java Transaction API;

the first request comprises a JTA call invoked by the upper-layer application;

the JTS call is made by executing a Java Transaction Service (JTS) API;

the second request comprises a JTS call invoked by the JTS API.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the first information conforms to an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) format;

the first information is received in an XML Transactioning API for Java (JAXTX) call invoked by the upper-layer application.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more transaction-related remote resources include any one of:

a slot in a message queue;

a storage space in a data structure, wherein the data structure is located in any one of volatile memory and persistent storage;

a call to a web service;

a connection to a database server;

a connection to a web server;

a connection to a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) server.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform:

receiving a Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP) request from an upper-layer application that invokes a Java Transaction API (JTA) call, wherein the request includes first information that specifies one or more transaction-related remote resources that are associated with an extended transaction, wherein the extended transaction comprises a plurality of child transactions;

invoking a Java Transaction Service (JTS) call for the first information;

reserving the one or more transaction-related remote resources, which are specified in the first information and are associated with the extended transaction, by sending out one or more reservation requests to any one of;

one or more resource managers that manage the one or more transaction-related remote resources;

one or more network infrastructure elements that cause reservation of the one or more transaction-related remote resources, wherein the one or more reservation requests are sent to the one or more network infrastructure elements over the RSVP.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein each of the one or more reservation requests is an RSVP message that comprises a payload portion storing an RSVP object which specifies reservation of resources that are accessed in extended transactions.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the one or more sequences of instructions are executed by the one or more processors of any one of a router and a switch.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein a particular reservation request of the one or more reservation requests includes any one of:

data which specifies a particular remote resource of the one or more transaction-related remote resources that is to be reserved;

data which specifies one or more operations that need to be performed to reserve a particular remote resource of the one or more transaction-related remote resources.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the plurality of child transactions includes any one of an ACID transaction and a business application transaction.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, further comprising additional instructions which, when executed, cause the one or more processors to perform:

receiving responses to the one or more reservation requests;

based on the responses, determining whether the one or more transaction-related remote resources are going to be available at the time the extended transaction is executed.

21. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, further comprising additional instructions which, when executed, cause the one or more processors to perform sending a particular reservation request to a resource manager that manages a particular remote resource, of the one or more transaction-related remote resources, that is specified in the particular reservation request.

22. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, further comprising additional instructions which, when executed, cause the one or more processors to perform sending a particular reservation request of the one or more reservation requests to a remote network infrastructure element, wherein the particular reservation request specifies a particular remote resource of the one or more transaction-related remote resources, and wherein the remote network infrastructure element causes reservation of the particular remote resource.

23. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, further comprising additional instructions which, when executed, cause the one or more processors to perform:

receiving a particular reservation request from a remote network infrastructure element, wherein the particular reservation request specifies a particular resource; and

causing reservation of the particular resource by any one of;

re-sending the particular reservation request to a different network infrastructure element;

accessing a particular resource manager that manages the particular resource.

24. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, further comprising additional instructions which, when executed, cause the one or more processors to perform:

receiving a first request from an upper-layer application, wherein the first request includes the first information;

sending the first information in a second request to transaction manager logic.

25. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 24, further comprising additional instructions which, when executed, cause the one or more processors to perform:

receiving one or more confirmations that the one or more transaction-related remote resources are going to be available at the time the extended transaction is going to be executed;

responding to the second request by informing the transaction manager logic, based on the one or more received confirmations, that the one or more transaction-related remote resources are going to be available at the time the extended transaction is going to be executed.

26. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 25, wherein:

the JTA call is made by executing a Java Transaction API;

the first request comprises a JTA call invoked by the upper-layer application;

the JTS call is made by executing a Java Transaction Service (JTS) API;

the second request comprises a JTS call invoked by the JTS API.

27. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 26, wherein:

the first information conforms to an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) format;

the first information is received in an XML Transactioning API for Java (JAXTX) call invoked by the upper-layer application.

28. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the one or more transaction-related remote resources include any one of:

a slot in a message queue;

a storage space in a data structure, wherein the data structure is located in any one of volatile memory and persistent storage;

a call to a web service;

a connection to a database server;

a connection to a web server;

a connection to a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) server.