System for high reliability and high performance application message delivery

• US 8,898,223 B2
• Filed: 03/13/2012
• Issued: 11/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amadeus (Amadeus Global Travel Distribution S.A.)
• Original Assignee: Amadeus (Amadeus Global Travel Distribution S.A.)
• Inventors: Pare, Thomas, De Schacht, Paul, Pascal, Matthieu
• Primary Examiner(s): Meky, Moustafa M
• Assistant Examiner(s): Williams, Clayton R
• Application Number:
  US13/418,819
• Publication Number:
  US 20130173691A1
• Time in Patent Office: 987 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1471 involving logging of persistent data for recovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes

Abstract

A computer-implemented method and system of providing application message delivery, includes the following steps performed with at least one data processor:

• • at a plurality of log servers coupled to at least an application server: receiving asynchronously from the server, application messages containing application information; and control messages at a predetermined interval;
  • at each log server: storing received application messages in a current application data file and received control messages in a control file; and upon receiving an open-close control message, closing the current application data file, storing the closed application data file and creating a new current application data file;
  • comparing the control files of the plurality of log servers for a given interval; and
  • based on this comparison, determining from a plurality of application data files from each log server, an application data file as a best-candidate for a given interval and forwarding the best-candidate file for post-processing.

Claims

1. A method of providing application message delivery, the method comprising:

receiving asynchronously, by at least some of a plurality of log servers, a plurality of application messages containing application information and a plurality of control messages associated with the plurality of application messages over a predetermined interval, wherein each of the plurality of control messages is received by one or more log servers among the plurality of log servers;

storing, at each of the plurality of log servers, the received application messages in a plurality of application data files and the received control messages in a plurality of control files;

comparing, for each of the plurality of log servers, a quantity of the plurality of application messages asynchronously received by each of the plurality of log servers and an application message number from the control messages stored in the control files at each of the plurality of log servers in order to evaluate a quantity of stored application messages in each application data file of the plurality of log servers;

based on the comparison, specifying, by a server, one of the application data files at one of the plurality of log servers as a best-candidate file; and

forwarding, from the server, the best-candidate file for post-processing,

wherein each control message includes a control message number used for identifying a sequential order for the plurality of control messages and an identifier of an application server that originated the control message, and the best-candidate file includes a quantity of stored application messages that is greatest in comparison with the application data files having fewer stored application messages.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each control message includes a timestamp.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the control messages is an open/close control message that instructs at least one of the log servers that receive the open/close control message to close a current one of the application data files and open a new one of the application data files to store subsequent application messages received by at least one of the log servers.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the open/close control message is received by at least one of the log servers after receiving a designated number of control messages that are not open/close control messages.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein each application data file is a billing transaction application and wherein each application message relates to billing of services related to a travel industry.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each open/close message includes an open message number indicating an opening of the application data file associated with the open/close message and a close message number indicating a closing of the application data file associated with the open/close message identifying the application data file in a sequence of the application data files received by at least one of the log servers.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

comparing each open/close message associated with each application data file received by each log server to determine the best-candidate file chosen from among the plurality of application data files when at least two application data files have an equivalent quantity of application messages, wherein the best-candidate file includes both an open message and a close message.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

retrieving a portion of lost application messages for the best-candidate file from application data files not determined as the best-candidate file when the best-candidate file has lost less than a specified percent of application messages included in the plurality of application files.

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

terminating, by at least one of the log servers, a current application data file when the close message is received;

generating, by at least one of the log servers, a new application data file when the open message is received; and

synchronizing, by at least one of the log servers, the application messages by terminating the current application data file and opening the new application data file based on the close message and the open message.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein comparing the stored control messages in each control file for the predetermined interval comprises:

decreasing a quantity of messages that are to be compared for each application data file by selecting each control file to compare the control messages included in each control file rather than comparing the application messages included in each application data file; and

comparing control files in real-time due to a reduction in the control messages that are compared in association with the comparison of the control files.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the application messages are billing messages, and the application information is information for a billing transaction.

12. A system for high reliability and high performance application message delivery, the system comprising:

a plurality of log servers each including;

a first processor; and

a first memory coupled with the first processor, the first memory including instructions that, when executed by the first processor, cause the first processor to;

receive asynchronously, by at least some of the plurality of log servers, a plurality of application messages containing application information and a plurality of control messages associated with the plurality of application messages over a predetermined interval, wherein each of the plurality of control messages is received by one or more log servers among the plurality of log servers; and

store, at each of the plurality of log servers, the received application messages in a plurality of application data files and the received control messages in a plurality of control files; and

a server coupled to the plurality of log servers, the server including;

a second processor; and

a second memory coupled with the second processor, the second memory including instructions that when executed by the second processor, cause the second processor to;

compare, for each of the plurality of log servers, a quantity of the application messages asynchronously received by each of the plurality of log servers and an application message number from the control messages stored in the control files at each of the plurality of log servers in order to evaluate a quantity of application messages stored in each application data file of the plurality of log servers;

based on the comparison, specify one of the application data files at one of the plurality of log servers as a best-candidate file; and

forward the best-candidate file for post-processing,

wherein each control message includes a control message number used for identifying a sequential order for the plurality of control messages and an identifier of an application server that originated the control message, and the best-candidate file includes a quantity of stored application messages that is greatest in comparison with to the application data files having fewer stored application messages.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein each control message includes a timestamp.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the processor to:

compare each control message number associated with each control message to determine the best-candidate file chosen from the plurality of application data files, wherein the best-candidate file includes a greatest quantity of control messages with the control message numbers received in sequence.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein an open/close message is a control message that instructs at least one of the log servers that receive the open/close message to close the current application data file and open a new application data file to store subsequent application messages received by at least one of the log servers.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein each open/close message includes an open message number indicating an opening of the application data file associated with the open/close message and a close message number indicating a closing of the application data file associated with the open/close message identifying the application data file in a sequence of the application data files received by at least one of the log servers.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the processor to:

compare the open/close message associated with each application data file received by at least one of the log servers to determine the best-candidate file when at least two of the application data files have an equivalent quantity of application messages, and the best-candidate file includes both an open message and a close message.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the processor to:

retrieve a portion of lost application messages for the best-candidate file from application data files not determined as the best-candidate file when the best-candidate file has lost less than a specified percent of application messages included in the plurality of application files.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the instructions, when executed by the first processor, cause the first processor to:

terminate a current application data file when the close message is received;

generate a new application data file when the open message is received; and

synchronize each application message by terminating the current application data file and opening a new application data file based on the close message and the open message received by at least one of the log servers.

20. The system of claim 12, wherein the instructions, when executed by the second processor, further cause the second processor to:

decrease a quantity of messages that are to be compared for each application data file by selecting each control file to compare the control messages included in each control file rather than comparing the application messages included in each application data file; and

compare control files in real-time due to a reduction in messages that are compared associated with a comparison of control files.

21. A system for high reliability and high performance billing message delivery, the system comprising:

a plurality of log servers each including;

a first processor; and

a first memory coupled with the first processor, the first memory including instructions that, when executed by the first processor, cause the first processor to;

receive asynchronously, by at least some of the plurality of log servers, a plurality of billing messages each containing information for a billing transaction and a plurality of control messages associated with the plurality of billing messages over a predetermined interval; and

store, at each of the plurality of log servers, the received billing messages in a plurality of billing data files and the received control messages in a plurality of control files, and

a server coupled to the plurality of log servers the server including;

a second processor; and

a second memory coupled with the second processor, the second memory including instructions that, when executed by the second processor, cause the second processor to;

compare, for each of the plurality of log servers, a quantity of the plurality of billing messages and an application message number from the control messages stored in the control files at each of the plurality of log servers to evaluate a quantity of billing messages stored in each billing data file;

based on the comparison, specify, by the server, one of the billing data files as a best-candidate file; and

forward, from the server, the best-candidate file for post-processing,

wherein each control message includes a control message number used for identifying a sequential order for the plurality of control messages and an identifier of an application server that originated the control message, and the best-candidate file includes the quantity of stored application messages that is greatest in comparison with the application data files having fewer stored application messages.