System, method and computer program product for sharing information in distributed framework

• US 20040128673A1
• Filed: 12/15/2003
• Published: 07/01/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Stragent, LLC (Oso IP, LLC)
• Original Assignee: SystemAuto, Inc.
• Inventors: Fuchs, Axel, Andrews, Scott Sturges
• Granted Patent: US 7,802,263 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/310
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/0231 Circuits relating to the driving or the functioning of the vehicle monitoring tyres B60C23/00; indicating overspeed B60K31/00; for dash boards B60K37/00, B60Q3/10; for indicating emergencies B60Q1/52; brake control systems B60T; registering or indicating the working of vehicles G07C5/00; measuring distance G01C, e.g. combinations of speed and distance G01C23/00; engine indicators G01L; measuring speed or acceleration G01P
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/547 Messaging middleware
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/545 where tasks reside in different layers, e.g. user- and kernel-space
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/546 Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/04 Processing captured monitoring data, e.g. for logfile generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/06 Generation of reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/102 Gateways arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways, H04L12/66
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• 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 system, method and computer program product are provided for sharing information in a distributed system. After information is received, it is stored on a bulletin board. In use, the information is shared, in real-time, among a plurality of heterogeneous processes.

Claims

1. A method for sharing information in a distributed system, comprising:

receiving information;

storing the information on a bulletin board; and

sharing, in real-time, the information among a plurality of heterogeneous processes.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the information is replicated among a plurality of the bulletin boards.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein both past and present instances of the information are stored on the bulletin boards.

4. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein the bulletin boards are hierarchical.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein both past and present instances of the information are stored on the bulletin board.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the processes access multiple sections of the bulletin board.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein a bulletin board manager sends notifications to the processes based on a state of the information on the bulletin board.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the information includes variables.

9. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein the information includes input variables.

10. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein the information includes output variables.

11. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the processes include local processes.

12. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the processes include remote processes.

13. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein each of the processes process the information in a manner that is isolated from temporal characteristics associated with the network.

14. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the processes include both event triggered processes and time triggered processes.

15. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the information is extracted from a message received by a bulletin board manager.

16. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the information is converted from a signal received by a bulletin board manager.

17. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the information is shared in a single task.

18. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the information is shared according to a schedule.

19. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the information is shared with an operating system.

20. The method as recited in claim 19, wherein dynamic preemptive scheduling is provided.

21. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein resources in the network are protected.

22. The method as recited in claim 21, wherein the resources in the network are protected utilizing a schedule that allows information sharing utilizing the bulletin board.

23. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein resources in the network are protected utilizing semaphores.

24. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the information is shared according to an internal clock.

25. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the information is shared according to an external clock.

26. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein objects are generated based on a change of state of the information stored in the bulletin board.

27. The method as recited in claim 26, wherein the objects are selected from the group consisting of flags, events, signals, and interrupts.

28. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the information is stored in response to interrupts associated with the processes.

29. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the bulletin board is replicated through a distributed system.

30. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the information is shared across the network with only a portion of a network communication protocol header.

31. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the bulletin board updates the processes with the information at a first rate that differs from a second rate with which the processes send the information to the bulletin board.

32. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein event triggers are provided independent of a link connection between nodes where the processes are carried out.

33. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein failure redundancy is provided across multiple independent links across diverse physical connections.

34. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the bulletin board is accessed with guaranteed access times, jitter, and bandwidth.

35. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the information has a user-configured constraint associated therewith.

36. The method as recited in claim 35, wherein the constraint includes a memory constraint.

37. The method as recited in claim 35, wherein the constraint includes a real-time constraint.

38. The method as recited in claim 35, wherein the constraint is configured utilizing a tool.

39. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the information is processed utilizing a first bulletin board and stored utilizing a second bulletin board.

40. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein instances of the information are time-stamped when stored on the bulletin board for temporal reference.

41. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the bulletin board updates processes based on an event.

42. A computer program product for sharing information in a distributed system, comprising:

computer code for receiving information;

computer code for storing the information on a bulletin board; and

computer code for sharing, in real-time, the information among a plurality of heterogeneous processes.

43. A system for sharing information in a distributed system, comprising:

logic for receiving information;

logic for storing the information on a bulletin board; and

logic for sharing, in real-time, the information among a plurality of heterogeneous processes.