Method and apparatus for processing discrete billing events

• US 5,724,584 A
• Filed: 08/15/1996
• Issued: 03/03/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/1994
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Teleflex Information Systems, Inc.
• Inventors: Holt, Clayton Walter, Peters, Michael S., Arnold, David J. Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): NOT, DEFINED
• Assistant Examiner(s): Banankhah, Majid A.
• Application Number:
  US08/698,277
• Time in Patent Office: 565 Days
• Field of Search: 348/3, 455/2, 379/116, 379/119, 395/650, 395/800, 395/600, 395/375, 395/325, 395/200, 395/671, 395/676, 395/680, 395/326, 371/12, 364/200
• US Class Current: 718/101
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4843 by program, e.g. task dispatcher, supervisor, operating system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5027 the resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals

Abstract

A system for processing a batch which is distributed into a plurality of independent segments. A preferred embodiment of this invention calls for implementation on a symmetrical multiprocessing platform, however, the invention is also applicable to massively parallel architectures as well as uniprocessor environments. Each segment comprises a plurality of discrete events, each discrete event comprising a plurality of sub-events to be processed. The system operates to process each discrete event within each segment sequentially and each sub-event within each discrete event sequentially. The plurality of segments may be processed on an uniprocessor, an SMP system or an MPP system. By balancing the number of discrete events in each segment using a "coarse grain" approach, a flexible but efficient use of processor availability is obtained.

Claims

1. A symmetrical multiprocessing system for processing a batch of discrete events, said discrete events comprising a plurality of independent sub-events, said system comprising:

a first receiving means for receiving and storing transaction data until a desired processing time;

a second receiving means for receiving and storing customer information into a first database until the desired processing time;

means for indicating the desired processing time;

relational database means, responsive to the means for indicating, for receiving the transaction data from the first receiving means, for relationally downloading customer information from the first database and for generating a second database comprising said batch of discrete events to be processed at the desired processing time;

distributing means for distributing each discrete event into one of a plurality of segments, each segment comprising a sequence of at least one discrete event to be processed;

a plurality of symmetrical multi-tasking processors for processing said segments, each of said discrete events within a single segment being sequentially processed and each independent sub-event within a single discrete event being sequentially processed;

initiating means for initiating each of said plurality of segments generated by said distribution means on said symmetrical multi-tasking processors;

first shared memory means accessible by each of said plurality of symmetrical multi-taking processors for storing a control program for controlling the operation of said plurality of symmetrical multi-tasking processors, wherein said segments are distributed among the plurality of symmetrical multi-tasking processors; and

second shared memory means communicating with each of said plurality of symmetrical multi-tasking processors for storing each processed discrete event.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein said discrete event is a customer account and wherein said processor determines billing information for each customer account.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein said discrete event is a customer account, said independent sub-events comprise customer information and customer calls and said processor determines billing information for each customer account.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein said second shared memory means comprises at least one disk drive.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein each processed discrete event is stored immediately after the processing of each discrete event.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein said discrete event is a customer account.

7. The system of claim 2 further comprising an invoice generator for generating an invoice for each processed customer account.

8. The system of claim 2 further comprising a bill detail generator for generating a bill detail totaling each processed customer account.

9. A method of processing a batch of discrete events on a symmetrical multiprocessing system, said discrete events comprising a plurality of independent sub-events, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving and storing transaction data in a first memory until a desired processing time;

receiving and storing customer information into a first relational database until the desired processing time;

indicating the desired processing time;

upon receiving indication of the desired processing time, receiving said transaction data from the first memory, relationally downloading said customer information from the first relational database and generating a second relational database, the second relational database comprising said batch of discrete events;

distributing each discrete event into one of a plurality of segments, each segment comprising a sequence of at least one discrete event to be processed;

initiating each of said plurality of segments on one of a plurality of symmetrical multi-tasking processors;

concurrently processing said segments on said plurality of symmetrical multi-tasking processors, each of said discrete events contained within a segment being sequentially processed and each independent sub-event contained within each discrete event being sequentially processed;

controlling said plurality of symmetrical multi-tasking processors, wherein said segments are periodically redistributed among the plurality of symmetrical multi-tasking processors; and

storing each processed discrete event from each of the symmetrical multi-tasking processors.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein said discrete event is a customer account and wherein said processor determines billing information for each customer account.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein said discrete event is a customer account, said independent sub-events comprise customer information and customer calls and said processor determines billing information for each customer account.

12. The method of claim 9 further comprising the step of storing each discrete event immediately after processing each discrete event.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein said discrete event is a customer account and further comprising the steps of determining billing information for each customer account and storing the billing information for each customer account immediately after said customer account is processed.

14. The method of claim 10 further comprising the step of generating an invoice for each processed customer account.

15. A symmetric multiprocessing computer system for processing a customer billing and invoicing job comprising:

a first receiving means for receiving and storing transaction data until a desired processing time;

a second receiving means for receiving and storing customer information into a first database until the desired processing time;

means for indicating the desired processing time;

relational database means, responsive to the means for indicating, for receiving the transaction data from the first receiving means, for relationally downloading customer information from the first database and for generating a second database comprising said batch of discrete events to be processed at the desired processing time;

a plurality of processors each of said processors sharing a single copy of an operating system, each of said processors executing a single process at any one time, and each of said processors having read and write access to at least one common memory;

at least one disk drive device communicating with a system bus through at least one I/O controller, said system bus further communicating with each of said plurality of processors and said at least one common memory;

run queue means coupled to said processors for storing a sequential list of segments to be processed;

process creation means operating on at least one of said processors for initiating new processes, each of said processes corresponding to a single segment of said billing and invoicing job;

distributing means for distributing a plurality of discrete events into one of said plurality of segments;

each of said processors processing each sub-event for a single discrete event prior to processing any of the sub-events for the sequentially next discrete event.