Message gates using a shared transport in a distributed computing environment

• US 7,010,573 B1
• Filed: 10/19/2000
• Issued: 03/07/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Slaughter, Gregory L., Pouyoul, Eric, Saulpaugh, Thomas E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Thompson, Marc D.
• Assistant Examiner(s): MANIWANG, JOSEPH R
• Application Number:
  US09/693,673
• Time in Patent Office: 1,965 Days
• Field of Search: 709/201, 709/206, 709/245, 709/203, 709/227, 715/513, 715/501.1, 715/514, 715/515
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• 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 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services

Abstract

A message gate is the message endpoint for a client or service in a distributed computing environment. A message gate may provide a secure message endpoint that sends and receives type-safe messages. A gate may have a gate name that is a unique ID that refers only to the gate. A gate may be implemented as a layer above a device'"'"'s transport layer (e.g. networking sockets). The gate name for each gate may be bound to a transport reference. Multiple gates may share the same message transport. The transport reference may be a transport URI or socket reference and may provide a mechanism for naming an underlying transport and sharing the transport with other gates. Multiple local gates may include a reference to the same transport, however, each local gate may behave independently of the other local gates sending and receiving messages to and from its paired remote gate.

Claims

1. A device in a distributed computing environment, comprising:

one or more clients;

a plurality of message gates, wherein each message gate is configured for sending and receiving messages for one of said clients in a data representation language to and from a respective paired message gate at another device in the distributed computing environment;

a message transport configured to implement a transport protocol for sending and receiving messages;

wherein each one of said message gates references said message transport, wherein each message gate is configured to send and receive messages independently of the other ones of said message gates while sharing said message transport for implementing the transport protocol for sending and receiving its messages.

2. The device as recited in claim 1, wherein each message gate is configured to verify messages according to a data representation language message schema.

3. The device as recited in claim 2, wherein each message gate is configured to verify type correctness of messages sent or received through that message gate according to the data representation language message schema.

4. The device as recited in claim 2, wherein each message gate is configured to verify format correctness of messages sent or received through that message gate according to the data representation language message schema.

5. The device as recited in claim 2, wherein said data representation language schema comprises an extensible Markup Language (XML) schema.

6. The device as recited in claim 1, wherein each message gate is configured to include an authentication credential with each message sent from that message gate.

7. The device as recited in claim 1, wherein each message gate is configured to verify an authentication credential included with each message received by that message gate.

8. The device as recited in claim 1, wherein each one of the message gates is configured for creating a bi-directional message channel with its said respective paired message gate for accessing a service in the distributed computing environment.

9. A method for sending and receiving messages in a distributed computing environment, comprising:

a first message gate referencing a message transport to send first messages to a first destination address, wherein said first messages are formatted in a data representation language;

a second message gate referencing said message transport to send second messages to a second destination address, wherein said second messages are formatted in a data representation language; and

said message transport implementing a transport protocol for sending said first and second messages to said first and second destination addresses respectively;

wherein said first and second message gates independently share said message transport for sending messages to said first and second destination addresses respectively.

10. The method as recited in claim 9, further comprising said first and second message gates verifying said first and second messages respectively according respective representation language message schemas.

11. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein said verifying said first and second messages respectively according respective representation language message schemas comprises verifying type correctness of the first and second messages respectively according to the respective representation language message schema.

12. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein said verifying said first and second messages respectively according a respective representation language message schema comprises verifying format correctness of the first and second messages respectively according to the respective representation language message schema.

13. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein said representation language schemas comprise extensible Markup Language schemas.

14. The method as recited in claim 9, further comprising said first and second message gates each including a respective authentication credential with each message sent.

15. The method as recited in claim 9, further comprising said first message gate creating a first bidirectional message channel with a message gate at said first destination address and said second message gate creating a second bi-directional message channel with a message gate at said second destination address, wherein said message transport is shared for said first and second bi-directional message channels.

16. The method as recited in claim 9, further comprising:

binding a first gate name for said first message gate to a transport reference for said message transport, wherein said first message gate is configured to receive messages at an address including a combination of said first gate name and the transport reference; and

binding a second gate name for said second message gate to the transport reference for said message transport, wherein said second message gate is configured to receive messages at an address including a combination of said second gate name and the transport reference.

17. A tangible computer-accessible medium comprising program instructions, wherein the program instructions are executable to implement:

a first message gate referencing a message transport to send first messages to a first destination address, wherein said first messages are formatted in a data representation language;

a second message gate referencing said message transport to send second messages to a second destination address, wherein said second messages are formatted in a data representation language; and

said message transport implementing a transport protocol for sending said first and second messages to said first and second destination addresses respectively;

wherein said first and second message gates independently share said message transport for sending messages to said first and second destination addresses respectively.

18. The tangible computer-accessible medium as recited in claim 17, wherein the program instructions are further executable to implement said first and second message gates verifying said first and second messages respectively according respective representation language message schemas.

19. The tangible computer-accessible medium as recited in claim 18, wherein said verifying said first and second messages respectively according respective representation language message schemas comprises verifying type correctness of the first and second messages respectively according to the respective representation language message schema.

20. The tangible computer-accessible medium as recited in claim 18, wherein said verifying said first and second messages respectively according a respective representation language message schema comprises verifying format correctness of the first and second messages respectively according to the respective representation language message schema.

21. The tangible computer-accessible medium as recited in claim 18, wherein said representation language schemas comprise eXtensible Markup Language schemas.

22. The tangible computer-accessible medium as recited in claim 17, wherein the program instructions are further executable to implement said first and second message gates each including a respective authentication credential with each message sent.

23. The tangible computer-accessible medium as recited in claim 17, wherein the program instructions are further executable to implement said first message gate creating a first bi-directional message channel with a message gate at said first destination address and said second message gate creating a second bi-directional message channel with a message gate at said second destination address, wherein said message transport is shared for said first and second bi-directional message channels.

24. The tangible computer-accessible medium as recited in claim 17, wherein the program instructions are further executable to implement:

binding a first gate name for said first message gate to a transport reference for said message transport, wherein said first message gate is configured to receive messages at an address including a combination of said first gate name and the transport reference; and

binding a second gate name for said second message gate to the transport reference for said message transport, wherein said second message gate is configured to receive messages at an address including a combination of said second gate name and the transport reference.