High availability message transmission

• US 8,307,114 B2
• Filed: 05/21/2008
• Issued: 11/06/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/22/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Garza, Jose Emir, Hobson, Stephen James, Pickering, John Brian, Pickrell, Timothy Vincent, Powell, Steven
• Primary Examiner(s): Chan, Wing
• Assistant Examiner(s): Zong, Ruolei
• Application Number:
  US12/124,921
• Publication Number:
  US 20080294714A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,630 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206, 709/217, 709/227, 709/228, 709/236, 709/203, 709/238, 719/313, 719/314, 719/318
• US Class Current: 709/238
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/16 Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs coordinating program control therefor G06F9/52; in regulating and control system G05B
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

A system, method, apparatus, and computer program product uses a plurality of message transmitters to achieve high availability message transmission. The plurality of message transmitters are each operable to transmit a message to a subscriber. In accordance with a determination, for example, of the value of the connections, the message is copied and transmitted to the plurality of the message transmitters so that at least one of the plurality of message transmitters transmits the copy to the subscriber. The at least one message transmitter may be selected by analyzing the message and determining an associated rule based on characteristics of the message.

Claims

1. An apparatus for high availability message transmission, comprising:

a determiner, at a message publisher, configured to determine at least two of a plurality of message transmitters to use for transmitting a first message from the message publisher to a subscriber;

a message copier, at the message publisher, configured to create, for each determined message transmitter, a copy of the first message, each copy having a distinct copy number; and

a transmitter, at the message publisher, configured to transmit, to each determined message transmitter, a distinct one of the created copies of the first message for subsequent transmission of the distinct transmitted copy from the determined message transmitter to the subscriber, the distinct copy number of the distinct transmitted copy usable by the subscriber for detecting duplicate copies of the first message, wherein;

the determiner accesses, for determining the at least two of the plurality of message transmitters to use, a selector configured to select the at least two of the plurality of message transmitters; and

the selector is configured to select the at least two of the plurality of message transmitters using voting, the voting comprising transmission of a control identifier from each of the plurality of message transmitters to the subscriber and receipt, at the selector, of a control response created by the subscriber using the control identifier transmitted from each of the plurality of message transmitters.

2. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the control response comprises a ranking of the plurality of message transmitters.

3. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the selector is configured to select the at least two message transmitters in response to an analyser configured to analyse the first message and to determine an associated rule that identifies the at least two of the plurality of message transmitters to use.

4. The apparatus as claimed in claim 3, wherein the rule is associated with at least one of a size of the first message and a content type associated with the first message.

5. The apparatus as claimed in claim 3, wherein a second analyser is configured to analyse, at the subscriber, the distinct copy number in each received copy of the first message to detect whether a particular one of the received copies is a duplicate copy.

6. The apparatus as claimed in claim 5, further comprising a filter component configured to execute a filter action for handling the duplicate copy in response to the second analyser detecting that the particular one of the copies is the duplicate copy.

7. The apparatus as claimed in claim 6, wherein the filter action comprises discarding the duplicate copy.

8. A method for high availability message transmission, comprising:

determining, at a message publisher, at least two of a plurality of message transmitters to use for transmitting a first message from the message publisher to a subscriber, wherein the determining uses voting, the voting comprising transmission of a control identifier from each of the plurality of message transmitters to the subscriber and receipt, at the message publisher, of a control response created by the subscriber using the control identifier transmitted from each of the plurality of message transmitters;

creating, at the message publisher for each determined message transmitter, a copy of the first message, each copy having a distinct copy number; and

transmitting, from the message publisher to each determined message transmitter, a distinct one of the created copies of the first message for subsequent transmission of the distinct transmitted copy from the determined message transmitter to the subscriber, the distinct copy number of the distinct transmitted copy usable by the subscriber for detecting duplicate copies of the first message.

9. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the control response comprises a ranking of the plurality of message transmitters.

10. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein determining the at least two of the plurality of message transmitters further comprises:

analyzing the first message; and

determining an associated rule that identifies the at least two of the plurality of message transmitters to use.

11. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein the rule is associated with at least one of:

size of the first message and content type associated with the first message.

12. The method as claimed in claim 10, further comprising:

analysing, at the subscriber, the distinct copy number in each received copy of the first message to detect whether a particular one of the received copies is a duplicate copy.

13. The method as claimed in claim 12, further comprising:

executing, in response to detecting, at the subscriber, that the particular one of the received copies is the duplicate copy, a filter action for handling the duplicate copy.

14. The method as claimed in claim 13, wherein the filter action comprises discarding the duplicate copy.

15. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein:

the determining determines the at least two of the plurality of message transmitters to use for transmitting, from the message publisher, each message in a message sequence, the message sequence comprising at least three messages;

the creating creates, for each determined message transmitter, a copy of each of the messages in the message sequence, wherein;

each message in the message sequence has a distinct message sequence identifier associated therewith that identifies an order of the message within the message sequence;

the copy of each message includes the distinct message sequence identifier of the message; and

each copy has the distinct copy number;

the transmitting transmits, to each determined message transmitter, a distinct one of the created copies of each of the messages in the message sequence for subsequent transmission of the distinct transmitted copy from the determined message transmitter to the subscriber, the distinct message sequence identifier of the distinct transmitted copy usable by the subscriber for detecting out-of-order copies and the distinct copy number of the distinct transmitted copy usable by the subscriber for detecting duplicate copies of the messages in the message sequence.

16. The method as claimed in claim 15, further comprising:

analyzing, at the subscriber, the distinct message sequence identifier in each received copy of each of the messages in the message sequence to detect whether a particular one of the received copies is an out-of-order copy; and

executing, in response to detecting, at the subscriber, that the particular one of the received copies is the out-of-order copy, a filter action for handling the out-of-order copy.

17. A computer program product for high availability message transmission, the computer program product comprising:

a non-transitory computer usable storage medium having computer usable program code embodied therewith, the computer usable program code comprising;

computer usable program code configured to determine, at a message publisher, at least two of a plurality of message transmitters to use for transmitting a first message from the message publisher to a subscriber, wherein the determining uses voting, the voting comprising transmission of a control identifier from each of the plurality of message transmitters to the subscriber and receipt, at the message publisher, of a control response created by the subscriber using the control identifier transmitted from each of the plurality of message transmitters;

computer usable program code configured to create, at the message publisher for each determined message transmitter, a copy of the first message, each copy having a distinct copy number; and

computer usable program code configured to transmit, from the message publisher to each determined message transmitter, a distinct one of the created copies of the first message for subsequent transmission of the distinct transmitted copy from the determined message transmitter to the subscriber, the distinct copy number of the distinct transmitted copy usable by the subscriber for detecting duplicate copies of the first message.