Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Computer-to-computer data routing – Least weight routing
Reexamination Certificate
1998-10-19
2003-12-02
Courtenay, III, St. John (Department: 2126)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Computer-to-computer data routing
Least weight routing
C709S241000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06658485
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a computer system, and deals more particularly with a method, system, and computer-readable code that enables a sending or receiving application to dynamically change transmission priorities of queued messages.
2. Description of the Related Art
Message queuing is a technique whereby application programs communicate with each other using messages and queues. The applications may be running on the same computer, or on different computers. When one application wishes to send a message to another application, it passes the message to a queue manager, which then forwards the message to the queue manager used by the target application. The target application then retrieves the message by making a request of its queue manager. When the applications are running on the same computer, they typically use a shared queue manager; when the applications are on different computers, each computer may use a different queue manager. This approach enables message exchange to occur asynchronously, because the application generating the message does not need to await an acknowledgement from the target application. This, in turn, also allows the message sending process to operate very quickly. Examples of commercially-available message queuing systems are MQSeries from the International Business Machines Corporation (“IBM”), and Microsoft Corporation's Message Queue (MSMQ) product. (“MQSeries” is a registered trademark of IBM.) Reference may be made to “IBM Messaging and Queuing Series—Technical Reference” (SC33-0850-01, 1993) for a more detailed description of messaging and queuing.
It is commonplace today for computer users to connect their machines to other computers, known as “servers”, through a network. The network may be a private network, such as a corporate intranet of networked computers that is accessible only to computer users within that corporation. Or, it may a public network, such as the Internet or World Wide Web. The Internet is a vast collection of computing resources, interconnected as a network, from sites around the world.
The user may connect his computer to a server using a “wired” connection, or a “wireless” connection. Wired connections are those that use physical media such as cables and telephone lines, whereas wireless connections use media such as satellite links, radio frequency waves, and infrared waves. Many connection techniques can be used with these various media, such as: using the computer's modem to establish a connection over a telephone line; using a Local Area Network (LAN) card such as Token Ring or Ethernet; using a cellular modem to establish a wireless connection; etc. The user's computer may be any type of computer processor, including laptop, handheld or mobile computers; vehicle-mounted devices; desktop computers; mainframe computers; etc., having processing and communication capabilities. The remote server, similarly, can be one of any number of different types of computer which have processing and communication capabilities. These techniques are well known in the art, and the hardware devices and software which enable their use are readily available. Hereinafter, the user's computer will be referred to as a “workstation”, and use of the terms “workstation” or “server” refers to any of the types of computing devices described above.
A user of the Internet typically accesses and uses the Internet by establishing a network connection through the services of an Internet Service Provider (ISP). An ISP provides computer users the ability to dial a telephone number using their workstation modem (or other connection facility, such as satellite transmission), thereby establishing a connection to a remote computer owned or managed by the ISP. This remote computer then makes services available to the user's computer, hence such computers are often referred to as “servers”. While many networking applications exchange messages synchronously, message queuing systems may be used in this environment where communication is asynchronous. Typical services include: queuing mail to be delivered when a user connects to the server; distributing data base updates to subscribing clients; and delivering application data files that have been modified, where the target of the delivery may be a collection of occasionally-connected mobile client user systems. Similar facilities are typically available when the user connects to a server in an intranet, or an extranet (that is, a network owned or managed by another company, and which provides services in a similar manner to the Internet or an intranet).
These are examples of a client-server model of computing, where the machine at which the user requests information is referred to as the client, and the computer that locates the information and returns it to the client is the server. The client-server model may be extended to what is referred to as a “three-tier architecture”. This architecture places the server in the middle tier, where the added tier typically represents data repositories of information that may be accessed by the server as part of the task of processing the client's request. This three-tiered architecture recognizes the fact that many client requests do not simply require the location and return of static data, but require an application program to perform processing of the client's request in order to dynamically create the data to be returned.
As more people connect their workstations to networks, the number of messages and files being sent is skyrocketing. (Hereinafter, the terms “message” and “file” are used interchangeably when referring to data being sent through a network, unless otherwise stated.) Coupled with this increase in the number of network users and files is an increase in the size of the files commonly being sent. For example, a short e-mail message with a relatively simple graphic image attached may be on the order of several hundred thousand bytes of data. Users may send and receive many such files over the course of a day's work, or in their personal network communications. At the same time, the popularity of limited-storage workstations (such as handheld computers), which a user may use in disconnected mode for some period of time, is also growing. “Disconnected mode” refers to using the workstation without currently having a connection to a network. For example, a salesperson may use a handheld computer to record sales information throughout the workday while working at customer locations, and only connect to a network to transmit the data to his company's server at the end of the workday. Or, a user may work with data stored locally on his workstation throughout the day, making brief network connections when he has data to transmit, or wishes to see if there is data for him to receive from a server (e.g. by connecting to his e-mail service to see if he has any new messages). This latter scenario is common where a user is being charged for network connection time, such as when he uses a cellular service, as a way of reducing costs by minimizing the duration of the network connection. Many other examples of using devices in disconnected mode are possible.
Priorities are often assigned to messages being sent through the network, either by the sending application or directly by the user, in order to control the use of network bandwidth. Higher priority messages are then sent before lower priority messages. Aging algorithms are sometimes used to increase the priority of messages, in order to limit the amount of time a message spends waiting to be sent. These algorithms typically monitor the wait time for messages, and increase the message priority each time the wait exceeds one or more predefined threshold values.
Other than aging algorithms, priority mechanisms are generally static: once an application has sent a message, it no longer has the ability to affect the priority of message transmission. Also, the priority is usually set by the sending application. Th
Baber Stephen C.
Britton Kathryn H.
Housel III Barron Cornelius
Wesley Ajamu Akinwunmi
Courtenay III St. John
Doubet Marcia L.
Nguyen Van Hoa
Ray-Yarletts Jeanine S.
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