Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Computer-to-computer data routing – Least weight routing
Reexamination Certificate
2001-08-27
2003-12-02
Rice, Kenneth R. (Department: 2764)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Computer-to-computer data routing
Least weight routing
C709S241000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06658488
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to batch processing and more particularly to batch processing on a symmetrical multiprocessing (SMP) system. This invention has particular application to the batch processing of customer account information in order to perform periodic customer billing.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
There currently exist systems for customer billing in industries wherein a large number of customers are billed periodically based upon monthly (recurring) charges as well as dynamic use related (non-recurring) charges. Of interest in the design of such systems is the flexibility with which such systems can adjust to changes in such variables as billing structure, tax rates, bill formatting and incentive program implementation. Also of great importance in these systems is the ability to service an increasing number of customers as time progresses.
In a typical billing systems, the system should be designed to interface with peripheral devices and applications providing customer usage data from a variety of sources. In addition, such systems usually allow an employee of the billing company to interact with the system to, for example, specify the time, format and nature of invoice generation.
One example of an industry in which such a billing system is an important part of day to day operations is the cellular telephone/telecommunications industry. In recent years communication via cellular telephones has grown explosively. The requirement for convenient communications has become the norm in business as well as residential markets. Cellular telephones are found everywhere from automobiles and restaurants to golf courses and airplanes. In meeting the challenge of providing quality cellular services to this ever expanding subscriber base, the cellular telecommunications industry has identified a number of issues which need to be addressed in order to maintain and/or improve customer relations.
A primary concern for a cellular carrier is its ability to provide accurate and easily understood billing statements so that customers will respond promptly with payment and so that customer service interactions may be minimized. In order to achieve this objective, it is often desirable for a cellular carrier to implement such a billing system as a high-volume application with the ability to communicate with applications providing for customer service data entry and retrieval as well as automated data collection mechanisms such as a switch for monitoring customer calls, airtime and toll information. In addition, the overall system may provide fraud detection capabilities, security controls, sales and marketing support, funds collection support and message processing.
Customer service data and applications are generally provided on-line to customer service agents. Typically, the bill summary, bill detail, current balance, payment and adjustment information are available on-line. An agent can view customer information by querying on virtually any field in the database. Customer account information can be altered through customer update screens.
Fraud in areas such as subscription, airtime and roaming fraud have cost the cellular industry millions of dollars over the course of just a few years. In response to this problem a number of security controls have recently been developed for use by the industry. Such security controls include electronic switching networks (ESN's), identification by social security number, mobile number detection and monitoring reports which summarize long distance charges billed versus those recorded at the switch.
With respect to sales and marketing support, the system may provide the ability for airtime, product and other rating promotions to be created through the construction of a new rate plan in the appropriate tables. Access, service and equipment charges, like the rate plans are table-driven. Equipment charges can be categorized as recurring (those that will bill each month for a specified period of time), or non-recurring (one time charges).
Because of the periodic nature of the billing process in the cellular telephone industry, most systems have performed customer billing and invoicing as a sequential batch process. The traditional thinking on how to run the batch process has been influenced primarily by the strengths and weaknesses of the large engine uniprocessor mainframe environment. Thus, batch processes are performed in a “task oriented manner”. In other words, each of the component tasks for all of the customer accounts is performed in sequence, prior to the processing of any other component tasks for each of the customer accounts.
Typically, the above-described batch processing has been performed on large scale uniprocessors, such as IBM or DEC brand mainframes which are capable of high throughput. Uniprocessor machines may be provided which operate at about 100 million instructions per second (MIPS). One example of a uniprocessor architecture, although not necessarily operating at 100 MIPS, is the HP 9000 Series 800 Server Family manufactured by the Hewlett Packard Corporation.
FIG. 1
depicts the architecture of this machine. As can be seen in
FIG. 1
, only a single CPU
100
is provided. CPU
100
interfaces, through memory and I/O controller
110
, to an expandable RAM storage area
120
. A single copy of the operating system will generally reside in main memory
110
. System bus
130
is further provided to allow for integration into a local area network or LAN as well as to attach various peripherals desired in order to meet system needs.
As batched applications comprise a plurality of tasks, and uniprocessor architectures are capable of executing only a single task at a time, uniprocessors are often complimented with special multitasking hardware and operating system software (such as UNIX) which allow the single processing resource to be efficiently distributed among a set of simultaneously initiated tasks. Although this multitasking increases a uniprocessor machine's overall throughput and workflow capabilities, the simultaneously initiated tasks are still in contention for a single processing resource and the amount of execution time allotted to each individual task decreases in proportion to the number of tasks initiated.
To overcome this problem with multitasking, multiprocessor systems, which utilize more than one CPU, have been developed to provide tasks with the same resources offered by their uniprocessor counterparts but further allow these resources to be shared among a set of concurrently executing tasks. In multitasking, multiprocessor environments, various tasks are distributed to the various processors. A fine grain approach parallelizes groupings of similar tasks with all of the tasks being assembled into a finished batch after parallel processing completes. Coarse grain, on the other hand, simply parallelizes groupings of various tasks of the job without regard for the similarity of the tasks within each grouping.
Several multiprocessor systems have become widely used in recent years. Some examples include massively parallel processing systems comprising a plurality of individual processors, each having its own CPU and memory, organized in a loosely coupled environment, or a distributed processing system operating in a loosely coupled environment, for example, over a local area network.
One multiprocessing technology, termed symmetrical multiprocessing (SMP), is a relatively recent architecture that provides applications with a set multiple of CPUs which operate in a tightly-coupled shared memory environment. Many major hardware vendors, e.g., IBM, DEC, HP, NCR, Sequent, Tandem, and Stratus, have released or announced computers that provide this type of architecture and associated processing. SMP techniques and functions have also been provided in some operating systems, such as, for example, an operating system sold under the trademark (MICROSOFT NT) and various derivatives of the multitasking operating system products sold under the trademark (UNIX). In addition, certain databases
Arnold, Jr. David J.
Holt Clayton Walter
Peters Michael S.
Rice Kenneth R.
Rudy Andrew Joseph
Teleflex Information Systems, Inc.
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