US7194543B2
Expired / Lapsed
US
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
System and method for creating and managing survivable, service hosting networks
Assignee: MCI Communications Corp
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Filing: 2002-11-12
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Granted: 2007-03-20
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Expires: 2022-11-12
Abstract
Abstract The present invention is directed to a system, method and software product for balancing resource services are always available to match the desired work to be done through the use of “sticky services.”. Sticky services are defined as services that you know you want to have available as resources and as such they need to be present in the environment of cooperative applications; it may be that you want these always present or it may be that you want them present whenever certain conditions occur (see NewWave policy service). The general assumption of distributed systems is to not count on the environment you want being present, or put another way assume failure will occur. Therefore distributed environments like Jini assume all services are transient and will be garbage collected when not in active use. For the inside out approach to work, a mechanism should exist that, when desired, counters the transit design assumptions. This implies that two things are needed: (1) a mechanism for providing services as needed; (2) a mechanism for insuring the correct balance of resource services are always available to match the desired work to be done.
Inventors
- 👤 James A. Robertson
- 👤 William Sprott Greene
- 👤 Chris Stillwell
- 👤 Matthew C. Pierret
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
US
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-10-30 07:26
CPC Classifications
G; G06; G06Q; G06Q30/00; G06Q30/06; G06Q10/00; G06Q10/06; G06Q20/00; G06Q20/04; G06Q20/08; G06Q20/10; G06Q20/102; G06Q20/22; G06Q20/29; G06Q20/38; G06Q20/40; G06Q20/401; G06Q20/4016; G06Q20/403
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 23
Claim 1
Independent Claim
152 words
A method, comprising: receiving a first service request that specifies a service of multiple distributed services to be deployed; creating an affiliation between the specified service and a first management agent that will supervise the specified service; selecting a first host among a plurality of distributed hosts; deploying the first management agent at the selected first host; identifying an expiration of the created affiliation between the specified service and the first management agent, wherein identifying the expiration of the created affiliation comprises: identifying a failure of the first management agent to renew the affiliation; selecting a second host among the plurality of distributed hosts; deploying a replacement management agent to the selected second host that will supervise the specified service; receiving an affiliation renewal indication from the first management agent; and sending an affiliation renewal exception to the first management agent indicating that it has been replaced by the replacement management agent.
Claim 2
Independent Claim
152 words
A method, comprising: receiving a first service request that specifies a service of multiple distributed services to be deployed; creating an affiliation between the specified service and a first management agent that will supervise the specified service; selecting a first host among a plurality of distributed hosts; deploying the first management agent at the selected first host; identifying an expiration of the created affiliation between the specified service and the first management agent, wherein identifying the expiration of the created affiliation comprises: identifying a failure of the first management agent to renew the affiliation; selecting a second host among the plurality of distributed hosts; deploying a replacement management agent to the selected second host that will supervise the specified service; receiving an affiliation renewal indication from the first management agent; and sending an affiliation renewal exception to the first management agent indicating that it has been replaced by the replacement management agent.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
22 words
The method of claim 1 , further comprising: creating a record in response to the service request the record describing the service.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
16 words
The method of claim 2 , wherein the record comprises information required to create the service.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
23 words
The method of claim 3 , wherein the information comprises a uniform resource locator (URL) of class codebase, class name and initialization information.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
15 words
The method of claim 2 , wherein the record further specifies the first management agent.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
65 words
The method of claim 1 , wherein selecting the first host among the plurality of distributed hosts comprises: publishing a solicitation to the plurality of distributed hosts; receiving volunteer responses from a subset of the plurality of distributed hosts in response to the published solicitation; and selecting the first host from among the subset of the plurality of distributed hosts by applying a selection policy.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
21 words
The method of claim 6 , wherein the selection policy comprises one of a random choice or a round-robin selection policy.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
29 words
The method of claim 1 , further comprising: receiving registrations from hosts of the plurality of distributed hosts; and storing the registered hosts in a list as known hosts.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
18 words
The method of claim 8 , further comprising: selecting the first host from the list of known hosts.
Claim 11
Independent Claim
93 words
A method, comprising: deploying management agents at distributed locations in a network; affiliating each of the management agents with a service of multiple distributed services; assessing a health, at each of the management agents, of a corresponding affiliated service of the multiple distributed services; storing each affiliation of a management agent and a service of the multiple distributed services as a lease entry in a database; and storing each lease entry in a priority queue based on a time associated with a creation of the affiliation between the management agent and the service.
Claim 12
Independent Claim
93 words
A method, comprising: deploying management agents at distributed locations in a network; affiliating each of the management agents with a service of multiple distributed services; assessing a health, at each of the management agents, of a corresponding affiliated service of the multiple distributed services; storing each affiliation of a management agent and a service of the multiple distributed services as a lease entry in a database; and storing each lease entry in a priority queue based on a time associated with a creation of the affiliation between the management agent and the service.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
31 words
The method of claim 10 , further comprising: expiring a lease entry from a head of the the priority queue based on a time associated with the creation of the affiliation.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
54 words
The method of claim 10 , further comprising: determining if the management agent associated with the lease agent has renewed its affiliation with the corresponding service; and if the affiliation has been renewed, storing an updated version of the lease entry in the priority queue based on a time associated with the affiliation renewal.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
31 words
The method of claim 12 , further comprising: if the affiliation has not been renewed, identifying a replacement management agent to replace the management agent associated with the expired lease entry.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
50 words
The method of claim 13 , further comprising: creating an affiliation between the replacement management agent and the corresponding service; storing the affiliation as a lease entry in the database; and storing the lease entry in the priority queue based on a time associated with the creation of the affiliation.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
29 words
The method of claim 13 , further comprising: maintaining a resource pool of unaffiliated management agents; and identifying the replacement agent from the resource pool of unaffiliated management agents.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
39 words
The method of claim 10 , wherein assessing a health of a corresponding affiliated service comprises: determining whether the corresponding affiliated service is failing; and further comprising: terminating the corresponding affiliated service if it is determined to be failing.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
24 words
The method of claim 16 , further comprising: launching a replacement service, if the corresponding affiliated service is failing, to replace the affiliated service.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
25 words
The method of claim 10 , wherein assessing a health of a corresponding affiliated service comprises: determining whether the corresponding affiliated service is reaching capacity.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
31 words
The method of claim 18 , further comprising: launching multiple redundant copies of the corresponding affiliated service, based on the determination, to effect at least one of load balancing or scaling.
Claim 22
Independent Claim
132 words
A method, comprising: affiliating a shared service of multiple shared services with a management object; deploying the management object to monitor the affiliated shared service, the shared service being deployed in a service container of multiple distributed service containers; storing the affiliation of the management object and the shared service of the multiple shared services as a lease entry in a database; storing the lease entry in a priority queue based on a time associated with a creation of the affiliation between the management object and the shared service; monitoring the affiliated shared service to determine if it is reaching capacity; and launching one or more redundant copies of the affiliated shared service to other service containers of the multiple distributed service containers to effect at least one of load-balancing or scaling.
Claim 23
Independent Claim
132 words
A method, comprising: affiliating a shared service of multiple shared services with a management object; deploying the management object to monitor the affiliated shared service, the shared service being deployed in a service container of multiple distributed service containers; storing the affiliation of the management object and the shared service of the multiple shared services as a lease entry in a database; storing the lease entry in a priority queue based on a time associated with a creation of the affiliation between the management object and the shared service; monitoring the affiliated shared service to determine if it is reaching capacity; and launching one or more redundant copies of the affiliated shared service to other service containers of the multiple distributed service containers to effect at least one of load-balancing or scaling.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
USPTO Annuity & Maintenance Windows
| Annuity Stage | Window Opens | Payment Deadline | Surcharge Period Until | Estimated Fee | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.5 Years (Year 4) | 2010-03-19 | 2010-09-18 | 2011-03-20 | $2000.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 7.5 Years (Year 8) | 2014-03-19 | 2014-09-18 | 2015-03-20 | $3760.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 11.5 Years (Year 12) | 2018-03-19 | 2018-09-18 | 2019-03-20 | $7700.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |