The present invention relates generally to a method, system, and computer program product for managing data requests and responses. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method, system, and computer program product for scalable and self-healing architecture for client-server operations in transient connectivity conditions.
Most data communications between two data processing systems involve a request for data and a response containing the requested data. For example, a client data processing system requests data by sending a request message using HyperText Transfer Protocol (http or HTTP) to a server data processing system. The server sends, using http, a response message containing the data to the client.
An underlying assumption in such data communications is that the data network over which the messages are communicated will remain available throughout the message exchange. When a client requests data and the network changes or becomes unavailable, the client has to re-request the data by sending another request.
Users are well aware of such situations in mobile environments. For example, assume that an application executing on a mobile device requests data from a server over the mobile network while the mobile device is moving through the mobile network. While the application is awaiting the data, the mobile network connectivity may be lost due to weak or absent signal in some areas, the network parameters may change as the device transits from one mobile network to another network, or some other change or transiency in the data connectivity may occur in the network causing the device to temporarily become unable to receive a response to the request for data.
When the mobile device regains connectivity to a data network, the application does not simply begin receiving the data that was requested before the transiency of the data connectivity was experienced. One example reason why this may occur is because the response may be discarded when the time between the request and the response exceeds certain thresholds. The application may therefore have to re-request the data and obtain the response without losing the network connectivity.
Furthermore, from a server's point of view, managing the requests from numerous clients is also problematic under such transient network circumstances. Often a server has to duplicate the work to regenerate the requested data, reproduce the response, or both, when request retransmissions occur due to disruptions in network connectivity.
Under some circumstances, the requesting application, the client data processing system, or both may no longer be available to receive the requested data. Under such circumstances, the requested data lingers at the server or elsewhere in the data network.
The illustrative embodiments provide a method, system, and computer program product for scalable and self-healing architecture for client-server operations in transient connectivity conditions. An embodiment includes a method for managing data requests in transient network conditions. The embodiment receives a first request from a first data processing system, over a data network, at an application executing using a processor and a memory in a second data processing system, the first request requesting data from a type of service. The embodiment responds to the first request with a first response. The embodiment queues the first request in a service queue corresponding to the type of the service, to make the first request available to a third data processing system that provides the type of the service. The embodiment receives a notification that a second response from the third data processing system has been posted into a session specific queue, the second response being responsive to the first request. The embodiment sends, in response to a second request received from the first data processing system, a third response, the third response including the data from the second response posted in the session specific queue.
Another embodiment includes a computer usable program product comprising a computer readable storage device including computer usable code for managing data requests in transient network conditions.
Another embodiment includes a data processing system for managing data requests in transient network conditions.
The novel features believed characteristic of the invention are set forth in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, as well as a preferred mode of use, further objectives and advantages thereof, will best be understood by reference to the following detailed description of the illustrative embodiments when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
The illustrative embodiments recognize that managing requests and responses in transient network environments is problematic from the perspective of the requesting data processing systems as well as the responding data processing systems. On the requestor data processing system side, the problems present themselves as unsuccessful requests for data, repeated requests, and latency in receiving the data, among other undesirable operations and user experience. On the responder data processing system side, the problems present themselves as multiple requests for the same data, different servers receiving the copies of the request and performing duplicative work to generate the responses, languishing data when requestors remain inaccessible for a period of time, among other undesirable operations and expenses.
The illustrative embodiments used to describe the invention generally address and solve the above-described problems and other problems related to managing data requests and responses. The illustrative embodiments provide a method, system, and computer program product for scalable and self-healing architecture for client-server operations in transient connectivity conditions.
Hereinafter, only for the clarity of the description and without implying any limitation thereto, some illustrative embodiments are described using http requests and responses in a mobile computing environment. The embodiments described herein are adaptable to other types or requests and responses using other protocols. The embodiments described herein are also adaptable for use not only with mobile devices but also with other data processing system and environments where stable network connectivity is not guaranteed.
In some embodiments, a requestor system is described as a client and a responding system is described as a server without implying any particular client-server configuration or architecture. A client is simply a consumer of data and a server is simply a supplier of data, and a system that is a client in one exchange could very well be the server (or backend) in another exchange, and vice versa. Typically, servers operate in a backend data processing environment and are accessed over a data network from applications executing at client systems. The backend data processing environment—also referred to herein as the server-side data processing environment—comprises applications and systems to receive the data requests, repositories of data from which to provide data in response, applications whose services are requested in some requests, security applications, middleware applications and platforms, and many other systems and applications.
An embodiment can be implemented as an application in software, hardware, or firmware, to operate in the backend data processing environment. An application implementing an embodiment is referred to herein as an agent. Some operations of some embodiments described herein can be implemented in a server, such as by modifying a server application to perform those operations. Generally, within the scope of the illustrative embodiments, the operations and functions of an embodiment can be implemented in a stand-alone manner or in conjunction with other applications executing in the backend data processing environment.
A client initiates a data communication session by sending a handshake message to a backend data processing environment. The backend data processing environment implements one or more agent applications, one of which establishes a session identifier for the session and responds to the client's handshake message. For the remainder of the data communications between the client and the backend, the client is expected to use the session identifier.
Using the session identifier, the client sends a request, such as a request for data, to the backend data processing environment. Before a server in the backend environment can respond to the request, or even before the request is directed to a specific server for processing, an agent responds to the request with an acknowledgement (ACK message), thereby indicating to the client that the request has been received for processing. An example protocol used for such communications may be, but is not limited to HTTP.
The agent determines from the message header a type of service the request message is requesting. For example, one request may ask for a database service where a database has to provide data in response. As another example, another request may ask for an identity service where a server application may have to validate an identity and provide confirmatory data. As another example, a request may ask for a notification service where a backend application has to supply information of an event when the event is detected. Many other types of services can similarly be requested from the backend in a request message.
A message-oriented middleware is any suitable application that enables two or more applications to communicate with each other via message queues (MQ). A variety of message-oriented middleware, also referred to herein as messaging middleware or MQ middleware, are presently available and in use in backend data processing environments. MQ-Series and RabbitMQ are some examples of commercially available messaging middleware that facilitate such communications between applications (MQ-Series is a trademark of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States and other countries, RabbitMQ is an open source software distributed by Pivotal Software, Inc., under Mozilla Public License).
A messaging middleware allows one or more applications to publish one or more messages for one or more other applications in a message queue. The other applications subscribe to the queue. When a message is published to the queue, all subscribers, or a subset of the subscribers, to the queue can receive the published message. The subset of subscribers that receive a message is determined by a combination of the policies ascribed to the queue and by the message contents themselves.
The set of one or more agent applications maintain a set of service queues. A service queue in the set of service queues is configured to receive publications of requests of only a specific service. For example, one service queue may be associated with the database service, another service queue may be associated with the identity service, and another service queue may be associated with the notification service.
Depending upon the service being requested in a request message, an agent publishes the request to the service queue associated with that service. Those servers or backend applications which provide the requested service subscribe to the service queue for that service. One of the subscriber backend applications takes up the request from the service queue. That subscriber backend application processes the request and produces a response with the requested data.
Meanwhile, from the client's point of view, the original request-ACK pair may have concluded. The request and the ACK occur in a considerably shorter period as compared to the time it would take to respond to the request with the requested data.
The client must open another channel for the session over which data from the backend can be received. Under http, the client accomplishes this operation by sending a GET message to the backend. In other protocols, the same underlying transport may be used to send responses to the client.
The original request from the client and the response received by the client are decoupled in several ways. For example, the response may be sent by an agent that is different from the agent that processed the request. As another example, the response may be sent at a time that is different from the time of the request. As another example, there may even be multiple response messages sent in response to the same original request.
An agent receives the client message asking for response(s), which includes the session identifier. Under HTTP, this message may be sent as a GET request. As explained previously, the agent receiving this message may be different from the agent that received the original client request. The agent determines whether a session specific queue for the requestor client has already been created in the messaging middleware. A session specific queue is usable by a server to publish responses that have to be delivered to the client. Whenever a server or backend application has data to send to the client, the server or the backend application publishes that data to the session specific queue for the client. The client is the ultimate subscriber to the session specific queue with the agent acting as the intermediary who will forward the message. When data is published to the session specific queue, the subscribing client receives the data when the client has data connectivity.
In certain circumstances, such as when the client loses connectivity for a prolonged period after sending the initial request for data, the client may not have opened a channel before the server is ready to publish a response. Because the channel has not been opened, a session specific queue does not yet exist to which the server can publish the response. In such circumstances, the server can create the session specific queue and publish the response to the queue.
In some cases, a client may open multiple channels or the like, such as by sending multiple HTTP GET messages. Potentially different agents can receive the different requests from the same client for the same session. To avoid creating multiple session specific queues for the same session for the same client, before an agent creates a session specific queue, the agent checks whether a session specific queue already exists for the client and the session identifier. If a session specific queue already exists, the agent simply binds to the existing session specific queue.
Thus, multiple agents can bind to the same session specific queue. When a response is posted to the session specific queue by a server or backend application, any one of the agents that are bound to the queue can send the published response to the subscribing client as a response to the client-initiated “receive response” message. Under HTTP, this may be a GET message. Which of the several bound agents sends the GET response message to the subscribing client can be selected using any suitable method of selecting one entity from many comparable entities. Load balancing, relative priorities, an order of identifiers, and round robin are some example methods for such a selection.
When a subscribing client does not access a session specific queue for a queue timeout period, an embodiment purges the queue and the remaining messages therein. If a message is posted to a session specific queue, and a subscribing client does not pick up or receive the posted message, a message timeout timer purges that posted message from the session specific queue.
Thus, the architecture self-heals from prolonged lost connectivity, terminated clients, abandoned requests, and other such circumstances. The example architecture according to an embodiment described above also allows a backend configuration of servers to scale according to the number of unique requests rather than according to a mix of unique and duplicative requests. Thus, the backend resources also experience a far more productive utilization as compared to the present wasteful utilization for processing duplicative requests.
The data responsive to the request is delivered over a publish-subscribe model using message queues, which do not require request-response pairs. Therefore, the client avoids having to re-send requests due to transient network conditions but is still able to receive the responses as and when the client has connectivity.
A method of an embodiment described herein, when implemented to execute on a device or data processing system, comprises substantial advancement of the functionality of that device or data processing system in managing data requests and responses. For example, in order to manage data communications over intermittent network connectivity, the prior-art requires repeated retransmission of requests from the client to the server, the retransmissions ending when the network connectivity is stable for a long enough period to allow the server's response to reach the requesting client. In contrast, an embodiment allows a client to receive at least an acknowledgement response almost immediately upon an initial request, obviating the need to retransmit even if network connectivity is lost thereafter. The client can then pick up the response via a publish subscribe mechanism as and when the network connectivity becomes available to the client. Such manner of data request management in transient network conditions is unavailable in presently available devices or data processing systems. Thus, a substantial advancement of such devices or data processing systems by executing a method of an embodiment allows for better scaling of the backend capacity, a self-healing mechanism to handle long term disconnects between the requestors and the responders, and significantly reduces the need to retransmit data requests in unstable networks.
The illustrative embodiments are described with respect to certain architectures, middleware, protocols, messages, identifiers, networks, parameters, timeouts, conditions, devices, data processing systems, environments, components, and applications only as examples. Any specific manifestations of these and other similar artifacts are not intended to be limiting to the invention. Any suitable manifestation of these and other similar artifacts can be selected within the scope of the illustrative embodiments.
Furthermore, the illustrative embodiments may be implemented with respect to any type of data, data source, or access to a data source over a data network. Any type of data storage device may provide the data to an embodiment of the invention, either locally at a data processing system or over a data network, within the scope of the invention. Where an embodiment is described using a mobile device, any type of data storage device suitable for use with the mobile device may provide the data to such embodiment, either locally at the mobile device or over a data network, within the scope of the illustrative embodiments.
The illustrative embodiments are described using specific code, designs, architectures, protocols, layouts, schematics, and tools only as examples and are not limiting to the illustrative embodiments. Furthermore, the illustrative embodiments are described in some instances using particular software, tools, and data processing environments only as an example for the clarity of the description. The illustrative embodiments may be used in conjunction with other comparable or similarly purposed structures, systems, applications, or architectures. For example, other comparable mobile devices, structures, systems, applications, or architectures thereof, may be used in conjunction with such embodiment of the invention within the scope of the invention. An illustrative embodiment may be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination thereof.
The examples in this disclosure are used only for the clarity of the description and are not limiting to the illustrative embodiments. Additional data, operations, actions, tasks, activities, and manipulations will be conceivable from this disclosure and the same are contemplated within the scope of the illustrative embodiments.
Any advantages listed herein are only examples and are not intended to be limiting to the illustrative embodiments. Additional or different advantages may be realized by specific illustrative embodiments. Furthermore, a particular illustrative embodiment may have some, all, or none of the advantages listed above.
With reference to the figures and in particular with reference to
Clients or servers are only example roles of certain data processing systems connected to network 102 and are not intended to exclude other configurations or roles for these data processing systems. Server 104 and server 106 couple to network 102 along with storage unit 108. Software applications may execute on any computer in data processing environment 100. Clients 110, 112, and 114 are also coupled to network 102. A data processing system, such as server 104 or 106, or client 110, 112, or 114 may contain data and may have software applications or software tools executing thereon.
Only as an example, and without implying any limitation to such architecture,
Device 132 is an example of a device described herein. For example, device 132 can take the form of a smartphone, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, client 110 in a stationary or a portable form, a wearable computing device, or any other suitable device. Any software application described as executing in another data processing system in
Servers 104 and 106, storage unit 108, and clients 110, 112, and 114 may couple to network 102 using wired connections, wireless communication protocols, or other suitable data connectivity. Clients 110, 112, and 114 may be, for example, personal computers or network computers.
In the depicted example, server 104 may provide data, such as boot files, operating system images, and applications to clients 110, 112, and 114. Clients 110, 112, and 114 may be clients to server 104 in this example. Clients 110, 112, 114, or some combination thereof, may include their own data, boot files, operating system images, and applications. Data processing environment 100 may include additional servers, clients, and other devices that are not shown.
In the depicted example, data processing environment 100 may be the Internet. Network 102 may represent a collection of networks and gateways that use the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and other protocols to communicate with one another. At the heart of the Internet is a backbone of data communication links between major nodes or host computers, including thousands of commercial, governmental, educational, and other computer systems that route data and messages. Of course, data processing environment 100 also may be implemented as a number of different types of networks, such as for example, an intranet, a local area network (LAN), or a wide area network (WAN).
Among other uses, data processing environment 100 may be used for implementing a client-server environment in which the illustrative embodiments may be implemented. A client-server environment enables software applications and data to be distributed across a network such that an application functions by using the interactivity between a client data processing system and a server data processing system. Data processing environment 100 may also be viewed as employing a service oriented architecture where interoperable software components distributed across a network may be packaged together as coherent business applications.
With reference to
Data processing system 200 is also representative of a data processing system or a configuration therein, such as device 132 in
In the depicted example, data processing system 200 employs a hub architecture including North Bridge and memory controller hub (NB/MCH) 202 and South Bridge and input/output (I/O) controller hub (SB/ICH) 204. Processing unit 206, main memory 208, and graphics processor 210 are coupled to North Bridge and memory controller hub (NB/MCH) 202. Processing unit 206 may contain one or more processors and may be implemented using one or more heterogeneous processor systems. Processing unit 206 may be a multi-core processor. Graphics processor 210 may be coupled to NB/MCH 202 through an accelerated graphics port (AGP) in certain implementations.
In the depicted example, local area network (LAN) adapter 212 is coupled to South Bridge and I/O controller hub (SB/ICH) 204. Audio adapter 216, keyboard and mouse adapter 220, modem 222, read only memory (ROM) 224, universal serial bus (USB) and other ports 232, and PCl/PCIe devices 234 are coupled to South Bridge and I/O controller hub 204 through bus 238. Hard disk drive (HDD) or solid-state drive (SSD) 226 and CD-ROM 230 are coupled to South Bridge and I/O controller hub 204 through bus 240. PCI/PCIe devices 234 may include, for example, Ethernet adapters, add-in cards, and PC cards for notebook computers. PCI uses a card bus controller, while PCIe does not. ROM 224 may be, for example, a flash binary input/output system (BIOS). Hard disk drive or solid-state drive 226 and CD-ROM 230 may use, for example, an integrated drive electronics (IDE), serial advanced technology attachment (SATA) interface, or variants such as external-SATA (eSATA) and micro-SATA (mSATA). A super I/O (SIO) device 236 may be coupled to South Bridge and I/O controller hub (SB/ICH) 204 through bus 238.
Memories, such as main memory 208, ROM 224, or flash memory (not shown), are some examples of computer usable storage devices. Hard disk drive or solid state drive 226, CD-ROM 230, and other similarly usable devices are some examples of computer usable storage devices including a computer usable storage medium.
An operating system runs on processing unit 206. The operating system coordinates and provides control of various components within data processing system 200 in
Instructions for the operating system, the object-oriented programming system, and applications or programs, such as agents 107 or backend application 105 in
The hardware in
In some illustrative examples, data processing system 200 may be a mobile computing device, which is generally configured with flash memory to provide non-volatile memory for storing operating system files and/or user-generated data. A bus system may comprise one or more buses, such as a system bus, an I/O bus, and a PCI bus. Of course, the bus system may be implemented using any type of communications fabric or architecture that provides for a transfer of data between different components or devices attached to the fabric or architecture.
A communications unit may include one or more devices used to transmit and receive data, such as a modem or a network adapter. A memory may be, for example, main memory 208 or a cache, such as the cache found in North Bridge and memory controller hub 202. A processing unit may include one or more processors or CPUs.
The depicted examples in
With reference to
Server-side 304 represents the server-side data processing environment where backend applications and servers that respond to client requests, and other server-side architecture components to support their functions operate. A set of several agents 308 is depicted as an example. An instance of agent 308 is an example of agent 107 in
Messaging middleware 312 is an example of messaging middleware 111 in
Service queue 316 holds those client requests that request the service provided by server 314. For example, client application 306 and other client applications (not shown) may send requests for data from a database. An agent from agents 308 receives one such request, identifies the requested service, determines that service queue 316 is associated with the requested service, and posts the request in service queue 316. Servers 314 subscribe to service queue 316. A server from servers 314 detects the posting of the request to service queue 316, and removes that request from service queue 316 for processing.
Note that each of servers 314 operates in a stateless manner. In other words, a server in servers 314 does not maintain any session or state information to have any particular affinity with any particular client application or a session. A server in servers 314 simply receives a request from service queue 316 and processes the request. The received request can be from any client application executing in any client data processing system using any session identifier.
In operation, client application 306 begins by sending a handshake message, e.g., Hello message 320 to server-side 304. Load balancer 310 receives message 320 and allocates message 320 to one of agents 308 as shown. Selected agent 308 receives message 320 and returns session identifier 322, e.g., a session token, to client application 306 via load balancer 310 or a security application such as a proxy server (not shown). Client application 306 is expected to use session identifier 322 in all future requests within the session with server-side 304.
With reference to
Having obtained session identifier 322, e.g., a session token in the operation described with respect to
Agent 308 that receives request 424, labeled “agent A”, validates request 424. For example, agent A determines whether client application 306 is entitled to send request 424, a user credential used with request 424 is authorized to use request 424 or a result thereof, or perform some combination of these or other authentication or validation determinations.
Agent A identifies the service requested in request 424. For example, agent A examines a header of request message 424 to identify a message type identifier or a service type identifier, which informs agent A about the service being requested in message 424. Agent A may consult a lookup service (not shown in the figure) to map the service in the client request to the service that must be contacted, that has the associated service queue 316.
Agent A determines that service queue 316 is associated with the requested service. Agent A posts message 424 in service queue 316. Servers 314 provide the requested service and subscribe to service queue 316. A server from servers 316 removes message 424 for processing and providing the requested service.
With reference to
Having received request 424 in
Meanwhile an instance of servers 314, labeled “server B” receives request 424 from service queue 316. Server B begins processing request 424.
With reference to
Having received acknowledgement message 526 in
Load balancer 310 distributes request 628 to an instance of agent 307, labeled “agent C”. Note that the agent C that receives Get request 628 need not be, but can be, the same instance that received request message 424 in
With reference to
Having received GET message 628 in
If session specific queue 730 does not exist, agent C creates session specific queue 730 in messaging middleware 312. In operation 732, agent C subscribes to, or binds with, session specific queue 730. By subscribing to, or binding with, session specific queue 730, agent C can detect or be notified when an instance of servers 314 posts a response to session specific queue 730.
With reference to
Having retrieved request 424 from service queue 316 for processing, server B produces response 834. Server B determines whether session specific queue 730 already exists for the session in which request 424 was made. If session specific queue 730 exists, such as when GET message 628 has already arrived and agent C has already created session specific queue 730, server B posts response 834 in session specific queue 730. If session specific queue 730 does not exist, server B creates session specific queue 730. In this manner, the queuing of server response 834 for delivery to the client and the GET request(s) from the client seeking any responses are decoupled.
Due to agent C's subscription 732 to session specific queue 730, agent C receives notification that response 834 has been posted in session specific queue 730 for the session with session identifier 322 for client 306.
With reference to
Having been notified of the posting of response 834, agent C retrieves response 834 from session specific queue 730. Because agent C has a channel open with client application 306 owing to GET request 628, agent C sends response 834 as GET response 936 to client application 306. Agent C sends Get response 936 through load balancer 310 or another security mechanism (not shown).
With reference to
An agent instance receives a request, e.g., an http request for data, for a client (block 1002). The request includes a session identifier that has been previously established by the same or different agent instance during a handshake messaging with the client.
The agent instance sends an acknowledgement response for the request to the client (block 1004). The acknowledgement is sent faster than an actual response containing the requested data, and causes the client to be notified that its request has been received by the backend.
The agent instance identifies and selects a service requested in the request (block 1006). The agent instance selects the service queue that corresponds to the requested service (block 1008). This determination may be made by simply selecting a client-specified service or by consulting another backend lookup service that maps the client requested service to a backend service specific to that client or class of clients (not shown). The agent instance queues the request message in the selected service queue (block 1010). The agent instance ends process 1000 thereafter.
With reference to
An agent instance receives a request, such as an http GET request, which opens a channel between the client and the server-side, and through which the data requested by the request of block 1002 in
The agent instance that receives the request of block 1102 determines whether a session specific queue exists for the session in which the request of block 1102 is sent (block 1104). If the session specific queue does not exist (“No” path of block 1104), the agent instance creates the session specific queue and binds with the newly created session specific queue (block 1106). If the session specific queue exists (“Yes” path of block 1104), the agent instance binds with the existing session specific queue (block 1108).
The agent instance detects, or receives notification from the messaging middleware, that a server response to the request of block 1002 of
With reference to
The server instance creates a response to an original request message, e.g., the request of block 1002 in
The illustrative embodiments have been described using examples of messages under HTTP only for the clarity of the description and not as a limitation on the illustrative embodiments. From this disclosure, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that the illustrative embodiments described herein are agnostic to the specific transport protocol used to communicate requests and responses between clients and servers, and can be adapted to operate with protocols other than HTTP, and the same is contemplated within the scope of the illustrative embodiments.
Thus, a computer implemented method, system or apparatus, and computer program product are provided in the illustrative embodiments for scalable and self-healing architecture for client-server operations in transient connectivity conditions. Where an embodiment or a portion thereof is described with respect to a type of device, the computer implemented method, system or apparatus, the computer program product, or a portion thereof, are adapted or configured for use with a suitable and comparable manifestation of that type of device.
The present invention may be a system, a method, and/or a computer program product. The computer program product may include a computer readable storage medium (or media) having computer readable program instructions thereon for causing a processor to carry out aspects of the present invention.
The computer readable storage medium can be a tangible device that can retain and store instructions for use by an instruction execution device. The computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but is not limited to, an electronic storage device, a magnetic storage device, an optical storage device, an electromagnetic storage device, a semiconductor storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. A non-exhaustive list of more specific examples of the computer readable storage medium includes the following: a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), a static random access memory (SRAM), a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), a digital versatile disk (DVD), a memory stick, a floppy disk, a mechanically encoded device such as punch-cards or raised structures in a groove having instructions recorded thereon, and any suitable combination of the foregoing. A computer readable storage medium, as used herein, is not to be construed as being transitory signals per se, such as radio waves or other freely propagating electromagnetic waves, electromagnetic waves propagating through a waveguide or other transmission media (e.g., light pulses passing through a fiber-optic cable), or electrical signals transmitted through a wire.
Computer readable program instructions described herein can be downloaded to respective computing/processing devices from a computer readable storage medium or to an external computer or external storage device via a network, for example, the Internet, a local area network, a wide area network and/or a wireless network. The network may comprise copper transmission cables, optical transmission fibers, wireless transmission, routers, firewalls, switches, gateway computers and/or edge servers. A network adapter card or network interface in each computing/processing device receives computer readable program instructions from the network and forwards the computer readable program instructions for storage in a computer readable storage medium within the respective computing/processing device.
Computer readable program instructions for carrying out operations of the present invention may be assembler instructions, instruction-set-architecture (ISA) instructions, machine instructions, machine dependent instructions, microcode, firmware instructions, state-setting data, or either source code or object code written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language such as Smalltalk, C++ or the like, and conventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C” programming language or similar programming languages. The computer readable program instructions may execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider). In some embodiments, electronic circuitry including, for example, programmable logic circuitry, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA), or programmable logic arrays (PLA) may execute the computer readable program instructions by utilizing state information of the computer readable program instructions to personalize the electronic circuitry, in order to perform aspects of the present invention.
Aspects of the present invention are described herein with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer readable program instructions.
These computer readable program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks. These computer readable program instructions may also be stored in a computer readable storage medium that can direct a computer, a programmable data processing apparatus, and/or other devices to function in a particular manner, such that the computer readable storage medium having instructions stored therein comprises an article of manufacture including instructions which implement aspects of the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
The computer readable program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other device to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer, other programmable apparatus or other device to produce a computer implemented process, such that the instructions which execute on the computer, other programmable apparatus, or other device implement the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate the architecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementations of systems, methods, and computer program products according to various embodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in the flowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portion of instructions, which comprises one or more executable instructions for implementing the specified logical function(s). In some alternative implementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specified functions or acts or carry out combinations of special purpose hardware and computer instructions.
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