Broker System Consolidates Socket Connections for Distributed Computing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Mainframe-based systems face limitations in integrating with distributed computing environments due to the high number of socket connections required, which restricts the scalability and efficiency of communication between client applications and legacy systems like IMS.
Innovation Solution
A broker system that consolidates socket connections, manages message routing, and provides routing services to enable efficient communication between distributed applications and legacy systems, reducing the number of socket connections and supporting a larger number of clients by abstracting message segmentation complexities and application-specific details.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If each client process establishes a socket connection to each server process in a connection-oriented network design, then communication between distributed applications and legacy systems is enabled, but the number of socket connections increases significantly, limiting system scalability
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple socket connections from different clients into a single shared connection to the mainframe system. The broker consolidates N connections from N clients into one connection, dramatically reducing the total number of socket connections required while maintaining full communication capability between all clients and the legacy system.
Solution Approach 2:
The broker acts as an intermediary component between distributed clients and the mainframe system. It receives requests from multiple clients, manages the single shared connection to the mainframe, and distributes responses back to appropriate clients. This mediator pattern enables scalable communication without requiring each client to maintain its own direct connection.
2Productivity
If a broker consolidates socket connections to reduce their number, then scalability is improved and system efficiency increases, but the complexity of managing message routing and segmentation increases
Solution Approach 1:
The broker is designed as a universal component that handles multiple functions: connection management, message routing, segmentation, reassembly, and client identification. By consolidating these diverse functions into a single multi-functional broker, the system achieves scalability while managing complexity through a unified architecture rather than separate specialized components.
Solution Approach 2:
The broker implements nested functionality where higher-level communication protocols and message handling logic are embedded within the broker's core connection management framework. The segmentation and reassembly operations are nested within the message routing logic, creating a hierarchical structure that manages complexity through organized layers of functionality.
Data Source
AI summary
A broker of the present invention enables distributed applications to communicate with a server in distributed computing environment. The broker receives from a client a request to execute a transaction. The broker receives input parameters including input data. The broker uses a routing service to locate the server. The broker then establishes a communications connection to the server and forwards the input data. The transaction is executed and the broker receives a response from the server. The broker forwards the response to the client. The broker can segment the input data before forwarding the input data to the server. If the response is in multiple segments, the broker can combine the multiple segments into one string before forwarding the response to the client. Further, the broker may receive requests from multiple clients via multiple communications connections. The broker then consolidates the multiple communications connections and establishes one communications connection to the server.