Decoupled Session Processing for Multi-Protocol High Availability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing high availability systems for communication sessions face challenges when multiple protocols are involved, leading to a 'ping-pong' effect where session data is inconsistently replicated across different nodes, causing stalemates and inefficiencies in session recovery.
Innovation Solution
Decoupling the application session from protocol processing by executing separate protocol sessions and application sessions on processing nodes, allowing for replication and failover strategies that redirect or move sessions based on relative costs such as delays, bandwidth, and processing, to ensure seamless communication session continuity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If session data is replicated across multiple nodes using traditional protocol-specific replication, then high availability is improved, but inconsistency and ping-pong effects occur during failover
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the session handling into two independent components: protocol-specific message processing and application-level session processing. Protocol sessions handle protocol-specific tasks while application sessions manage session state, allowing independent replication and failover of each component without causing consistency issues between them.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the application-level session processing from the protocol-specific processing. By separating session state management from protocol message handling, the system can replicate session data independently of protocol traffic routing, eliminating the ping-pong effect where session data and protocol traffic get mismatched during failover.
2Reliability
If protocol-specific load balancers redirect traffic to different nodes upon failure, then protocol availability is improved, but multi-protocol session consistency deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary session manager that sits between protocol-specific load balancers and application sessions. This intermediary coordinates failover across multiple protocols by managing session state independently, ensuring that when one protocol redirects traffic to a different node, other protocols can do the same without causing session inconsistency.
3Reliability
If session replication is performed across all nodes, then failover capability is improved, but system complexity and resource overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by allowing different replication strategies for different components. Protocol sessions can be replicated using protocol-specific methods while application sessions use a unified session management approach. This localized approach reduces overall system complexity compared to uniform replication across all nodes.
Data Source
AI summary
Embodiments of the invention provide systems and methods for providing high availability in a session supporting multiple protocols. More specifically, embodiments of the present invention provide for high availability processing by decoupling an application session from protocol processing. That is, protocol processing can be performed at protocol nodes specific to each protocol session. The protocol nodes can then pass messages to and from a session node that performs session processing other than the protocol processing. The session of the first session node can be replicated on a second session node and, upon a failure of the first session node, control of the session can be passed to the second session node. The session can then be continued on the second session node according to a number of different models described herein.