Event Notification Subscription Management via Distributed Routing

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative Solutions
Generate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

Existing event notification systems face challenges in scaling to handle large amounts of data while maintaining reliability, particularly in scenarios with thousands of subscriptions, leading to computational burdens and potential system breakdowns due to unbalanced load distribution among nodes.

Innovation Solution

The system employs a horizontal edge-node structure with distributed routing tables, filtering, and dynamic resource management to efficiently route and filter events, using techniques like hash-table comparisons and prefix trees to manage subscriptions and distribute data traffic effectively across multiple brokers and clusters.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If a broker process evaluates subscription filters for each message in a pub-sub system, then messages can be routed to appropriate subscribers, but computational burden increases proportionately with the number of subscriptions

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvemessage routing accuracyVSAvoidcomputational burden
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the broker process into multiple worker processes, each handling a subset of subscriptions. This divides the computational burden across multiple processes while maintaining accurate filter evaluation for each message, resolving the contradiction between routing accuracy and computational complexity.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent introduces a new dimension by organizing subscriptions into groups or categories, adding a hierarchical structure to the subscription management. This allows messages to be routed through multiple levels of filtering, reducing the computational burden at each level while maintaining overall routing accuracy.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #17Another dimension (Dimensionality change)

2Productivity

If multiple topics are created to mitigate computing limitation, then the number of subscriptions per topic can be limited, but additional computational burdens are placed on publisher and subscriber applications

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvemessage handling capacityVSAvoidsystem complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent creates a universal subscription management system that can handle large numbers of subscriptions within a single topic without requiring multiple topics. The system provides multi-functional capabilities including dynamic subscription grouping, efficient filter evaluation, and scalable architecture, allowing one topic to serve multiple purposes and handle diverse subscription patterns.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

3Productivity

If event grid nodes handle large amounts of data traffic, then more subscribers can be served, but system breakdown and reliability issues may occur

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvedata traffic handling capacityVSAvoidsystem stability
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The patent implements dynamic load balancing and adaptive resource allocation across event grid nodes. The system can dynamically adjust the distribution of data traffic based on current node capacity and load conditions, allowing the system to handle large amounts of traffic while maintaining stability by preventing any single node from being overwhelmed.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #15Dynamics

Solution Approach 2:

The patent implements proactive measures including resource provisioning, capacity planning, and preventive load management. The system prepares for potential traffic surges by pre-allocating resources and establishing failover mechanisms, cushioning against potential system breakdowns before they occur and maintaining reliability under high traffic conditions.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #11Beforehand cushioning (Prior cushioning)

Data Source

PatentEP3669526B1Managing subscriptions for event notifications
Publication Date: 2023.12.20 MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING LLC
  • EP3669526B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP3669526B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP3669526B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

Systems and methods for dispatching targeted event notifications to subscribers are disclosed. In an example embodiment, a notification indicating creation of an even subscription by a subscriber may be received. An event source may be invoked to enable publishing of events corresponding to an event topic associated with the event subscription. A response from the event source for publishing of the events may be received and targeted event notifications may be forwarded to the subscribers on receiving the response.