Landscape-Aware Inter-Application Communication Infrastructure
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing inter-application communication systems are inflexible and unable to effectively communicate between heterogeneous applications running on different technologies, languages, or messaging structures, leading to static relationships even in dynamic environments.
Innovation Solution
A landscape-aware inter-application communication infrastructure that uses a unified meta-model to describe communication structures, allowing dynamic identification and translation of messages across heterogeneous applications, enabling flexible communication regardless of the underlying system landscape.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If applications are built based on advance information about operating environment features, then applications can be specifically configured for their environment, but the system becomes static and inflexible when environment changes occur
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic service binding where service endpoints are not hard-coded but discovered and bound at runtime. The service registry allows applications to dynamically identify and connect to available services based on current system state, enabling the system to adapt to environmental changes while maintaining reliable communication through standardized protocols.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a service registry as an intermediary component that decouples service providers from service consumers. This registry acts as a dynamic directory that applications query to find available services and their current endpoints, allowing the system to adapt to changes without requiring applications to be reconfigured, thus resolving the contradiction between reliable configuration and adaptability.
2Adaptability or versatility
If different vendor software with different versions and technologies are used, then system versatility is improved, but communication complexity and difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal service registry interface that works across different vendor software, versions, and technologies. The registry uses standardized data structures and communication protocols that are technology-agnostic, allowing heterogeneous applications to be discovered and communicated with through a common interface, thereby reducing communication complexity despite software diversity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs parameter-based service identification where services are described using standardized parameters and metadata in the service registry. This parameterized approach allows the system to handle different vendors and versions by matching services based on their functional parameters rather than implementation-specific details, simplifying communication across diverse software landscapes.
3Reliability
If hardwired links are used between applications, then communication reliability is improved, but system flexibility and ease of operation deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces static hardwired links with dynamic service binding through the service registry. Applications declare their service requirements and the registry automatically binds them to appropriate service providers at runtime. This dynamic approach maintains communication reliability through standardized protocols while enabling easy reconfiguration when services are added, removed, or moved, as applications automatically discover new bindings without manual reconfiguration.
Data Source
AI summary
This disclosure relates to systems, methods, and software that involve system landscape aware inter-application communication infrastructure. This inter-application communication infrastructure may implement one metamodel to describe how an application could participate in an inter-application communication. The metamodel can describe the input parameters accepted but the application and the possible output of it. Based on the metadata, which would be exposed or otherwise available for involved applications, there is a protocol defining the communication flows between applications.