Mediator System for Heterogeneous Message Transformation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Message-based interactions in Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) and Business-to-Business (B2B) scenarios become complex due to heterogeneity in data and protocol processes among partners, leading to differences in message formats, acknowledgment expectations, and information transmission methods.
Innovation Solution
A mediator system comprising five predefined machines (receiving, sending, processing, and scheduler machines) that manage and schedule request and answer messages, allowing for the decomposition of requests into subrequests and processing them independently, while maintaining a unified interface for communication with clients and providers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If direct communication is established between client and providers with different message formats and protocols, then communication functionality is achieved, but system complexity increases due to heterogeneity management
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a mediator system that acts as an intermediary between the client and multiple providers. The mediator receives requests from the client, transforms them into appropriate formats for different providers, and aggregates responses back to the client. This mediator pattern resolves the technical contradiction by centralizing the complexity of handling heterogeneous message formats and protocols in a single component, while maintaining simple, unified interfaces for both clients and providers.
2Productivity
If request messages are sent to multiple providers simultaneously, then communication efficiency improves, but coordination complexity increases due to different acknowledgment expectations
Solution Approach 1:
The mediator implements a feedback mechanism that collects acknowledgment messages from all providers, processes them according to the client's expectations, and returns a unified response. The feedback principle resolves the contradiction by systematically gathering responses from multiple providers and transforming them into a coordinated answer that meets the client's acknowledgment requirements, thereby maintaining efficiency while managing coordination complexity.
3Ease of operation
If information is transmitted in a unified format to all providers, then client interface simplicity is maintained, but information loss occurs due to different provider requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The mediator applies local quality by maintaining a unified interface for the client while transforming messages into provider-specific formats tailored to each provider's requirements. The local quality principle resolves the contradiction by allowing the system to have a simple, consistent interface at the client level while adapting the message content, format, and structure locally for each provider, thereby preventing information loss without compromising interface simplicity.
4Manufacturing precision
If all message transformations are performed sequentially, then transformation accuracy is maintained, but processing time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The mediator performs preliminary actions by pre-defining transformation rules and message templates for different providers. By preparing transformation logic in advance and caching provider-specific configurations, the system can execute transformations more efficiently without sacrificing accuracy. The preliminary action principle resolves the contradiction by shifting some processing work to the preparation phase, allowing faster execution during actual message handling while maintaining transformation precision.
Data Source
AI summary
A mediator system (and associated methods and computer program products) for mediating a communication between a client and a plurality of providers within a network is described. The mediator system may include logical machines including a first receiving machine configured to receive a request message from the client, a first sending machine configured to send answer messages back to the client, a processing machine configured to handle the received request message internally represented as a request object, a second sending machine configured to send outgoing request messages to the providers, and a second receiving machine configured to receive incoming answer messages from the providers. The machines can be scheduled separately from being executed, and the request object may be split into subrequests, where each of those subrequests may be further decomposed into subsubrequests that may be sent out in parallel to the providers.