Deferred acknowledgment communications and alarm management

A communication technique for conveying data between a first data server and a second data server that is communicatively coupled to the first data server via a communication link which uses data acknowledgments, the technique comprising the steps of:

• establishing a first queue in the first data server to store data to be sent through the communication link;
• establishing a second queue in the first data server to store data that has been sent into the communication link and that has not been acknowledged;
• applying a window to the first queue to define a group of data to be sent through the communication link;
• sending the group of data into the communication link at a first time;
• appending the group of data to the second queue as a result of sending the group of data into the communication link;
• receiving an acknowledgment for at least one of the group of data at a second time that is greater than the first time;
• and
• removing the acknowledged data from the second queue upon receiving the acknowledgment.

A method of sending a plurality of messages through a communication link, comprising the steps of:

• storing messages to be sent through the communication link in a first queue;
• defining a message window size for selecting messages from the first queue, wherein the window size is greater than one;
• applying a window of the window size to the first queue to define a message bundle including a first number of messages up to the window size;
• sending the first number of messages associated with the message bundle into the communication link;
• sending an acknowledgment request with one of the first number of messages in the message bundle;
• storing the sent first number of messages in a second queue;
• and
• removing acknowledged messages from the second queue.

A deferred acknowledgment communication system for use in a data transmission system having a data server with a processor communicatively coupled to a communication link, the communication system comprising:

• a computer readable medium;
• a first storing routine stored on the computer readable medium and adapted to be executed by the processor that stores data to be sent through the communication link in a first queue;
• a second storing routine stored on the computer readable medium and adapted to be executed by the processor that stores data that has been sent into the communication link in a second queue;
• a windowing routine stored on the computer readable medium and adapted to be executed by the processor that uses a window to define a group of data stored in the first queue to be sent through the communication link;
• a sending routine stored on the computer readable medium and adapted to be executed by the processor that sends the group of data into the communication link;
• an appending routine stored on the computer readable medium and adapted to be executed by the processor that appends the group of data to the second queue as a result of the group of data being sent;
• and
• an acknowledging routine stored on the computer readable medium and adapted to be executed by the processor that receives an acknowledgment for some of the group of data and that removes the data associated with the received acknowledgment from the second queue.

A deferred acknowledgment communication system for use in a data transmission system having a data server communicatively to a communication link, the communication system comprising:

• a computer readable medium;
• a first storing routine stored on the computer readable medium and adapted to be executed by the data server that stores messages in a first queue to be sent through the communication link;
• a defining routine stored on the computer readable medium and adapted to be executed by the processor that defines a window size for selecting messages from the first queue;
• a windowing routine stored on the computer readable medium and adapted to be executed by the data server that applies a window of the window size to the first queue to define a message bundle including a number of messages up to the window size;
• a first sending routine stored on the computer readable medium and adapted to be executed by the data server that sends the number of messages of the message bundle into the communication link;
• a second sending routine stored on the computer readable medium and adapted to be executed by the data server that sends an acknowledgment request with one of the sent number of messages;
• a second storing routine stored on the computer readable medium and adapted to be executed by the data server that stores the sent number of messages in a second queue;
• and
• an acknowledgment tracking routine stored on the computer readable medium and adapted to be executed by the data server that removes acknowledged messages from the second queue.

A system for sending a plurality of messages through a communication link, comprising:

• a first data server having;
• a first queue that stores messages to be sent through the communication link,
• a second queue that stores unacknowledged messages that have been sent into the communication link,
• a first routine that sends a group of messages stored in the first queue into the communication link wherein the number of messages within the group of messages is based on a number of messages stored in the second queue,
• a second routine that appends the sent group of messages to the second queue and,
• a third routine that processes acknowledgments associated with the sent group of messages to remove acknowledged messages from the second queue;
• and
• a second data server that is communicatively coupled to the first data server via the communication link, the second data server including:
• a fourth routine that receives the sent group of messages via the communication link and that sends acknowledgments for one or more of the received sent group of messages to the first data server via the communication link.

A method of sending a plurality of messages through a communication link that has a round trip transmission delay and that uses data acknowledgment, the method comprising the steps of:

• sending a first message into the communication link;
• sending a second message into the communication link without waiting for acknowledgment of the first message;
• and
• requesting an acknowledgment for the second message.