Method, apparatus and system for processing a series of service messages

An apparatus for processing of a series of service messages that is formed by a plurality of service messages, at least two server instances provide real-time processing of said series of service messages and store the information provided by said series of service messages and results obtained from processing said series of service messages, said apparatus comprising:

• a computer processor coupled to a memory;
• a scheduler to determine, based on memory usage, when at least one server of said at least two server instances will perform an activity that disrupts the ability of said at least one server to process said series of service messages in real-time;
• a dispatcher to dispatch subsequent service messages among said series of service messages to other server instance(s) other than said at least one server instance, so as to ensure that said activity will not affect message processing delay;
• a route policy database;
• said scheduler is further configured to:
• determine said activity when said at least one server instance has terminated;
• and
• modify route policies in said route policy database so as to dispatch subsequent service messages according to the workloads of said at least two server instances;
• and
• said at least two server instances serve as Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) application server instances, and said dispatcher dispatches subsequent service messages belonging to such a session that is established on said at least one server instance according to the following criteria:
• except CANCEL message which should be dispatched to the SIP application server instance to which the corresponding INVITE message has been dispatched, all the subsequent service messages which are for a new transaction whose corresponding session is on said at least one server instance will be dispatched to said at least one server instance;
• all the subsequent service messages for ongoing transactions on other server instance(s) other than said at least one server instance will be dispatched to the other server instance(s) other than said at least one server instance of said at least two server instances.

A system for processing of a series of service messages that is formed by a plurality of service messages, at least two server instances provide real-time processing of said series of service messages and store the information provided by said series of service messages and results obtained from processing said series of service messages, and in each of said at least two server instances, memory is managed by virtual machine, said system comprising:

• a computer processor coupled to a memory;
• a scheduler to determine, based on memory usage, when at least one server of said at least two server instances will perform an activity that disrupts the ability of said at least one server to process said series of service messages in real-time;
• a route policy database to store route policies, wherein after the scheduler determined that an activity that affects real-time processing of said series of service messages will occur in at least one server instance of said at least two server instances, said scheduler modifies route policies in said route policy database so as to prevent subsequent service messages from being dispatched to said at least one server instance;
• a dispatcher to dispatch subsequent service messages among said series of service messages to other server instance(s) other than said at least one server instance by accessing the route policy database, so as to ensure that said activity will not affect message processing delay;
• at least two virtual machine monitors located in each of said at least two server instances respectively and to provide to said scheduler information that is used for determining an activity that affects real-time processing of said series of service messages will occur in at least one server instance of said at least two server instances;
• an in-memory database to store the information provided by said series of service messages and results obtained from processing said series of service messages;
• said scheduler is further configured to:
• determine said activity when said at least one server instance has terminated;
• and
• modify route policies in said route policy database so as to dispatch subsequent service messages according to the workloads of said at least two server instances;
• and
• said at least two server instances serve as Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) application server instances, and said dispatcher dispatches subsequent service messages belonging to such a session that is established on said at least one server instance according to the following criteria:
• except CANCEL message which should be dispatched to the SIP application server instance to which the corresponding INVITE message has been dispatched, all the subsequent service messages which are for a new transaction whose corresponding session is on said at least one server instance will be dispatched to said at least one server instance;
• all the subsequent service messages for ongoing transactions on other server instance(s) other than said at least one server instance will be dispatched to the other server instance(s) other than said at least one server instance of said at least two server instances.

A computer program product embodied in computer readable memory comprising:

• computer readable program codes coupled to the computer readable memory for processing of a series of service messages that is formed by a plurality of service messages, at least two server instances provide real-time processing of said series of service messages and store the information provided by said series of service messages and results obtained from processing said series of service messages, the computer readable program codes configured to cause the program to:
• determine, based on memory usage, when at least one server of said at least two server instances will perform an activity that disrupts the ability of said at least one server to process said series of service messages in real-time;
• dispatch subsequent service messages among said series of service messages to other server instance(s) other than said at least one server instance, so as to ensure that said activity will not affect message processing delay;
• determine said activity when said at least one server instance has been terminated;
• and
• modify route policies so as to dispatch subsequent service messages according to the workloads of said at least two server instances;
• and
• said at least two server instances serve as Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) application server instances, and subsequent service messages belonging to such a session that is established on said at least one server instance are dispatched according to the following criteria:
• except CANCEL message which should be dispatched to the SIP application server instance to which the corresponding INVITE message has been dispatched, all the subsequent service messages which are for a new transaction whose corresponding session is on said at least one server instance will be dispatched to said at least one server instance;
• all the subsequent service messages for ongoing transactions on other server instance(s) other than said at least one server instance will be dispatched to said other instance(s) other than said at least one server instance of said at least two server instances.