Concurrent process execution

Abstract

Among other things, a node is enabled to participate, with other nodes, in forming and using transport layer features in a communication network, the transport layer features being extensible to support ten million or more simultaneous reliable conversations between or among applications running on respective participant nodes.

1 .- 19 . (canceled) 
     
     
         20 . A method comprising
 as a configuration of a communication network changes, dynamically determining, at nodes of the network, tables to be used for routing communications from node to node through the network, the dynamic determining including
 propagating neighborhood snapshots generated at respective nodes and 
 in response to the propagated neighborhood snapshots, iteratively delaying the determining of routing tables. 
   
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 20  in which a node schedules, for an incrementally later time, a rebuilding of its routing table when another node joins or leaves its neighborhood. 
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 21  in which the node reschedules, for a yet incrementally later time, a rebuilding of its routing table when yet another node joins or leaves its neighborhood. 
     
     
         23 . A method comprising
 at a node in a communication network, providing a service location facility for applications hosted on the node with respect to services offered or used by the applications hosted on the node or by applications hosted on other nodes of the communication network, the service location facility maintaining associations between services and corresponding service identifiers.   
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 23  comprising propagating snapshots of the associations from the node to other nodes in the network. 
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 23  in which the associations are maintained in a service catalog. 
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 23  comprising providing alternate modes for an application to use the service catalog to locate services of interest. 
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 23  comprising using the associations to provide anycast features. 
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 23  comprising using the associations to provide multicast features. 
     
     
         29 . The method of  claim 23  comprising using the associations to provide load-balancing features with respect to use of the communication network. 
     
     
         30 . The method of  claim 23  comprising using the associations to provide proximity routing features. 
     
     
         31 . A method comprising
 in a node of a communication network, enabling maintenance of communication endpoints for use in establishing conversations of the nodes and of the applications of the network, the endpoints being maintained persistently as one or more of the following occur: (a) conversations are established and terminated, (b) network transport software instances are shut down and restarted, (c) nodes on which network transport software instances are running are shut down and restarted, (d) an entire network transport layer mesh is shut down and restarted, or (e) the entire communication network is shut down and restarted.   
     
     
         32 . The method of  claim 31  comprising applying security techniques based on the persistence of the endpoints. 
     
     
         33 . The method of  claim 31  in which maintaining the endpoints persistently comprises maintaining associated service handles persistently. 
     
     
         34 . The method of  claim 33  comprising maintaining statistically unique global identity of the service handles. 
     
     
         35 . The method of  claim 34  comprising enabling service handles to be reused by transport software instances to represent given participants of a conversation. 
     
     
         36 . The method of  claim 31  comprising enabling applications on nodes of the communication network to provide and use services between them privately based on the persistence of the endpoints. 
     
     
         37 . The method of  claim 31  comprising migrating applications from one node to another node of the network and enabling the migrated applications to provide and use services to one another based on the persistence of the endpoints. 
     
     
         38 . The method of  claim 31  comprising analyzing static program correctness based on the persistence of the endpoints. 
     
     
         39 . The method of  claim 31  comprising re-establishing conversations of the nodes after a failure of the communication network based on the persistence of the endpoints. 
     
     
         40 . A method comprising in a communication network in which applications hosted on nodes of the network provide and use services through communication between nodes on the network, enabling nodes of the network to cooperate to provide reliable notification when failures at a node affect the availability of services from applications hosted on the node. 
     
     
         41 . The method of  claim 40  in which the failures comprise software restarts. 
     
     
         42 . The method of  claim 40  in which the failures comprise hardware resets. 
     
     
         43 . The method of  claim 40  in which the nodes of the network are enabled to cooperate to provide reliable notification by using transport layer software instances running on the nodes. 
     
     
         44 . The method of  claim 43  in which the failures comprise loss of operation of one or more of the instances. 
     
     
         45 . The method of  claim 40  in which the nodes comprise operating systems software running on hardware. 
     
     
         46 . The method of  claim 45  in which the failures comprise loss of operation of the operating system, the hardware, or both. 
     
     
         47 . A method comprising
 in a communication network, enabling applications hosted on a node of the network to publish the availability of services provided by the applications and to subscribe to services offered by other applications, the publication comprising   publishing in one mode when a service is subscribed by an application that is hosted on the same node as the application that publishes the service, and   publishing in a different mode when a service is subscribed by an application that is hosted on a different node from the node hosting the application that publishes the service.   
     
     
         48 . The method of  claim 47  comprising using the published service availability to respond to a request by an application for the location of the service. 
     
     
         49 . The method of  claim 48  in which the application requesting the location need have no a priori knowledge of whether the service is available on a local node or on a remote node. 
     
     
         50 . The method of  claim 48  comprising the application using a single location-neutral interface for requesting the location whether the service is available on a local node or on a remote node. 
     
     
         51 . A method comprising
 in a communication network, enabling applications hosted on a node of the network to subscribe to services published by applications on the network, the subscribing comprising:   subscribing in one mode when a service is published by an application that is hosted on the same node as the application that subscribes to the service, and subscribing in a different mode when a service is published by an application that is hosted on a different node from the node hosting the application that subscribes to the service.   
     
     
         52 . The method of  claim 51  in which, in the different mode, the subscribing is registered locally by transport layer software running on the same node as the application that subscribes to the service. 
     
     
         53 . The method of  claim 52  in which, if any subscriptions have already been registered at the same node for the service published by the application hosted on the different node, the local node need not report the new subscriber to the remote publishing application. 
     
     
         54 . A method comprising
 when a first client application hosted by a local node of a network wants to subscribe to a service offered by a service application running on a remote node, a local transport layer software instance on the local node sending a subscription management message to the remote node to subscribe to the service on behalf of the first client application, and   the local transport layer software instance enabling other local applications to use the service without requiring any other subscription management message to be sent on the network to the other node.   
     
     
         55 . The method of  claim 54  comprising
 the local transport layer software instance sending another subscription management message only when no local client application any longer uses the service. 
 
     
     
         56 . The method of  claim 54  comprising responding to a request for the location of a service in a way that depends on whether the service being sought by an application is hosted on the same node as the application that provides the service. 
     
     
         57 . The method of  claim 56  in which the responding is based on only services published in the one mode, or on services published in the one mode and in the different mode. 
     
     
         58 . A method comprising enabling communication by applications hosted on nodes of a communication network by
 a combination of notifications that are delivered reliably and datagrams that are delivered unreliably.   
     
     
         59 . The method of  claim 58  comprising using the enabled communication to reliably deliver streamed data. 
     
     
         60 . The method of  claim 58  comprising using the datagrams to deliver user data. 
     
     
         61 . (canceled)