US A1 (19) United States (12) Patent Application Publication (10) Pub. No.: US 2010/ A1 Saha et al. (43) Pub. Date: Mar.

Transcription

1 US A1 (19) United States (12) Patent Application Publication (10) Pub. No.: US 2010/ A1 Saha et al. (43) Pub. Date: Mar. 25, 2010 (54) PROCESSING OF SERVICE-ORIENTED Publication Classi?cation TASKS WITHIN A GRID COMPUTING (51) Int Cl ENVIRONMENT G06F 15/173 ( ) 52 US. Cl /223 (75) Inventors: Rakesh Saha, Freont, CA (US); ( ) AshWin Patel, Sunnyvale, CA (US) (57) ABSTRACT Ebodients of the present invention enable processing of Correspondence Address? tasks Within a service-oriented architecture (SOA). In NORTH WEBER & BAUGH LLP' ORACLE ebodients, an echo ediator is a ediator SOA copo 2479 E- BAYSHORERD, SUITE 707 nent that acts as a service provider by processing a service PALO ALTO, CA (US) request associated With a service requester and returning the result to the service requester. In ebodients, an echo (73) Assignee; Oracle International Corporation, ediator handles a received sequential service request by Redwood Shores CA (Us) synchronously processing it. In ebodients, an echo ediator handles a received parallel service request by stor (21) APPL NO, 12/388,314 ing it in a persistent store, and an echo ediator With process ing capacity retrieves the stored parallel service request and (12 F b_ asynchronously processes 1t. In ebodients, a group of ( ) 1 e e echo ediators ay be distributed aong the nodes of a grid,.. foring an echo ediator grid in Which each of the echo Related U's' Apphcatlon Data ediators interfaces With a coon data store deployed (60) Provisional application No, 61 /098,598,?led On Sen Within the grid. In ebodients, the grid of echo ediators 19, 2008' balances the processing of stored service requests. Service-Oriented Architecture 200 Service I 21_5 S. Processed l S. ervlce Mediation l en/ice er Mediation Provider Service E a Mediator 13.0

2 Patent Application Publication Mar. 25, 2010 Sheet 1 0f 10 US 2010/ A1 Application Presentat'on 160 I Application Application _ Business Logic Data Access M E Controls Application Fraework Application Server Platfor FIGURE 1

3 Patent Application Publication Mar. 25, 2010 Sheet 2 of 10 US 2010/ A1 Service-Oriented Architecture M Service Req uest S. Processed S. ervlce Mediation erv_lce er Medlatlon Service Provlder E & Mediator E FIGURE 2

4 Patent Application Publication Mar. 25, 2010 Sheet 3 0f 10 US 2010/ A1 Persistent Store Stored 312C L Parallel Task 312b Parallel Task _, l' \ I I I I E g I er! > Dispatcher [ l l a _ J Sequential I Task l Asynchronous I Task I Dispatcher l l l l Task Asynchronous I Processor <. Task I I Dlspatcher I I 304a I 314 Echo Mediator l 300 l I- FIGURE 3

5

6 Patent Application Publication Mar. 25, 2010 Sheet 5 0f 10 US 2010/ A1 Echo Mediator 510a Echo Mediator 510b Persistent Store E Echo Mediator 510c Echo Mediator 510x FIGURE 5

7 Patent Application Publication Mar. 25, 2010 Sheet 6 0f 10 US 2010/ A1 Service-Oriented Grid service SOA Coponent Echo Service M Service er. \ Echo Service \ Echo Mediator 630a Echo Service 6i \ Echo f\ Mediator Coponent Grid & \ / I Service Provider E FIGURE 6

8 Patent Application Publication Mar. 25, 2010 Sheet 7 0f 10 US 2010/ A1 Service M Dispatcher Asynchronous Task Dispatcher Asynchronous Task Dispatcher Asynchronous Task Dispatcher Task Processor Echo Mediator M k Echo Response FIGURE 7

9 Patent Application Publication Mar. 25, 2010 Sheet 8 0f 10 US 2010/ A1 00 Receive a task request fro a service requester j 805 /810 Is the task request routing designated as parallel? YES l Dispatch the parallel task request to a persistent store I 315 Dispatch the sequential task request to a task 320 x processor l Return the task processing result to the 325 \ service requester via a reply FIGURE 8

10 Patent Application Publication Mar. 25, 2010 Sheet 9 0f 10 US 2010/ A1 00 Retrieve a parallel task request fro a persistent store _/ 905 l Dispatch the parallel task request to a task processor f 910 l Return the task processing result to the service requester associated with the task request via a callback f 915 FIGURE 9

11 Patent Application Publication Mar. 25, 2010 Sheet 10 0f 10 US 2010/ A1 Coputing Syste Meory Counlcatlons > Storage Devlce Processor Port V I l t tdevice u pu ln ut Device p Network Interface f i/1016 FIGURE 10

12 US 2010/ A1 Mar. 25, 2010 PROCESSING OF SERVICE-ORIENTED TASKS WITHIN A GRID COMPUTING ENVIRONMENT CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATIONS [0001] This application clais priority under 35 USC 1 19 (e) to US. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/098,598, entitled Parallel Processing of Service-Oriented Tasks Within a Grid Coputing Environent, listing Rakesh Saha and AshWin Patel as inventors, and?led on Sep. 19, 2008, Which application is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. BACKGROUND [0002] A. Technical Field [0003] The present invention pertains generally to a grid coputing environent, and relates ore particularly to par allel processing of service-oriented tasks Within a grid co puting environent. [0004] B. Background of the Invention [0005] The use of distributed systes for inforation pro cessing has becoe coonplace for business enterprises and other organizations, due in part to the rise of the Internet, the World Wide Web, advanced network security, and net Working protocols that facilitate network counications. There are any types of distributed systes, ranging fro sall clusters of identical coputing processor nodes occu pying one physical location to large global systes that con tain any different types of nodes and operating environ ents. [0006] Developing, deploying, and anaging a set of soft Ware applications Within a distributed syste environent becoe ore challenging as the size and coplexity of the distributed syste environent increases. An approach to eet these challenges is the creation of a grid coputing environent ( grid ) fro a distributed syste. A grid typi cally is created and anaged by installing grid iddleware, a set of software coponents and protocols, onto a distributed syste platfor. A grid provides a virtual single execution platfor having a single set of interfaces to coonplatfor services such as application adinistration, data access, and security, but it also allows exploitation of the parallelis and fault-tolerance that are inherent in the underlying distributed syste environent. [0007] In recent years, the predoinant structure of enter prise software applications has been adapted to facilitate the perforance and anageent of enterprise inforation tech nologies (IT) Within distributed syste environents. One such adaptation is a service-oriented structure, in Which an application is coposed of a set of software coponents that co-operate to execute an application by providing function ality ( services ) to each other. [0008] A service-oriented grid environent is a grid that hosts a set of service-oriented applications. It Would be advantageous for enterprise IT anageent if the parallelis and fault-tolerance advantages of the grid environent could be leveraged for a deployed service-oriented application Without requiring re-design and/or re-ipleentation of the application coponents in order to eet the speci?c require ents of the grid iddleware. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0009] Ebodients of the present invention enable pro cessing of tasks Within a service-oriented architecture (SOA). In ebodients, an echo ediator is a ediator SOA co ponent that acts as a service provider by processing a service request associated With a service requester and returning the result to the service requester. In ebodients, an echo ediator handles a received sequential service request by synchronously processing it. In ebodients, an echo ediator handles a received parallel service request by stor ing it in a persistent store, and an echo ediator With process ing capacity retrieves the stored parallel service request and asynchronously processes it. In ebodients, a group of echo ediators ay be distributed aong the nodes of a grid, foring an echo ediator grid in Which each of the echo ediators interfaces With a coon data store deployed Within the grid. In ebodients, the grid of echo ediators balances the processing of stored service requests. [0010] In ebodients, a coputer progra product co prising at least one coputer-readable ediu storing one or ore sequences of instructions that, When executed, cause one or ore processors to handle a plurality of service requests Within a service-oriented coputing grid environ ent by perforing steps that ay coprise providing a plurality of service-oriented architecture (SOA) coponents for distribution Within the service-oriented coputing grid environent (Where each SOA coponent is of the sae type and interfaces With a coon persistent store; receiving a?rst service request (associated With a?rst service requester) at a?rst SOA coponent Within the plurality of SOA co ponents; storing the?rst service request in the coon per sistent store if the?rst service request is a parallel service request; and retrieving the stored?rst service request fro the coon persistent store by a second SOA coponent Within the plurality of coponents and then processing the retrieved request and returning the result to the?rst service requester via a callback. In ebodients, the steps further coprise the?rst SOA coponent processing the?rst service request syn chronously and returning a result to the?rst service requester via a reply if the?rst service request is a sequential service request. [0011] In ebodients, the?rst SOA coponent and the second SOA coponent are the sae SOA coponent. In ebodients, each of the plurality of SOA coponents is a ediator. In ebodients, the?rst service request is an atoic task. In ebodients, the second SOA coponent retrieves the stored?rst service request if the second SOA coponent has capacity to process a service request. In ebodients, handling of the?rst service request is speci?ed in a service request con?guration associated With the?rst service request. In ebodients, a plurality of service requests are received by the plurality of SOA coponents and processing of the plurality of service requests is loadbalanced aong the plurality of SOA coponents. [0012] In ebodients, a coputer progra product co prising at least one coputer-readable ediu storing one or ore sequences of instructions that, When executed, cause one or ore processors to provide a ediator SOA copo nent Within a service-oriented coputing grid environent by perforing steps that ay coprise providing an echo

13 US 2010/ A1 Mar. 25, 2010 ediation SOA coponent; and, in response to receiving a service request associated With a service requester the echo ediation perforing the steps of processing the service request Without invoking another service to obtain a result, and returning the result to the service requester. In ebodi ents, the echo ediation SOA coponent supports both synchronous and asynchronous service requests. In ebodi ents, the service request is a synchronous request received fro the service requester. In ebodients, the service request is an asynchronous service request received fro a persistent store. In ebodients, the coputer progra product ay further coprise a plurality of echo ediator SOA coponents that are con?gured to be deployed aount nodes Within a grid environent, Where each of the plurality of echo ediator SOA coponents interfaces With the per sistent store. [0013] In ebodients, handling a received service request by an echo ediator SOA coponent ay coprise processing the service request Without invoking another ser vice to obtain a result and returning the result to the service requester if the service request is a sequential service request; and storing the service request in the persistent store if the service request is a parallel service request. In ebodients, a stored service request associated With a service request is received by an echo ediator SOA coponent if the echo ediator SOA coponent has capacity to process a service request. In ebodients, the axiu nuber of service requests to be processed by an echo ediator SOA copo nent is con?gurable. In ebodients, the service request is an atoic service request. [0014] In ebodients, a syste for handling service requests Within a service-oriented coputing environent ay coprise a SOA coponent that ay coprise a request dispatcher, coupled to receive one or ore service requests fro one or ore requesting SOA coponents, that identi?es a type of a received service request and dispatches the received service request based upon the identi?ed type; at least one asynchronous task dispatcher, coupled to receive a stored service request fro a persistent store, Where an asyn chronous task dispatcher dispatches the stored service request for processing to a task processor Within the SOA coponent; and a task processor, coupled to receive service requests fro the request dispatcher and fro at least one asynchronous task dispatcher, the task processor processes a received ser vice request to obtain a result and the result is returned to the requesting SOA coponent associated With the processed service request. In ebodients, service requests received by the request dispatcher are atoic tasks. In ebodients, the request dispatcher dispatches a received service request by dispatching the received service request to the task processor if the received service request is a sequential service request; and dispatching the received service request to the persistent store for storing if the received service request is a parallel service request. [0015] In ebodients, the syste ay further coprise a plurality of SOA coponents that are con?gured to be deployed aount nodes Within a grid environent, Where each of the plurality of SOA coponents interfaces With the persistent store. In ebodients, each of the SOA copo nents Within the plurality of SOA coponents is a ediator. [0016] Soe features and advantages of the invention have been generally described in this suary section; however, additional features, advantages, and ebodients are pre sented herein or Will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art in view of the drawings, speci?cation, and clais hereof. Accordingly, it should be understood that the scope of the invention shall not be liited by the particular ebodients disclosed in this suary section. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0017] Reference Will be ade to ebodients of the invention, exaples of Which ay be illustrated in the acco panying?gures. These?gures are intended to be illustrative, not liiting. Although the invention is generally described in the context of these ebodients, it should be understood that it is not intended to liit the scope of the invention to these particular ebodients. [0018] FIG. 1 illustrates an exeplary organization of SOA coponents into functional layers. [0019] FIG. 2 depicts an exeplary scenario illustrating the role of a ediation service Within a SOA according to various ebodients of the invention. [0020] FIG. 3 illustrates an exeplary echo ediator SOA coponent that receives a service request for an atoic task and returns the processing result to a service requester SOA coponent according to various ebodients of the inven tion. [0021] FIG. 4 graphically illustrates exaples of echo ediator con?gurations according to various ebodients of the invention. [0022] FIG. 5 illustrates an exeplary echo ediator co ponent grid according to various ebodients of the inven tion. [0023] FIG. 6 depicts an exeplary scenario illustrating the role of an echo ediator grid Within a service-oriented grid according to various ebodients of the invention. [0024] FIG. 7 depicts a block diagra of an echo ediator syste according to various ebodients of the invention. [0025] FIG. 8 depicts a ethod for dispatching a task request according to various ebodients of the invention. [0026] FIG. 9 depicts a ethod for asynchronous task pro cessing according to various ebodients of the invention. [0027] FIG. 10 depicts a block diagra of a coputing syste according to various ebodients of the invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS [0028] In the following description, for purposes of expla nation, speci?c details are set forth in order to provide an understanding of the invention. It Will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the invention can be practiced Without these details. Furtherore, one skilled in the art Will recognize that ebodients of the present invention, described below, ay be ipleented in a variety of Ways, including software, hardware, or?rware, or a cobination thereof. Accordingly, the How charts described below are illustrative of speci?c ebodients of the invention and are eant to avoid obscuring the invention. [0029] Coponents, or odules, shown in block diagras are illustrative of exeplary ebodients of the invention and are eant to avoid obscuring the invention. It shall also be understood that throughout this discussion that coponents ay be described as separate functional units, Which ay coprise sub-units, but those skilled in the art Will recognize that various coponents, or portions thereof, ay be divided into separate coponents or ay be integrated together, including integrated Within a single syste or coponent.

14 US 2010/ A1 Mar. 25, 2010 [0030] Furtherore, connections between coponents within the?gures are not intended to be liited to direct connections. Rather, data between these coponents ay be odi?ed, re-foratted, or otherwise changed by interedi ary coponents. Also, additional or fewer connections ay be used. It shall also be noted that the ters coupled or counicatively coupled shall be understood to include direct connections, indirect connections through one or ore interediary devices, and wireless connections. [0031] Reference in the speci?cation to one ebodient, preferred ebodient, an ebodient, or ebodi ents eans that a particular feature, structure, character istic, or function described in connection with the ebodi ent is included in at least one ebodient of the invention and ay be in ore than one ebodient. The appearances of the phrases in one ebodient, in an ebodient, or in ebodients in various places in the speci?cation are not necessarily all referring to the sae ebodient or ebodients. [0032] The use of certain ters in various places in the speci?cation is for illustration and should not be construed as liiting. Usage of the ter service is not liited to describ ing a single function; usage of the ter also ay refer to a grouping of related functions or functionality. Siilarly, usage of the ter resource is not liited to describing a single resource; the ter also ay be used to refer to a set of resources that ay either be distributed or aggregated within a coputing environent. [0033] A. Overview [0034] A distributed enterprise software application ay be ipleented within a syste that has a service-oriented architecture (SOA), an application fraework that contains a set of loosely coupled software coponents. Loosely coupled software coponents have no design interdependencies; the encapsulated functionality of a SOA coponent is provided to other coponents as a service that ay be consued as needed. A service consuer coponent ay discover an available service by?nding a description of a service pro ducer interface that has been published in a data registry. The service consuer ay invoke the available service by send ing a service request essage to the published interface of a service producer. When a service request essage is received, a service producer executes the requested functionality and then ay send a result essage to the service consuer. A SOA coponent ay be designed to have both service pro ducer and service consuer roles within a SOA fraework. [0035] A SOA-based software application is a set of SOA coponents ( coposite ) that are associated to perfor a higher level task. Rather than being code-based, a ode SOA fraework has a data-driven structure in which the association of SOA coponents is described in a set of text based con?gurations that ost coonly leverage XML. Deploying an application into a data-driven SOA typically includes supplying a con?guration that describes a coposite of SOA coponents as well as a work?ow ( choreography ) that speci?es the order in which the coponents send and handle essages during application execution. [0036] The functionality of a SOA coponent (its service) ay be used in ultiple applications that are hosted on the syste. Re-using coponent functionality iniizes the nuber and coplexity of SOA coponents that ust be aintained. An enterprise SOA ay be organized into func tional layers of SOA coponents. The functional layers enable a set of SOA coponents to supply the application foundation services that are coon to applications deployed into the enterprise SOA fraework. FIG. 1 illus trates the organization of an exeplary enterprise SOA fraework that is deployed onto an application server plat for 110. The set of SOA coponents providing the coon application services are deployed into the application frae work layer 120 and into the controls 130. In this type of organization, developent of a new enterprise application ay be sipli?ed because it only requires increental addi tion of new application-speci?c SOA coponents into the upper layers such as the business logic layer 140, the data access layer 150, and the application presentation layer 160. The coposite of SOA coponents de?ning the new appli cation thus will be an integration of the newly added copo nents and a set of existing SOA coponents that includes coon services coponents fro the application frae work layer 120. [0037] l. SOA Mediation Service [0038] One exaple of a SOA foundation service is a ediation service. A ediation service facilitates loose cou pling aong SOA coponents by preventing a coponent fro referencing any other coponent directly. Instead of sending a service request directly to a service provider, a coponent invokes a ediation service with the service request, and the ediation service routes the service request to a service provider coponent based on a SOA con?gura tion. In addition to essage routing, a ediation service also ay include essage processing tasks such as essage vali dation, transforation, and re-sequencing. Those skilled in the art will recognize that an exeplary ipleentation of a SOA ediation service is as an Enterprise Service Bus within an application fraework 120, but that there are any ways to ipleent a SOA ediation service. In another exaple, a ediation service ay be ipleented by a SOA coponent type called a ediator. [0039] FIG. 2 depicts an exeplary scenario illustrating the role of a ediation service within a SOA 200. In this SOA, the ediation service is provided by a ediator 230 SOA co ponent. A service requester 210 has dispatched a service request 215 to a BPEL engine 220. BPEL (Business Process Execution Language) is a standard language that is used for describing SOA choreography, and a BPEL engine 220 is a type of SOA coponent that orchestrates the order of inter actions aong the SOA coponents within a coposite according to a BPEL SOA choreography. As is well known to those skilled in the art, a BPEL engine ay receive a service request 215 that speci?es a job which the BPEL engine ay execute by orchestrating the job into a set of tasks. Soe of these tasks ay be atoic tasks, which are tasks that cannot be further subdivided, and the BPEL engine ay send service requests to other SOA coponents for execution of at least soe of the atoic tasks. [0040] In the exaple, the BPEL engine 220 is requesting a service that is to be provided by a service provider 250. Instead of the BPEL engine 220 sending the service request directly to the service provider 250, the BPEL engine 220 akes a ediation service request 235 to a ediator copo nent 230 within the SOA 200. The ediator coponent will route a processed service request 255 to the service provider 250. [0041] 2. An Echo Mediator [0042] As discussed above, SOA coponents perfor spe ci?c functions, which are unique to the SOA coponent type. Because each SOA coponent type perfors unique ser

15 US 2010/ A1 Mar. 25, 2010 vices, little overlap of functionality exists between SOA co ponents. However, aspects of ediation services ay be ben e?cially utilized by other SOA coponents. But, traditionally ediation services are utilized only When routing a service request fro a service requestor/service consuer to a ser vice provider. In ebodients of the present invention, aspects of ediation services can be provided to SOA co ponents as a service. That is, at least soe of the processing tasks that are associated With ediation services ay be invoked by service requests fro a requesting SOA copo nent and a result is returned to that requesting SOA copo nent. Exaples of these tasks that ay be bene?cially used by other SOA coponents include, Without liitation, valida tion, transforation, and re-sequencing. [0043] For exaple, a ediator can provide transforation services, such as (by Way of exaple and not liitation) XSL/XQuery, to other SOA coponents that do not have strong transforation support, such as (by Way of exaple and not liitation) Coplex Event Processing service engines and Huan Work?oW service engines. Also, by Way of exaple, a ediator could provide validation services. A ediator could provide syntactic validation services, for exaple (by Way of illustration and not liitation) based on XML Schea and/or seantic validation services, based on (by Way of exaple and not liitation) scheatron, to other SOA service engines. [0044] Because ediator services traditionally have only been invoked as part of routing between SOA coponents, no echanis existed to invoke the ediator coponent as an end service provider. Thus, in ebodients, a ediator SOA coponent ay be extended according to the teachings of the present patent docuent to becoe an end service provider for one or ore tasks by processing a request and returning a result to the requestor. [0045] FIG. 3 illustrates an exeplary echo ediator SOA coponent 300 that receives a service request for an atoic task 312 and returns the processing result 314 to the service requester SOA coponent 310. In ebodients, an echo ediator 300 ay be con?gured to handle both synchronous and asynchronous service requests 312. As is Well known to those skilled in the art, a synchronous service request is received and executed Within a processing thread shared by the requester and the receiver. The requester ust Wait to resue control of the thread until execution of the requested task by the receiver ends. In ebodients of echo ediator 300, a received sequential task request (de?ned to have sequential routing) that has been identi?ed by a request dispatcher 302 is handled as a synchronous service request and is dispatched to a task processor 306 for execution. Once task processing copletes, a task processing result 314 is returned as a reply to the service requester 310. [0046] As is Well known to those skilled in the art, an asynchronous service request is executed Within a separate thread fro the thread in Which it is received, so that the requester ay resue control of the thread once the task request is dispatched. In various ebodients of echo edia tor 300, a received parallel task request (de?ned to have parallel routing) that has been identi?ed by a request dispatcher 302 is dispatched to a persistent store 320, Where the parallel task request 312!) is stored. In various ebodi ents, for exaple, the persistent store 320 is a database and the task request is an XML docuent. In ebodients, an asynchronous task dispatcher 304 ay pull a stored parallel task request 3120 fro the persistent store 320 and dispatch the task execution to a task processor 306 for execution. The task processing result 314 is returned to the service requester in a separate thread via a callback function. In various ebodients, an echo ediator 300 instance ay be con?g ured to have a set of asynchronous task dispatchers (304a through 304x), enabling the echo ediator instance to per for ulti-threaded asynchronous task processing of ul tiple parallel task requests. [0047] In ebodients, an echo ediator 300 that is designed to handle both synchronous and asynchronous ser vice requests ay be con?gured to handle both sequential type requests and parallel type requests. FIG. 4 graphically depicts exaples of echo ediator service request con?gu rations. Depicted are a sequential transforation service request 400A and a parallel transforation service request 400B according to various ebodients of the invention. In the exaples, the type of service request routing 312 ay be speci?ed via a choice fro a drop down list ( sequential or parallel 41019), and the type of echo response 314 ay be speci?ed via the choice of transforation service request fro a drop down list ( reply or callback 420b). [0048] 3. Service-Oriented Grid Coputing [0049] A distributed coputing environent ay contain coputing resources (e.g., coputing nodes, storage, appli cations, and data) that are spread across different physical locations. A grid coputing environent ( grid ) virtualizes the distributed coputing resources into a single execution environent through the use of grid iddleware. An applica tion that executes in a grid coputing environent can take advantage of the inherent parallelis and fault-tolerance of the distributed grid resources. A grid coputing environent enables a software enterprise to be platfor-independent, scalable, reliable, and?exible because it provides a single set of interfaces to Widely distributed coon application ser vices. [0050] A SOA syste ay be deployed onto a grid to create a service-oriented grid. A service-oriented grid cobines the?exible application design and adinistration of a SOA With the platfor-independent, fault-tolerant high-perforance coputing of a grid. For exaple, a coputationally expen sive SOA service request ay be processed in parallel, lever aging the grid environent by distributing the task execution aong ultiple coponent instances deployed onto ultiple grid coputing nodes. HoWever, a service-oriented grid ay be ore coplex and thus ore dif?cult to anage than a SOA that is not deployed onto a grid. For exaple, a SOA choreography that takes advantage of parallel execution in a service-oriented grid ay be ore coplex because of the additional rules for load balancing and dispatching tasks to speci?c coponent instances that are deployed on speci?c grid coputing nodes. [0051] 4. An Echo Mediator Coponent Grid [0052] One speci?c application of the present invention is its use in ebodients of service-oriented grid environents in Which ediation services are ipleented by a ediator coponent type. These ebodients Will be described for illustrative purposes and not for liitation. One skilled in the art Will recognize that one or ore other SOA coponent types ay also be ipleented in like anner. [0053] FIG. 5 illustrates an exeplary echo ediator co ponent grid that coprises a group of echo ediator copo nent instances (510a through 510x) that ay be distributed across ultiple processing nodes Within a service-oriented

16 US 2010/ A1 Mar. 25, 2010 grid according to various ebodients of the invention. The echo ediator coponent instances Within the echo ediator coponent grid each interface to a coon persistent store 520, such as a database, that also is deployed Within the grid. In ebodients, the echo ediator coponent type func tional con?guration ay be stored as, for exaple, XML docuents in the persistent store 520, and the functional con?guration ay be downloaded and locally cached by all echo ediator instances Within the echo ediator coponent grid at syste startup. FIG. 4 illustrates exaples of echo ediator functional con?gurations for handling transfora tion service requests according to various ebodients of the invention. [0054] As previously described, a ediation service is a coon foundation service that ay be invoked by any SOA coponents. An echo ediator coponent grid ay provide high perforance handling of service requests Within a SOA because the ultiple echo ediator instances Within the grid can process ultiple service requests in parallel. In ebodients, those service requests ay be for atoic tasks that are associated With a ediation service, such as essage validation, transforation, and re-sequencing. [0055] FIG. 6 depicts an exeplary scenario illustrating the role of an echo ediator grid 635 Within a service-oriented grid 600. The echo ediator coponent grid 635 coprises a plurality of echo ediator coponent instances (630a through 630x) that are deployed onto various nodes of the service-oriented grid coputing environent, and each echo ediator coponent instance interfaces With a coon per sistent store 632 that is deployed onto a node Within the service-oriented grid 600. [0056] To execute a service request job 615 received fro a service requester 610, a BPEL engine 620 ay dispatch one or ore echo service requests to at least one echo ediator coponent instance 630 in an echo ediator co ponent grid 635. In ebodients, an echo service request 622a ay be designated to have a sequential routing (a sequential task request 312a), and the echo ediator copo nent instance ay handle the service request as a synchro nous request for Which the echo response 314 is returned as a reply echo task result 6221) to the BPEL engine 620, as pre viously described. In ebodients, the echo service request 622a ay be designated to have a parallel routing (a parallel task request 31219), and the echo ediator coponent instance ay handle the service request by dispatching it to the persistent store 635 for storage. The stored parallel task request 3120 ay be retrieved by any of the echo edia tor coponent instances (630a through 63 0x) coprising the echo coponent grid 635, and then handled as an asynchro nous request for Which the echo response 314 is returned as a callback echo task result 6221) to the BPEL engine 620, as previously described. [0057] In ebodients, an echo ediator coponent grid 635 ay leverage the resources and structure of the service oriented grid 600 environent to receive and process ultiple echo service requests (e.g., 622a and 642a) fro ultiple SOA coponents (e.g., 620 and 640) as Well as service requests (e.g. 655a) fro third party service providers (650), and then to return corresponding echo service results (eg 62211, 622b, and 65519) to the service requesters. In various ebodients, a service request functional con?guration, such as 400A and 400B, ay include exposure of the service provider interface for the service request as, for exaple, a SOAP endpoint to enable a third party service provider 650 outside of a service-oriented SOA environent to send a service request to an echo ediator coponent instance 630 Within a service-oriented SOA environent via the Web. [0058] In ebodients, an echo ediator coponent grid 635 ay leverage asynchronous task processing by echo ediator coponent instances 630 to provide high perfor ance parallel execution of received parallel type service requests. For exaple, in ebodients, echo ediator co ponent instances distributed across ultiple nodes of the service-oriented grid ay perfor load balancing of parallel service requests dispatched to the grid by using the stored parallel tasks in the shared persistent store 632 as a coon task queue. Since an echo ediator instance ay be con?g ured to have ore than one asynchronous task dispatcher 304, the deployent of the echo ediator coponent instances coprising an echo ediator coponent grid 635 ay be con?gured to axiize the available coputing resources across the nuber and type of nodes coprising the service oriented grid 600. [0059] Those skilled in the art Will recognize that, although the present invention is described in ters of an echo edia tor coponent grid, coponent grids coprising one or ore types of other SOA coponents ay be deployed Within a service-oriented grid in various ebodients. [0060] B. Syste Ipleentations [0061] FIG. 7 depicts an echo ediator 700 for handling a service request 705 and returning an echo response 725 according to various ebodients of the invention. Echo ediator 700 coprises a request dispatcher 710, one or ore asynchronous task dispatcher instances (720a through 72 0x), and a task processor Task handling by an exeplary echo ediator coponent 300 is illustrated in FIG. 3. [0062] In ebodients, request dispatcher 710 receives a service request 705, deterines the routing type of the service request 705, and dispatches the service request for handling based on its routing type. As previously described, an echo ediator 700 ay be con?gured to handle both synchronous and asynchronous task requests. In ebodients, a service request 705 ay be a sequential task request 31211, which is handled as a synchronous service request and is dispatched to a task processor 730 for execution. The task processing result 314 is returned via a reply as an echo response 725 to the service requester 310 that generated the service request 705. [0063] The service request 705 alternatively ay be a par allel task request 312b, Which the request dispatcher 710 dispatches to a persistent store 320 for storage. In ebodi ents, a stored parallel task request is retrieved fro the persistent store 320 by an asynchronous task dispatcher 720 and handled as an asynchronous service request, as previ ously described. The task processing result is returned via a callback as an echo response 725 to the service requester 310 that generated the service request 705. FIG. 4 illustrates exeplary service request con?gurations for transforation service request routing (410) and handling (420) for an echo ediator 700 according to various ebodients of the inven tion. As illustrated in FIG. 4, other services, such as validation ay also be con?gured for the task or for a different task. As discussed previously, other services, beside just transfora tion and validation, ay be con?gured. [0064] In ebodients, an echo ediator 700 ay co prise one or ore asynchronous task dispatcher 720 instances. Each asynchronous task dispatcher 720 instance ay execute in a separate processing thread, enabling an echo ediator 700 to be able to perfor ulti-threaded asynchro

17 US 2010/ A1 Mar. 25, 2010 nous task processing of ultiple parallel task requests. In various ebodients, the nuber of task dispatcher 720 instances coprising an echo ediator 700 is con?gurable. [0065] In ebodients, task processor 730 receives a task execution request and generates a task processing result based on the task speci?ed in the task execution request. In ebodi ents, execution of a task is speci?ed by a task speci?cation plan Which ay be represented as, for exaple, an XML docuent. In ebodients, a set of task speci?cation plans associated With an echo ediator 700 ay be provided in a startup con?guration (e.g., an XML docuent) that is loaded into the echo ediator instance at initialization and then cached Within the echo ediator instance. In ebodients, the task speci?cation plan to be used in processing a service request 705 ay be designated in the service request con?gu ration. Tuing to the exaple illustrated in FIG. 4, the task speci?cation plan designated for service requests 400A and 400B is transforation (420a and 42019). In ebodients, task processor 730 coprises functional libraries upon Which task execution is based. [0066] C. Method Ipleentations [0067] The following sections describe ebodients of ethods for handling a service request and returning an echo response Within a SOA. The ethod ebodients ay be ipleented in ebodients of echo ediator 700. [0068] 1. Method for Dispatching a Task [0069] FIG. 8 describes a ethod 800 for dispatching a task request according to various ebodients of the invention. Method 800 ay be ipleented in ebodients of request dispatcher 710. [0070] In ebodients, a service request that is received 805 fro a service requester ay include a routing type. In ebodients, the type of a service request ay be speci?ed via a con?guration, as illustrated in FIG. 4. As previously described, in various ebodients, a service request routing ay be designated to be sequential or designated to be parallel 410b. [0071] In ebodients, if the service request routing is designated to be sequential 810, the requested task is handled as a synchronous task request, so that task execution occurs in a shared thread With the service requester. The task request is dispatched 820 to a task processor and executed, and the task processing result is returned 825 via a reply to the service requester, Which regains control of the thread. [0072] In ebodients, if the service request routing is designated to be parallel 810, the task request is dispatched 815 to a persistent store for storage. In ebodients, a task request ay be an XML docuent, and a persistent store ay be a database. Those skilled in the art Will recognize that there is a variety of Ways to represent a task request and there are any Ways to store a task request, and that the choices for task request representation and storage location are not critical to the invention. [0073] 2. Method for Asynchronous Task Processing [0074] FIG. 9 depicts a ethod 900 for asynchronous task processing according to various ebodients of the inven tion. Method 900 ay be ipleented by ebodients of asynchronous task dispatcher 720. [0075] Turning again to the exeplary echo ediator task handling scenario illustrated in FIG. 3, a stored parallel task request 3120 ay be retrieved 905 fro a persistent store and handled as an asynchronous service request. The task speci?ed in the stored parallel task request 3120 is dispatched 910 to a task processor and executed Within a task execution thread. The task processing result is returned 915 via a call back as an echo response to the service requester that gener ated the service request. [0076] In various ebodients, ulti-threaded asynchro nous processing of ultiple stored parallel task requests 3120 ay be perfored by ultiple ebodients of asynchronous task dispatcher (720a through 72 0x) ipleenting ethod 900. [0077] D. Coputing Syste Ipleentations [0078] It shall be noted that the present invention ay be ipleented in any instruction-execution/coputing device or syste capable of processing data, including Without lii tation, a general-purpose coputer and a speci?c coputer, such as one intended for data processing. The present inven tion ay also be ipleented into other coputing devices and systes. Furtherore, aspects of the present invention ay be ipleented in a Wide variety of Ways including software, hardware,?rware, or cobinations thereof. For exaple, the functions to practice various aspects of the present invention ay be perfored by coponents that are ipleented in a Wide variety of Ways including discrete logic coponents, one or ore application speci?c integrated circuits (ASICs), and/or progra-controlled processors. It shall be noted that the anner in Which these ites are iple ented is not critical to the present invention. [0079] FIG. 10 depicts a functional block diagra of an ebodient of an instruction-execution/coputing device 1000 that ay ipleent or ebody ebodients of the present invention. As illustrated in FIG. 10, a processor 1002 executes software instructions and interacts With other syste coponents. In an ebodient, processor 1002 ay be a general purpose processor such as (by Way of exaple and not liitation) an AMD processor, an INTEL processor, a SUN MICROSYSTEMS processor, or a POWERPC copat ible-cpu, or the processor ay be an application speci?c processor or processors. A storage device 1004, coupled to processor 1002, provides long-ter storage of data and soft Ware progras. Storage device 1004 ay be a hard disk drive and/or another device capable of storing data, such as a ag netic or optical edia (e.g., diskettes, tapes, copact disk, DVD, and the like) drive or a solid-state eory device. Storage device 1004 ay hold progras, instructions, and/or data for use With processor In an ebodient, pro gras or instructions stored on or loaded fro storage device 1004 ay be loaded into eory 1008 and executed by processor In an ebodient, storage device 1004 holds progras or instructions for ipleenting an operating sys te on processor In one ebodient, possible operat ing systes include, but are not liited to, UNIX, AIX, LINUX, Microsoft WindoWs, and the Apple MAC OS. In ebodients, the operating syste executes on, and controls the operation of, the coputing syste [0080] An addressable eory 1006, coupled to processor 1002, ay be used to store data and software instructions to be executed by processor Meory 1006 ay be, for exaple,?rware, read only eory (ROM),?ash eory, non-volatile rando access eory (NVRAM), rando access eory (RAM), or any cobination thereof. In one ebodient, eory 1006 stores a nuber of software objects, otherwise known as services, utilities, coponents, or odules. One skilled in the art Will also recognize that storage 1004 and eory 1006 ay be the sae ites and function in both capacities. In an ebodient, one or ore of

18 US 2010/ Al Mar. 25, 2010 the coponents of FIGS. 3-7 ay be odules stored in eory 1004, 1006 and executed by processor [0081] In an ebodient, coputing syste 1000 pro vides the ability to counicate with other devices, other networks, or both. Coputing syste 1000 ay include one or ore network interfaces or adapters 1012, 1014 to co unicatively couple coputing syste 1000 to other net works and devices. For exaple, coputing syste 1000 ay include a network interface 1012, a counications port 1014, or both, each of which are counicatively coupled to processor 1002, and which ay be used to couple coputing syste 1000 to other coputer systes, networks, and devices. [0082] In an ebodient, coputing syste 1000 ay include one or ore output devices 1008, coupled to proces sor 1002, to facilitate displaying graphics and text. Output devices 1008 ay include, but are not liited to, a display, LCD screen, CRT onitor, printer, touch screen, or other device for displaying inforation. Coputing syste 1000 ay also include a graphics adapter (not shown) to assist in displaying inforation or iages on output device [0083] One or ore input devices 1010, coupled to proces sor 1002, ay be used to facilitate user input. Input device 1010 ay include, but are not liited to, a pointing device, such as a ouse, trackball, or touchpad, and ay also include a keyboard or keypad to input data or instructions into co puting syste [0084] In an ebodient, coputing syste 1000 ay receive input, whether through counications port 1014, network interface 1012, stored data in eory 1004/1006, or through an input device 1010, fro a scanner, copier, fac siile achine, or other coputing device. [0085] One skilled in the art will recognize no coputing syste is critical to the practice of the present invention. One skilled in the art will also recognize that a nuber of the eleents described above ay be physically and/or function ally separated into sub-odules or cobined together. [0086] It shall be noted that ebodients of the present invention ay further relate to coputer products with a coputer-readable ediu that have coputer code thereon for perforing various coputer-ipleented operations. The edia and coputer code ay be those specially designed and constructed for the purposes of the present invention, or they ay be of the kind known or available to those having skill in the relevant arts. Exaples of coputer readable edia include, but are not liited to: agnetic edia such as hard disks,?oppy disks, and agnetic tape; optical edia such as CD-ROMs and holographic devices; agneto-optical edia; and hardware devices that are spe cially con?gured to store or to store and execute progra code, such as application speci?c integrated circuits (ASICs), prograable logic devices (PLDs),?ash eory devices, and ROM and RAM devices. Exaples of coputer code include achine code, such as produced by a copiler, and?les containing higher level code that are executed by a co puter using an interpreter. Ebodients of the present inven tion ay be ipleented in whole or in part as achine executable instructions that ay be in progra odules that are executed by a coputer. Exaples of progra odules include libraries, progras, routines, objects, coponents, and data structures. In distributed coputing environents, progra odules ay be physically located in settings that are local, reote, or both. [0087] While the invention is susceptible to various odi?cations and alternative fors, speci?c exaples thereof have been shown in the drawings and are herein described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the invention is not to be liited to the particular fors disclosed, but to the contrary, the invention is to cover all odi?cations, equiva lents, and alternatives falling within the scope of the appended clais. What is claied is: 1. A coputer progra product coprising at least one coputer-readable ediu storing one or ore sequences of instructions, wherein execution of the one or ore sequences of instructions by one or ore processors causes the one or ore processors to handle a plurality of service requests within a service-oriented coputing grid environent by perforing the steps coprising: providing a plurality of service-oriented architecture (SOA) coponents, the plurality of SOA coponents for distribution aong processing nodes within the ser vice-oriented coputing grid environent, wherein each SOA coponent of the plurality of SOA copo nents is of the sae type and interfaces with a coon persistent store; receiving a?rst service request at a?rst SOA coponent fro the plurality of SOA coponents, wherein the?rst service request is associated with a?rst service requester coponent; responsive to the?rst service request being a parallel ser vice request, the?rst SOA coponent storing the?rst service request in the coon persistent store; and retrieving the stored?rst service request fro the coon persistent store by a second SOA coponent within the plurality of SOA coponents, wherein the second SOA coponent processes the retrieved?rst service request asynchronously and returns a result to the?rst service requester via a callback. 2. The coputer progra product of clai 1 wherein the steps further coprise: responsive to the?rst service request being a sequential service request, the?rst SOA coponent processing the?rst service request synchronously and returning a result to the?rst service requester via a reply. 3. The coputer progra product of clai 1 wherein the?rst SOA coponent and the second SOA coponent are the sae SOA coponent. 4. The coputer progra product of clai 3 wherein each of the plurality of SOA coponents is a ediator. 5. The coputer progra product of clai 4 wherein the?rst service request is an atoic task. 6. The coputer progra product of clai 2 wherein a plurality of service requests are received by the plurality of SOA coponents and processing of the plurality of service requests is load balanced aong the plurality of SOA co ponents. 7. The coputer progra product of clai 6 wherein the second SOA coponent within the plurality of SOA copo nents retrieves the stored?rst service request responsive to having capacity to process a service request. 8. The coputer progra product of clai 2 wherein han dling of the?rst service request is speci?ed in a service request con?guration associated with the?rst service request. 9. A coputer progra product coprising at least one coputer-readable ediu storing one or ore sequences of instructions, wherein execution of the one or ore sequences

19 US 2010/ A1 Mar. 25, 2010 of instructions by one or ore processors causes the one or ore processors to provide a ediator service-oriented archi tecture (SOA) coponent Within a service-oriented coput ing environent by perforing the steps coprising: providing an echo ediator SOA coponent; and responsive to the echo ediator SOA coponent receiving a service request associated With a service requester, the echo ediator SOA coponent perfors the steps of: processing the service request Without invoking another service to obtain a result; and returning the result to the service requester associated With the service request. 10. The coputer progra product of clai 9 Wherein the echo ediator SOA coponent supports both synchronous and asynchronous service requests. 11. The coputer progra product of clai 10 Wherein the service request associated With the service requester is a synchronous service request received fro the service requester. 12. The coputer progra product of clai 10 Wherein the service request associated With the service requester is an asynchronous service request received fro a persistent store. 13. The coputer progra product of clai 12 Wherein the step of responsive to the echo ediator SOA coponent receiving a service request associated With a service requester, the echo ediator SOA coponent perfors the steps of: processing the service request Without invoking another service to obtain a result; and returning the result to the service requester coprises the step of: responsive to the service request being received fro the service requester by the echo ediator SOA coponent being a sequential service request, processing the ser vice request Without invoking another service to obtain the result, and returning the result to the service requester; and responsive to the service request being received fro the service requester by the echo ediator SOA coponent being a parallel service request, storing the service request in the persistent store. 14. The coputer progra product of clai 13 Wherein the steps further coprise: responsive to the echo ediator SOA coponent having capacity to process a service request, receiving fro the persistent store a stored service request associated With a service requester. 15. The coputer progra product of clai 14 further coprising a plurality of echo ediator SOA coponents that are con?gured to be deployed aong nodes Within a grid environent and Wherein each echo ediator SOA copo nent interfaces With the persistent store. 16. The coputer progra product of clai 14 Wherein a plurality of service requests are stored in the persistent store, and Wherein the echo ediator SOA coponent perfors ulti-threaded processing by retrieving at least soe of the plurality of service requests. 17. The coputer progra product of clai 16 Wherein a axiu nuber of service requests fro the plurality of service requests to be processed by the echo ediator SOA coponent is con?gurable. 18. The coputer progra product of clai 9 Wherein the service request is an atoic service request. 19.A syste for handling service requests Within a service oriented coputing environent, the syste coprising: a service-oriented architecture (SOA) coponent copris g: a request dispatcher, coupled to receive one or ore service requests fro one or ore requesting SOA coponents, Wherein the request dispatcher identi?es a type of a received service request and dispatches the received service request based upon the identi?ed typ?; at least one asynchronous task dispatcher, coupled to receive a stored service request fro a persistent store, Wherein the at least one asynchronous task dis patcher dispatches the stored service request for pro cessing to a task processor Within the SOA copo nent; and the task processor, coupled to receive service requests fro the request dispatcher and fro the at least one asynchronous task dispatcher, Wherein a service request received and processed by the task processor to obtain a result and the result is returned to a request ing SOA coponent associated With the processed service request. 20. The syste of clai 19 Wherein service requests received by the request dispatcher are atoic tasks. 21. The syste of clai 19 Wherein the request dispatcher identi?es a type of a received service request and dispatches the received service request based upon the identi?ed type by perforing the steps coprising: deterining Whether a received service request is a sequen tial service request or a parallel service request; and responsive to the received service request being a sequential service request, dispatching the received service request to the task processor Within the SOA coponent for processing; and responsive to the received service request being a paral lel service request, dispatching the received service request to the persistent store for storing. 22. The syste of clai 21 further coprising a plurality of SOA coponents that are deployed aong nodes Within a grid environent and Wherein each SOA coponent is con?gured to interface With the persistent store. 23. The syste of clai 22 Wherein each of SOA copo nents of the plurality of SOA coponents is a ediator. * * * * *