Patent ID: 8495141
Filing Date: 2013-07-23
Classification: G06F,G06Q,H04L,H04W

Abstract:
1. A method of maintaining a membership view of members available in a distributed computing system comprising a multitude of members, wherein each of the members available in the distributed computing system sends out a message indicating that said each of the members is available in the system, the method comprising: maintaining a first list of at least some of the members in the distributed system; and over a period of time, replacing the first list with a second list to provide an updated membership view of the members available in the distributed computing system, including at a given time, starting the second list, said second list initially being empty, over said period of time, whenever one of the members in the system sends out the message indicating that said one of the members is available in the distributed system, adding said one of the members to the second list, checking to determine if said one of the members is not on the first list, and if said one of the members is not on the first list adding said one of the members to the first list, wherein over said period of time, the second list becomes an updated, complete list of all the members in the distributed system that, during said period of time, generated messages indicating that the members are available in the distributed system; and at defined times, replacing the first list with the second list to provide said updated membership view of the members available in the distributed computing system.