Abstract:
This disclosure describes, generally, methods and systems for managing connections within a connection pool. The method includes initializing a plurality of connections. The plurality of connections are configured to pierce a firewall. The method further includes placing the plurality of connections in a connection pool, and storing creation times for each of the plurality of connections. The method then determines the firewall&#39;s connection teardown time period and, based at least in part on the firewall&#39;s connection teardown time period, setting the connection pool&#39;s connection teardown time period to be at least less than the firewall&#39;s connection teardown time period.

Description:
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT 
     A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material that is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever. 
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates, in general, to connection pools and, more particularly, to automatic removal and replacement of connections within a pool which are rendered stale (or unusable) by a firewall. 
     BACKGROUND 
     Presently, standard firewalls have preset connection tear-down times. Basically, a timer is initiated when a network connection is started (or passed) and, when that timer “expires”, the network connection is torn down (or closed). This teardown process occurs regardless of the current usage of the connection. For example, an application can be in the middle of transferring/receiving data through the connection and the firewall will still tear the connection down. Accordingly, this has a significant negative impact on any application or service using the connection at the time of the teardown. 
     The most common problem, particularly when using connection pools, is that a pool will allow stale connections (or soon to be stale connections) to be used by applications, since the connection pool is not aware that the firewall has torn down or will eminently teardown the connection(s). This results in unnecessary connection retries at the application layer, slower response times for applications, and may potentially result in failed transactions or web requests. Hence, there is a need for improved methods and systems in the art. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY 
     Embodiments of the present invention are directed to a method of managing connections within a connection pool. The method includes initializing a plurality of connections. The plurality of connections are configured to pierce a firewall. The method further includes placing the plurality of connections in a connection pool, and storing creation times for each of the plurality of connections. The method then determines the firewall&#39;s connection teardown time period and, based at least in part on the firewall&#39;s connection teardown time period, setting the connection pool&#39;s connection teardown time period to be at least less than the firewall&#39;s connection teardown time period. 
     According to further embodiments, a system for managing connections within a connection pool is described. The system includes a middle-tier application server including a connection pool generator and a memory. The connection pool generator is configured to initialize a plurality of connections. The plurality of connections are configured to pierce a firewall, place the plurality of connections in a connection pool, store creation times for each of the plurality of connections in the memory, determine the firewall&#39;s connection teardown time period, and, based at least in part on the firewall&#39;s connection teardown time period and the connection pool&#39;s connection teardown time period, to be at least less than the firewall&#39;s connection teardown time period. The system further includes a database server coupled with the middle-tier application server via the plurality of connections through the firewall. The database server is configured to respond to requests for data from the middle-tier application server. Alternatively, other server types may be used. For example, the connection pool may include connections such as, LDAP, IMAP, etc. Nonetheless, any connection type known to one skilled in the art may be used by aspects of the present invention. 
     In an alternative embodiment, a machine-readable medium is described. The machine-readable medium may include instructions for managing connections within a connection pool. The machine-readable medium includes instructions for initializing a plurality of connections. The plurality of connections are configured to pierce a firewall. The machine-readable medium further includes instructions for placing the plurality of connections in a connection pool and storing creation times for each of the plurality of connections. The machine-readable medium then includes instructions for determining the firewall&#39;s connection teardown time period and, based at least in part on the firewall&#39;s connection teardown time period, setting the connection pool&#39;s connection teardown time period to be at least less than the firewall&#39;s connection teardown time period. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       A further understanding of the nature and advantages of the present invention may be realized by reference to the remaining portions of the specification and the drawings wherein like reference numerals are used throughout the several drawings to refer to similar components. In some instances, a sub-label is associated with a reference numeral to denote one of multiple similar components. When reference is made to a reference numeral without specification to an existing sub-label, it is intended to refer to all such multiple similar components. 
         FIG. 1  is a generalized schematic diagram illustrating a computer system, in accordance with various embodiments of the invention. 
         FIG. 2  is a block diagram illustrating a networked system of computers, which can be used in accordance with various embodiments of the invention. 
         FIG. 3  is a flow diagram illustrating a method of connection pool generation and maintenance according to one embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 4  is a flow diagram illustrating a method of connection teardown according to one embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 5  is a block diagram illustrating a system for connection pool generation, maintenance, and teardown according to embodiments of the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     While various aspects of embodiments of the invention have been summarized above, the following detailed description illustrates exemplary embodiments in further detail to enable one of skill in the art to practice the invention. In the following description, for the purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without some of these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form. Several embodiments of the invention are described below and, while various features are ascribed to different embodiments, it should be appreciated that the features described with respect to one embodiment may be incorporated with another embodiment as well. By the same token, however, no single feature or features of any described embodiment should be considered essential to the invention, as other embodiments of the invention may omit such features. 
     Aspects of the present invention relate to monitoring connection pools in order to automatically remove and replace connections within the pool which are made stale (or would shortly be made stale) by a firewall. Typically, a firewall has preset timeout parameters which dictate when a connection will be torn down. For example, a firewall may teardown any connection which has been open more than twelve hours. Accordingly, one embodiment of the present invention is configured to allow a connection pool to establish more stringent parameters to avoid the firewall forcing the teardown of connections. For example, the connection pool may teardown connections in the pool and replace them with new connections after only six hours. Therefore, connections loaned to/used by applications are ensured to be active and viable connections, and no stale connections will be allowed to be loaned out and/or used. 
       FIG. 1  provides a schematic illustration of one embodiment of a computer system  100  that can perform the methods of the invention, as described herein, and/or can function, for example, as any part of middle-tier application server  505  or database server  520  in  FIG. 5 . It should be noted that  FIG. 1  is meant only to provide a generalized illustration of various components, any or all of which may be utilized as appropriate.  FIG. 1 , therefore, broadly illustrates how individual system elements may be implemented in a relatively separated or relatively more integrated manner. 
     The computer system  100  is shown comprising hardware elements that can be electrically coupled via a bus  105  (or may otherwise be in communication, as appropriate). The hardware elements can include one or more processors  110 , including without limitation one or more general-purpose processors and/or one or more special-purpose processors (such as digital signal processing chips, graphics acceleration chips, and/or the like); one or more input devices  115 , which can include without limitation a mouse, a keyboard and/or the like; and one or more output devices  120 , which can include without limitation a display device, a printer and/or the like. 
     The computer system  100  may further include (and/or be in communication with) one or more storage devices  125 , which can comprise, without limitation, local and/or network accessible storage and/or can include, without limitation, a disk drive, a drive array, an optical storage device, solid-state storage device such as a random access memory (“RAM”) and/or a read-only memory (“ROM”), which can be programmable, flash-updateable and/or the like. The computer system  100  might also include a communications subsystem  130 , which can include without limitation a modem, a network card (wireless or wired), an infra-red communication device, a wireless communication device and/or chipset (such as a Bluetooth™ device, an 802.11 device, a WiFi device, a WiMax device, cellular communication facilities, etc.), and/or the like. The communications subsystem  130  may permit data to be exchanged with a network (such as the network described below, to name one example), and/or any other devices described herein. In many embodiments, the computer system  100  will further comprise a working memory  135 , which can include a RAM or ROM device, as described above. 
     The computer system  100  also can comprise software elements, shown as being currently located within the working memory  135 , including an operating system  140  and/or other code, such as one or more application programs  145 , which may comprise computer programs of the invention, and/or may be designed to implement methods of the invention and/or configure systems of the invention, as described herein. Merely by way of example, one or more procedures described with respect to the method(s) discussed above might be implemented as code and/or instructions executable by a computer (and/or a processor within a computer). A set of these instructions and/or code might be stored on a computer readable storage medium, such as the storage device(s)  125  described above. In some cases, the storage medium might be incorporated within a computer system, such as the system  100 . In other embodiments, the storage medium might be separate from a computer system (i.e., a removable medium, such as a compact disc, etc.), and or provided in an installation package, such that the storage medium can be used to program a general purpose computer with the instructions/code stored thereon. These instructions might take the form of executable code, which is executable by the computer system  100  and/or might take the form of source and/or installable code, which, upon compilation and/or installation on the computer system  100  (e.g., using any of a variety of generally available compilers, installation programs, compression/decompression utilities, etc.) then takes the form of executable code. 
     It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that substantial variations may be made in accordance with specific requirements. For example, customized hardware might also be used, and/or particular elements might be implemented in hardware, software (including portable software, such as applets, etc.), or both. Further, connection to other computing devices such as network input/output devices may be employed. 
     In one aspect, the invention employs a computer system (such as the computer system  100 ) to perform methods of the invention. According to a set of embodiments, some or all of the procedures of such methods are performed by the computer system  100  in response to processor  110  executing one or more sequences of one or more instructions (which might be incorporated into the operating system  140  and/or other code, such as an application program  145 ) contained in the working memory  135 . Such instructions may be read into the working memory  135  from another machine-readable medium, such as one or more of the storage device(s)  125 . Merely by way of example, execution of the sequences of instructions contained in the working memory  135  might cause the processor(s)  110  to perform one or more procedures of the methods described herein. 
     The terms “machine-readable medium” and “computer readable medium”, as used herein, refer to any medium that participates in providing data that causes a machine to operate in a specific fashion. In an embodiment implemented using the computer system  100 , various machine-readable media might be involved in providing instructions/code to processor(s)  110  for execution and/or might be used to store and/or carry such instructions/code (e.g., as signals). In many implementations, a computer readable medium is a physical and/or tangible storage medium. Such a medium may take many forms, including but not limited to, non-volatile media, volatile media, and transmission media. Non-volatile media includes, for example, optical or magnetic disks, such as the storage device(s)  125 . Volatile media includes, without limitation dynamic memory, such as the working memory  135 . Transmission media includes coaxial cables, copper wire and fiber optics, including the wires that comprise the bus  105 , as well as the various components of the communication subsystem  130  (and/or the media by which the communications subsystem  130  provides communication with other devices). Hence, transmission media can also take the form of waves (including without limitation radio, acoustic and/or light waves, such as those generated during radio-wave and infra-red data communications). 
     Common forms of physical and/or tangible computer readable media include, for example, a floppy disk, a flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, or any other magnetic medium, a CD-ROM, any other optical medium, punchcards, papertape, any other physical medium with patterns of holes, a RAM, a PROM, an EPROM, a FLASH-EPROM, any other memory chip or cartridge, a carrier wave as described hereinafter, or any other medium from which a computer can read instructions and/or code. 
     Various forms of machine-readable media may be involved in carrying one or more sequences of one or more instructions to the processor(s)  110  for execution. Merely by way of example, the instructions may initially be carried on a magnetic disk and/or optical disc of a remote computer. A remote computer might load the instructions into its dynamic memory and send the instructions as signals over a transmission medium to be received and/or executed by the computer system  100 . These signals, which might be in the form of electromagnetic signals, acoustic signals, optical signals and/or the like, are all examples of carrier waves on which instructions can be encoded, in accordance with various embodiments of the invention. 
     The communications subsystem  130  (and/or components thereof) generally will receive the signals, and the bus  105  then might carry the signals (and/or the data, instructions, etc., carried by the signals) to the working memory  135 , from which the processor(s)  105  retrieves and executes the instructions. The instructions received by the working memory  135  may optionally be stored on a storage device  125  either before or after execution by the processor(s)  110 . 
     A set of embodiments comprises systems for implementing staged configurator modeling. In one embodiment, user computers  205  and/or servers  215  may be implemented as computer system  100  in  FIG. 1 . Merely by way of example,  FIG. 2  illustrates a schematic diagram of a system  200  that can be used in accordance with one set of embodiments. The system  200  can include one or more user computers  205 . The user computers  205  can be general purpose personal computers (including, merely by way of example, personal computers and/or laptop computers running any appropriate flavor of Microsoft Corp.&#39;s Windows™ and/or Apple Corp.&#39;s Macintosh™ operating systems) and/or workstation computers running any of a variety of commercially-available UNIX™ or UNIX-like operating systems. These user computers  205  can also have any of a variety of applications, including one or more applications configured to perform methods of the invention, as well as one or more office applications, database client and/or server applications, and web browser applications. Alternatively, the user computers  205  can be any other electronic device, such as a thin-client computer, Internet-enabled mobile telephone, and/or personal digital assistant (PDA), capable of communicating via a network (e.g., the network  210  described below) and/or displaying and navigating web pages or other types of electronic documents. Although the exemplary system  200  is shown with three user computers  205 , any number of user computers can be supported. 
     Certain embodiments of the invention operate in a networked environment, which can include a network  210 . The network  210  can be any type of network familiar to those skilled in the art that can support data communications using any of a variety of commercially-available protocols, including without limitation TCP/IP, SNA, IPX, AppleTalk, and the like. Merely by way of example, the network  210  can be a local area network (“LAN”), including without limitation an Ethernet network, a Token-Ring network and/or the like; a wide-area network (WAN); a virtual network, including without limitation a virtual private network (“VPN”); the Internet; an intranet; an extranet; a public switched telephone network (“PSTN”); an infra-red network; a wireless network, including without limitation a network operating under any of the IEEE 802.11 suite of protocols, the Bluetooth™ protocol known in the art, and/or any other wireless protocol; and/or any combination of these and/or other networks. 
     Embodiments of the invention can include one or more server computers  215 . Each of the server computers  215  may be configured with an operating system, including without limitation any of those discussed above, as well as any commercially (or freely) available server operating systems. Each of the servers  215  may also be running one or more applications, which can be configured to provide services to one or more clients  205  and/or other servers  215 . 
     Merely by way of example, one of the servers  215  may be a web server, which can be used, merely by way of example, to process requests for web pages or other electronic documents from user computers  205 . The web server can also run a variety of server applications, including HTTP servers, FTP servers, CGI servers, database servers, Java™ servers, and the like. In some embodiments of the invention, the web server may be configured to serve web pages that can be operated within a web browser on one or more of the user computers  205  to perform methods of the invention. 
     The server computers  215 , in some embodiments, might include one or more application servers, which can include one or more applications accessible by a client running on one or more of the client computers  205  and/or other servers  215 . Merely by way of example, the server(s)  215  can be one or more general purpose computers capable of executing programs or scripts in response to the user computers  205  and/or other servers  215 , including without limitation web applications (which might, in some cases, be configured to perform methods of the invention). Merely by way of example, a web application can be implemented as one or more scripts or programs written in any suitable programming language, such as Java™, C, C#™ or C++, and/or any scripting language, such as Perl, Python, or TCL, as well as combinations of any programming/scripting languages. The application server(s) can also include database servers, including without limitation those commercially available from Oracle™, Microsoft™, Sybase™, IBM™ and the like, which can process requests from clients (including, depending on the configurator, database clients, API clients, web browsers, etc.) running on a user computer  205  and/or another server  215 . In some embodiments, an application server can create web pages dynamically for displaying the information in accordance with embodiments of the invention, such as web pages displayed by middle-tier application server  505  in  FIG. 5 . Data provided by an application server may be formatted as web pages (comprising HTML, Javascript, etc., for example) and/or may be forwarded to a user computer  205  via a web server (as described above, for example). Similarly, a web server might receive web page requests and/or input data from a user computer  205  and/or forward the web page requests and/or input data to an application server. In some cases a web server may be integrated with an application server. 
     In accordance with further embodiments, one or more servers  215  can function as a file server and/or can include one or more of the files (e.g., application code, data files, etc.) necessary to implement methods of the invention incorporated by an application running on a user computer  205  and/or another server  215 . Alternatively, as those skilled in the art will appreciate, a file server can include all necessary files, allowing such an application to be invoked remotely by a user computer  205  and/or server  215 . It should be noted that the functions described with respect to various servers herein (e.g., application server, database server, web server, file server, etc.) can be performed by a single server and/or a plurality of specialized servers, depending on implementation-specific needs and parameters. 
     In certain embodiments, the system can include one or more databases  220 . The location of the database(s)  220  is discretionary: merely by way of example, a database  220   a  might reside on a storage medium local to (and/or resident in) a server  215   a  (and/or a user computer  205 ). Alternatively, a database  220   b  can be remote from any or all of the computers  205 ,  215 , so long as the database can be in communication (e.g., via the network  210 ) with one or more of these. In a particular set of embodiments, a database  220  can reside in a storage-area network (“SAN”) familiar to those skilled in the art. (Likewise, any necessary files for performing the functions attributed to the computers  205 ,  215  can be stored locally on the respective computer and/or remotely, as appropriate.) In one set of embodiments, the database  220  can be a relational database, such as an Oracle™ database, that is adapted to store, update, and retrieve data in response to SQL-formatted commands. The database might be controlled and/or maintained by a database server, as described above, for example. 
     In one embodiment, server  215  or user computer  205  may be used to implement middle-tier application server  505  and database server  520  in  FIG. 5 . Turning now to  FIG. 3 , which illustrates a method  300  of generating and maintaining connection pools, according to one embodiment of the present invention. At process block  305 , two or more network connections may be initialized. In one embodiment, the network connections may utilize Java™ Database Connectivity (JDBC) protocol. A connection utilizing the JDBC protocol allows applications to access and manage databases (e.g., send queries using SQL, process query results, update database content, etc.). The JDBC protocol utilizes an underlying transmission control protocol (TCP) connection and a database session object. Nonetheless, other protocols and connections may be used. 
     In one embodiment, the connection may be initialized asynchronously from the application operations. In other words, the connections can be created at separate times from when the applications may need to use the connections. Accordingly, the processing power and resources needed for initialization of the connections does not interfere with the processing and resource needs of the applications. Thus, the applications&#39; performance can be further increased. 
     In a further embodiment, the initialized connections may be configured to pierce through a firewall. For example, a middle-tier application server may be executing an application(s) which needs to access data from a database(s) which is connected to a database server. However, a firewall is positioned between the middle-tier application server and the database server. Accordingly, in order to access the database, the middle-tier application server needs to pierce the firewall in order to access the database(s). As such, JDBC based connections may be generated to pierce the firewall. The overhead and/or setup cost for initializing such JDBC connections can be rather high, which can potentially slow down a user&#39;s experience when accessing data from the database(s). Hence, it is advantageous to maintain a “pool” of such connections in a connection pool. 
     At process block  310 , the initialized connections may be placed in the connection pool. These connections remain in the pool at the ready for applications which require a connection thought the firewall to the database server in order to access the database(s). Accordingly, when an application requests a connection to the database server, the middle-tier application server accesses the connection pool and grants the application one of the connections. Due to the fact that the connections are being used to pierce the firewall, the firewall places certain restrictions on the connections. For example, the firewall may only allow a connection to remain open for a certain amount of time (e.g., 6 hours, 10 hours, 12 hours, etc.). As such, the connections within the connection pool should be monitored so that only active and valid connections are kept within the pool and given to requesting applications to use. 
     Accordingly, at process block  315 , the creation time of each of the connections within the pool may be stored. The connection creation times may be stored in a table, a matrix, or other similar storage mechanism. Furthermore, the connection creation times may be stored locally at the middle-tier application server or may be stored remotely. Alternatively, the connection creation times may be stored in a volatile and/or a persistent memory location. In an alternative embodiment, the connections may be objects which include multiple attributes and one of the attributes may be the creation time of the object. This attribute may be accessed in order to determine the creation time of the connection. As such, for each connection initialized and placed in the connection pool, a creation time will be known. 
     At process block  320 , the firewall&#39;s connection teardown time period may be determined. As mentioned before, a firewall typically has a preset time period in which the firewall will allow connections to remain open/active. After the preset time period expires, the firewall will teardown the connection. Unfortunately, the firewall indiscriminately tears down these connections regardless of if the connection is actively in use (this is done for security purposes in order to ensure that the firewall is not being compromised). As such, an application may be in the middle of utilizing the connection when the connection is torn down, which can cause errors, inconsistent application execution, slow response times for the application, etc. 
     Thus, in order to avoid such situations from occurring, the connection pool may be configured to set an automatic/preemptive teardown time for the connection within the connection pool which is more restrictive than the firewall&#39;s preset teardown time period (process block  325 ). For example, if the firewall&#39;s preset teardown time period is 12 hours, then the connection pool may set its teardown time to 6 hours. This conservative approach allows for the connection pool to stay one step ahead of the firewall by ensuring that the connections within the connection pool have are active, And have not been torn down by the firewall&#39;s preset teardown time period. 
     Turning now to  FIG. 4 , which illustrates a method  400  of connection teardown according to one embodiment of the present invention. At process block  405 , the connection creation times of the connections within the connection pool may be compared with the connection pool&#39;s teardown time period. In one embodiment, the connection pool&#39;s connection teardown time period may be a property within the connection pool such as MaxConnectionReuseTime. As connections sit in the connection pool waiting to be used as well as connection from the pool already in use, the creation times from each of the connections may be monitored to determine if the connection should be torn down. This comparison and/or determination may be performed by an active thread (or task) running, for example, on the middle-tier application server. The thread may be set up to periodically (e.g., every 30 seconds) check the creation times of the connections against the connection pool&#39;s teardown time period. 
     As such, at decision block  410 , it is determined whether any of the connections within the connection pool have exceeded the connection pool&#39;s teardown time period. If none of the connections have yet to exceed the teardown time period, then the connections are continued to be maintained within the pool (process block  415 ), and the connection creation times are continued to be checked. If, however, a connection has exceeded the connection pool&#39;s teardown time period, then a determination is made whether the connection is in use by an application (decision block  420 ). 
     If, at decision block  420 , it is determined that the connection is not in use, then at process block  430 , the connection is torn down and removed from the connection pool. However, if it is determined that the connection is in use and has exceeded the connection pool&#39;s teardown time period, then the connection is flagged with a teardown flag (process block  425 ). In one embodiment, the teardown flag may be a one bit switch which may be set to one or zero, one being true (set to teardown) and zero being false (not set to tear down). Nonetheless, other flagging conventions known in the art may be used. 
     Once a connection has been flagged to be torn down, at decision block  435  a determination is made whether the connection has been returned to the connection pool. This determination may be made in response to, for example, the JDBC connection.close API being called by the application. Hence, once the connection is no longer in use and has been returned to the connection pool, the connection may be torn down and removed from the connection pool (process block  430 ). At process block  440 , for each connection torn down and removed from the connection pool, a replacement connection may be generated. Therefore, the quality of service (QoS) of the connection pool can be properly maintained by having the same number of connections within the pool at any given time. 
     Furthermore, at process block  445 , the newly generated connections may be placed within the connection pool. Accordingly, method  400  allows for only active and valid connections to be maintained within the connection pool, and makes provisions for any connections not active or valid to be automatically and seamlessly torn down and removed from the pool and replaced with new connections. 
     Turning now to  FIG. 5 , which illustrates a system  500  for connection pool generation, maintenance, and teardown according to embodiments of the present invention. In one embodiment, system  500  may include a middle-tier application server  505 . Middle-tier application server  505  may be configured to execute a variety of applications, enterprise applications, and/or services. Middle-tier application server  505  may include a connection pool generator  510 . 
     In one embodiment, connection pool generator  510  may be configured to generate connection (as described above) to be placed in a connection pool  515 . Further, connection pool generator  510  may be configured to manage the connections within connection pool  515 . For example, as discussed above, connection pool generator  510  may set the connection pool&#39;s teardown time period after determining firewall  520 &#39;s preset connection teardown time period. Connection pool generator  510  may also teardown connections within the connection pool which have exceeded the time period, flag stale connections for teardown that are in use, and generate and place new connections into the pool. 
     In one embodiment, an administrator, or equivalent operator, may be presented with an administration interface which allows various parameters for connection pool generator  510  to be set/altered. For example, the connection pool&#39;s teardown time period parameter may be set, the number of connections maintained within the connection pool, etc. 
     System  500  may further include a database server  525  connected with a database  530 . In one embodiment, database server  525  may be separated from middle-tier application server  505  by firewall  520 . Middle-tier application server  505  may require access to data stored in database  530 , thus middle-tier application server  505  may be configured to access the data in database  530  by piercing through firewall  515  using connections in connection pool  515  and accessing database server  525 . 
     While the invention has been described with respect to exemplary embodiments, one skilled in the art will recognize that numerous modifications are possible. For example, the methods and processes described herein may be implemented using hardware components, software components, and/or any combination thereof. Further, while various methods and processes described herein may be described with respect to particular structural and/or functional components for ease of description, methods of the invention are not limited to any particular structural and/or functional architecture but instead can be implemented on any suitable hardware, firmware, and/or software configurator. Similarly, while various functionalities are ascribed to certain system components, unless the context dictates otherwise, this functionality can be distributed among various other system components in accordance with different embodiments of the invention. 
     Moreover, while the procedures comprised in the methods and processes described herein are described in a particular order for ease of description, unless the context dictates otherwise, various procedures may be reordered, added, and/or omitted in accordance with various embodiments of the invention. Moreover, the procedures described with respect to one method or process may be incorporated within other described methods or processes; likewise, system components described according to a particular structural architecture and/or with respect to one system may be organized in alternative structural architectures and/or incorporated within other described systems. Hence, while various embodiments are described with—or without—certain features for ease of description and to illustrate exemplary features, the various components and/or features described herein with respect to a particular embodiment can be substituted, added and/or subtracted from among other described embodiments, unless the context dictates otherwise. Consequently, although the invention has been described with respect to exemplary embodiments, it will be appreciated that the invention is intended to cover all modifications and equivalents within the scope of the following claims.