Abstract:
Inter-service messages conform to a protocol message schema and support predetermined types according to the destination service. Because the schema and types are well defined, input queues corresponding to the services are able to quickly identify and remove non-conforming messages. The schema supports both prepaid and subscription business models and is extensible to other types.

Description:
BACKGROUND 
     Systems with multiple interactive services, especially those that expect high volumes of inbound traffic, may use inbound message queues to listen for the inbound traffic. Because the queues are open-ended, any authorized service, application or user can place messages in the queue. However, not all messages are serviceable. Some messages may be malformed, that is, do not conform to the message schema for that queue. Other messages may be correct in form, but end up in the wrong queue. Both these issues can interrupt the queue process and slow genuine messages from being processed. 
     SUMMARY 
     A message schema may be defined for each of the services used in a system and the type of the payload for that message may also be defined. When the service listens to its inbound queue it may validate an inbound message first by examining the schema and then checking the payload type against expected payload types. If the validation fails at either point, the message may be removed and an appropriate event raised concerning the rejected message. A specific schema and type depicted may be used in both a prepaid and subscription services environment because the message schema abstracts the payload such that either subscription and prepaid business models may be supported. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a simplified and representative block diagram of a computer network; 
         FIG. 2  is a block diagram of a computer that may be connected to the network of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 3  is a simplified and representative block diagram of a provisioning system for prepaid and subscription-based computers; and 
         FIG. 4  is a representative protocol message schema. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Although the following text sets forth a detailed description of numerous different embodiments, it should be understood that the legal scope of the description is defined by the words of the claims set forth at the end of this disclosure. The detailed description is to be construed as exemplary only and does not describe every possible embodiment since describing every possible embodiment would be impractical, if not impossible. Numerous alternative embodiments could be implemented, using either current technology or technology developed after the filing date of this patent, which would still fall within the scope of the claims. 
     It should also be understood that, unless a term is expressly defined in this patent using the sentence “As used herein, the term ‘______’ is hereby defined to mean . . . ” or a similar sentence, there is no intent to limit the meaning of that term, either expressly or by implication, beyond its plain or ordinary meaning, and such term should not be interpreted to be limited in scope based on any statement made in any section of this patent (other than the language of the claims). To the extent that any term recited in the claims at the end of this patent is referred to in this patent in a manner consistent with a single meaning, that is done for sake of clarity only so as to not confuse the reader, and it is not intended that such claim term by limited, by implication or otherwise, to that single meaning. Finally, unless a claim element is defined by reciting the word “means” and a function without the recital of any structure, it is not intended that the scope of any claim element be interpreted based on the application of 35 U.S.C. § 112, sixth paragraph. 
     Much of the inventive functionality and many of the inventive principles are best implemented with or in software programs or instructions and integrated circuits (ICs) such as application specific ICs. It is expected that one of ordinary skill, notwithstanding possibly significant effort and many design choices motivated by, for example, available time, current technology, and economic considerations, when guided by the concepts and principles disclosed herein will be readily capable of generating such software instructions and programs and ICs with minimal experimentation. Therefore, in the interest of brevity and minimization of any risk of obscuring the principles and concepts in accordance to the present invention, further discussion of such software and ICs, if any, will be limited to the essentials with respect to the principles and concepts of the preferred embodiments. 
       FIGS. 1 and 2  provide a structural basis for the network and computational platforms related to the instant disclosure. 
       FIG. 1  illustrates a network  10 . The network  10  may be the Internet, a virtual private network (VPN), or any other network that allows one or more computers, START HERE communication devices, databases, processes, peer-to-peer network endpoints, etc., to be communicatively connected to each other. The network  10  may be connected to a personal computer  12 , and a computer terminal  14  via an Ethernet  16  and a router  18 , and a landline  20 . The Ethernet  16  may be a subnet of a larger Internet Protocol network. Other networked resources, such as projectors or printers (not depicted), may also be supported via the Ethernet  16  or another data network. On the other hand, the network  10  may be wirelessly connected to a laptop computer  22  and a personal data assistant  24  via a wireless communication station  26  and a wireless link  28 . Similarly, a server  30  may be connected to the network  10  using a communication link  32  and a mainframe  34  may be connected to the network  10  using another communication link  36 . The network  10  may be useful for supporting peer-to-peer network traffic. 
       FIG. 2  illustrates a computing device in the form of a computer  110 . Components of the computer  110  may include, but are not limited to a processing unit  120 , a system memory  130 , and a system bus  121  that couples various system components including the system memory to the processing unit  120 . The system bus  121  may be any of several types of bus structures including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. By way of example, and not limitation, such architectures include Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) bus, Enhanced ISA (EISA) bus, Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) local bus, and Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus also known as Mezzanine bus. 
     Computer  110  typically includes a variety of computer readable media. Computer readable media can be any available media that can be accessed by computer  110  and includes both volatile and nonvolatile media, removable and non-removable media. By way of example, and not limitation, computer readable media may comprise computer storage media and communication media. Computer storage media includes volatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data. Computer storage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, FLASH memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can accessed by computer  110 . Communication media typically embodies computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism and includes any information delivery media. The term “modulated data signal” means a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media includes wired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, radio frequency, infrared and other wireless media. Combinations of any of the above should also be included within the scope of computer readable media. 
     The system memory  130  includes computer storage media in the form of volatile and/or nonvolatile memory such as read only memory (ROM)  131  and random access memory (RAM)  132 . A basic input/output system  133  (BIOS), containing the basic routines that help to transfer information between elements within computer  110 , such as during start-up, is typically stored in ROM  131 . RAM  132  typically contains data and/or program modules that are immediately accessible to and/or presently being operated on by processing unit  120 . By way of example, and not limitation,  FIG. 2  illustrates operating system  134 , application programs  135 , other program modules  136 , and program data  137 . 
     The computer  110  may also include other removable/non-removable, volatile/nonvolatile computer storage media. By way of example only,  FIG. 2  illustrates a hard disk drive  141  that reads from or writes to non-removable, nonvolatile magnetic media, a magnetic disk drive  151  that reads from or writes to a removable, nonvolatile magnetic disk  152 , and an optical disk drive  155  that reads from or writes to a removable, nonvolatile optical disk  156  such as a CD ROM or other optical media. Other removable/non-removable, volatile/nonvolatile computer storage media that can be used in the exemplary operating environment include, but are not limited to, magnetic tape cassettes, flash memory cards, digital versatile disks, digital video tape, solid state RAM, solid state ROM, and the like. The hard disk drive  141  is typically connected to the system bus  121  through a non-removable memory interface such as interface  140 , and magnetic disk drive  151  and optical disk drive  155  are typically connected to the system bus  121  by a removable memory interface, such as interface  150 . 
     The drives and their associated computer storage media discussed above and illustrated in  FIG. 2 , provide storage of computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules and other data for the computer  110 . In  FIG. 2 , for example, hard disk drive  141  is illustrated as storing operating system  144 , application programs  145 , other program modules  146 , and program data  147 . Note that these components can either be the same as or different from operating system  134 , application programs  135 , other program modules  136 , and program data  137 . Operating system  144 , application programs  145 , other program modules  146 , and program data  147  are given different numbers here to illustrate that, at a minimum, they are different copies. A user may enter commands and information into the computer  20  through input devices such as a keyboard  162  and cursor control device  161 , commonly referred to as a mouse, trackball or touch pad. A camera  163 , such as web camera (webcam), may capture and input pictures of an environment associated with the computer  110 , such as providing pictures of users. The webcam  163  may capture pictures on demand, for example, when instructed by a user, or may take pictures periodically under the control of the computer  110 . Other input devices (not shown) may include a microphone, joystick, game pad, satellite dish, scanner, or the like. These and other input devices are often connected to the processing unit  120  through an input interface  160  that is coupled to the system bus, but may be connected by other interface and bus structures, such as a parallel port, game port or a universal serial bus (USB). A monitor  191  or other type of display device is also connected to the system bus  121  via an interface, such as a graphics controller  190 . In addition to the monitor, computers may also include other peripheral output devices such as speakers  197  and printer  196 , which may be connected through an output peripheral interface  195 . 
     The computer  110  may operate in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more remote computers, such as a remote computer  180 . The remote computer  180  may be a personal computer, a server, a router, a network PC, a peer device or other common network node, and typically includes many or all of the elements described above relative to the computer  110 , although only a memory storage device  181  has been illustrated in  FIG. 2 . The logical connections depicted in  FIG. 2  include a local area network (LAN)  171  and a wide area network (WAN)  173 , but may also include other networks. Such networking environments are commonplace in offices, enterprise-wide computer networks, intranets and the Internet. 
     When used in a LAN networking environment, the computer  110  is connected to the LAN  171  through a network interface or adapter  170 . When used in a WAN networking environment, the computer  110  typically includes a modem  172  or other means for establishing communications over the WAN  173 , such as the Internet. The modem  172 , which may be internal or external, may be connected to the system bus  121  via the input interface  160 , or other appropriate mechanism. In a networked environment, program modules depicted relative to the computer  110 , or portions thereof, may be stored in the remote memory storage device. By way of example, and not limitation,  FIG. 2  illustrates remote application programs  185  as residing on memory device  181 . 
     The communications connections  170   172  allow the device to communicate with other devices. The communications connections  170   172  are an example of communication media. The communication media typically embodies computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism and includes any information delivery media. A “modulated data signal” may be a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media includes wired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF, infrared and other wireless media. Computer readable media may include both storage media and communication media. 
       FIG. 3  is block diagram of an architecture  300  supporting prepaid and subscription services for prepaid and subscription-based business model support. The core service  302  may receive messages on the core service input queue  318  from the subscription service  304 , the subscription web service  306 , the tenant web service  308 , the certificate distribution web service  310 , and the packet distribution web service  312 . The subscription service  304  may receive messages from the core service  302  on the subscription service input queue  316 . The certificate distribution web service  310  may receive messages on the certificate distribution web service queue  322 . The database writer (DBWriter) service  314  may receive messages from the core service  302  on the database writer input queue  320 . The subscription service  304  and subscription web service  306  are associated with subscription services and may not be required in prepaid-only systems. Likewise, the tenant web service  308  is associated with prepaid services and may not be required in subscription-only systems. Both prepaid and subscription services may co-exist in this architecture  300 . Additional messages may be delivered to the various queues from a customer service representative service  324 , a maintenance tool or resource monitor service  326 , or an operations tool service  328 . These messages may include requests for the availability of services, requests to resend packets, or requests to reset a sequence number. The types, sources and destinations of defined messages and their types are summarized in Table 1. 
       FIG. 4  is a protocol message schema  402  for use with the messages of Table 1. The common section  404  includes version, requester, and type information. The version attribute identifies the schema version and the requester attribute identifies the requesting party, often in the form of a combination of hardware identifier and a product, or offer, identifier. The content object is the message payload and reflects the type enumeration. As mentioned above, the schema abstracts the message contents from the consistency checks performed on the schema and the message type. Therefore, each input queue can quickly qualify an incoming message by checking the schema and the matching type. If either the schema or type do not match schemas supported for that queue, or if the type of the content object does not match a type specified for that schema, the message may be removed from the queue and an event raised. 
     
       
         
               
               
               
               
             
           
               
                 TABLE 1 
               
               
                   
               
               
                 Type 
                 Sender 
                 Receiver 
                 Purpose 
               
               
                   
               
             
             
               
                 RegisterDevice 
                 Subscription 
                 Core Service 
                 Registers device name, init key for 
               
               
                   
                 Service, Prepaid 
                 Queue 
                 certificate bootstrapping purposes. 
               
               
                   
                 Tool 
               
               
                 CreatePrepaidPacket 
                 Tenant Web 
                 Core Service 
                 Sends request to create Prepaid 
               
               
                   
                 Service 
                 Queue 
                 provisioning packet after redeeming 
               
               
                   
                   
                   
                 the scratch card token. 
               
               
                 PacketPublish 
                 Core Service 
                 DBWriter 
                 Publishes the provisioning packet 
               
               
                   
                   
                 Service Queue 
                 generated to Distribution database. 
               
               
                 BootstrapPublish 
                 Core Service 
                 DBWriter 
                 Publishes the certificate bootstrap 
               
               
                   
                   
                 Serivce Queue 
                 information to Distribution database. 
               
               
                 CertRequest 
                 Certificate 
                 Core Service 
                 Sends request to Core service to get 
               
               
                   
                 Distribution Web 
                 Queue 
                 the certificate issued from Certificate 
               
               
                   
                 Service 
                   
                 Authority. 
               
               
                 CertResponse 
                 Core Service 
                 Cert Dist Web 
                 Sends back the issued certificate 
               
               
                   
                   
                 service Queue 
                 from CA to Cert Dist Web Service. 
               
               
                 PacketDownload 
                 Packet 
                 Core Service 
                 Sends the packet download 
               
               
                   
                 Distribtuion Web 
                 Queue 
                 information to Core service. 
               
               
                   
                 Service 
               
               
                 PacketDownloadAck 
                 Packet 
                 Core Service 
                 Sends the packet download 
               
               
                   
                 Distribtuion Web 
                 Queue 
                 acknowledgement information to 
               
               
                   
                 Service 
                   
                 Core service. 
               
               
                 SubscribeDevice 
                 Subscription 
                 Core Service 
                 Sends the information to turn on or 
               
               
                   
                 Service 
                 Queue 
                 off the subscription. 
               
               
                 ConfigureDevice 
                 Subscription 
                 Core Service 
                 Sends device specific configuration 
               
               
                   
                 Service 
                 Queue 
                 details like Grace period and 
               
               
                   
                   
                   
                 Enforcement level. 
               
               
                 ConfigureDefault 
                 Subscription 
                 Core Service 
                 Sends the request to configure with 
               
               
                   
                 Service 
                 Queue 
                 default setting. 
               
               
                 CreateSubscriptionPacket 
                 Subscription 
                 Core Service 
                 Sends the information to create one 
               
               
                   
                 Service 
                 Queue 
                 time subscription packet. 
               
               
                 BatchIn 
                 Subscription 
                 Core Service 
                 Sends the batch of operations to 
               
               
                   
                 Service 
                 Queue 
                 carry out. 
               
               
                 BatchOut 
                 Core Service 
                 Subscription 
                 Sends the results of batch operation 
               
               
                   
                   
                 Service Queue 
                 executed back to the requester. 
               
               
                 ScheduleSubscriptionPacket 
                 Subscription 
                 Core Service 
                 Sends the scheduling info to create 
               
               
                   
                 Service 
                 Queue 
                 subscription packet. 
               
               
                 ResetLSN 
                 CSR Tool 
                 Core Service 
                 Sends the data to reset LSN for a 
               
               
                   
                   
                 Queue 
                 specific device with HWID 
               
               
                 RecreatePacket 
                 CSR Tool 
                 Core Service 
                 Sends the data to recreate packet 
               
               
                   
                   
                 Queue 
                 with JobId. 
               
               
                 ServiceHealth 
                 ResourceMonitor 
                 Core, DBWriter, 
                 Sends the service health polling 
               
               
                   
                   
                 Subscription 
                 request to provide availability of 
               
               
                   
                   
                 Service Queue 
                 services. 
               
               
                 TestConnection 
                 Operations Tool 
                 All Service 
                 Requests the connectivity and self 
               
               
                   
                   
                 Queue 
                 diagnosis information from services. 
               
               
                 QueryBatchOut 
                 Subscription 
                 Core Service 
                 Sends the query request to get the 
               
               
                   
                 Service 
                 Queue 
                 batch response with the BatchID. 
               
               
                 StartPendingJob 
                 Core Service 
                 Core Service 
                 Initiates the pending job. 
               
               
                   
                   
                 Queue 
               
               
                   
               
             
          
         
       
     
     The message XML schema and their corresponding type definitions for the messages listed in Table 1 follow. 
     By defining a schema and message types independent of underlying function, the above allow for fast and reliable handling of messages between services, while providing an extensible mechanism supporting both prepaid and subscription business models. 
     Although the forgoing text sets forth a detailed description of numerous different embodiments of the invention, it should be understood that the scope of the invention is defined by the words of the claims set forth at the end of this patent. The detailed description is to be construed as exemplary only and does not describe every possibly embodiment of the invention because describing every possible embodiment would be impractical, if not impossible. Numerous alternative embodiments could be implemented, using either current technology or technology developed after the filing date of this patent, which would still fall within the scope of the claims defining the invention. 
     Thus, many modifications and variations may be made in the techniques and structures described and illustrated herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Accordingly, it should be understood that the methods and apparatus described herein are illustrative only and are not limiting upon the scope of the invention.