Patent ID: 7904551

Claim:
A system for clustering messaging in application server environment, comprising: a plurality of application server groups with a plurality of group leader application server nodes, wherein the plurality of group leader application server nodes in the plurality of application server groups are inter-connected with each other directly, wherein each application server group includes at least one said group leader application server node and one or more group member application server nodes, wherein, within each application server group, each said group member application server node connects directly with the at least one group leader application server node for that particular application server group, and wherein a message can be sent from a first group member application server node in a first application server group to other group member application server nodes in the other application server groups, based on a unicasting messaging mechanism, via the following steps: sending, via the unicasting messaging mechanism, the message from the first group member application server node to a first group leader application server node in the first application server group, sending, via the unicasting messaging mechanism, the message from the first group leader application server node in the first application server group to each other group leader application server node in the other application server groups, sending, via the unicasting messaging mechanism, the message from the each other group leader application server node to the other group member application server nodes in the other application server groups, and retransmitting, via another group leader application server node, the message to make sure the message eventually reach all participants, wherein, if an application server node responsible for relaying the messages to a downstream application server node becomes unresponsive, the message is transmitted using a redundant path bypassing the unresponsive application server node.