JP3182800B2 - Distributed processing system - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an environment for supporting the construction of a distributed processing system in a wide-area distributed processing environment containing a plurality of networks connecting a large number of computers, and more particularly to an efficient and easy-to-use communication function. For providing environment.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a method of efficiently creating a distributed processing system in a distributed processing environment, a management table for centrally managing various resources, program modules, and the like existing in computers in the distributed processing environment is prepared. The use of the resource or communication with the program module often employs a method of executing using the information of the management table.

A patent described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 61-267859 discloses a state, an identification number, and a node address of a process existing on a node (computer or processor) and a process existing on a standard basis. And a supervisor process for registering and updating the process management table, and the supervisor process refers to the process management table to transmit a message. Also, JP-A-62-12
In the invention described in Japanese Patent No. 6457, there is provided an object management table which holds information on which processor is provided with an object in which data and a procedure for processing the data are present, and requests processing by referring to the object management table. Alternatively, transmission / reception regarding a processing report is performed. According to these methods, information such as on which computer (processor) in a distributed system each process / object is executed is centrally registered in a management table, and when processing such as communication is performed, the management is performed. In this method, specific address information and the like are obtained by referring to a table and then executed.

[0004] Such centralized information management is often used to realize transparency especially in a distributed environment. As in the inventions described in JP-A-1-166158 and JP-A-1-166159, there is a method that makes each resource in a distributed processing environment appear as if it exists on one computer. This is because the centrally managed data, that is, the location and structure information of each resource are arranged in one computer or all computers, and the information can be referred to from each computer. It enables access to remote distributed resources using virtual identification means having the same structure.

[0005]

According to the above-mentioned unified management method of information, whether information to be unifiedly managed is arranged as a table on one computer (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Sho 62-126457, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 1-166158) Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 9-26509), a copy of only standard process information is allocated to each computer, and other information is divided into computer units and allocated to each computer.
61-267859), or a copy of the table is arranged in each computer (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-166159). However, if the management table is arranged on one computer, the table is referred to one computer every time communication is performed, which hinders efficient use of the computer. By copying and distributing the tables, it is possible to avoid concentration of requests on one computer. However, at the time of updating the table, an update request must be broadcast to all the computers, and the generation / creation of the process in the distributed processing environment must be performed. In a system in which the termination, introduction / removal of a computer, and the like frequently occur, communication irrelevant to the execution of the program occurs frequently, which may significantly hinder the execution of the user program. Broadcasting in a distributed processing environment also leads to a problem of consistency between copies of each table in consideration of network delays and the like. If the table is divided into computer units and arranged on each computer, the above two problems can be avoided.However, after all, each computer that operates independently and independently is connected to the network. Even if the information of the standard process is copied and stored in each computer, the communication between the “non-standard processes” created by the user is performed by the user by the information of the individual process (especially, Or the supervisor process does not recognize all the information of the "non-standard process". However, the latter method is equivalent to a method in which each computer owns a copy of the information management table.

The above-mentioned problems are particularly important in a wide-area distributed processing environment (inter-city network, inter-state network, etc.). In such a large-scale and wide-area distributed processing environment, information of all resources and all processes (hereinafter, resources and processes are collectively referred to as an object collectively) existing in the distributed processing environment is originally stored in one table. It is impossible to combine them, and it is more difficult to transmit changes in objects in the distributed processing environment to changes in data in the table than in a conventional distributed processing environment represented by a LAN (local area network) or the like. Requires a lot of time. When a user performs programming by recognizing information on individual objects, it is premised that the user has detailed knowledge of the hardware and software configuration of the entire system.
In a wide-area distributed processing environment, the premise itself is a difficult condition.

An object of the present invention is to provide a support environment which efficiently manages objects existing in a wide-area distributed processing environment and does not impose a burden on a user who constructs a distributed processing system. In particular, an object of the present invention is to provide an efficient and easy-to-use communication function for a distributed processing system in which a large number of objects operate by sending and receiving messages to and from each other in a distributed processing environment.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, in particular, the recognizable range and recognizable items of an object in a distributed environment are limited. In an intercity network or an interstate network, there is no need to make all objects in the network appear as if they were on one computer. For example, a city may have a city name /
Only the representative value such as population / mechanism and the communication interface for operating / referencing it should be shown to other cities, and objects existing in all the computers in the intra-city network should be displayed in other cities. You don't have to show it. In order to limit the recognizable range / items of such an object, a modularization means for modularizing a set of related objects as one world, and a function or a part or data of an object group existing in the world Introduces an object conversion means for projecting everything as functions and data of objects in other worlds. In addition, object, modularization means, and objectization means 3
First communication means for performing inter-object communication in the world in order to perform communication between persons, and second communication means for performing communication between an object and modularization means in the world to which the object belongs. And third communication means for communicating between the object projecting the world and the modularization means of the world, and according to the state and communication form of the world,
All objects in the world, a plurality of objects in the world, one object in the world, or any one of four objects projecting the world is selected, and the selected object or object group is selected. And a fourth communication means for performing communication between the device and the module means in the world.

As described above, according to the present invention, a set of related objects is made into one world by the modularization means, and free communication is guaranteed by the first communication means in the world. Only limited communication is provided by the second to fourth communication means. Applying to the above example, the objects existing in the intra-city network are regarded as one world, and communication with other cities (communication with other worlds) operates representative values such as city names / populations / organizations. / Use only in the case of reference. Since object management can be performed independently on a global basis, the object of efficiently managing each object can be achieved. As for communication, communication with an object in another world can be executed in a communication format of “communication with another world”. Since there is no need to know the details inside the destination world, it is possible to achieve the object of providing a user-friendly communication function.

[0010]

The module unit manages objects in the world and controls inter-world communication using the fourth communication unit. Among these, as the object management, in addition to managing information such as the address where the object exists, the load state, the function, and the like, processing such as generation / deletion / movement of objects around the world, load distribution between objects, and the like are executed. The objectizing means uses the third communication means to provide some or all of the functions and data of the objects existing in the world as the functions and data of the objects in other worlds. At this time, the function or data is cached so that information can be referred to at high speed, and the form of communication to the world is converted.

The first communication means sends a message from an object to another object in the same world and receives a message sent to the object. The second communication means transmits a message from the object to the modularization means in the world to which the object belongs. The third communication means sends a message from the object to the modularization means of the world in which it is projecting. The fourth communication means transfers the message sent to the modularization means to the object. At this time, one object in the world, a plurality of objects in the world, all objects in the world, and the world are projected according to the state and communication form of the world managed by the modularization means. One of the four objects is selected as the destination object.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIGS. 1 and 2 show a detailed view and a schematic view of the entire structure of the present invention. In the present invention, among a plurality of "objects" (a collection of data and a group of procedures for operating the data) existing on the distributed processing system, objects closely related to each other are modularized as a "world".
The system construction is facilitated by allowing the user to program the communication between objects only in the world and within a limited field of view. The world can be projected onto objects in other worlds, and communication with objects in other worlds is implicit. That is, if you send a message to an object that projects the world,
Messages are forwarded to objects in the world. An object basically operates by sending and receiving messages in the world, but when performing a function that cannot be processed in the world, an object of the world through an object projecting another world Request processing.

First, an outline of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

In FIG. 2, reference numerals 241 to 249 denote objects, which are composed of data and a group of procedures for processing the data, communicate with each other, and operate in cooperation. The object is an application program or
You can think of it as a program module. The object is activated by receiving the message, performs processing in the object, and transmits a message to another object as necessary. Reference numerals 211 to 213 denote worlds in which these objects are modularized. World 211
Is a virtual space in which the objects 241 to 244, the world 212 is the objects 245 to 247, and the world 213 is a module in which the objects 248 and 249 are modularized. Although each object in the system is actually in an equal relationship, the modularization processes 221 to 223 manage information on objects in the world, and provide the user with a world which is a virtual concept in which these are modularized. Also,
In the present embodiment, the worlds 212 and 213 are respectively converted into
Are projected onto the objects 241 and 244 in the inside. The role of the object conversion process is to show only necessary information to the object projecting the world, and to convert the communication content between the object and the world as necessary. Modularization processing 222 and object conversion processing 23
1 or the module conversion process 223 and the object conversion process 232 correspond to each other on a one-to-one basis, so that they can be combined into one program.

Next, an outline of a method of communicating objects between the worlds will be described with reference to FIG. Communication 25 between objects 242 and 241 in world 211
Assume that 1 has been performed. Here, since the object 241 projects the lower world 212, the actual processing of the object is performed inside the world 212. Therefore, processing is requested from objects in the world 212 via the object conversion processing 231 and the module conversion processing 222 (communications 252 to 254). In the example, object 245
The request message has been forwarded to. For the object 245, the communication 254 is a communication in which the transmission source object cannot be recognized. If the request indicated by the communication 254 cannot be processed only by the object 245, the message is transferred to another object and processed (communication 255). When the processing to be performed in the world 212 ends, communication is performed with the world to which the mobile terminal belongs as a destination (communication 256). Upon receiving the communication 256, the modularization processing 222 executes an object 241 projecting the world.
To the message (communication 257). In the figure, the object 241 is directly sent from the modularization process 222.
However, there is a method of communicating via the object conversion process 231.

Since each object has an equal relationship, if the object 242 can recognize the communication address to the object 245,
241, object conversion processing 231, modularization processing 2
It is possible to perform high-speed communication between the worlds without passing through the network 22. However, this increases the number of parties with which the object can communicate directly and complicates the program.
Also, the creator of each object needs to understand the configuration of the entire system, which increases the time required for constructing the system. A feature of the present invention is that, as shown in the above-described communication example, inter-world communication is performed at a position invisible to an object by modularization processing and objectization processing. That is, objects that can be directly recognized by objects are only objects belonging to the same world, and communication performed by directly designating objects is limited to the world. In the example of FIG. 2, objects that do not project the world 212 (objects 242 to 244) may not know that the object 241 is projecting the world 212, and
The object 241 also receives a request from the world 212
It is not possible to know which object in is processed. This means that observing the interface of world communication (interface with object processing and modularization processing) allows each object to be created without considering objects from other worlds, and facilitates system construction. Leads to.

FIG. 3 shows an example of an interface for inter-object communication. Here, an example is shown in which the interfaces for inter-object communication are limited to eight types. In the figure, format 301 to 304 are message transmission in the world, format 30
5 to 307 are message transmissions between worlds. The format 308 is a common message receiving interface. In the world, objects can recognize each other, so in the basic format 301 of communication between objects in the world, communication is performed by specifying the address of the destination object (FIG. 2, communication 251, 255). Here, as a method of specifying the destination object, it is conceivable to specify an object ID given by the system or an object name defined by a user. However, if the existing name management service or the modularization process supports the conversion of the object ID and the object name into the object address, a new communication interface for specifying the object ID and the object name can be set based on the format 301. It is. In the communication formats 302 to 304, transmission is performed to the world to which the object belongs, that is, to the modularization process (the same as communication 256). Since the format 304 is a broadcast to objects in the world, the modularization process distributes a message to all objects existing in the world. In the formats 302 and 303, the function of the object to be the destination of the message must be specified together with the message. The modularization process retrieves information on objects in the world and transmits a message to one or all of the objects having the designated function (same communication 254). Format 30
In 1 to 304, if there is no object to be transmitted, an error occurs.

Communication formats 305 to 307 are for transmitting messages between worlds, and specify a world address as a transmission destination. In order to set a communication format for designating a world ID and a world name, a name management service for converting these IDs and names into a world address may be introduced as in the case of the format 301. Note that the world address is specifically an address for the object processing or the module processing. The formats 305 to 307 are obtained by adding designation of a world address to the formats 302 to 304. The world that can be specified is either the world projected on the self or the world to which the self belongs. When the address of the world in which the object is projected is specified, the message is transferred to the modularization processing via the corresponding objectization processing (the same communication 252 and 253). If the modularization process is of the format 307, the message is distributed to all objects in the world. In the case of the formats 305 and 306, similarly to the formats 302 and 303, the function of the object in the world is searched, and a message is transmitted to one or all of the objects having the designated function (the same as above). Communication 254). Formats 305 to 307
In, if the address of the world to which the object belongs is specified, the communication mode is the same as that of the formats 302 to 304 except for error processing in the format 305 (the same as communication 256). When the modularization process searches the information of the objects in the world and detects that there is no object having the designated function, an error is generated in the format 302, but an error is generated in the format 305 for the object projecting the world. Transfer the message (Same as Communication 2
57). As a result, a processing request to the upper world or a response to a processing request from the upper world can be made. FIG. 4 shows the forms of the inter-world communication in the formats 305 to 307 described above.

The format 308 is a message receiving interface. Except at the time of communication from modular processing,
The address of the source object is stored in the object address term. The message field stores the sent message.

The above-mentioned meaning of the interface shown in FIG. 3 is merely an example of the user interface configuration of the present invention. It is also possible to give different meanings by combining the first to fourth communication processes described later. Specifically, the error handling of the communication format 305 is performed in format 3
02 (this results in formats 302 to 304
Is unnecessary), and a new message transmission format to the upper world is introduced.

Next, FIG. 5 shows an example in which objects, object conversion processing, and module conversion processing are actually arranged on a distributed processing computer system. The objects 241 to 249, the module processing 221 to 223, the object processing 231 and 232, and the communication 251 to 2
57 is the same concept as FIG. Among them, communication 251
2 to 257 show how the communication shown in FIG. 2 actually flows on the network. 51
Reference numerals 1 to 516 denote computers that execute programs for these objects, modularization processing, objectization processing, and the like. Reference numerals 521 to 523 denote networks (LANs) connecting the computers. Network 521
And 522 are connected to the network 521 by the router 531.
And 523 are connected by a router 532. It is possible to change the routers 531 and 532 to bridges or gateways. The world 211 to 2 shown in FIG.
13 correspond to the networks 521 to 523, respectively. The world does not necessarily have to correspond one-to-one with the network, and it is also possible to configure one world from a plurality of networks and to make a plurality of worlds correspond to one network. However, considering that an object can only recognize objects in the world and cannot directly recognize objects in other worlds, a method of making the world and the network correspond one-to-one is optimal.

Next, the details of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. A first communication process to support communication between objects in the world, a second communication process to communicate with the world to which the object belongs, and a third communication process to communicate with the world to which the object is projected A fourth communication process for distributing a message transferred to the communication process and the modularization process to an object in the world or an object projecting the world is shown separately from the object, the modularization process, and the objectization process. The first and second communication processes are message management procedures associated with objects, the third communication process is associated with object processing, and the fourth communication process is associated with modularization processing. Also, since the object conversion process is originally a procedure attached to an object projecting the world, the third communication process can also be said to be a message management procedure attached to the object. Objects are basically
It consists of an application program created by the system builder and an object manager having a common program code for each object. Therefore, FIG.
This is an example in which a program (object) described by a user and a procedure provided by the present invention are separately illustrated.

The role of the first communication process is to send a message to the first communication process of another object in the world and to receive a message from another communication process. It should be noted that the first and fourth communication processes are the only programs that transfer the message to the first communication process. The role of the second communication process is to send a message to the modularization process of the world to which it belongs (ie, the fourth communication process). The role of the third communication process is to send a message to the modularization process (ie, the fourth communication process) of the world being projected. The role of the fourth communication process is to transfer a message to the first communication process of an object in the world or an object projecting the world according to the state of the world and the form of communication.

In FIG. 1, reference numerals 111 to 114 denote first communication processes, which are objects 242, 241, 24, respectively.
Responsible for 5,247, and is responsible for worldwide communications. Reference numeral 121 denotes a second communication process, which is used when the object 247 transmits a message to the world 212 to which the object 247 belongs. Although FIG. 1 describes only the first and second communication processes corresponding to limited objects, these communication processes are actually provided for all objects. A third communication process 131 has a role of transferring a message from an object projecting the world to the world. 141 is a fourth communication process,
The message sent to the modularization process 222 is converted into a first communication process of one or more objects in the world,
Or, it transfers to the first communication processing of the object projecting the world. The worlds 211 and 212, the module processing 221 and 222, and the object processing 23
1. The objects 241 to 247 have the same concept as in FIG.

Next, how the flow of message transfer shown in FIG. 2 (communications 251 to 257 in FIG. 2) is performed by separating the first to fourth communication processes will be described. When the object 242 intends to transmit a message to the object 241, the object 242 first requests the first communication process 111 attached to the object 242 to transmit a message (communication 151). The first communication process 111 transfers a message to the first communication process 112 attached to the object 241 (communication 152). The first communication processing 112 further transfers the message to the object 241 (communication 153). Since the object 241 is a projection of the world 212, the third communication processing 13
1 requesting a message transfer (communication 154), and
The message is transmitted to the module processing 222 for managing the communication No. 2 (communication 155). Since this communication is one-to-one communication between the worlds, the function of the destination object is specified. The fourth communication processing 141 associated with the modularization processing 222 detects an object 245 having a necessary function, and transfers a message to the first communication processing 113 of the object (communication 156). First communication processing 113
Passes a message to object 245 (communication 15
7). The processing request from the object 245 to the object 247 is a normal intra-world communication, and the message is transferred via the first communication processing 113, 114 (communications 158 to 160). Object 247 is upper world 2
When returning the processing response to the object existing in 11,
First, through a second communication process 121 (communication 161), a modularization process 2 that manages the world to which the user belongs.
22 (message 162). The message sent to the modularization processing 222 is the fourth communication processing 14
1 is transferred to the first communication process 112 of the object 241 projecting the world (communication 163), and is transferred to the object 241 (communication 164).

FIG. 6 shows an example of the arrangement of each object, module processing, object processing, and communication processing on a distributed processing computer system. Objects 241-2
49, the modularization processes 221 to 223, and the objectization processes 231 and 232 have the same concept as in FIG. First communication processing 111 to 114, second communication processing 121, third communication processing 131, fourth communication processing 141
Has the same concept as in FIG. Similar to FIG. 1, only limited communication processing is described, but in practice, the first and second communication processing are performed for each object, and the third communication processing is performed for each object processing. The communication process
There is a fourth communication process for each modularization process. The computers 511 to 516, the networks 521 to 523, and the routers 531 and 532 have the same concept as in FIG. Communication 151 to 164 show how the communication shown in FIG. 1 actually flows on the network. By separating the first to fourth communication processes,
All communications between computers (via a network) are performed by communication processing, and objects do not communicate directly via a network. In this way, the format of communication via the network is unified, enabling heterogeneous coupling (using different computers as system components), and expandability (ease of adding a new computer). Can be increased.

All of the objects, the module processing, the object processing, and the first to fourth communication processing shown in FIG. 1 or FIG. 6 can be formed as individual processes (programs). However, the first and second communication processes are associated with the object. If the object projects the world, the object conversion process and the third communication process will accompany the object. Therefore, it is efficient to collectively arrange such communication processing and object conversion processing associated with the object in the same process as the object. This is shown in FIG. An object 242 is shown as an example of an object not projecting the world, and an object 241 is shown as an example of an object projecting the world. The object, the first to third communication processes, and the object conversion process can all be regarded as internal procedures of the process. Since the object 242 does not project the world, only the first communication processing 111 and the second communication processing 122 are provided as communication procedures. The object process 711 is configured by combining the object 242, the first communication process 111, and the second communication process 122. In the case of the object 241 projecting the world, an object process 712 includes the first communication process 112, the second communication process 123, the third communication process 131, and the object conversion process 231. Since the object and each communication process are procedures existing in the same process, all communications 731 to 737 between the object and the communication process can be in the form of a procedure call. Communication 721 to 727 between the communication processing and the communication processing existing in another process is inter-process communication, so that message communication, remote procedure call, or the like provided by an operating system (OS) or the like is used.

The fourth communication process accompanies the modularization process. Therefore, FIG. 8 shows an example in which these two processes are arranged in the same process. Modular processing as an example
222, a process 8 including the fourth communication process 141
11 was shown. This is called the world process. In the world process, there is a world database 821 which is common data referred to by the modularization process 222 and the fourth communication process 141. The fourth communication process is performed when a message is received from the second or third communication process (communication 83
1) The world database 821 is searched to determine a destination object, and a message is transmitted to the first communication processing of the object (communication 832). Next, details of the operations of the first to fourth communication processes will be described.

FIG. 9 shows an operation example 900 of the first communication processing. In the present invention, an object is activated according to a message transmitted from another object, and performs processing according to the message inside the object. An object can activate another object by sending a message. Since the communication process responsible for receiving a message for the object is only the first communication process, the first communication process manages activation of the object. The main operation of the first communication process at the time of receiving a message is to activate an object according to the message (process 910).
That is, the first communication process employs a format (procedure call) for calling the function of the object in response to the message. The first communication process performs this basic operation every time a message is received, but an event occurs during execution of an object, that is, an object transmits a message to another object in the world, or If the first communication process receives a message during the execution of the object, the object execution status is saved, the execution is temporarily interrupted, and the event is searched (processes 902 and 90).
4) Event processing must be performed as necessary. If the event is determined to be a message transmission by the process 902, the message is transferred to the first communication process of the object (process 903), and the event search is performed again. If the event is determined to be a message reception by the process 904, the message is put into a process queue (process 905), and the process returns to the event search. At this time, it is also possible to put a message with a high priority at the head of the processing queue. When using the message communication function provided in the OS or the like, a queue is often already prepared in the system. Therefore, if the OS queue can be used, queue management can be omitted (the message reception need not be regarded as an event). However, in the queue of the OS, the queue cannot be switched according to the priority order. Therefore, in the example of FIG. 9, the queue management is performed in the first communication process.

When all event processing (transmission of a message or entry of a message into a processing queue) is completed, the state before the occurrence of the event is checked (step 906), and the state is restored. The state before the event occurred is active,
That is, if the operation of the object has been performed, the execution status of the object saved at the time of occurrence of the event is restored (step 907), and the operation of the object is continued (step 910). If the object is in the non-active state where the operation is not performed, the contents of the processing queue are checked to determine whether there is a message to be processed (processing 9).
08). If there is no message to be processed, sleep until the next event occurs (process 901).
It should be noted that, even when the object process is generated, the first communication process is sleeping in the event occurrence waiting state. Processing 9
If it is determined in step 08 that a message to be processed exists in the processing queue, the state of the object is set to active (step 909), and processing corresponding to the message is executed (step 910). When the processing is completed, the state of the object is set to the non-active state (processing 911), and the event search is performed again.

Some currently available OSs can use a plurality of "threads" that execute instructions in parallel within one process. When such an OS is used, a plurality of threads can be prepared in the object process, and each can process each message. That is, a plurality of objects (241 or 242) which could exist only once in the object process shown in FIG. 7 can be made to exist as threads. At this time, the first communication processing also becomes one thread. In this method, a new thread is created at the same time that a message is received, and the thread performs an operation of the object. Therefore, a queue for message processing is unnecessary. The first communication process performs thread creation / termination management instead of queue management.

FIG. 10 shows the operation of the first communication process in the OS that can use a plurality of threads. As in FIG. 9, the first communication process first sleeps while waiting for an event to occur (process 1001). If an event occurs and the device is released from the sleep state, an event search is performed in processes 1002 and 1004. If it is determined in step 1002 that the event is a message transmission request, the message is transferred to the first communication process of the target object (step 1010).
03), an event search is performed again. If it is determined by the process 1004 that the event is a message reception, a thread for executing the object is generated (process 1005; object generation process), and the message is transferred to the thread to start the object (process 1006; object startup). processing). Thereafter, in the first communication process, an event search is performed without waiting for the end of the processing of the object. Processing 10
If it is determined that there is no event to be processed in steps 02 and 1004, the process waits for an event again (process 100).
1).

FIG. 11 shows an operation example 1100 of the second communication process.
Is shown. The only operation of the second communication processing is to transfer a message to the modularization processing (more precisely, the fourth communication processing) of the world to which the user belongs in accordance with a request from the object (processing 1101). . Therefore,
The second communication process may be any procedure called from the object.

FIG. 12 shows an operation example 1200 of the third communication processing.
Is shown. The operation of the third communication process is to transfer a message from the object projecting the world to the modularization process (more precisely, the fourth communication process) of the world (process 1202). At this time, it is possible to convert the communication mode by calling the object conversion process as needed (process 1201). Converting communication to an object projecting the world into broadcast or the like to all objects in the world defines a method of projecting the world to the upper world (a method of defining the appearance of the lower world in the upper world). It is optimal to perform the object conversion processing that is performed. Therefore, in the present invention, the communication form conversion function is arranged in the object conversion processing. However, it is also possible to arrange the communication form conversion function in the object, the third communication processing, or the like.

FIG. 13 shows an operation example 1300 of the fourth communication processing.
Is shown. Similarly to the first communication process, the fourth communication process is normally sleeping in an event waiting state (process 1302). If it is determined that the message has been transferred for the fourth communication process (process 1301), the sleep state is released and the process for the message is executed.
The message transferred to the fourth communication process designates one of the modes of “upper world priority”, “world priority”, and “world only”. Each of these communication modes
"Preferentially transfer messages to objects projecting the world""Preferentially transfer messages to objects in the world, but project the world if no object meets the conditions "Transfer a message to an object" means "transfer a message to an object in the world, but an error occurs if there is no object that meets the condition."
The relationship between these modes and the communication mode shown in FIG. 3 will be described with reference to FIG. In the fourth communication process, a corresponding process must be performed for each of these modes. In processing 1303,
If it is determined that the mode has the upper world priority, the message is transferred to the first communication processing of the object projecting the world as it is (processing 1307). If it is not the upper world priority, the world database is searched first to check the status of the objects in the world (step 130).
4) Investigate whether an object having the designated function exists in the world (process 1305). At this time, if there is an object having the designated function, the message is transferred to the first communication process of the object (process 1309). If no object corresponding to the condition exists, it is checked whether the mode is the world priority mode or the world limitation mode (processing 1306). The message is transferred to the communication process (1307). If the mode is limited to the inside of the world, an error occurs (process 1308). In addition,
The operation example 1300 shows a communication process in a case where only one-to-one communication between the worlds is supported for simplification. When broadcasting to the world, there is no need to search the world database, just distribute the message to all objects in the world. To support multicasting to objects having a designated function in the world, a message may be distributed to all objects having a designated function.
In broadcast and multicast, the intra-world priority mode is not required, and if there is no destination object, it is sufficient to just make an error as it is.

Next, the formats 301 to 308 shown in FIG.
What combination of the operations of the above-described first to fourth communication processes will be described with reference to FIG. The communication formats 301 to 308 in FIG.
It is the same as FIG. A communication to the upper world is newly shown as a communication format 1401. In communication to the upper world,
Send a message to an object that projects the world to which it belongs. This is a representative example of communication using the upper world priority mode described in the fourth communication processing. In the figure, communication formats 301 and 3
08 is a worldwide transmission / reception, so that message transmission / reception is performed only during the first communication processing. In other communication formats, message transfer is supported by the fourth communication process. In the communication formats 302 to 304, since communication is performed only within the own world, a message is transferred from the second communication processing responsible for communication with the modularization processing of the world to which the communication apparatus belongs to the fourth communication processing. . In the fourth communication process, message transfer is performed in the world limited mode. At this time, it is not necessary to search the world database in the format 304 for broadcasting. When communication (formats 305 to 307) is performed by designating the destination world, the communication process used by the object differs depending on whether the designated world is the world projected by the user or the world to which the user belongs.
In FIG. 14, the upper part of the format 305 to 307 is communication to the world projected by the user, and the lower part is communication to the world to which the user belongs. If the communication is to the world that the user is projecting, the third communication process is used. If the communication is to the world to which the user belongs, the second communication process is used. To the fourth communication process. The fourth communication process searches the world database except for the case of the format 307, and transmits a message to an object having a designated function. In the case of the format 307, the message is distributed to all objects in the world without searching the world database. At this time,
If the world to which the user belongs is specified in the format 305 (lower part of the format 305), communication is performed in the world priority mode.
Otherwise, it communicates in the world limited mode. That is,
If the target object does not exist, format 305
If the user specifies the world to which the user belongs, the message is transferred to the object projecting the world. If the target object does not exist in any other format, an error will occur. A communication format 1401 shown as an example of a new combination of each communication process is a communication format to the upper world. A message is transmitted to the fourth communication process using the second communication process, and at this time, communication is performed in the upper world priority mode. In this case, the world database is not searched,
It forwards the message directly to the first communication process of the object projecting the world. The communication format 1401 is used when it is known in advance that a necessary function does not exist in the world to which the user belongs.

FIG. 15 shows the roles of the object processing and the module processing. Since the details of these processes are not directly related to the present invention, they will be briefly described here. The object conversion process performs communication form conversion and data / function caching described in the description of the third communication process (FIG. 12). Caching is a method of increasing the speed by arranging frequently used data / functions on the side of an object that projects the world as a function of object conversion processing. Modularization processing includes object name management (conversion of logical names of objects to object addresses), creation / deletion of objects (management of object processes), movement of objects around the world, and load balancing between processing objects When there are a plurality of objects having the same, a function relating to world database management is provided.

Finally, FIG. 16 shows a configuration example of the world database. The world database has information on both software (ie, objects) existing in the world and hardware (ie, computers) corresponding to the world.
The object list is a data structure having information on all objects existing in the world. Information on each object includes the logical name of the object, the computer where the object exists, the communication address to the object, the load of the object, and the function of the object. Among these, the logical name is used for object name management, and the load is used for load balancing between objects in processing. The easiest way is to calculate the load based on the processing queue length of the object. The computer list indicates what computer the hardware corresponding to the world is composed of. The logical name of the computer, the processing performance of the computer, the number of objects existing in the computer, the address of the computer, the configuration of the computer, and the like are data indicating the computer. The performance, the number of objects, and the configuration are used when an object is generated. That is,
As a method of selecting a computer in the world to generate an object, a computer having a computer configuration capable of executing the object and having the highest computer performance per object may be selected. The computer configuration is indicated by the type of the computer, such as CPU, OS, and I / O. In addition, the world database includes a list of objects that must exist in the world when the system is initialized.

[0040]

According to the present invention, objects existing in a wide-area distributed processing environment can be independently managed on a world-by-world basis. No need to understand. That is, when constructing a conventional planar distributed processing system, all users had to be aware of the configuration of the entire system in detail. However, when the present invention is used, it is possible to understand the details inside one world. The system can be constructed by cooperation between a user who does not recognize the details inside the world but understands the relationship between the worlds.

Further, as for the communication function, communication between objects in other worlds is replaced with a form of "communication to the world" while guaranteeing that communication between objects is freely performed in the world, and communication between the worlds is performed. Is restricted. As a result, the user cannot and does not need to know which object performs the process performed in the other world. Since there is no need to specify an object to be communicated with, there is no need to consider information such as on which computer the object exists, and programming is facilitated. In addition, on the world side to which the object belongs, the inside of the object can be freely configured as long as the interface shown to other worlds is unified. It is also possible to perform internal change of an object, load distribution in which a plurality of objects having the same function are prepared, etc. without showing them to other worlds.

The communication function of the present invention supports not only one-to-one communication between the worlds but also multicasting to objects having the same function in the world and broadcasting to the world. As a result, processes such as simultaneous upgrading of objects having the same function and simultaneous communication with all objects in the world in an emergency can be easily realized.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a detailed view of the overall configuration of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the overall configuration of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an interface for communication between objects.

FIG. 4 shows functions of inter-world communication.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of the arrangement of each process of the present invention in a distributed processing environment.

FIG. 6 is a detailed layout diagram of each process in the distributed processing environment according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an internal configuration diagram of an object process.

FIG. 8 is an internal configuration diagram of a world process.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of a first communication process.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of a first communication process in an OS capable of using multiple threads.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of a second communication process.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of a third communication process.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of a fourth communication process.

FIG. 14 is a configuration diagram of an interface for communication between objects.

FIG. 15 shows functions of object conversion processing and module conversion processing.

FIG. 16 is an internal configuration diagram of a world database.

[Explanation of symbols]

111 to 114: first communication processing, 121 to 123
... second communication process, 131 ... third communication process, 141 ...
Fourth communication process, 211 to 213 world, 221 to 223 modular process, 231, 232 object process, 241 to 249 object, 301
To 308, 1401 ... Inter-object communication interface, 511 to 516 ... Computer, 521 to 523
... Network, 531,532 ... Router, 711,7
12 ... Object process, 811 ... World process,
821: world database, 900: flowchart of first communication process, 1100: flowchart of second communication process, 1200: flowchart of third communication process,
1300: Flowchart of fourth communication process.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Tadashi Uwaki 4026 Kuji-cho, Hitachi City, Ibaraki Prefecture Within Hitachi Research Laboratory, Hitachi, Ltd. (72) Yoshiki Kobayashi 4026 Kuji-cho, Hitachi City, Ibaraki Prefecture Hitachi Research, Ltd. In-house (56) References JP-A-5-46569 (JP, A) JP-A-5-46570 (JP, A) JP-A-2-247768 (JP, A) JP-A-2-113362 (JP, A) JP-A-62-126457 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06F 15/16-15/177 G06F 9/44-9/46 JICST file (JOIS)

Claims (10)

(57) [Claims] 1. A distributed processing system in which a plurality of objects communicate with each other on a plurality of computers connected to a network to execute processing, modularization means for modularizing a set of related objects into one world, Object conversion means for projecting some or all of the functions and data of an object group existing in the world as functions and data of objects in another world, all objects in the world, a plurality of objects in the world,
Communication means for performing communication between one of the objects in the world or one of the four objects projecting the world and the modularization means of the world and communication between objects in the world A distributed processing system comprising: 2. A distributed processing system in which a plurality of objects communicate with each other on a plurality of computers connected to a network to execute processing, modularization means for modularizing a set of related objects into one world, Object conversion means for projecting a part or all of the functions and data of the object group existing in the world as functions and data of the objects in the other world, first communication means for performing inter-object communication in the world,
A second communication means for communicating between the object and the modularization means of the world to which the object belongs, and a third communication means for communicating between the object projecting the world and the modularization means of the world Communication means and address status, load status, function of the object in the world
According to any of the state information and the communication mode , any one of the four objects of the whole object in the world, a plurality of objects in the world, one object in the world, or an object projecting the world A distributed processing system comprising: a fourth communication unit that selects one of the above and communicates between the selected object or group of objects and the modularization unit in the world. 3. An object according to claim 2, wherein said object is to execute a function that does not exist in said object itself or in any of the objects known to said object. And performing communication specifying a function to be executed to a modularization unit in the world to which the object belongs without specifying the function. 4. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein, when the object projecting the world attempts to execute a function provided by an object or a group of objects existing in the world, the third communication unit transmits a processing request. A distributed processing system for performing communication in which a function to be executed is specified without specifying a destination object to module means in the world. 5. The module according to claim 3, wherein the modularization means has information on all objects in the world, and when communication specifying a function to be executed is performed for the modularization means, Fourth communication means is a distributed processing system for retrieving information on the object in the world, and communicating with the object or the object group if an object having a designation function exists. 6. The module according to claim 3, wherein the modularization means has information on all objects in the world, and when communication specifying a function to be executed is performed for the modularization means, The fourth communication means searches for information on the object in the world, and if there is an object having a designation function, communicates with the object or the group of objects. A distributed processing system for communicating with an object projecting the image. 7. The object according to claim 2, wherein the first to third communication means are provided for the object projecting the world, and for other objects except the object projecting the world. A distributed processing system comprising: the first and second communication means; and the fourth communication means for modularizing means in the world. 8. An object according to claim 2, wherein said first to third communication means and said object conversion means are provided for an object projecting said world,
The first and second communication means are provided for other objects except the object projecting the world,
A distributed processing system, wherein the fourth communication means is provided for modularization means in the world. 9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the object is an application program,
Or a program module characterized by being a program module
Processing system. 10. A plurality of computers connected to a network
Applications communicate with each other to perform processing.
In a distributed processing system, a set of related applications is modeled as one world.
Modularization means to create modules, functions and data of applications that exist in the first world
Some or all of the data from the second world application
Means for projecting as functions and data, and application from the second world to the whole of the first world
Broadcast to the application, the second world
Applications in the first world to multiple apps
To the application, the second world app
Application to one application in the first world
And communication to down, the second in the world between applications
Communication means for executing communication
Distributed processing system.