Patent · US Expired

Lease based safety protocol for distributed system with multiple networks

US6775703B1 · kind B1 · utility

127Cited by
4References
3Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMay 1, 2000
Grant dateAug 10, 2004
Priority date
Expiry dateMay 1, 2020

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04L69/329
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A system, method, and computer program product for a lease-based timeout scheme that addresses fencing's shortcomings. Unlike fencing, this scheme (or protocol) enables an isolated computer to realize it is disconnected from the distributed system and write its dirty data out to storage before its locks are stolen. In accordance with the invention, data consistency during a partition in a distributed system is ensured by establishing a lease based protocol between in the distributed system wherein a client can hold a lease with a server. The lease represents a contract between a client and a server in which the server promises to respect the client for a period of time. The server respects the contract even when it detects a partition between the client and itself.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.