Patents by Inventor Andrew I Hickson

Andrew I Hickson has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 9626236
    Abstract: Disclosed is a method for administering messages. In response to a determination that one or more consuming applications have failed to process the same message on a queue a predetermined number of times, the message is made unavailable to consuming applications. Responsive to determining that a predetermined number of messages have been made unavailable to consuming applications, one or more consuming applications are prevented from consuming messages from the queue.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 20, 2015
    Date of Patent: April 18, 2017
    Assignee: nternational Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Malcolm D. Ayres, Andrew I. Hickson, Andrew M. Leonard, David Ware, Andrew J. Whitfield
  • Publication number: 20150355956
    Abstract: Disclosed is a method for administering messages. In response to a determination that one or more consuming applications have failed to process the same message on a queue a predetermined number of times, the message is made unavailable to consuming applications. Responsive to determining that a predetermined number of messages have been made unavailable to consuming applications, one or more consuming applications are prevented from consuming messages from the queue.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 20, 2015
    Publication date: December 10, 2015
    Inventors: Malcolm D. Ayres, Andrew I. Hickson, Andrew M. Leonard, David Ware, Andrew J. Whitfield
  • Patent number: 9146788
    Abstract: Disclosed is a method for administering messages. In response to a determination that one or more consuming applications have failed to process the same message on a queue a predetermined number of times, the message is made unavailable to consuming applications. Responsive to determining that a predetermined number of messages have been made unavailable to consuming applications, one or more consuming applications are prevented from consuming messages from the queue.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 2008
    Date of Patent: September 29, 2015
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Malcolm D. Ayres, Andrew I. Hickson, Andrew M. Leonard, David Ware, Andrew J. Whitfield
  • Patent number: 8386577
    Abstract: Provided are a message brokering systems, computer program products and methods for communication in a publish/subscribe environment in which publisher application programs send messages to subscriber application programs via one or more message brokers, the method comprising the following steps: responsive to receipt of a published message at a message broker, referring to characteristics of the received message and subscriber-specified quality of service requirements to determine an appropriate quality or service for onward transmission of the message; selecting a communication protocol in accordance with the determined quality of service; and transmitting the message using the selected communication protocol. Information relating to the quality of service requirements of a first message broker's subscribers is passed to other brokers and subsequently used for selection of an appropriate communication protocol for transmitting messages between the brokers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 12, 2012
    Date of Patent: February 26, 2013
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Andrew I. Hickson, Simon A J Holdsworth, Timothy N. Holloway, Peter R. MacFarlane, Michael J. Ward
  • Publication number: 20120117172
    Abstract: Provided are a message brokering systems, computer program products and methods for communication in a publish/subscribe environment in which publisher application programs send messages to subscriber application programs via one or more message brokers, the method comprising the following steps: responsive to receipt of a published message at a message broker, referring to characteristics of the received message and subscriber-specified quality of service requirements to determine an appropriate quality or service for onward transmission of the message; selecting a communication protocol in accordance with the determined quality of service; and transmitting the message using the selected communication protocol. Information relating to the quality of service requirements of a first message broker's subscribers is passed to other brokers and subsequently used for selection of an appropriate communication protocol for transmitting messages between the brokers.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 12, 2012
    Publication date: May 10, 2012
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Andrew I. Hickson, Simon A. J. Holdsworth, Timothy N. Holloway, Peter R. MacFarlane, Michael J. Ward
  • Patent number: 8166018
    Abstract: An apparatus browses a list of data items. The apparatus includes a plurality of browse mechanisms each operable to scan concurrently through a list of data items and a plurality of independent groups each comprising two or more of the plurality of browse mechanisms. The browse mechanisms in a group cooperate together to browse the list of data items such that a data item is seen by only one member of the group.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 2004
    Date of Patent: April 24, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Robert F. Buxton, Richard M. W. Harran, Andrew I. Hickson, Ian W. Parkson
  • Patent number: 8122118
    Abstract: Provided are a message brokering systems, computer program products and methods for communication in a publish/subscribe environment in which publisher application programs send messages to subscriber application programs via one or more message brokers, the method comprising the following steps: responsive to receipt of a published message at a message broker, referring to characteristics of the received message and subscriber-specified quality of service requirements to determine an appropriate quality or service for onward transmission of the message; selecting a communication protocol in accordance with the determined quality of service; and transmitting the message using the selected communication protocol. Information relating to the quality of service requirements of a first message broker's subscribers is passed to other brokers and subsequently used for selection of an appropriate communication protocol for transmitting messages between the brokers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 2001
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Andrew I Hickson, Simon A J Holdsworth, Timothy N Holloway, Peter R MacFarlane, Michael J Ward
  • Publication number: 20080229329
    Abstract: Disclosed is a method for administering messages. In response to a determination that one or more consuming applications have failed to process the same message on a queue a predetermined number of times, the message is made unavailable to consuming applications. Responsive to determining that a predetermined number of messages have been made unavailable to consuming applications, one or more consuming applications are prevented from consuming messages from the queue.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 17, 2008
    Publication date: September 18, 2008
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Malcolm D. Ayres, Andrew I. Hickson, Andrew M. Leonard, David Ware, Andrew J. Whitfield
  • Patent number: 7249163
    Abstract: Requests from a client to put messages into an input queue are intercepted before reaching the input queue. The intercepted requests which refer to a message destined for the server application are established. Information associated with the server application indicates that the server application will process such a message according to a predetermined manner. A request associated with the server application for retrieving such a message is transactional, and the server application uses a one-phase commit for retrieving such a message. Such a message can then be matched with the server application's request such that the server application can retrieve the message. In this way, such messages by-pass the input queue, and are, therefore, not logged, resulting in a reduction of I/O.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 12, 2002
    Date of Patent: July 24, 2007
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Andrew I Hickson, David Ware
  • Patent number: 6978400
    Abstract: The invention relates to a method, apparatus and computer program for reducing the number of data elements checkpointed in a system having at least one data store where operations on said at least one data store are recorded in a log. A point in the log is recorded. The oldest data element in each of the least one data store is determined and it is then determined for each of the at least one data store whether a logged representation of the data store's oldest data element is more recent than the point recorded. Responsive to determining that a data store's logged representation is more recent than the point recorded, it is realised that it is not necessary to force data elements from that data store to disk if the point recorded is made the point of restart for that data store.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2002
    Date of Patent: December 20, 2005
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Andrew I Hickson, Richard S Maxwell, David Ware
  • Publication number: 20040078659
    Abstract: The invention relates to a method, apparatus and computer program for reducing the number of data elements checkpointed in a system having at least one data store where operations on said at least one data store are recorded in a log. A point in the log is recorded. The oldest data element in each of the least one data store is determined and it is then determined for each of the at least one data store whether a logged representation of the data store's oldest data element is more recent than the point recorded. Responsive to determining that a data store's logged representation is more recent than the point recorded, it is realised that it is not necessary to force data elements from that data store to disk if the point recorded is made the point of restart for that data store.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 29, 2002
    Publication date: April 22, 2004
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Andrew I. Hickson, Richard S. Maxwell, David Ware
  • Publication number: 20030220968
    Abstract: Requests from a client to put messages into an input queue are intercepted before reaching the input queue. The intercepted requests which refer to a message destined for the server application are established. Information associated with the server application indicates that the server application will process such a message according to a predetermined manner. A request associated with the server application for retrieving such a message is transactional, and the server application uses a one-phase commit for retrieving such a message. Such a message can then be matched with the server application's request such that the server application can retrieve the message. In this way, such messages by-pass the input queue, and are, therefore, not logged, resulting in a reduction of I/O.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 12, 2002
    Publication date: November 27, 2003
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Andrew I. Hickson, David Ware
  • Publication number: 20030115317
    Abstract: Provided are a message brokering systems, computer program products and methods for communication in a publish/subscribe environment in which publisher application programs send messages to subscriber application programs via one or more message brokers, the method comprising the following steps: responsive to receipt of a published message at a message broker, referring to characteristics of the received message and subscriber-specified quality of service requirements to determine an appropriate quality or service for onward transmission of the message; selecting a communication protocol in accordance with the determined quality of service; and transmitting the message using the selected communication protocol. Information relating to the quality of service requirements of a first message broker's subscribers is passed to other brokers and subsequently used for selection of an appropriate communication protocol for transmitting messages between the brokers.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 14, 2001
    Publication date: June 19, 2003
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Andrew I. Hickson, Simon A.J. Holdsworth, Timothy N. Holloway, Peter R. MacFarlane, Michael J. Ward
  • Publication number: 20030033440
    Abstract: A reduction in the amount of information written to a log used to track message activity in a messaging system is achieved by not logging message data in a log record for the put of a message if the message data has been included in a previous message and is already available in the log. On receipt of a put request a check is made to see if there is a previous occurrence of the message data in the log. If there is not a previous occurrence a log record is written which includes the message data, but if there is a previous occurrence a log record is written which does not contain the message data but a reference which can be used to locate the previous occurrence of the message data in the log. Preferably the application includes an indication on the put request that the message data has been previously used.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 27, 2002
    Publication date: February 13, 2003
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Andrew I. Hickson, Andrew J. Stanford-Clark