Messaging balancing and control on blockchain

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10567320-B2
Application number	US-201715785843-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 17, 2017
Priority date	Oct 17, 2017
Publication date	Feb 18, 2020
Grant date	Feb 18, 2020

Abstract

A messaging balancing and control (B&C) system is disclosed. The system configured to handle message transfers having different message exchange patterns, including: in-only exchange patterns, out-only exchange patterns, in-optional-out exchange patterns, out-optional-in exchange patterns, robust in-only exchange patterns, and robust out-only exchange patterns. The system may write a message transfer confirmation in response to a message transfer between a consumer system and a provider system, with the confirmation including at least a first hash of the message. The system may also write a message acknowledgement to the blockchain with the acknowledgement including at least a second hash of the message. The blockchain may execute a smart contract to compare the first hash of the message to the second hash of the message to identify an out-of-balance message transfer event. A monitoring device of the system may read the out-of-balance message transfer event from the blockchain.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
writing, by a balancing and control system to a blockchain, a message transfer confirmation in response to a consumer system transmitting a message to a provider system or the provider system transmitting the message to the consumer system, wherein the message transfer confirmation comprises a provider system address, a consumer system address, a message ID, a message exchange pattern, and a first hash of the message;
writing, by the balancing and control system to the blockchain, a message acknowledgement in response to the provider system receiving the message from the consumer system or the consumer system receiving the message from the provider system, wherein the message acknowledgement comprises the provider system address, the consumer system address, the message ID, the message exchange pattern, and a second hash of the message, wherein the blockchain executes a smart contract to compare the first hash of the message to the second hash of the message to identify an out-of-balance message transfer event; and
reading, by a monitoring device of the balancing and control system and from the blockchain, at least one of the message transfer confirmation, the message acknowledgement, or the out-of-balance message transfer event, based on the message ID,
wherein the message exchange pattern comprises at least one of an in-only exchange pattern, an out-only exchange pattern, an in-optional-out exchange pattern, an out-optional-in exchange pattern, a robust in-only exchange pattern, or a robust out-only exchange pattern.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein in response to the message exchange pattern comprising the in-optional-out exchange pattern or the out-optional-in exchange pattern, the method further comprises:
writing, by the balancing and control system to the blockchain, a second message transfer confirmation in response to the provider system transmitting a second message to the consumer system or the consumer system transmitting the second message to the provider system, wherein the second message transfer confirmation comprises the provider system address, the consumer system address, a second message ID, the message exchange pattern, and a third hash of the second message; and
writing, by the balancing and control system to the blockchain, a second message acknowledgement in response to the consumer system receiving the second message from the provider system or the provider system receiving the second message from the consumer system, wherein the second message acknowledgement comprises the provider system address, the consumer system address, the second message ID, the message exchange pattern, and a fourth hash of the second message, wherein the blockchain executes the smart contract to compare the third hash of the second message to the fourth hash of the second message to identify the out-of-balance message transfer event.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein in response to the message exchange pattern comprising the robust in-only exchange pattern or the robust out-only exchange pattern, the method further comprises:
writing, by the balancing and control system to the blockchain, a status message transfer confirmation in response to the provider system transmitting a status message to the consumer system or the consumer system transmitting the status message to the provider system, wherein the status message transfer confirmation comprises the provider system address, the consumer system address, a status message ID, the message exchange pattern, and a fifth hash of the status message; and
writing, by the balancing and control system to the blockchain, a status message acknowledgement in response to the consumer system receiving the status message from the provider system or the provider system receiving the status message from the consumer system, wherein the status message acknowledgement comprises the provider system address, the consumer system address, the status message ID, the message exchange pattern, and a sixth hash of the status message, wherein the blockchain executes the smart contract to compare the fifth hash of the second message to the sixth hash of the second message to identify the out-of-balance message transfer event.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein in response to the status message comprising data indicating a status of “failed,” the method further comprises:
writing, by the balancing and control system to the blockchain, a third message transfer confirmation in response to the provider system transmitting a third message to the consumer system or the consumer system transmitting the third message to the provider system, wherein the third message transfer confirmation comprises the provider system address, the consumer system address, a third message ID, the message exchange pattern, and a seventh hash of the third message; and
writing, by the balancing and control system to the blockchain, a third message acknowledgement in response to the consumer system receiving the third message from the provider system or the provider system receiving the third message from the consumer system, wherein the third message acknowledgement comprises the provider system address, the consumer system address, the third message ID, the message exchange pattern, and an eighth hash of the third message, wherein the blockchain executes the smart contract to compare the seventh hash of the third message to the eighth hash of the third message to identify the out-of-balance message transfer event.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the smart contract compares a status timestamp of the status message transfer confirmation or a message timestamp of the third message transfer confirmation to a predetermined time window to identify a timeout out-of-balance message transfer event.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the consumer system or the provider system makes a first API call to write the message transfer confirmation to the blockchain or a second API call to write the message acknowledgement to the blockchain.

7. A computer-based system for balancing and control of message transfers, comprising:
a processor; and
a tangible, non-transitory memory configured to communicate with the processor, the tangible, non-transitory memory having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by the processor, cause a balancing and control system to perform operations comprising:
writing, by the balancing and control system to a blockchain, a message transfer confirmation in response to a consumer system transmitting a message to a provider system or the provider system transmitting the message to the consumer system, wherein the message transfer confirmation comprises a provider system address, a consumer system address, a message ID, a message exchange pattern, and a first hash of the message;
writing, by the balancing and control system to the blockchain, a message acknowledgement in response to the provider system receiving the message from the consumer system or the consumer system receiving the message from the provider system, wherein the message acknowledgement comprises the provider system address, the consumer system address, the message ID, the message exchange pattern, and a second hash of the message, wherein the blockchain executes a smart contract to compare the first hash of the message to the second hash of the message to identify an out-of-balance message transfer event; and
reading, by a monitoring device of the balancing and control system and from the blockchain, at least one of the message transfer confirmation, the message acknowledgement, or the out-of-balance message transfer event, based on the message ID,
wherein the message exchange pattern comprises at least one of an in-only exchange pattern,

Assignees

• American Express Travel Related Services Co Inc

Inventors

• Chalakudi Shyamala
• Yin Ming

Classifications

• G06Q40/02

  Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance (credit or loans G06Q40/03) · CPC title

• H04L51/046 Primary

  Interoperability with other network applications or services · CPC title

• H04L67/104

  Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks · CPC title

• H04L67/1097

  for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS] · CPC title

• G06F16/27

  Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor · CPC title