Blockchain enabled fault tolerance

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11914488-B2
Application number	US-201917774160-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 6, 2019
Priority date	Nov 6, 2019
Publication date	Feb 27, 2024
Grant date	Feb 27, 2024

Abstract

Provided is a system, method, and computer program product for handling fault tolerance in a blockchain enabled network system. The system includes a computing system with at least one of a plurality of processors arranged as an active processor node, at least one data storage device including a first ledger corresponding to a first blockchain and a second ledger corresponding to a second blockchain, at least one standby processor node, and at least one standby data storage device. The at least one active processor node is programmed or configured to analyze and record blocks corresponding to data received through the network system on the first ledger and the second ledger such that the first ledger and the second ledger have matching data, detect at least one failure or anticipated failure, and in response to detecting the at least one failure or anticipated failure, generating a switch-over command.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A network system for handling fault tolerance in a blockchain enabled network system, comprising:
a computing system programmed or configured with at least one of a plurality of processors arranged as an active processor node in the network system;
at least one data storage device comprising a first ledger corresponding to a first blockchain and a second ledger corresponding to a second blockchain;
at least one standby processor node in communication with the at least one data storage device;
at least one standby data storage device; and
the active processor node programmed or configured to:
analyze and record blocks corresponding to data received through the network system on the first ledger and the second ledger, such that the first ledger and the second ledger have matching data;
compare and analyze two blocks from the at least one data storage device to detect at least one failure or anticipated failure of the at least one active processor node, the at least one data storage device, or any combination thereof; and
in response to detecting the at least one failure or anticipated failure, generating a switch-over command configured to cause the computing system to perform at least one of the following: switch from the active processor node to the at least one standby processor node such that the at least one standby processor node records the blocks received through the network system and is activated as a new active processor node, switch from the data storage device to the at least one standby data storage device, or any combination thereof.

2. The network system of claim 1 , wherein the first blockchain and the second blockchain are separate forms of a same blockchain.

3. The network system of claim 1 , wherein the data received from the network system relates to a network system's configurations, operations, control, processing, network functions, or any combination thereof.

4. The network system of claim 1 , wherein multi-party encryption keys are created and shared among the active processor node, the at least one standby processor node, the at least one data storage device, and the at least one standby data storage device to establish a secure trust network system.

5. The network system of claim 1 , wherein new multi-party encryption keys are created in conjunction with the switch-over command, in response to which portions of keys are distributed among activated and configured active and standby processor nodes and data storage devices comprising a reconfigured network system.

6. The network system of claim 1 , wherein blocks of the first ledger and the second ledger for a same time interval are compared and analyzed to detect a failure or anticipated failure of the active processor node or the at least one data storage device.

7. The network system of claim 1 , wherein upon a network system reconfiguration, a last trusted block of data is written to the first and second ledger of the at least one data storage device of a reconfigured network system.

8. A method comprising:
analyzing, with at least one active processor node, a network system and active processor data;
comparing and analyzing two blocks from at least one data storage device to detect, with at least one active processor node, at least one failure comprising at least one of the following: an occurring or anticipated system failure, an occurring or anticipated active processor node failure, an occurring or anticipated active data storage device failure, or any combination thereof;
in response to detecting the at least one failure, issuing, with at least one processor node, a command to cause at least one of the following: a system shut down, a switch-over from a failed or anticipated to fail active processor node to a standby processor that activates as a new active processor node, a switch-over from a failed or anticipated to fail active data storage device to a standby data storage device that activates as an active data storage device, or any combination thereof; and
in response to the command, at least one of the following: configuring a third processor of a plurality of processors as a standby processor node, configuring a third data storage device among a plurality of data storage devices as a standby data storage device, or any combination thereof.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein multi-party encryption keys are created and shared among the at least one active processor node, the standby processor, the active data storage device, and the standby data storage device to establish a secure, reconfigured trust network system.

10. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
creating new multi-party encryption keys in conjunction with a switch-over command; and
in response to creating the new multi-party encryption keys, distributing shares of the new multi-party encryption keys among the at least one active processor node, the standby processor nods, the active data storage device, and the standby data storage device to establish a secure, reconfigured trust network system.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein blocks of the first ledger and the second ledger for a same time interval are compared and analyzed to detect the failure of the at least one active processor node or the active data storage device.

12. The method of claim 8 , further comprising writing a last trusted block of data to the active data storage device of a reconfigured network system in response to a network system reconfiguration.

13. The method of claim 8 , wherein the command instructs the network system's configurations, operations, control, processing, network functions, or any combination thereof.

14. A computer program product comprising at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium including program instructions that, when executed, causes a blockchain enabled network system to:
detect a failure comprising at least one of the following: an active processor node failure, a data storage device failure, a ledger failure, or any combination thereof, wherein two blocks of a data storage device are compared and analyzed to detect the failure or an anticipated failure of an active processor node, an active data storage device, or any combination thereof; and
in response to detecting the failure, issue a command to a standby processor node to cause the standby processor node to activate as an active processor node and/or to cause a standby data storage device to activate as an active data storage device.

15. The computer program product of claim 14 , wherein blocks of the active data storage device for a same time interval are compared and analyzed to detect a failure or anticipated failure of the active processor node or data storage device.

16. The computer program product of claim 14 , wherein upon a network system reconfiguration a last trusted block of data is written to the active data storage device of a reconfigured blockchain enabled network system.

17. The computer program product of claim 14 , wherein the program instructions generate or perform the blockchain enabled network system's configurations, operations, control, processing, network functions, or any combination thereof.

Assignees

• Visa Int Service Ass

Inventors

• Wald Jerry

Classifications

• G06F11/2025 Primary

  using centralised failover control functionality · CPC title

• G06F11/2094 Primary

  Redundant storage or storage space (G06F11/2056 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G06F2201/805

  Real-time · CPC title

• G06F11/20

  using active fault-masking, e.g. by switching out faulty elements or by switching in spare elements · CPC title

• G06F11/00

  Error detection; Error correction; Monitoring (error detection, correction or monitoring in information storage based on relative movement between record carrier and transducer G11B20/18; monitoring, i.e. supervising the progress of recording or reproducing G11B27/36; in static stores G11C29/00) · CPC title