Importance

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Abstract

A highly parallel, asynchronous data flow processing system in which processing is represented by a directed graph model, can include processing nodes that generate, and process, groups of dependent messages and that process messages within such groups in order. Other messages can be processed in whatever order they are received by a processing node. To identify a group of dependent messages, message identifiers are applied to a message. Processing of a message may generate child messages. A child message is assigned a message identifier that incorporates the associated message identifier of the parent message. The message identifier of the parent message is annotated to indicate the number of related child messages. When a group of messages is to be processed by a processing node in order, the processing node maintains a buffer in which messages in the group are stored. When a message is received, its message identifier indicates whether it is in a group, its parent node, if any, and the number of child nodes it has if it is a parent node. From this information, it can be determined whether all messages within the group have been received. When all of the messages within the group have been received, the processing node can process the messages in order.

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First Claim