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Chapter 7. Routing

Routing is the process by which messages are delivered to their destinations. To accomplish this, AMQ Interconnect provides two routing mechanisms: message routing and link routing.

Message routing

Routing is performed on messages as producers send them to a router. When a message arrives on a router, the router routes the message and its settlement based on the message’s address and routing pattern.

Figure 7.1. Message Routing

Message Routing

In this diagram, the message producer attaches a link to the router, and then sends a message over the link. When the router receives the message, it identifies the message’s destination based on the message’s address, and then uses its routing table to determine the best route to deliver the message either to its destination or to the next hop in the route. All dispositions (including settlement) are propagated along the same path that the original message transfer took. Flow control is handled between the sender and the router, and then between the router and the receiver.

Link routing

Routing is performed on link-attach frames, which are chained together to form a virtual messaging path that directly connects a sender and receiver. Once a link route is established, the transfer of message deliveries, flow frames, and dispositions is performed across the link route.

Figure 7.2. Link Routing

Link Routing

In this diagram, a router is connected to clients and to a broker, and it provides a link route to a queue on the broker (my_queue). The sender connects to the router, and the router propagates the link-attaches to the broker to form a direct link between the sender and the broker. The sender can begin sending messages to the queue, and the router passes the deliveries along the link route directly to the broker queue.

7.2. Configuring Message Routing

With message routing, routing is performed on messages as producers send them to a router. When a message arrives on a router, the router routes the message and its settlement based on the message’s address and routing pattern.

With message routing, you can do the following:

  • Route messages between clients (direct-routed, or brokerless messaging)

    This involves configuring an address with a routing pattern. All messages sent to the address will be routed based on the routing pattern.

  • Route messages through a broker queue (brokered messaging)

    This involves configuring a waypoint address to identify the broker queue and then connecting the router to the broker. All messages sent to the waypoint address will be routed to the broker queue.

7.2.1. Addresses

Addresses determine how messages flow through your router network. An address designates an endpoint in your messaging network, such as:

  • Endpoint processes that consume data or offer a service
  • Topics that match multiple consumers to multiple producers
  • Entities within a messaging broker:

    • Queues
    • Durable Topics
    • Exchanges

When a router receives a message, it uses the message’s address to determine where to send the message (either its destination or one step closer to its destination).

7.2.2. Routing Patterns

Each address has one of the following routing patterns, which define the path that a message with the address can take across the messaging network:

Balanced

An anycast method that allows multiple consumers to use the same address. Each message is delivered to a single consumer only, and AMQ Interconnect attempts to balance the traffic load across the router network.

If multiple consumers are attached to the same address, each router determines which outbound path should receive a message by considering each path’s current number of unsettled deliveries. This means that more messages will be delivered along paths where deliveries are settled at higher rates.

Note

AMQ Interconnect neither measures nor uses message settlement time to determine which outbound path to use.

In this scenario, the messages are spread across both receivers regardless of path length:

Figure 7.3. Balanced Message Routing

Balanced Message Routing
Closest

An anycast method in which every message is sent along the shortest path to reach the destination, even if there are other consumers for the same address.

AMQ Interconnect determines the shortest path based on the topology cost to reach each of the consumers. If there are multiple consumers with the same lowest cost, messages will be spread evenly among those consumers.

In this scenario, all messages sent by Sender will be delivered to Receiver 1:

Figure 7.4. Closest Message Routing

Closest Message Routing
Multicast

Messages are sent to all consumers attached to the address. Each consumer will receive one copy of the message.

In this scenario, all messages are sent to all receivers:

Figure 7.5. Multicast Message Routing

Multicast Message Routing

7.2.3. Message Settlement

Message settlement is negotiated between the producer and the router when the producer establishes a link to the router. Depending on the settlement pattern, messages might be delivered with any of the following degrees of reliability:

  • At most once
  • At least once
  • Exactly once

AMQ Interconnect treats all messages as either pre-settled or unsettled, and it is responsible for propagating the settlement of each message it routes.

Pre-settled
Sometimes called fire and forget, the router settles the incoming and outgoing deliveries and propagates the settlement to the message’s destination. However, it does not guarantee delivery.
Unsettled

The router propagates the settlement between the sender and receiver, and guarantees one of the following outcomes:

  • The message is delivered and settled, with the consumer’s disposition indicated.
  • The delivery is settled with a disposition of RELEASED.

    This means that the message did not reach its destination.

  • The delivery is settled with a disposition of MODIFIED.

    This means that the message might or might not have reached its destination. The delivery is considered to be "in-doubt" and should be re-sent if "at least once" delivery is required.

  • The link, session, or connection to AMQ Interconnect was dropped, and all deliveries are "in-doubt".

7.2.4. Routing Messages Between Clients

You can route messages between clients without using a broker. In a brokerless scenario (sometimes called direct-routed messaging), AMQ Interconnect routes messages between clients directly.

To route messages between clients, you configure an address with a routing distribution pattern. When a router receives a message with this address, the message is routed to its destination or destinations based on the address’s routing distribution pattern.

Procedure

  1. In the router’s configuration file, add an address section:

    address {
        prefix: ADDRESS_PREFIX
        distribution: balanced|closest|multicast
        ...
    }
    prefix

    The address prefix. All messages that match this prefix will be distributed according to the distribution pattern you specify.

    The prefix can match either an exact address or a segment within an address that is delimited by either a . or / character. For example, the prefix my_address would match the address my_address as well as my_address.1 and my_address/1. However, it would not match my_address1.

    distribution

    The message distribution pattern. The default is balanced, but you can specify any of the following options:

    • balanced - Messages sent to the address will be routed to one of the receivers, and the routing network will attempt to balance the traffic load based on the rate of settlement.
    • closest - Messages sent to the address are sent on the shortest path to reach the destination. It means that if there are multiple receivers for the same address, only the closest one will receive the message.
    • multicast - Messages are sent to all receivers that are attached to the address in a publish/subscribe model.

      For more information about message distribution patterns, see Routing Patterns.

    For information about additional attributes, see Address in the Configuration Reference.

  2. Add the same address section to any other routers that need to use the address.

    The address that you added to this router configuration file only controls how this router distributes messages sent to the address. If you have additional routers in your router network that should distribute messages for this address, then you must add the same address section to each of their configuration files.

7.2.5. Routing Messages Through a Broker Queue

You can route messages to and from a broker queue to provide clients with access to the queue through a router. In this scenario, clients connect to a router to send and receive messages, and the router routes the messages to or from the broker queue.

You can route messages to a queue hosted on a single broker, or route messages to a sharded queue distributed across multiple brokers.

Figure 7.6. Brokered Messaging

Brokered Messaging

In this diagram, the sender connects to the router and sends messages to my_queue. The router attaches an outgoing link to the broker, and then sends the messages to my_queue. Later, the receiver connects to the router and requests messages from my_queue. The router attaches an incoming link to the broker to receive the messages from my_queue, and then delivers them to the receiver.

You can also route messages to a sharded queue, which is a single, logical queue comprised of multiple, underlying physical queues. Using queue sharding, it is possible to distribute a single queue over multiple brokers. Clients can connect to any of the brokers that hold a shard to send and receive messages.

Figure 7.7. Brokered Messaging with Sharded Queue

Brokered Messaging with Sharded Queue

In this diagram, a sharded queue (my_queue) is distributed across two brokers. The router is connected to the clients and to both brokers. The sender connects to the router and sends messages to my_queue. The router attaches an outgoing link to each broker, and then sends messages to each shard (by default, the routing distribution is balanced). Later, the receiver connects to the router and requests all of the messages from my_queue. The router attaches an incoming link to one of the brokers to receive the messages from my_queue, and then delivers them to the receiver.

Procedure

  1. Add a waypoint address.

    This address identifies the queue to which you want to route messages.

  2. Add autolinks to connect the router to the broker.

    Autolinks connect the router to the broker queue identified by the waypoint address.

  3. If the queue is sharded, add autolinks for each additional broker that hosts a shard.

7.2.5.1. Configuring Waypoint Addresses

A waypoint address identifies a queue on a broker to which you want to route messages. You need to configure the waypoint address on each router that needs to use the address. For example, if a client is connected to Router A to send messages to the broker queue, and another client is connected to Router B to receive those messages, then you would need to configure the waypoint address on both Router A and Router B.

Prerequisites

An incoming connection (listener) to which the clients can connect should be configured. This connection defines how the producers and consumers connect to the router to send and receive messages. For more information, see Adding Incoming Connections.

Procedure

  • Create waypoint addresses on each router that needs to use the address:

    address {
        prefix: ADDRESS_PREFIX
        waypoint: yes
    }
    prefix

    The address prefix that matches the broker queue to which you want to route messages.

    The prefix can match either an exact address or a segment within an address that is delimited by either a . or / character. For example, the prefix my_address would match the address my_address as well as my_address.1 and my_address/1. However, it would not match my_address1.

    waypoint
    Set this attribute to yes so that the router handles messages sent to this address as a waypoint.

7.2.5.2. Connecting a Router to the Broker

After you add waypoint addresses to identify the broker queue, you must connect a router to the broker using autolinks.

With autolinks, client traffic is handled on the router, not the broker. Clients attach their links to the router, and then the router uses internal autolinks to connect to the queue on the broker. Therefore, the queue will always have a single producer and a single consumer regardless of how many clients are attached to the router.

  1. If this router is different than the router that is connected to the clients, then add the waypoint address.
  2. Add an outgoing connection to the broker:

    connector {
        name: NAME
        host: HOST_NAME/ADDRESS
        port: PORT_NUMBER/NAME
        role: route-container
        ...
    }
    name
    The name of the connector. Specify a name that describes the broker.
    host
    Either an IP address (IPv4 or IPv6) or hostname on which the router should connect to the broker.
    port
    The port number or symbolic service name on which the router should connect to the broker.
    role
    Specify route-container to indicate that this connection is for an external container (broker).

    For information about additional attributes, see Connector in the Configuration Reference.

  3. If you want to send messages to the broker queue, create an outgoing autolink to the broker queue:

    autoLink {
        addr: ADDRESS
        connection: CONNECTOR_NAME
        dir: out
        ...
    }
    addr
    The address of the broker queue. When the autolink is created, it will be attached to this address.
    connection | containerID
    How the router should connect to the broker. You can specify either an outgoing connection (connection) or the container ID of the broker (containerID).
    dir
    Set this attribute to out to specify that this autolink can send messages from the router to the broker.

    For information about additional attributes, see autoLink in the Configuration Reference.

  4. If you want to receive messages from the broker queue, create an incoming autolink from the broker queue:

    autoLink {
        addr: ADDRESS
        connection: CONNECTOR_NAME
        dir: in
        ...
    }
    addr
    The address of the broker queue. When the autolink is created, it will be attached to this address.
    connection | containerID
    How the router should connect to the broker. You can specify either an outgoing connection (connection) or the container ID of the broker (containerID).
    dir
    Set this attribute to in to specify that this autolink can receive messages from the broker to the router.

    For information about additional attributes, see autoLink in the Configuration Reference.