// Author: Bela Ban Concurrent initial connection establishment in ConnectionTable ============================================================== [JIRA: http://jira.jboss.com/jira/browse/JGRP-549] If we have members A and B, and they don't yet have connections to each other, and start sending messages to each other at the exact same time, then we run into the following scenario: - A attempts to connect to B (new Socket()) - B attempts to connect to A - A accepts B's connection and adds an entry for B into its table - B adds an entry for A into its table - B gets the accept() from A, but doesn't add the new Connection into its table because there is already a Connection. This leads to a spurious Connection object, which will only be closed and garbage collected once A or B leaves the cluster - We used to close Connections which were already in the table, but this lead to ping-pong effects where concurrent initial senders always closed each others connections - Even worse: a new Socket() always creates a new Connection object and places it into the table, *regardless* of whether a Connection for a given destination already exists or not ! SOLUTION: We need to have a deterministic algorithm to pick a 'winner' for concurrent connections. Let's assume our own address is A On connect to B: ---------------- - Lock CT - If connection exists for B: return existing connection - Else: - Connect(B) - Add connection to CT - Unlock CT On connection accept from B: ---------------------------- - Lock CT - If there is no key for B, we create a connection for B and add it to the CT - Else: - If B's address > A's address --> remove the existing entry for B (closing the connection !) and add the newly created connection for B to the CT - Else close the connection which resulted from accept(B) - Unlock CT