1. A reaction system comprising:
a first reaction promoter capable of converting a first substrate into a first substance; and
a plurality of microcapsules, each of said microcapsules comprising a second reaction promoter encapsulated within an encapsulant, said second reaction promoter being capable of converting a second substrate into a second substance, wherein the second substrate is capable of passing through the encapsulant to contact the second reaction promoter and the second substance is capable of passing out of the microcapsules through the encapsulant;
whereby either (a) the first substance is, or is capable of being converted into, the second substrate and, in operation, the conversion of the second substrate by the second reaction promoter occurs to a greater extent than the conversion of the first substrate by the second reaction promoter and the conversion of the second substance by the first reaction is promoter is low, or (b) the second substance is, or is capable of being converted into, the first substrate and, in operation, the conversion of the first substrate by the first reaction promoter occurs to a greater extent than the conversion of the second substrate by the first reaction promoter and the conversion of the first substance in the microcapsules is low.
2. The reaction system of claim 1 wherein, in case (a), the first reaction promoter is capable of interconverting the first substrate and the second substrate, and in case (b), the second reaction promoter is capable of interconverting the first substrate and the second substrate.
3. The reaction system of claim 1 wherein the first and second reaction promoters are catalysts.
4. The reaction system of claim 1 comprising one or more further reaction promoters which are capable of converting the second substance (in case a) or converting the first substance (in case b).
5. The reaction system of claim 1 wherein the first substance (case b) or the second substance (case a) passes slowly through the encapsulant or is incapable of passing therethrough.
6. The reaction system of claim 1 additionally comprising a separator for separating a product from the first reaction promoter and from the microcapsules.
7. The reaction system of claim 6 also comprising a purifier for purifying the separated product.
8. The reaction system of claim 1 wherein the first reaction promoter is a selective reaction promoter.
9. The reaction system of claim 1 wherein the microcapsules are capable of converting the second substrate to the second substance selectively.
10. The reaction system of claim 1 wherein the encapsulant comprises a polymer.
11. The reaction system of claim 1 wherein the encapsulant to comprises at least one positively charged polymeric layer and at least one negatively charged polymeric layer.
12. The reaction system of claim 1 wherein the first and second reaction promoters are capable of interacting so as to deactivate one or both thereof, but in the reaction system of the present invention are at least partially prevented from doing so due to encapsulation of the second reaction promoter.
13. The reaction system of claim 1 wherein first reaction promoter and the microcapsules are distributed within a reaction medium.
14. The reaction system of claim 1 wherein the microcapsules have a mean diameter of between about 0.2 and about 10 microns.
15. The reaction system of claim 1 wherein the microcapsules comprise an energy absorber for absorbing energy in order to promote the reaction promoted by the second reaction promoter.
16. A method for conducting a reaction comprising:
providing a reaction system comprising (i) a first reaction promoter capable of converting a first substrate into a first substance; and (ii) a plurality of microcapsules, each of said microcapsules comprising a second reaction promoter encapsulated within an encapsulant, said second reaction promoter being capable of converting a second substrate into a second substance, wherein the second substrate is capable of passing through the encapsulant to contact the second reaction promoter and the second substance is capable of passing out of the microcapsules through the encapsulant; and
adding either the first substrate or the second substrate or both the first substrate and the second substrate to the reaction system;
whereby either (a) the first substance is, or is capable of being converted into, the second substrate, such that the first substrate is converted either directly or indirectly to the second substrate and the second substrate is converted to the second substance, or (b) the second substance is, or is capable of being converted into, the first substrate, such that the second substrate is converted either directly or indirectly to the first substrate and the first substrate is converted to the first substance.
17. The method of claim 16 whereby in case (a) the first reaction promoter interconverts the first and second substrates and in case (b) the second reaction promoter interconverts the first and second substrates.
18. The method of claim 16 wherein first substrate and the second substrate are added together to the reaction system.
19. The method of claim 16 comprising separating a product from the reaction system.
20. The method of claim 16 comprising heating the reaction system andor irradiating the reaction system with radiation of a wavelength capable of being absorbed by a component of the reaction system, by the first or second substrate or by more than one of these.
21. A reaction system for Dynamic Kinetic Resolution of a racemic alcohol comprising:
a first catalyst capable of esterifying a first optical isomer of the alcohol to form a first optical isomer of an ester of the alcohol at a rate greater than it esterifies a second optical isomer of the alcohol; and
a plurality of microcapsules, each of said microcapsules comprising a second catalyst encapsulated within an encapsulant, said second catalyst being capable of racemising the second optical isomer of the alcohol, wherein the second optical isomer of the alcohol is capable of passing through the encapsulant to contact the second catalyst and the first optical isomer of the alcohol is capable of passing out of the microcapsules through the encapsulant;
whereby the rate of racemisation of the first optical isomer of the ester of the alcohol in 30 the microcapsules is low.
22. A method for Dynamic Kinetic Resolution of a racemic alcohol comprising:
providing a reaction system comprising (i\u2032\u2033) a first catalyst capable of esterifying a first optical isomer of the alcohol to form a first optical isomer of an ester of the alcohol at a rate greater than it esterifies a second optical isomer of the alcohol; and (ii\u2032\u2033) a plurality of microcapsules, each of said microcapsules comprising a second catalyst encapsulated within an encapsulant, said second catalyst being capable of racernising the second optical isomer of the alcohol, wherein the second optical isomer of the alcohol is capable of passing through the encapsulant to contact the second catalyst and the first optical isomer of the alcohol is capable of passing out of the microcapsules through the encapsulant; whereby the rate of racemisation of the first optical isomer of the ester of the alcohol in the microcapsules is low; and
adding the racemic alcohol to the reaction system;
whereby the first optical isomer of the alcohol is converted to the first optical isomer of the ester and the second optical isomer is racemised to form a mixture of the first and second optical isomers of the alcohol.
23. A product produced by the method of claim 16.
24. A reaction system comprising:
a first reaction promoter capable of converting a first substrate into a first substance; and
a plurality of microcapsules, each of said microcapsules comprising a second reaction promoter encapsulated within an encapsulant, said second reaction promoter being capable of converting a second substrate into a second substance, wherein the second substrate is capable of passing through the encapsulant to contact the second reaction promoter and the second substance is capable of passing out of the microcapsules through the encapsulant;
whereby the first and second reaction promoters are capable of interacting so as to deactivate one or both thereof, but in the reaction system are at least partially prevented from doing so due to encapsulation of the second reaction promoter.
25. The reaction system of claim 24 whereby either (a) the first substance is the second substrate, or (b) the second substance is the first substrate.
26. A method for conducting a reaction comprising:
providing a reaction system comprising (i) a first reaction promoter capable of converting a first substrate into a first substance; and (ii) a plurality of microcapsules, each of said microcapsules comprising a second reaction promoter encapsulated within an encapsulant, said second reaction promoter being capable of converting a second substrate into a second substance, wherein the second substrate is capable of passing through the encapsulant to contact the second reaction promoter and the second substance is capable of passing out of the microcapsules through the encapsulant; and
adding either the first substrate or the second substrate or both the first substrate and the second substrate to the reaction system;
whereby either (a) the first substance is the second substrate, or (b) the second substance is the first substrate, and whereby the first and second reaction promoters are capable of interacting so as to deactivate one or both thereof, but in the reaction system are at least partially prevented from doing so due to encapsulation of the second reaction promoter.
27. A product produced by the method of claim 26.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A method comprising:
receiving, by a controller that provisions services for transporting packet flows within a network, a service request that comprises a definition for a service to be provided by the network for a subscriber or a customer of the network;
determining, by the controller, a plurality of network resources of at least one network device to be configured to implement the service in the network and apply the service to the packet-based network traffic of the subscriber; and
only upon acquiring a lock for the plurality of network resources of the at least one network device and by the controller, configuring the plurality of network resources of the at least one network device to provision the service, wherein the lock is acquired from a network-wide coordination repository that stores a software representation for each of the plurality of network resources of the at least one network device, and wherein the lock provides exclusive configuration access to the controller for the plurality of network resources.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein acquiring the lock for the plurality of network resources of the at least one network device comprises acquiring a separate lock from the coordination repository for each of the plurality of network resources of the at least one network device, wherein the separate lock for each network resource of the plurality of network resources provides exclusive configuration access to the controller for the network resource.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein acquiring the lock for the plurality of network resources of the at least one network device comprises atomically acquiring a single lock from the coordination repository for all of the plurality of network resources of the at least one network device, wherein the single lock for the plurality of network resources provides the exclusive configuration access to the controller for the plurality of network resources.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the service comprises one of a one of a point-to-point Ethernet service, multipoint-to-multipoint Ethernet service, point-to-multipoint Ethernet service, full-mesh layer 3 virtual private networking (L3VPN) service, and hub-and-spoke L3VPN service.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein the controller comprises a first service provisioning module and a second provisioning module, the method further comprising:
delegating, by the controller, the service request to the first service provisioning module,
wherein acquiring the lock for the plurality of network resources of the at least one network device comprises acquiring, by the first service provisioning module, the lock for the plurality of network resources of the at least one network device, and
wherein the second provisioning module refrains from configuring any of the plurality of network resources of the at least one network device so long as the first service provisioning module has the lock.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein acquiring the lock for the plurality of network resources of the at least one network device comprises:
creating, by the first service provisioning module, a node in the coordination repository, the node associated with the software representation for a first network resource of the plurality of network resources of the at least one network device,
wherein the second provisioning module refrains from configuring any of the plurality of network resources of the at least one network device while the node exists.
7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:
deleting, by the first service provisioning module, the node in the coordination repository;
acquiring, by the second service provisioning module, a lock for the first network resource by creating the node in the coordination repository.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein acquiring the lock for the plurality of network resources of the at least one network device comprises:
creating, by the controller, a node in the coordination repository, the node associated with the software representation for a first network resource of the plurality of network resources of the at least one network device.
9. The method of claim 8, wherein the node comprises one of a barrier node and an ephemeral barrier node.
10. The method of claim 1,
wherein the coordination repository comprises one or more servers that provide a network-wide synchronous network resource locking service by synchronizing the software representation for each of the plurality of network resources of the at least one network device.
11. The method of claim 1, wherein a first network resource of the plurality of network resources comprises one of a network device to be configured and a component of a network device to be configured.
12. A controller that provisions services for transporting packet flows within a network, the controller comprising:
one or more processors coupled to a memory;
a service provisioning module executed by the one or more processors to:
receive a service request that comprises a definition for a service to be provided by the network for a subscriber or a customer of the network;
determine a plurality of network resources of at least one network device to be configured to implement the service in the network and apply the service to the packet-based network traffic of the subscriber; and
a locking unit executed by the one or more processors to acquire a lock from a network-wide coordination repository that stores a software representation for each of the plurality of network resources of the at least one network device, the lock providing exclusive configuration access to the service provisioning module for the plurality of network resources,
wherein the service provisioning module, only upon the locking unit acquiring the lock for the plurality of network resources of the at least one network device, is executed by the one or more processors to configure the plurality of network resources of the at least one network device to provision the service.
13. The controller of claim 12, wherein to acquire the lock for the plurality of network resources of the at least one network device the locking unit acquires a separate lock from the coordination repository for each of the plurality of network resources of the at least one network device, wherein the separate lock for each network resource of the plurality of network resources provides exclusive configuration access to the controller for the network resource.
14. The controller of claim 12, wherein to acquire the lock for the plurality of network resources of the at least one network device the locking unit atomically acquires a single lock from the coordination repository for all of the plurality of network resources of the at least one network device, wherein the single lock for the plurality of network resources provides the exclusive configuration access to the controller for the plurality of network resources.
15. The controller of claim 12, wherein the service comprises one of a one of a point-to-point Ethernet service, multipoint-to-multipoint Ethernet service, point-to-multipoint Ethernet service, full-mesh layer 3 virtual private networking (L3VPN) service, and hub-and-spoke L3VPN service.
16. The controller of claim 12,
wherein the service provisioning module comprises a first service provisioning module,
wherein the controller comprises a second provisioning module,
wherein the controller delegates the service request to the first service provisioning module, and
wherein the second provisioning module refrains from configuring any of the plurality of network resources of the at least one network device so long as the first service provisioning module has the lock.
17. The controller of claim 12, wherein to acquire the lock for the plurality of network resources of the at least one network device the locking unit creates a node in the coordination repository, the node associated with the software representation for a first network resource of the plurality of network resources of the at least one network device.
18. The controller of claim 17, wherein the node comprises one of a barrier node and an ephemeral barrier node.
19. The controller of claim 12, wherein a first network resource of the plurality of network resources comprises one of a network device to be configured and a component of a network device to be configured.
20. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions for causing one or more programmable processors to:
receive, by a controller that provisions services for transporting packet flows within a network, a service request that comprises a definition for a service to be provided by the network for a subscriber or a customer of the network;
determine, by the controller, a plurality of network resources of at least one network device to be configured to implement the service in the network and apply the service to the packet-based network traffic of the subscriber; and
only upon acquiring a lock for the plurality of network resources of the at least one network device and by the controller, configure the plurality of network resources of the at least one network device to provision the service, wherein the lock is acquired from a network-wide coordination repository that stores a software representation for each of the plurality of network resources of the at least one network device, and wherein the lock provides exclusive configuration access to the controller for the plurality of network resources.