Patent attributes
A subscription management service utilizes a timer service to maintain timers corresponding to subscription events. The subscription management service exposes an interface through which clients can define new subscriptions that are then created and managed by the subscription management service. The subscription management service can charge subscribers on an appropriate billing period, and cancel or automatically renew subscriptions at the end of a contract period. The subscription management service can also provide notifications to clients, to subscribers, and/or to other components. The subscription management service might also perform other types of actions with regard to the subscriptions on behalf of the clients. The timer service receives payloads from clients, such as the subscription management service, and provides the payloads back to the clients at a specified time. The timer service might also utilize a jitter threshold to compute the time at which payloads should be provided to clients.
