Local Proxy for service discovery

• US 10,469,600 B2
• Filed: 11/14/2017
• Issued: 11/05/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Tsai, Chen-Hsi, Wang, Yu-Ching, Sung, Tzu-Hui, Kabir, Rezwanul
• Primary Examiner(s): Bengzon, Greg C
• Application Number:
  US15/811,786
• Publication Number:
  US 20190149618A1
• Time in Patent Office: 721 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2803 Home automation networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5058 Service discovery by the service manager
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/146 Markers for unambiguous identification of a particular session, e.g. session cookie or URL-encoding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]

Abstract

Systems and methods for a local proxy for service discovery. In some embodiments, an Internet-of-Things (IoT) gateway may include: a processor; and a memory coupled to the processor, the memory including program instructions stored thereon that, upon execution by the processor, cause the IoT gateway to: retrieve, by a service discovery agent, endpoint information maintained by a service discovery server remotely located with respect to the IoT gateway; store the service endpoint information in the memory; receive a service request aimed at a service endpoint; and provide the service endpoint information, from the memory, in response to the service request.

Claims

1. An Internet-of-Things (IoT) gateway, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor, the memory including program instructions stored thereon that, upon execution by the processor, cause the IoT gateway to;

retrieve, by a service discovery agent, endpoint information maintained by a service discovery server remotely located with respect to the IoT gateway, wherein the service discovery agent operates based upon a configuration file that includes at least one connector that identifies a service discovery server type and at least one writer that identifies a storage type;

store the service endpoint information in the memory;

receive a service request aimed at a service endpoint, wherein the service request is issued by a microservice or an application executed by the IoT gateway; and

provide the service endpoint information, from the memory, in response to the service request.

2. The IoT gateway of claim 1, wherein the endpoint information includes at least one of:

a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), a host name, or a port number.

3. The IoT gateway of claim 1, wherein the endpoint information is stored as at least one of:

a property file, an Operating System variable, or a database.

4. The IoT gateway of claim 1, wherein the program instructions, upon execution, cause the IoT gateway to receive endpoint information via a callback Uniform Resource Locator (URL).

5. The IoT gateway of claim 1, wherein the program instructions, upon execution, cause the IoT gateway to:

retrieve, by the service discovery agent, other endpoint information maintained by another service discovery server distinct from the service discovery server;

store the other service endpoint information in the memory;

receive another service request aimed at another service endpoint; and

provide other service endpoint information, from the memory, in response to the service request.

6. The IoT gateway of claim 5, wherein each of the service discovery servers executes a different service discovery service having a different Application Programming Interface (API).

7. The IoT gateway of claim 6, wherein the service endpoint information includes a first Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of an Operating System (OS) variable and a second URL of a database, and wherein the program instructions, upon execution, further cause the IoT gateway to:

provide the first URL to a first microservice or application in response to the service endpoint request as part of a load balancing operation; and

provide the second URL to a second microservice or application in response to the other service endpoint request as part of the load balancing operation.

8. The IoT gateway of claim 7, wherein the first microservice is associated with a first type of IoT device in communication with the IoT gateway, and wherein the second microservice is associated with a second type of IoT device in communication with the IoT gateway.

9. A hardware memory device having program instructions stored thereon that, upon execution by an Information Handling System (IHS), cause the IHS to:

retrieve, by a service discovery agent, first endpoint information maintained by a service discovery server remotely located with respect to an Internet-of-Things (IoT) gateway, wherein the discovery agent operates based upon a configuration file that includes at least one connector that identifies a service discovery server type and at least one writer that identifies a storage type;

store the service endpoint information in the memory;

receive a service request aimed at a service endpoint, wherein the service request is issued by a microservice or an application executed by the IoT gateway;

provide the service endpoint information, from the memory, in response to the service request;

retrieve, by the service discovery agent, other endpoint information maintained by another service discovery server distinct from the service discovery server;

store the other service endpoint information in the memory;

receive another service request aimed at another service endpoint; and

provide the other service endpoint information, from the memory, in response to the service request.

10. The hardware memory device of claim 9, wherein each of the service discovery servers executes a different service discovery service having a different Application Programming Interface (API).

11. A method, comprising:

retrieving, by a service discovery agent executed by an Internet-of-Things (IoT) gateway, endpoint information maintained by a service discovery server remotely located with respect to the IoT gateway, wherein the service discovery agent operates based upon a configuration file that includes at least one connector that identifies a service discovery server type and at least one writer that identifies a storage type;

storing the service endpoint information in a memory local to the IoT gateway;

receiving a service request aimed at a service endpoint, wherein the service request is issued by a microservice or an application executed by the IoT gateway; and

providing the service endpoint information, from the memory, in response to the service request.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

retrieving, by the service discovery agent, other endpoint information maintained by another service discovery server distinct from the service discovery server;

storing the other service endpoint information in the memory;

receiving another service request aimed at another service endpoint; and

providing other service endpoint information, from the memory, in response to the service request.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein each of the service discovery servers executes a different service discovery service having a different Application Programming Interface (API).

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the service endpoint information includes a first Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of an Operating System (OS) variable and a second URL of a database, the method further comprising:

providing the first URL to a first microservice or application in response to the service endpoint request as part of a load balancing operation; and

providing the second URL to a second microservice or application in response to the other service endpoint request as part of the load balancing operation.