Locator and tracking service for peer to peer resources

• US 20020062375A1
• Filed: 09/13/2001
• Published: 05/23/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 11/22/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Bjorner, Nikolaj S., Teodosiu, Dan, Breunig, Markus M.
• Granted Patent: US 7,594,030 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4511 using domain name system [DNS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4552 Lookup mechanisms between a plurality of directories; Synchronisation of directories, e.g. metadirectories
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1072 Discovery involving ranked list compilation of candidate peers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1093 Some peer nodes performing special functions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A resource naming service (RNS) server receives peer resource requests from peer platforms through a networking environment. The RNS server, possibly in cooperation with other RNS servers and peer registrars generates a response to the request to enable the peer platforms to access the requested peer resources. In one embodiment, a response includes a list of locations of peer devices in the networking environment where a resource is expected to be available. A requesting device can then choose to access the resource from one or more of the listed peer locations.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a peer resource request at a resource naming service (RNS) server, said peer resource request being received from a peer platform through a networking environment;

generating a peer resource response based on the peer resource request; and

returning the peer resource response to the peer platform through the networking environment, said peer resource response to enable the peer platform to access a peer resource corresponding to the peer resource request within the networking environment.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the peer resource request comprises at least one of a realm name for a peer-to-peer realm including the RNS server, a master publisher name for a master publisher of the peer resource, and a path name for the peer resource within the master publisher.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein a combination of the realm name, the master publisher name, and the path name is persistent and/or unique within the networking environment.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the networking environment comprises at least one of a local area network, a wide area network, a private internet, and the public Internet.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the peer resource response comprises at least one of an indication of a current version of the peer resource and a list of zero or more locations of publishers within the networking environment where the peer resource is expected to be available.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein generating the peer resource response comprises:

determining that resource status information regarding the peer resource is currently cached within the RNS server; and

generating the peer resource response based on the cached resource status information.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the resource status information corresponds to a peer resource homed either at the RNS server receiving the peer resource request or at a remote RNS server.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein generating the peer resource response comprises:

determining that a master publisher of the peer resource is homed at the RNS server based on the peer resource request;

requesting and receiving resource status information corresponding to the peer resource from the master publisher of the peer resource; and

generating the peer resource response based on the resource status information corresponding to the peer resource.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the RNS server has stored a list of peers homed at the RNS server, and wherein determining that the master publisher is homed at the RNS server comprises comparing a master publisher name from the peer resource request to the list of peers homed at the RNS server.

10. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

caching the resource status information within the RNS server.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein generating the peer resource response comprises:

determining that master publisher status information corresponding to the peer resource is currently cached within the RNS server based on the peer resource request, said master publisher status information indicating a home RNS for a master publisher of the peer resource;

identifying a pathname for the peer resource from the peer resource request;

requesting and receiving resource status information corresponding to the peer resource from the home RNS server based on the master publisher status information and the path name; and

generating the peer resource response based on the resource status information.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

caching the resource status information within the RNS server.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein generating the peer resource response comprises:

identifying a master publisher name from the peer resource request;

requesting and receiving master publisher status information corresponding to the master publisher name from a master publisher registrar, said master publisher status information indicating a home RNS for a master publisher of the peer resource corresponding to the master publisher name;

identifying a path name for the peer resource from the peer resource request;

requesting and receiving resource status information corresponding to the peer resource from the home RNS server based on the master publisher status information and the path name; and

generating the peer resource response based on the resource status information.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

caching at least one of the master publisher status information and the resource status information within the RNS server.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein generating the peer resource response comprises:

selecting a set of network addresses from a plurality of network addresses where the peer resource is expected to be available in the networking environment, said plurality of network addresses being cached in the RNS server; and

including the set of network addresses in the peer resource response, said peer platform to select from among the set of network addresses to access the peer resource.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the set of network addresses is selected from the plurality of network addresses in response to successive peer resource requests in a fashion that distributes access loads across said plurality of network addresses.

17. The method of claim 15 wherein selecting the set of network addresses from the plurality of network addresses in response to successive peer resource requests comprises:

comparing a network address for the peer platform to each of the plurality of network addresses, said network address for the peer platform being part of the peer resource request, and a degree of relatedness between any two network addresses suggesting a related degree of topological closeness within the networking environment; and

selecting network addresses from among the plurality of network addresses that have a highest degree of relatedness to the network address for the peer platform.

18. The method of claim 8 wherein the resource status information comprises a version number for the master resource, and wherein generating the peer resource response based on the resource status information comprises:

comparing the version number from the resource status information to a version number for resource status information cached within the RNS server;

generating the peer resource response based on the resource status information cached within the RNS server if the version numbers match; and

generating the peer resource response based on the resource status information from the master publisher if the version numbers do not match.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the RNS server comprises a local RNS server, and the peer resource request comprises a first peer resource request, the method further comprising:

receiving a status request at the local RNS server, said status request corresponding to a local peer resource, and said status request being received from a remote RNS server through the networking environment;

generating a status response for the local peer resource; and

returning the status response to the remote RNS server through the networking environment, said status response to enable the remote RNS server to service a peer resource request for the local peer resource.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein said status response comprises at least one of a current version for the local peer resource and zero or more network addresses for the local peer resource.

22. The method of claim 19 wherein a master publisher of the local peer resource is homed at the local RNS server.

23. The method of claim 19 further comprising:

caching the status response within the remote RNS server, said remote RNS server to service subsequent peer resource quests for the local peer resource based on the cached status response.

24. The method of claim 23 further comprising:

flushing the status response from the remote RNS server after a particular period of time.

26. The method of claim 25 wherein said resource request is received from one of a web browser running on the peer platform, a web-enabled application running on the peer platform, and a peer-to-peer application using an application programming interface (API) of the peer platform.

27. The method of claim 25 wherein determining comprises:

recognizing that the resource request corresponds to a peer resource based on a predetermined syntax of the resource request.

28. The method of claim 27 wherein the predetermined syntax comprises a text string beginning with one of ppp, p2p, and rns.

29. The method of claim 25 wherein determining comprises:

comparing a realm name from the resource request to a list of previously cached realm names for peer-to-peer realms, said resource request corresponding to a peer resource if the realm names match.

30. The method of claim 25 wherein determining comprises:

forwarding the resource request into the networking environment to dynamically determine if the resource request corresponds to a peer resource or a non-peer resource; and

waiting for a response from a server device to which the resource request is routed, wherein if the response comprises access to a network resource, the resource request is determined to correspond to a non-peer resource, if the response comprises an indication that the server device is a resource locator service, the resource request is determined to correspond to a peer resource.

31. The method of claim 30 further comprising:

caching a realm name from the resource request at the peer platform if the resource request is determined to correspond to a peer resource.

32. The method of claim 30 wherein if the resource request is determined to correspond to a peer resource, the method further comprises:

exchanging a series of messages with the resource locator service to determine if the peer platform is compatible with a realm of the resource locator service;

if the peer platform is determined to be incompatible, treating the resource request as if it corresponds to a non-peer resource, said resource locator service to supply a peer source corresponding to the resource request as a proxy; and

if the peer platform is determined to be compatible, treating the resource request as if it corresponds to a peer resource.

33. The method of claim 25 wherein accessing the peer resource comprises one of:

serially selecting one network location at a time from said list of network locations to which to issue a request, waiting for access to the peer resource for a particular period of time, and repeating until the peer resource is accessed; and

issuing a plurality of requests to multiple locations among said list of network locations, taking access to the peer resource from a set of one or more network locations to first respond, and ignoring subsequent responses.

34. The method of claim 25 wherein accessing the locator service comprises one of hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) messaging and binary code messaging based on binary codes cached within the peer platform to enable compressed communicates among devices within a given peer-to-peer realm.

36. The method of claim 35 wherein the first peer platform corresponds to a particular peer device, and wherein the particular peer device makes the peer resource available.

37. The method of claim 35 wherein the second peer platform corresponds to one of a particular peer device and a gate server for a peer-to-peer realm containing the first peer platform.

38. The method of claim 37 wherein the gate server is acting as a proxy on behalf of a requester to make the peer resource available to a requester that is not compatible with the first peer platform.

39. The method of claim 35 wherein the peer device comprises one of a master publisher of the peer resource and a caching publisher of the peer resource.

21. The method of 19 wherein the status request comprises at least one of a realm name for a peer-to-peer realm including the RNS server, a unique master publisher name corresponding to a master publisher of the local peer resource, and a pathname for the local peer resource within the master publisher.

25. A method comprising:

receiving a resource request at a peer platform;

determining if the resource request corresponds to a peer resource or a non-peer resource;

forwarding the resource request into a networking environment if the resource request corresponds to a non-peer resource; and

accessing a locator service indicated by the resource request if the resource request corresponds to a peer resource, said locator service to provide a list of network locations in the networking environment where the peer resource is expected to be available, and accessing the peer resource at one or more of the listed network locations.

35. A method comprising:

receiving a peer resource request at a first peer platform for a peer resource associated with the first peer platform, said peer resource request being received from a second peer platform through a networking environment, said second peer platform having located the peer resource through a resource locator service; and

providing the second peer platform access to the peer resource through the first peer platform.

40. A machine readable medium having stored thereon machine executable instructions to implement a method comprising:

receiving a peer resource request at a resource naming service (RNS) server, said peer resource request being received from a peer platform through a networking environment;

generating a peer resource response based on the peer resource request; and

returning the peer resource response to the peer platform through the networking environment, said peer resource response to enable the peer platform to access a peer resource corresponding to the peer resource request within the networking environment.

41. The machine readable medium of claim 40 wherein the peer resource request comprises at least one of a realm name for a peer-to-peer realm including the RNS server, a master publisher name for a master publisher of the peer resource, and a path name for the peer resource within the master publisher.

42. The machine readable medium of claim 41 wherein a combination of the realm name, the master publisher name, and the path name is persistent and/or unique within the networking environment.

43. The machine readable medium of claim 40 wherein the networking environment comprises at least one of a local area network, a wide area network, a private internet, and the public Internet.

44. The machine readable medium of claim 40 wherein the peer resource response comprises at least one of an indication of a current version of the peer resource and a list of zero or more locations of publishers within the networking environment where the peer resource is expected to be available.

45. The machine readable medium of claim 40 wherein generating the peer resource response comprises:

determining that resource status information regarding the peer resource is currently cached within the RNS server; and

generating the peer resource response based on the cached resource status information.

46. The machine readable medium of claim 45 wherein the resource status information corresponds to a peer resource homed either at the RNS server receiving the peer resource request or at a remote RNS server.

47. The machine readable medium of claim 40 wherein generating the peer resource response comprises:

determining that a master publisher of the peer resource is homed at the RNS server based on the peer resource request;

requesting and receiving resource status information corresponding to the peer resource from the master publisher of the peer resource; and

generating the peer resource response based on the resource status information corresponding to the peer resource.

48. The machine readable medium of claim 47 wherein the RNS server has stored a list of peers homed at the RNS server, and wherein determining that the master publisher is homed at the RNS server comprises comparing a master publisher name from the peer resource request to the list of peers homed at the RNS server.

49. The machine readable medium of claim 47, the method further comprising:

caching the resource status information within the RNS server.

50. The machine readable medium of claim 40 wherein generating the peer resource response comprises:

determining that master publisher status information corresponding to the peer resource is currently cached within the RNS server based on the peer resource request, said master publisher status information indicating a home RNS for a master publisher of the peer resource;

identifying a pathname for the peer resource from the peer resource request;

requesting and receiving resource status information corresponding to the peer resource from the home RNS server based on the master publisher status information and the path name; and

generating the peer resource response based on the resource status information.

51. The machine readable medium of claim 50, the method further comprising:

caching the resource status information within the RNS server.

52. The machine readable medium of claim 40 wherein generating the peer resource response comprises:

identifying a master publisher name from the peer resource request;

requesting and receiving master publisher status information corresponding to the master publisher name from a master publisher registrar, said master publisher status information indicating a home RNS for a master publisher of the peer resource corresponding to the master publisher name;

identifying a path name for the peer resource from the peer resource request;

requesting and receiving resource status information corresponding to the peer resource from the home RNS server based on the master publisher status information and the path name; and

generating the peer resource response based on the resource status information.

53. The machine readable medium of claim 52, the method further comprising:

caching at least one of the master publisher status information and the resource status information within the RNS server.

54. The machine readable medium of claim 40 wherein generating the peer resource response comprises:

selecting a set of network addresses from a plurality of network addresses where the peer resource is expected to be available in the networking environment, said plurality of network addresses being cached in the RNS server; and

including the set of network addresses in the peer resource response, said peer platform to select from among the set of network addresses to access the peer resource.

55. The machine readable medium of claim 54 wherein the set of network addresses is selected from the plurality of network addresses in response to successive peer resource requests in a fashion that distributes access loads across said plurality of network addresses.

56. The machine readable medium of claim 55 wherein selecting the set of network addresses from the plurality of network addresses in response to successive peer resource requests comprises:

comparing a network address for the peer platform to each of the plurality of network addresses, said network address for the peer platform being part of the peer resource request, and a degree of relatedness between any two network addresses suggesting a related degree of topological closeness within the networking environment; and

selecting network addresses from among the plurality of network addresses that have a highest degree of relatedness to the network address for the peer platform.

57. The machine readable medium of claim 47 wherein the resource status information comprises a version number for the master resource, and wherein generating the peer resource response based on the resource status information comprises:

comparing the version number from the resource status information to a version number for resource status information cached within the RNS server;

generating the peer resource response based on the resource status information cached within the RNS server if the version numbers match; and

generating the peer resource response based on the resource status information from the master publisher if the version numbers do not match.

58. The machine readable medium of claim 40, wherein the RNS server comprises a local RNS server, and the peer resource request comprises a first peer resource request, the method further comprising:

receiving a status request at the local RNS server, said status request corresponding to a local peer resource, and said status request being received from a remote RNS server through the networking environment;

generating a status response for the local peer resource; and

returning the status response to the remote RNS server through the networking environment, said status response to enable the remote RNS server to service a peer resource request for the local peer resource.

59. The machine readable medium of claim 58 wherein said status response comprises at least one of a current version for the local peer resource and zero or more network addresses for the local peer resource

60. The machine readable medium of claim 58 wherein the status request comprises at least one of a unique master publisher name corresponding to a master publisher of the local peer resource and a pathname for the local peer resource within the master publisher.

61. The machine readable medium of claim 58 wherein a master publisher of the local peer resource is homed at the local RNS server.

62. The machine readable medium of claim 58, the method further comprising:

caching the status response within the remote RNS server, said remote RNS server to service subsequent peer resource quests for the local peer resource based on the cached status response.

63. The machine readable medium of claim 62, the method further comprising:

flushing the status response from the remote RNS server after a particular period of time.

64. A machine readable medium having stored thereon machine executable instructions to implement a method comprising:

receiving a resource request at a peer platform;

determining if the resource request corresponds to a peer resource or a non-peer resource;

forwarding the resource request into a networking environment if the resource request corresponds to a non-peer resource; and

accessing a locator service indicated by the resource request if the resource request corresponds to a peer resource, said locator service to provide a list of network locations in the networking environment where the peer resource is expected to be available, and accessing the peer resource at one or more of the listed network locations.

65. The machine readable medium of claim 64 wherein said resource request is received from one of a web browser running on the peer platform, a web-enabled application running on the peer platform, and a peer-to-peer application using an application programming interface (API) of the peer platform.

66. The machine readable medium of claim 64 wherein determining comprises:

recognizing that the resource request corresponds to a peer resource based on a predetermined syntax of the resource request.

67. The machine readable medium of claim 66 wherein the predetermined syntax comprises a text string beginning with one of ppp, p2p, and rns.

68. The machine readable medium of claim 64 wherein determining comprises:

comparing a realm name from the resource request to a list of previously cached realm names for peer-to-peer realms, said resource request corresponding to a peer resource if the realm names match.

69. The machine readable medium of claim 64 wherein determining comprises:

forwarding the resource request into the networking environment to dynamically determine if the resource request corresponds to a peer resource or a non-peer resource; and

waiting for a response from a server device to which the resource request is routed, wherein if the response comprises access to a network resource, the resource request is determined to correspond to a non-peer resource, if the response comprises an indication that the server device is a resource locator service, the resource request is determined to correspond to a peer resource.

70. The machine readable medium of claim 69, the method further comprising:

caching a realm name from the resource request at the peer platform if the resource request is determined to correspond to a peer resource.

71. The machine readable medium of claim 69 wherein if the resource request is determined to correspond to a peer resource, the method further comprises:

exchanging a series of messages with the resource locator service to determine if the peer platform is compatible with a realm of the resource locator service;

if the peer platform is determined to be incompatible, treating the resource request as if it corresponds to a non-peer resource, said resource locator service to supply a peer source corresponding to the resource request as a proxy; and

if the peer platform is determined to be compatible, treating the resource request as if it corresponds to a peer resource.

72. The machine readable medium of claim 64 wherein accessing the peer resource comprises one of:

serially selecting one network location at a time from said list of network locations to which to issue a request, waiting for access to the peer resource for a particular period of time, and repeating until the peer resource is accessed; and

issuing a plurality of requests to multiple locations among said list of network locations, taking access to the peer resource from a set of one or more network locations to first respond, and ignoring subsequent responses.

73. The machine readable medium of claim 64 wherein accessing the locator service comprises one of hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) messaging and binary code messaging based on binary codes cached within the peer platform to enable compressed communicates among devices within a given peer-to-peer realm.

74. A machine readable medium having stored thereon machine executable instructions to implement a method comprising:

receiving a peer resource request at a first peer platform for a peer resource associated with the first peer platform, said peer resource request being received from a second peer platform through a networking environment, said second peer platform having located the peer resource through a resource locator service; and

providing the second peer platform access to the peer resource through the first peer platform.

75. The machine readable medium of claim 74 wherein the first peer platform corresponds to a particular peer device, and wherein the particular peer device makes the peer resource available.

76. The machine readable medium of claim 74 wherein the second peer platform corresponds to one of a particular peer device and a gate server for a peer-to-peer realm containing the first peer platform.

77. The machine readable medium of claim 76 wherein the gate server is acting as a proxy on behalf of a requester to make the peer resource available to a requester that is not compatible with the first peer platform.

78. The machine readable medium of claim 74 wherein the peer device comprises one of a master publisher of the peer resource and a caching publisher of the peer resource.

79. An apparatus comprising:

a resource naming service (RNS) server to receive a peer resource request, said peer resource request being received from a peer platform through a networking environment;

said RNS server to generate a peer resource response based on the peer resource request; and

said RNS server to return the peer resource response to the peer platform through the networking environment, said peer resource response to enable the peer platform to access a peer resource corresponding to the peer resource request within the networking environment.

80. An apparatus comprising:

a peer platform to receive a resource request;

said peer platform to determine if the resource request corresponds to a peer resource or a non-peer resource;

said peer platform to forward the resource request into a networking environment if the resource request corresponds to a non-peer resource; and

said peer platform to access a locator service indicated by the resource request if the resource request corresponds to a peer resource, said locator service to provide a list of network locations in the networking environment where the peer resource is expected to be available, and said peer platform to access the peer resource at one or more of the listed network locations.

81. An apparatus comprising:

a first peer platform to receive a peer resource request, said first peer platform being associated with a peer resource, said peer resource request being received from a second peer platform through a networking environment, said second peer platform having located the peer resource through a resource locator service; and

said first peer platform to provide the second peer platform access to the peer resource.