Identity-based distributed computing for device resources

• US 20040003112A1
• Filed: 06/28/2002
• Published: 01/01/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Alles, David, Moore, George M.
• Granted Patent: US 9,886,309 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/237
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5011 the resources being hardware resources other than CPUs, Servers and Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/303 Terminal profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A system, method and related data structures for discovering and describing computing resources available at various computing devices, and for exposing those resources as services that are addressable by software applications. The data describing the resources is arranged according to an identity-based schema. The computing resources may include, for example, storage capacity, bandwidth, processing power, input methods and mechanism, and rendering methods. The method and system are identity-based, whereby a user (with an identity) has access to the distributed resources commensurate with that identity.

Claims

1. In a computing environment, a method comprising:

at a first computing device, discovering a second computing device;

at the first device, obtaining data related to the second device, the data including resource information of the second device formatted according to a schema understood by the first device; and

the first device interpreting the data to access a resource of the second device.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising, communicating a request to use the resource from the first device to the second device.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising, communicating identity information from the first device to the second device.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the identity information corresponds to credentials.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the credentials are provided by an authentication service.

6. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions to perform a method, the method comprising:

at a first computing device;

locating information about a resource of at least one other device that is available for use, the information located based on an identity associated with the first computing device;

selecting a resource of a second device from the information; and

accessing the resource of the second device.

7. In a computing environment, a system comprising:

a first computing device associated with at least one identity, the first device including a first resource and configured to provide access to the first resource by at least one other device associated with the identity, the first computing device providing information about the first resource according to a resource schema associated with the at least one identity;

a second device, the second device configured to request access to the first resource; and

the second device performing a computing task including using the first resource on the first device to perform at least part of the task.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the first resource comprises storage.

9. The system of claim 7 wherein the first resource comprises bandwidth of a connection from the first device to at least one other computing device.

10. The system of claim 7 wherein the first resource comprises processing cycles of a processor.

11. The system of claim 7 wherein the first resource comprises an input method.

12. The system of claim 7 wherein the first resource comprises an output method.

13. The system of claim 7 further comprising a third computing device connected to the first computing device, wherein the second device accesses the first resource to perform an operation with the third computing device.

14. The system of claim 7 wherein the third computing device comprises a printer, and wherein the first resource corresponds to a printer driver on the first computing device.

15. The system of claim 7 wherein the third computing device comprises a server, and wherein the first computing device acts as a proxy to the server for the second computing device.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the bandwidth from the second computing device and the first computing device is greater than the bandwidth from the first computing device to the third computing device.

17. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon a data structure, the data structure comprising:

a first field for identifying a type of resource;

a second field for identifying a device that includes a resource corresponding to the type of resource identified in the first field;

a set of at least one third field, each third field in the set corresponding to the second field for identifying information about the device resource identified by the first field; and

wherein the data structure is used to provide resource information to another device that is different from the one identified in the second field such that the other device can use a resource identified in the third field set.

18. The data structure of claim 17 wherein the first field includes information corresponding to a storage resource type.

19. The data structure of claim 18 wherein the third field set includes information corresponding to total size data of the storage resource.

20. The data structure of claim 18 wherein the third field set includes information corresponding to free space data of the storage resource.

21. The data structure of claim 17 wherein the first field includes information corresponding to bandwidth data.

22. The data structure of claim 17 wherein the wherein the first field corresponds to processing power.

23. The data structure of claim 22 wherein the third field set includes information corresponding to speed data of a processor.

24. The data structure of claim 22 wherein the third field set includes information corresponding to usage data of a processor.

25. The data structure of claim 22 wherein the third field set includes information corresponding to size data of a memory.

26. The data structure of claim 25 wherein the third field set includes information corresponding to usage data of a memory.

27. The data structure of claim 17 wherein the second field includes information identifying the device as a personal computer.

28. The data structure of claim 17 wherein the second field includes information identifying the device as a disk drive.

29. The data structure of claim 17 wherein the second field includes information identifying the device as a telephone.