Systems and methods for uniquely and persistently identifying networks

• US 20050190705A1
• Filed: 04/27/2005
• Published: 09/01/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/24/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Venable,, Jeffrey C. Sr., Moore, Timothy M., Eydelman, Vadim
• Granted Patent: US 7,043,540 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/254
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5019 Ensuring fulfilment of SLA
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/18 Multiprotocol handlers, e.g. single devices capable of handling multiple protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/32 Architecture of open systems interconnection [OSI] 7-layer type protocol stacks, e.g. the interfaces between the data link level and the physical level

Abstract

A service is disclosed that discovers information about the logical networks to which a computer is connected and provides that information to applications. The information is keyed to names constructed by the service. There is a mapping between the names and the logical networks. Applications may rely on the names when selecting a configuration to use with a given logical network. The network name may be correlated with other information, such as physical network interface(s) on the computer through which the logical network is accessible, application programming interfaces of the transport protocols supported by the logical network, and the connectivity type of the logical network. Applications are notified when network information provided to them changes or when new information becomes available.

Claims

1-25. -25. (canceled)

1. A computer-readable medium having instructions for performing a method for providing network connectivity information to an application running on a computing device, the method comprising:

associating a name with a network, the name unique within a context of the computing device, and correlating the name with a transport protocol supported by the network;

applying a first set of discovery techniques to discover aspects of a first network to which the computing device is connected;

applying a second set of discovery techniques to discover aspects of a second network to which the computing device is connected, the first and second sets of discovery techniques differing, at least in part; and

providing discovered aspects of the first and second networks to the application via a common application programming interface.

2. A method for providing network connectivity information to an application running on a computing device, the method comprising:

gaining connectivity to a network;

discovering aspects of the network;

associating a first name with the network, the first name unique within the context of the computing device;

correlating the first name with a transport protocol supported by the network;

providing the first name to the application as a key for accessing the discovered aspects of the network;

losing connectivity to the network;

regaining connectivity to the network;

rediscovering aspects of the network; and

associating a second name with the network, wherein the second name is the same as the first name.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the first name is based on information selected from the set consisting of:

DNS domain name, static information provided by a user of the computing device, subnet address, and 802.1X network identity string.

4. The method of claim 2 further comprising

correlating the first name with a network interface on the computing device through which the network may be accessed.

5. A computer-readable medium having instructions for performing a method for providing network connectivity information to an application running on a computing device, the method comprising:

gaining connectivity to a network;

discovering aspects of the network;

associating a first name with the network, the first name unique within the context of the computing device;

correlating the first name with a transport protocol supported by the network;

providing the first name to the application as a key for accessing the discovered aspects of the network;

losing connectivity to the network;

regaining connectivity to the network;

rediscovering aspects of the network; and

associating a second name with the network, wherein the second name is the same as the first name.

30. (canceled)