Identifying a service node in a network

• US 20050198328A1
• Filed: 10/08/2004
• Published: 09/08/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 01/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Banerjee, Sujata, Basu, Sujoy, Lee, Sung-Ju, Sharma, Puneet
• Granted Patent: US 7,644,167 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/229
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/02 Topology update or discovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/122 by minimising distances, e.g. by selecting a route with minimum of number of hops
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/124 using a combination of metrics
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/126 minimising geographical or physical path length
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/46 Cluster building
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/54 Organization of routing tables
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1065 Discovery involving distributed pre-established resource-based relationships among peers, e.g. based on distributed hash tables [DHT] pre-configuration of logical or physical connections H04L67/1053
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/61 taking into account QoS or priority requirements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information

Abstract

A request is received from a first node in a network. The request includes a request for a service node operable to provide a desired service. At least one service node is identified that is operable to provide the desired service based at least on location information for the first node.

Claims

1. A method of identifying at least one service node in a network to provide a desired service for a first node in the network, the method comprising:

receiving a request from the first node for a service node operable to provide a desired service; and

identifying at least one service node operable to provide the desired service based at least on location information for the first node.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

measuring available bandwidth between the at least one service node and the first node; and

selecting the at least one service node to provide the desired service in response to the available bandwidth being greater than a minimum bandwidth required for providing the service.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the at least one service node comprises a plurality of service nodes operable to provide the desired service and selecting the at least one service node further comprises:

selecting one of the plurality of service nodes to provide the desired service based at least on the available bandwidth for the one service node being greater than a minimum bandwidth required for providing the service and an estimation of how close each of the plurality of service nodes are to the first node.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying at least one service node operable to provide the desired service further comprises:

determining whether information stored in a second node in the network receiving the request includes information for at least one service node operable to provide the desired service, wherein the information stored in the second node includes information about nodes physically close to the first node in the network; and

expanding a search for a service node operable to provide the desired service to include information stored in at least one other node in the network until at least one service node is identified that is operable to provide the desired service.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying at least one service node operable to provide the desired service further comprises:

determining whether the at least one service node includes a plurality of service nodes; and

in response to the at least one service node including a plurality of service nodes, applying a clustering algorithm to identify one or more of the closest service nodes of the plurality service nodes.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein applying a clustering algorithm further comprises:

ranking the plurality of service nodes based on the applying of the clustering algorithm.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

selecting one of the plurality of service nodes to provide the desired service based on at least one of available bandwidth for the one service node being greater than a minimum bandwidth required for providing the service and the one service node being one of the closest service nodes to the first node of the plurality of service nodes.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein location information for the nodes in the network is stored in a distributed hash table (DHT) overlay network, such that location information for nodes physically close in the network is stored in a node in the DHT overlay network or a plurality of nodes close in the DHT overlay network.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the location information for the nodes is stored in a global information table in the DHT overlay network.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

measuring distances from the first node to a plurality of global landmark nodes and at least one local landmark node proximally located in the network to the first node; and

determining location information for the first node based on the measured distances.

11. A method comprising:

receiving information for a plurality of service nodes operable to provide a desired service for a first node, wherein the plurality of service nodes were selected based on location information for at least one of the plurality of service nodes and the first node;

measuring available bandwidth between each of the plurality of service nodes and the first node; and

selecting a service node from the plurality of service nodes to provide the desired service based at least on the available bandwidth for the service node being greater than a minimum bandwidth required for the desired service.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein selecting a service node further comprises:

selecting a service node from the plurality of service nodes to provide the desired service based at least on an estimation of how close each of the plurality of service nodes are to the first node.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the location information for the first node and the plurality of nodes comprises landmark vectors for each of the first node and the plurality of nodes, the landmark vectors for each of the first node and the plurality of nodes including distances measured to a plurality of global landmark nodes and at least one local landmark node proximally located to a respective one of the first node and the plurality of nodes.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the location information for the first node and the plurality of nodes is stored in a distributed hash table (DHT) overlay network, such that location information for nodes physically close in the network is stored in a node in the DHT overlay network or a plurality of nodes close in the DHT overlay network.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

sending a request for a service node operable to provide the desired service from the first node.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein sending a request further comprises:

the first node hashing the location information for the first node to identify a location in the DHT overlay network for sending the request.

17. A node in a network comprising:

means for receiving from a first node a request for a service node operable to provide a desired service; and

means for identifying at least one service node operable to provide the desired service based at least on location information for the first node.

18. The node of claim 17, wherein the at least one service node comprises a plurality of service nodes and further comprising:

means for ranking the plurality of service nodes based on an estimation of how close each of the plurality of service nodes are to the first node.

19. A computer system operable to connect to a peer-to-peer network and operable to function as a distributed hash table (DHT) node in a DHT overlay network, the distributed hash table overlay network being a logical representation of the peer-to-peer network, wherein the computer system comprises:

a memory operable to store location information for a plurality of nodes in the peer-to-peer network that are physically close to a first node in the network; and

a processor operable to identify at least one service node operable to provide a desired service for the first node.

20. The computer system of claim 19, wherein the processor is further operable to apply a clustering algorithm to a plurality of service nodes identified by the processor which are operable to provide the desired service.

21. The computer system of claim 19, wherein the location information for the plurality of nodes comprises distances measured from each of the plurality of nodes to a plurality of global landmark nodes and to at least one local landmark node proximally located to a respective one of the plurality of nodes.

22. Computer software embedded on a computer readable medium, the computer software comprising instructions performing:

receiving a request from a first node for a service node operable to provide a desired service; and

identifying at least one service node operable to provide the desired service based at least on location information for the first node.

23. The computer software of claim 22, further comprising instructions performing:

determining whether the at least one service node includes a plurality of service nodes; and

in response to the at least one service node including a plurality of service nodes, applying a clustering algorithm to identify one or more of the closest service nodes of the plurality service nodes.

24. The computer software of claim 22, further comprising instructions performing:

determining available bandwidth between the at least one service node and the first node; and

selecting the at least one service node to provide the desired service based on the available bandwidth being greater than a minimum bandwidth required for providing the service.