Peer-to-peer name resolution protocol (PNRP) and multilevel cache for use therewith

• US 20050267993A1
• Filed: 06/13/2005
• Published: 12/01/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/02/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Huitema, Christian, Miller, John L.
• Granted Patent: US 7,565,432 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/245
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4511 using domain name system [DNS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/58 Caching of addresses or names
• 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

Abstract

A serverless name resolution protocol ensures convergence despite the size of the network, without requiring an ever-increasing cache and with a reasonable numbers of hops. This convergence is ensured through a multi-level cache and a proactive cache initialization strategy. The multi-level cache is built based on a circular number space. Each level contains information from different levels of slivers of the circular space. A mechanism is included to add a level to the multi-level cache when the node determines that the last level is full. A peer-to-peer name resolution protocol (PNRP) includes a mechanism to allow resolution of names which are mapped onto the circular number space through a hash function. Further, the PNRP may also operate with the domain name system by providing each node with an identification consisting of a domain name service (DNS) component and a unique number.

Claims

1. A method of resolving a peer name to a peer address certificate, comprising the steps of computing a hash value of the peer name, associating therewith a unique number in the form <

hash>

.<

unique number>

, formatting a request message, and transmitting the request message to a peer node.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

receiving a response message including the peer address certificate and address information of a best match node;

comparing the peer address certificate and address information of a best match node;

replacing the address information of the best match node with the address information of a local node when the address information of the best match node is not equal to peer address certificate and the address information of the local node is closer to peer address certificate than the address information of the best match node; and

relaying the response message to the requester node when the requester node is not the local node.