Network interface routing using computational context

• US 20070211690A1
• Filed: 03/13/2006
• Published: 09/13/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Manousek, Wolfgang, Salmre, Ivo, van Megen, Friedrich
• Granted Patent: US 7,821,985 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/351
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/5692 Selection among different networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/18 Negotiating wireless communication parameters

Abstract

Knowledge of the computational context of a computer operating environment, for example, awareness of process threads, is used to route IP traffic in the presence of multiple active network connections. An additional protocol may be added to the network layer of an operating system in order to map certain computational contexts to particular network interfaces. Any process with identification parameters associated with a mapped computational context requesting data transfer via a communication network is bound to the network interface previously associated with the computational context rather than an alternate network interface that otherwise might be the default. Further, process threads created by a parent process thread may be caused to inherit the computational context of the parent thread in order to assign traffic to the same network interface. This routing framework may have particular application with respect to multihomed host devices, for example, mobile computing devices.

Claims

1. A method for routing data to a network interface comprising

receiving a request to transmit data over a communication network;

identifying a computational context associated with the data;

including the computational context as a routing criterion; and

routing the data to a particular network interface to the communication network based upon the computational context.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising transmitting the data via the particular network interface.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the routing operation further comprises mapping the computational context to the particular network interface.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the routing operation further comprises

instantiating a communication socket;

associating the communication socket with the computational context; and

binding the communication socket to the particular network interface.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the computational context comprises an extensible set of computational contexts.

6. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing a computer process implementing the method of claim 1.

7. A method for routing data to one of a plurality of network interfaces comprising

identifying a computational context associated with the data;

and

making a routing decision for transmission of the data through one of the plurality of network interfaces based upon the associated computational context.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising

mapping the computational context to the particular network interface to create a mapped relationship;

and

storing the mapped relationship; and

wherein the operation of making a routing decision further comprises accessing the mapped relationship to determine the one of the plurality of network interfaces for routing the transmission of the data.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the computational context comprises a process thread of an executing application.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the process thread further creates a child process thread, and the method further comprises

associating the computational context of the process thread with the child process thread;

and

making a routing decision for transmission of additional data generated by the child process thread through one of the plurality of network interfaces based upon the computational context of the process thread.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the computational context comprises an

extensible set of computational contexts.

12. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing a computer process implementing the method of claim 7.

13. A method of making network interface routing decisions in a computing device with multiple network interfaces, the method comprising

presenting, as part of an application process, a parameter identifying a computational context of the computing device to a networking layer;

mapping the parameter to a particular network interface in a routing interface provided between the application process and the networking layer to create a mapped relationship;

associating the parameter with data sent from the application process for transmission;

comparing the parameter associated with the data to the mapped relationship; and

routing the data to the particular network interface to which the parameter is mapped.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the routing further performs the steps of

creating a communication socket;

associating the communication socket with the computational context; and

binding the communication socket to the particular network interface.

15. The method of claim 13 further comprising registering the mapped relationship with the networking layer.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the registering operation further comprises

storing the mapped relationship in a routing table;

and

accessing the mapped relationship from the routing table.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the parameter comprises a process thread identification.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the parameter comprises an extensible set of computational contexts.

19. The method of claim 13 further comprising

creating a child application process from the application process;

and

inhering the mapped relationship to the child application process, wherein

the parameter is further associated with additional data sent from the child application process.

20. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing a computer process implementing the method of claim 13.