PRIVATE VIRTUAL LAN SPANNING A PUBLIC NETWORK FOR CONNECTION OF ARBITRARY HOSTS

• US 20080183853A1
• Filed: 06/28/2007
• Published: 07/31/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/30/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Ahmad, Arsalan, Gefflaut, Alain, Manion, Todd, Singhal, Sandeep
• Granted Patent: US 8,489,701 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4641 Virtual LANs, VLANs, e.g. virtual private networks [VPN] LAN interconnection over a bridge based backbone H04L12/462; encapsulation techniques H04L12/4633; routing of packets H04L45/00; packet switches H04L49/00; virtual private networks for security H04L63/0272
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4511 using domain name system [DNS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5007 Internet protocol [IP] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0272 Virtual private networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/104 Grouping of entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1046 Joining mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1093 Some peer nodes performing special functions

Abstract

Architecture for exposing a virtual private network of peer devices into the public domain via an overlay network. Computing devices, peripheral devices, as well as mobile devices can be physically distributed, but appear to belong to the same virtual private (or home) network, and be accessible from anywhere. Benefits include access to user media/documents from anywhere, searching of all connected devices from one location, multicast and broadcast connectivity, management of the private network and the associated policies, and device discovery on the private network from across public networks. P2P networks and ad-hoc networks can be exposed as a virtual interface, as well as the utilization of client operating systems to create the virtual network, grouping, graphing, the integration with relay services and other NAT/firewall traversal schemes, and the creation of a P2P overlay manager on a physical NIC (network interface card) address rather than a virtual address.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented networking system, comprising:

a management component for creating and managing a peer-to-peer (P2P) graph that overlays a virtual network for P2P communications between arbitrary nodes; and

an interface component for exposing the arbitrary nodes of the P2P graph to a public node.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the interface component exposes the P2P graph to the public node as a virtual interface.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the management component is created on a physical interface IP address.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the IP address is an IPv4 address or an IPv6 address.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the interface component includes a virtual network interface card (VNIC) controlled by a VNIC driver, the VNIC driver exposes a miniport driver and a file stream interface.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the management component includes a user-level application for controlling and configuring the VNIC driver, and communicating IP packets on behalf of the VNIC.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the management component facilitates at least one of multicast traffic or broadcast traffic.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the management component facilitates traversal of at least one of a firewall system or a network address translation system.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the interface component includes a file stream interface for passing IP packets between a VNIC and the management component for routing and transmission the arbitrary nodes of the P2P graph.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the management component includes a routing protocol for enabling multi-hop message routing over the P2P graph.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising a local name resolver for resolving names record in the graph.

12. A computer-implemented method of networking devices, comprising:

creating a P2P graph of arbitrary nodes of a virtual private network;

exposing the P2P network as a virtual interface; and

communicating IP traffic between the arbitrary nodes of the P2P network and a public network via the virtual interface.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising assigning a private IP address to each of the arbitrary hosts.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising enabling multi-hop message routing of a message over the P2P graph.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising publishing name records in the graph and flooding the name records to the arbitrary nodes of the virtual private network.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising exposing IPv4 and IPv6 interfaces for accommodating corresponding applications.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein a node of the public network obtains node information of one of the arbitrary nodes via peer discovery server-less name resolution protocol.

18. The method of claim 12, further comprising providing point-to-point TCP connections for direct communications between participating nodes of the graph.

19. The method of claim 12, further comprising replicating a database among the arbitrary nodes.

20. A computer-implemented system, comprising:

computer-implemented means for creating a P2P graph of arbitrary nodes of a virtual private network;

computer-implemented means for exposing the P2P network as a virtual interface; and

computer-implemented means for communicating IP traffic between the arbitrary nodes of the P2P network and a public network via the virtual interface.