Discovery of network devices logically located between a client and a service
First Claim
1. A method of discovering an intermediate device of a computer network that is logically located between a client device and a service device, comprising:
- receiving at the intermediate device incoming packets including a probe packet that specifies a destination network address of the service device, that specifies a source network address, and that specifies a discovery network port;
determining at the intermediate device whether incoming packets that specify the destination network address of the service device also specify a discovery network port; and
in response to determining that the probe packet specifies the discovery network port, sending from the intermediate device a return packet that specifies as the destination address the source network address of the probe packet and that specifies the source network address of the return packet as that of the intermediate device.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Otherwise network-transparent devices that are logically located between a client device and a service device are discovered by sending a probe packet that has a destination address of one of the client or service but that specifies a discovery network port such as a port of the transport layer. The otherwise network-transparent device receives the packet as it is traversing the hops between the client and service. The network-transparent device analyzes the network traffic passing through it to determine whether the destination port is the discovery network port and thereby recognizes the probe packet. The network-transparent device provides a return packet to the device that sent the probe packet, whereby the return packet provides the source address as the network address of the otherwise network-transparent device. A communication session may then be established between the network-transparent device and the device that sent the probe packet such as to provide a service to the data transfer occurring between the client and service.
38 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method of discovering an intermediate device of a computer network that is logically located between a client device and a service device, comprising:
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receiving at the intermediate device incoming packets including a probe packet that specifies a destination network address of the service device, that specifies a source network address, and that specifies a discovery network port; determining at the intermediate device whether incoming packets that specify the destination network address of the service device also specify a discovery network port; and in response to determining that the probe packet specifies the discovery network port, sending from the intermediate device a return packet that specifies as the destination address the source network address of the probe packet and that specifies the source network address of the return packet as that of the intermediate device. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A computer readable medium containing instructions encoded thereon that when implemented perform acts comprising:
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sending a probe packet to a destination address, the probe packet specifying a discovery network port and specifying the network address of the sending device as the source address; detecting whether a return packet is received from a device that specifies a source address different than the destination address within a pre-defined period of time; and upon detecting that the return packet that specifies the source address different than the destination address is received within the pre-defined period of time, then establishing a communication session with a device at the source address of the return packet. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A device that allows for automatic discovery in a network, comprising:
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a memory; at least one network connection; a processing system that; sends and receives data packets through the at least one network connection, sends a probe packet through one of the at least one network connections in response to receiving a packet addressed to a destination address that is not in memory, the probe packet specifying the destination address and a discovery port, detects whether a return packet is received within a pre-defined timeout period through one of the at least one network connections and if so, then stores in memory a source address of the return packet in association with the destination address, analyzes a different probe packet received through one of the at least one network connections to determine whether a destination port of the different probe packet is the discovery port, and sends a return packet to a source address of the different probe packet, the return packet specifying the network address of the device as the source address. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification