Intelligent Routing in a Hybrid Peer-to-Peer System

• US 20090086727A1
• Filed: 09/28/2007
• Published: 04/02/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Wang, Weidong, Alexandrou, Leon James, Hunter, Brian, Lomme, Robert A. JR.
• Granted Patent: US 7,720,083 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/389
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2807 Exchanging configuration information on appliance services in a home automation network arrangements for maintenance or administration involving network analysis for automatically determining the actual topology of a network H04L41/12; hardware or software tools for network management using graphical user interfaces H04L41/22; address allocation H04L61/50
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/02 Topology update or discovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/563 Data redirection of data network streams

Abstract

Intelligent routing may be provided. First, a second peer via home relay may receive presence information indicating that a first peer is connected to a first foreign relay. Then the second peer may update, in response to the presence information, a routing table to indicate that a primary place to send data to the first peer is the first foreign relay. Next, the second peer may determine from the routing table that the primary place to send the data to the first peer is the first foreign relay. Next, the home relay may receive a request from a second peer to send data to the first peer via the first foreign relay. Then, in response to determining from the routing table that the primary place to send the data to the first peer is the first foreign relay, the data may be sent to the first foreign relay.

Claims

1. A method for providing intelligent routing, the method comprising:

receiving, via a home relay, presence information indicating that a first peer is connected to a first foreign relay;

updating, at a second peer in response to the presence information, a routing table to indicate that a primary place to send data to the first peer is the first foreign relay;

determining, from the routing table, that the primary place to send the data to the first peer is the first foreign relay;

receiving, at the home relay, a request from a second peer to send data to the first peer; and

sending, in response to determining from the routing table that the primary place to send the data to the first peer is the first foreign relay, the data to the first foreign relay.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the presence information comprises:

connecting, by the second peer, to the home relay;

connecting, by the home relay, to a second foreign relay;

receiving information from the second foreign relay that the first peer is not connected to the second foreign relay;

connecting, by the home relay, to the first foreign relay; and

receiving information from the first foreign relay that the first peer is connected to the first foreign relay;

receiving information from the home relay that the first peer is not connected to the second foreign relay and that the first peer is connected to the first foreign relay, the information received from the home relay that the first peer is connected to the first foreign relay comprising the presence information.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein connecting, via the home relay, to the second foreign relay comprises connecting to the second foreign prior to connecting to the first foreign relay in response to the routing table initially indicating that the second foreign relay is the primary place to send data to the first peer.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein receiving the Information from the first foreign relay that the first peer is connected to the first foreign relay comprises receiving the information from the first foreign relay that the first peer is connected to the first foreign relay wherein the first peer publishes it presence on the first foreign relay to a presence information service.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the presence information comprises receiving the presence information in response to the home relay subscribing to a presence information service.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein updating, at the second peer, the routing table comprises updating the routing table to indicate that a secondary place to send data to the first peer is the second foreign relay.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving, at the home relay, the request from the second peer to send the data to the first peer comprises receiving the request from the second peer being connected to the home relay through a network.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising prior to receiving the presence information, attempting, by the first peer, to connect to a second foreign relay, the first peer not being able to connect to the second foreign relay due to the second foreign relay being unavailable to the first peer.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising prior to receiving the presence information, connecting, by the first peer, to the first foreign relay, the first peer being able to connect to the first foreign relay due to the first foreign relay being available to the first peer.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising prior to receiving the presence information, receiving the routing table indicating that the primary place to send data to the first peer is a second foreign relay.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising prior to receiving the presence information, receiving the routing table indicating that the primary place to send data to the first peer is a second foreign relay and indicating that a secondary place to send data to the first peer is the first foreign relay.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending, from the first foreign relay, the data to the first peer.

13. A computer-readable medium which stores a set of instructions which when executed performs a method for providing intelligent routing, the method executed by the set of instructions comprising:

receiving a routing table initially indicating that a primary place to send data to a first peer is a second foreign relay and indicating that a secondary place to send data to the first peer is a first foreign relay;

connecting, by a home relay, to the second foreign relay;

receiving information from the second foreign relay that the first peer is not connected to the second foreign relay;

connecting, by the home relay, to the first foreign relay;

receiving information from the first foreign relay that the first peer is connected to the first foreign relay, the information received from the first foreign relay that the first peer is connected to the first foreign relay comprising presence information;

updating, at a second peer in response to the presence information, the routing table to indicate that the primary place to send data to the first peer is the first foreign relay;

receiving, at the home relay, a request from a second peer to send data to the first peer;

determining, from the routing table, that the primary place to send the data to the first peer is the first foreign relay; and

sending, in response to determining from the routing table that the primary place to send the data to the first peer is the first foreign relay, the data to the first foreign relay.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein connecting, by the home relay, to the second foreign relay comprises connecting to the second foreign prior to connecting to the first foreign relay in response to the routing table initially indicating that the second foreign relay is the primary place to send data to the first peer.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein receiving the information from the first foreign relay that the first peer is connected to the first foreign relay comprises receiving the information from the first foreign relay that the first peer is connected to the first foreign relay wherein the first peer publishes it presence on the first foreign relay to a presence information service.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein receiving the presence information comprises receiving the presence information in response to the second peer subscribing to a presence information service.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein updating, at the second peer, the routing table comprises updating the routing table to indicate that the secondary place to send data to the first peer is the second foreign relay.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein receiving, at the home relay, the request from the second peer to send the data to the first peer comprises receiving the request from the second peer being connected to the home relay through a local area network.

19. A system for providing intelligent routing, the system comprising:

a memory storage; and

a processing unit coupled to the memory storage, wherein the processing unit is operative to;

receive a routing table initially indicating that a primary place to send data to a first peer is a second foreign relay and indicating that a secondary place to send data to the first peer is a first foreign relay;

receive presence information indicating that the first peer is connected to the first foreign relay;

update, in response to the presence information, the routing table to indicate that the primary place to send data to the first peer is the first foreign relay;

receive a request from a second peer to send data to the first peer;

determine that the primary place to send the data to the first peer is the first foreign relay; and

send, in response to determining from the routing table that the primary place to send the data to the first peer is the first foreign relay, the data to the first foreign relay.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the processing unit being operative to receive the presence information comprises the processing unit being further operative to:

connect to the second foreign relay;

receive information from the second foreign relay that the first peer is not connected to the second foreign relay;

connect to the first foreign relay; and

receive information from the first foreign relay that the first peer is connected to the first foreign relay, the information received from the first foreign relay that the first peer is connected to the first foreign relay comprising the presence information.