NETWORK ROUTING OF ENDPOINTS TO CONTENT BASED ON CONTENT SWARMS

• US 20090092124A1
• Filed: 10/03/2007
• Published: 04/09/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/03/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Key, Peter Bernard, Shen, Guobin, Singhal, Sandeep Kishan, Zhang, Ming, Karagiannis, Thomas, Ganesh, Ayalvadi Jagannathan
• Granted Patent: US 9,407,693 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/351
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1072 Discovery involving ranked list compilation of candidate peers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context

Abstract

Using location-independent names to identify content, a service for mapping endpoint requests to requested content. Content requested by an endpoint of the network is mapped to a dynamic “swarm” of server, peer, or other endpoints capable of supporting the content download. Content names are mapped to a dynamically generated content swarm, presenting a current set of hosts, which can provide the requested content. Optionally, varying degrees of explicit visibility into routing paths and the performance tradeoffs between those routing paths is supported. Based on a set of class of service parameters for a given request for content, a host can initiate route selection based on class of service parameters, predicated on routing metrics maintained by the network by cooperating endpoints and/or network routers.

Claims

1. A lookup service for facilitating a determination of nodes in a network that can provide a service with respect to designated content, comprising:

at least one data store for storing substantially up to date content mapping information, independent of type of content, which maps unique content identifiers, each identifying a content item independent of location, to a set of nodes of the network including the associated content item; and

a lookup service, communicatively coupled to the at least one data store, which, in response to a request specifying a content item, determines a set of swarm nodes of the network that can satisfy the request based on the content mapping information.

2. The lookup service according to claim 1, wherein the at least one data store is at least one distributed data store.

3. The lookup service according to claim 2, wherein the at least one data store is implemented with distributed hash tables (DHTs).

4. The lookup service according to claim 1, wherein the set of swarm nodes of the network include any one or more of source hosts for the content item, active clients including the content item or intermediate hosts that have cached the content item.

5. The lookup service according to claim 1, further comprising:

at least one second data store for storing substantially up to date end-to-end routing information for routes between node pairs of the nodes of the network.

6. The lookup service according to claim 4, wherein the at least one second data store includes routing information including any one or more of bandwidth, loss rate and latency of routes between node pairs of the nodes of the network.

7. The lookup service according to claim 4, wherein at least one route to at least one of the set of swarm nodes is selected for satisfying the request based on the end-to-end routing information.

8. The lookup service according to claim 4, wherein the at least one second data store is implemented with distributed hash tables (DHTs).

9. A method for proactively determining optimal service endpoints for providing content in a network, comprising:

based on a request for a content stream of interest including a unique content identifier that is independent of location of the content stream, receiving, by the requesting endpoint, information representing a set of candidate endpoints from a network service that each include the content stream of interest; and

based on at least one predetermined criterion, selecting, by the requesting endpoint, at least one candidate endpoint of the set of candidate endpoints for provision of a service relating to the content stream of interest.

10. The method according to claim 9, further comprising:

receiving routing quality information that facilitates the selecting of the at least one candidate endpoint based on measurements of the quality of routes to the at least one candidate endpoint.

11. The method according to claim 10, further including:

selecting one or more optimal routes to the at least one candidate endpoint from the requesting endpoint based on one or more of bandwidth, latency, network distance, cost or loss rate metrics received with respect to one or more routes between the requesting endpoint and the at least one candidate endpoint.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

determining, based on the quality of routes to the at least one candidate endpoint, if a quality of service requirement is met for an application or service of the requesting endpoint.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the provision of the service relating to the content stream of interest includes enabling a downloading or streaming operation by the requesting endpoint.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the provision of the service relating to the content stream of interest includes enabling a real-time rendering operation by the requesting endpoint.

15. A tangibly embodied computer readable medium comprising computer executable instructions for performing the method of claim 9.

16. A method for determining optimal routes to optimal service endpoints for providing service with respect to one or more specified items of content in a network, comprising:

receiving, by a requesting endpoint of a network, first information including unique endpoint identifier information representing a set of candidate endpoints from a network service, each of which candidate endpoints is capable of providing a service with respect to a content stream of interest;

receiving, by the requesting endpoint, second information representing route quality information concerning at least one characteristic of at least one endpoint to endpoint route between the requesting endpoint and the set of candidate endpoints; and

based on an analysis of the second information representing route quality information and at least one quality of service requirement for the service, connecting to at least one of the set of candidate endpoints via a specific one or more of the at least one endpoint to endpoint route.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the receiving of the second information includes receiving information about the at least one endpoint to endpoint route from a plurality of network routers tracking network state.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the receiving of the second information includes receiving information about one or more of latency, jitter, reliability or bandwidth of the at least one endpoint to endpoint route.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the connecting includes connecting to an optimal subset of the set of candidate endpoints via a specific one or more of the at least one endpoint to endpoint route.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

monitoring the specific one or more of the at least one endpoint to endpoint route to determine actual quality of service information associated with the at least one endpoint to endpoint route.