Topology Management in Peer-to-Peer Content Distribution Clouds

• US 20090265473A1
• Filed: 01/26/2007
• Published: 10/22/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/21/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Klemets, Anders E., Miller, John, Weiss, Rebecca C., Gkantsidis, Christos, Rodriguez, Pablo Rodriguez, Hydrie, Aamer
• Granted Patent: US 8,364,758 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/229
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1008 based on parameters of servers, e.g. available memory or workload monitoring of computer activity G06F11/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/101 based on network conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1012 based on compliance of requirements or conditions with available server resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1014 based on the content of a request
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1021 based on client or server locations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1042 using topology management mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1044 Group management mechanisms management of multicast group membership H04L12/185; reconfiguring of node membership in a computing system to eliminate errors G06F11/1425
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1061 using node-based peer discovery mechanisms static access to replicated servers H04L67/1006; service discovery H04L67/51
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1063 Discovery through centralising entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/107 with limitation or expansion of the discovery scope
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1072 Discovery involving ranked list compilation of candidate peers

Abstract

A topology management process is implemented in peer-to-peer content distribution clouds using tracker nodes. Tracker nodes have information about available peers and assist peers in finding other peers to connect to. Various algorithms for use at the tracker nodes are described for selecting which peers to return as potentials for forming connections to. In addition, architectures and algorithms to allow efficient scaling of tracker nodes in peer-to-peer clouds are described.

Claims

1. A method of controlling the shape of a peer-to-peer content distribution cloud comprising at least one tracker node and a plurality of peer nodes, said method comprising the steps of at the tracker node:

(i) receiving a request from one of the peer nodes requesting information about one or more other peer nodes to connect to;

(ii) accessing information about a plurality of available peer nodes associated with the tracker node;

(iii) selecting one or more of the available peer nodes on the basis of one or more criteria and on the basis of the accessed information;

(iv) sending information about the selected available peer nodes to the requesting peer node.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the accessed information comprises information provided by peer nodes during registration with the tracker and, or, information provided by requesting the peer node.

3. A method as claimed in claim 2 wherein information provided by peer nodes as part of their request for peer nodes to connect to comprises details of peers that the requesting peer does not want to connect to.

4. A method as claimed in claim 3 wherein said one or more criteria are selected from any of:

locality, subscription levels, quality of service levels, relative upload ability, relative download ability, pseudo random selection, relative number of existing peer connections, relative amount of available peer content, historical peer behaviour information, and forecast peer behaviour information, relative local resources, relative node accessibility, and predicted pairwise connectivity, and opaque metadata.

5. A method as claimed in claim 4 wherein the accessed information comprises one or more of:

locality information, subscription information, quality of service information, upload speed information, download speed information, number of existing peer connections, amount of available peer content, historical peer behaviour information, and forecast peer behaviour information, local resource information, type of internet address, node accessibility information, predicted pairwise connectivity information, and opaque metadata.

6. A method as claimed in claim 5 wherein said locality information is selected from one or more of internet protocol addresses, network co-ordinate system information, internet protocol address to geolocation database results, information about whether peers are in a public or a private network region, postal address information, global positioning system information.

7. A method as claimed in claim 6 wherein said locality information comprises comparison of internet protocol address prefixes.

8. A computer program comprising computer program code means adapted to perform all the steps of claim 1 when said program is run on a computer.

9. A computer program as claimed in claim 8 embodied on a computer readable medium.

10. A tracker node for controlling the shape of a peer-to-peer content distribution cloud comprising a plurality of peer nodes, said tracker node comprising:

(i) an input arranged to receive a request from one of the peer nodes requesting information about one or more other peer nodes to connect to;

(ii) means for accessing information about a plurality of available peer nodes associated with the tracker node;

(iii) a processor arranged to select one or more of the available peer nodes on the basis of one or more criteria and on the basis of the accessed information;

(iv) an output arranged to send information about the selected available peer nodes to the requesting peer node.

11. A tracker node as claimed in claim 10 wherein the accessed information comprises information provided by peer nodes during registration with the tracker, and, or, information provided by the requesting peer node.

12. A tracker node as claimed in claim 10 wherein said one or more criteria are selected from any of:

locality, subscription levels, quality of service levels, relative upload ability, relative download ability, pseudo random selection, relative number of existing peer connections, relative amount of available peer content, historical peer behaviour information, forecast peer behaviour information, relative local resources, relative node accessibility, predicted pairwise connectivity, and opaque metadata.

13. A tracker node as claimed in claim 10, wherein the accessed information comprises one or more of:

locality information, subscription information, quality of service information, upload speed information, download speed information, number of existing peer connections, amount of available peer content, historical peer behaviour information, forecast peer behaviour information, local resource information, type of internet address, node accessibility information, predicted pairwise connectivity information, and opaque metadata.

14. A tracker node as claimed in claim 13 wherein said locality information is selected from one or more of internet protocol addresses, network co-ordinate system information, internet protocol address to geolocation database results, information about whether peers are in a public or a private network region, postal address information, global positioning system information.

15. A peer to peer content distribution cloud comprising a plurality of tracker nodes, at least one tracker node of the plurality of tracker nodes comprising:

(i) an input arranged to receive a request from one of the peer nodes requesting information about one or more other peer nodes to connect to;

(ii) means for accessing information about a plurality of available peer nodes associated with the tracker node;

(iii) a processor arranged to select one or more of the available peer nodes on the basis of one or more criteria and on the basis of the accessed information;

(iv) an output arranged to send information about the selected available peer nodes to the requesting peer node.

16. A peer to peer content distribution cloud as claimed in claim 15 wherein the peer nodes associated with each tracker node are different and each tracker node is able to access information only about its associated peer nodes.

17. A peer to peer content distribution cloud as claimed in claim 15 wherein each peer node is associated with more than one of the tracker nodes.

18. A peer to peer content distribution cloud as claimed in claim 15 wherein peer nodes are arranged to make requests for other peer nodes to connect to from different ones of the tracker nodes.

19. A peer to peer content distribution cloud as claimed in claim 18 wherein said peer nodes are arranged to select which tracker node to request other peer details from on any of the following criteria:

random selection, select each tracker in turn, select any tracker other than the one previously used, select only from trackers the peer is associated with.