ORGANIZING RESOURCES INTO COLLECTIONS TO FACILITATE MORE EFFICIENT AND RELIABLE RESOURCE ACCESS

• US 20090327312A1
• Filed: 09/09/2009
• Published: 12/31/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Hasha, Richard L., Kakivaya, Gopala Krishna R.
• Granted Patent: US 8,275,826 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/10 File systems; File servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/30 Managing network names, e.g. use of aliases or nicknames name-to-address mapping H04L61/45
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/3015 Name registration, generation or assignment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4552 Lookup mechanisms between a plurality of directories; Synchronisation of directories, e.g. metadirectories
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for organizing resources into collections to facilitate more efficient and reliable resource access. Namespace managers communicate with one another to form a federation namespace infrastructure. The infrastructure can efficiently route, migrate, and process namespace requests, such as, for example, namespace registration requests from providers requesting to manage portions of namespaces and lookup requests from consumers requesting access to managed resources. Resources can be registered in and made accessible from multiple different namespaces. Resources can be identified using nested queries that filter results at multiple levels of a hierarchical namespace.

Claims

1. In a namespace federation infrastructure, a method for routing a:

namespace lookup request, the method comprising;

an act of receiving a namespace lookup request that includes a namespace identifier identifying a namespace branch;

an act of generating an at least one-way equivalent numeric identification value based on the namespace identifier; and

an act of sending the namespace lookup request to a destination namespace manager, the destination namespace manager being included in a neighborhood of namespace managers that are within a predefined range of a namespace manager having a unique identifier numerically closest to the at least one-way equivalent numeric identification value.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the namespace lookup request comprises a publish to topic in a pub-sub system where a pub-sub topic is treated as a namespace.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the at least one-way equivalent numeric identification value comprises a hash.

4. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein the hash is generated from a scheme portion of the namespace lookup request and at least part of the path portions of the namespace identifier.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising forwarding the namespace lookup request for delivery to one or more providers interested in the namespace branch.

6. In a namespace federation infrastructure, a method for migrating a namespace lookup request, the method comprising:

an act of receiving a namespace lookup request for a namespace branch, the namespace lookup request including a unique namespace identifier that identifies the specific namespace branch, wherein a namespace manager identifier for the namespace manager is closer to a namespace branch identifier than namespace branch identifiers of one or more other namespace managers; and

an act of detecting an indication that the namespace branch has been migrated to a different namespace manager having a different namespace branch identifier.

7. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein the act of detecting an indication that the namespace branch has been migrated to a different namespace manager having a different namespace branch identifier comprises detecting the presence of a stub indicating that the namespace branch represented by the unique namespace identifier has been migrated to a different namespace manager.

8. The method as recited in claim 7, further comprising an act of informing an originating namespace manager that the namespace branch has been migrated to the different namespace manager.

9. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein the act of informing an originating namespace manager that the namespace branch has been migrated to the different namespace manager comprises sending a referral message to the different namespace manager indicating that the different namespace manager is to contact the originating namespace manager or initiate a new lookup request for the migrated branch.

10. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein, based upon the received referral, the originating namespace manager reroutes the namespace lookup request using a proximal routing scheme.

11. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein the originating namespace manager generates a hash based on the entire component migrated namespace branch.

12. In a namespace federation infrastructure, a method for processing a namespace lookup request, the method comprising:

an act of receiving a namespace lookup request that includes a namespace identifier identifying a namespace branch of a namespace;

an act of identifying namespace lookup request type of the namespace lookup request; and

act of detecting that one or more providers have registered for portions of the namespace related to the namespace branch.

13. The method as recited in claim 12, wherein the namespace lookup type is at least one of a generic request type indicating any namespace branch and a targeted request type indicating a specific namespace branch.

14. The method as recited in claim 13, further comprising an act of forwarding the namespace lookup request to at least one provider based on the identified namespace lookup request type.

15. The method as recited in claim 14, wherein, for a generic request, the namespace manager forwards the request to all the providers whose registration namespace branch is either a prefix or a suffix of the one specified in the generic lookup request.

16. The method as recited in claim 14, wherein, for a targeted request, the namespace manager forwards the request only to the provider whose registration namespace branch is the maximal-prefix of the one specified in the lookup request.

17. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein the namespace lookup type is either generic or targeted, and if more than one copy of a given provider is available, the namespace manager forwards the request to the provider closer to the origin of the lookup request under a chosen proximity metric.

18. The method as recited in claim 12, further comprising an act of the namespace manager creating an association between the namespace branch represented by the namespace identifier and the namespace manager.

19. The method as recited in claim 18, wherein the association facilitates namespace lookup requests specifying a namespace branch beneath the branch specified in the association.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

an act of determining that the association between the namespace manager and the namespace branch is broken due to at least one of a namespace manager failure and the receiving of a referral to a different namespace manager; and

an act of routing subsequent requests until a new association is formed.