APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING PEER-TO-PEER PROXY SERVICES IN PEER-TO-PEER COMMUNICATIONS

• US 20100169964A1
• Filed: 05/05/2009
• Published: 07/01/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Industrial Technology Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Industrial Technology Research Institute
• Inventors: SUN, Ming-Fu, LIU, Pin-Chuan, JUAN, Ta-Yang, LEE, Chon-Jei
• Granted Patent: US 8,032,583 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2514 between local and global IP addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2564 for a higher-layer protocol, e.g. for session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1063 Discovery through centralising entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/563 Data redirection of data network streams

Abstract

A network gateway device providing peer-to-peer proxy service is provided, including a P2P meta descriptor detector detecting an original P2P meta descriptor file from the public network, a P2P proxy control unit modifying the original P2P meta descriptor file to generate a modified P2P meta descriptor file, and forwarding the modified P2P meta descriptor file to a computer in the private network, an internal tracker receiving a first inquiry message, and replying with a pseudo sharing computer list, and a peer-to-peer engine loading the original P2P meta descriptor file to download shared contents, and forwarding the shared contents to the computer.

Claims

1. A network gateway device connected between a private network and a public network, comprising:

a peer-to-peer meta descriptor detector detecting an original peer-to-peer meta descriptor file from the public network;

a peer-to-peer proxy control unit receiving the original peer-to-peer meta descriptor file from the peer-to-peer meta descriptor detector, modifying the original peer-to-peer meta descriptor file by replacing a network address of a tracker with a private network address to generate a modified peer-to-peer meta descriptor file, and forwarding the modified peer-to-peer meta descriptor file to a first computer in the private network;

an internal tracker receiving a first inquiry message from the first computer and replying to the first computer with a pseudo sharing computer list; and

a peer-to-peer engine loading the original peer-to-peer meta descriptor file, receiving a first request message from the first computer for downloading shared contents, downloading the shared contents according to the original peer-to-peer meta descriptor file, and forwarding the shared contents to the first computer.

2. The network gateway device of claim 1, wherein the pseudo sharing computer list stores the information of the computers which are sharing the shared contents.

3. The network gateway device of claim 1, wherein the peer-to-peer engine further informs the internal tracker, when the pseudo sharing computer list is empty, that it is sharing the shared contents so that the internal tracker further adds the information of the peer-to-peer engine to the pseudo sharing computer list.

4. The network gateway device of claim 1, wherein the internal tracker further adds the information of the first computer to the pseudo sharing computer list when detecting that the first computer has finished downloading the shared contents.

5. The network gateway device of claim 4, wherein the peer-to-peer proxy control unit further forwards the modified peer-to-peer meta descriptor file to a second computer in the private network.

6. The network gateway device of claim 5, wherein the internal tracker further receives a second inquiry message from the second computer and replies to the second computer with the pseudo sharing computer list so that the second computer downloads the shared contents from the first computer.

7. The network gateway device of claim 5, wherein the internal tracker further deletes the information of the first computer from the pseudo sharing computer list and adds the information of the peer-to-peer engine to the pseudo sharing computer list when detecting that the first computer has stopped sharing the shared contents, and replies to the second computer with the pseudo sharing computer list when receiving a third inquiry message from the second computer.

8. The network gateway device of claim 7, wherein the peer-to-peer engine further receives a second request message from the second computer for downloading the shared contents, downloads the shared contents according to the original peer-to-peer meta descriptor file, and forwards the shared contents to the second computer.

9. The network gateway device of claim 4, wherein the peer-to-peer engine further receives a third request message from a third computer in the public network for downloading the shared contents, downloads the shared contents from the first computer according to the pseudo sharing computer list received from the internal tracker, and forwards the shared contents to the third computer.

10. A network gateway device connected between a private network and a public network, comprising:

a peer-to-peer meta descriptor detector detecting an original peer-to-peer meta descriptor file from the public network;

a peer-to-peer proxy control unit receiving the original peer-to-peer meta descriptor file from the peer-to-peer meta descriptor detector, modifying the original peer-to-peer meta descriptor file by replacing a network address of a tracker with a private network address to generate a modified peer-to-peer meta descriptor file, and forwarding the modified peer-to-peer meta descriptor file to a first computer in the private network;

an internal tracker receiving a first inquiry message from the first computer, and replying to the first computer with a pseudo sharing computer list so that the first computer downloads shared contents from a second computer in the private network; and

a peer-to-peer engine loading the original peer-to-peer meta descriptor file.

11. The network gateway device of claim 10, wherein the pseudo sharing computer list stores information indicating that the second computer is sharing the shared contents.

12. The network gateway device of claim 10, wherein the internal tracker further deletes the information of the second computer from the pseudo sharing computer list and adds the information of the peer-to-peer engine to the pseudo sharing computer list when detecting that the second computer has stopped sharing the shared contents, and replies to the first computer with the pseudo sharing computer list when receiving a second inquiry message from the first computer.

13. The network gateway device of claim 12, wherein the peer-to-peer engine further receives a first request message from the first computer for downloading the shared contents, downloads the shared contents according to the original peer-to-peer meta descriptor file, and forwards the shared contents to the first computer.

14. The network gateway device of claim 10, wherein the peer-to-peer engine further receives a second request message from a third computer in the public network for downloading the shared contents, downloads the shared contents according to the pseudo sharing computer list received from the internal tracker, and forwards the shared contents to the third computer.

15. A peer-to-peer communication method for providing peer-to-peer proxy service in a network gateway device connected between a private network and a public network, comprising:

detecting an original peer-to-peer meta descriptor file from the public network;

loading the original peer-to-peer meta descriptor file in a peer-to-peer engine;

modifying the original peer-to-peer meta descriptor file by replacing a network address of a tracker with a private network address to generate a modified peer-to-peer meta descriptor file;

forwarding the modified peer-to-peer meta descriptor file to a first computer in the private network;

receiving a first inquiry message from the first computer;

determining whether a second computer in the private network is sharing shared contents according to a pseudo sharing computer list;

replying to the first computer with the pseudo sharing computer list;

receiving a first request message from the first computer for downloading the shared contents;

downloading the shared contents according to the original peer-to-peer meta descriptor file; and

forwarding the shared contents to the first computer.

16. The peer-to-peer communication method of claim 15, wherein the peer-to-peer engine informs the internal tracker that it is sharing the shared contents, and the internal tracker deletes the information of the second computer from the pseudo sharing computer list and adds the information of the peer-to-peer engine to the pseudo sharing computer list, if the second computer is not sharing the shared contents.

17. The peer-to-peer communication method of claim 15, further forwarding the modified peer-to-peer meta descriptor file to a third computer in the private network.

18. The peer-to-peer communication method of claim 17, further receiving a second inquiry message from the third computer and replying to the third computer with the pseudo sharing computer list.

19. The peer-to-peer communication method of claim 18, further deleting the information of the second computer from the pseudo sharing computer list and adding the information of the peer-to-peer engine to the pseudo sharing computer list when detecting that the second computer has stopped sharing the shared contents, and replying to the third computer with the pseudo sharing computer list when receiving a third inquiry message from the third computer.

20. The peer-to-peer communication method of claim 19, further receiving a second request message from the third computer for downloading the shared contents, downloading the shared contents according to the original peer-to-peer meta descriptor file, and forwarding the shared contents to the third computer.

21. The peer-to-peer communication method of claim 15, further receiving a third request message from a fourth computer in the public network for downloading the shared contents, downloading the shared contents from the private network, and forwarding the shared contents to the fourth computer.