ROUTING-BASED PROXIMITY FOR COMMUNICATION NETWORKS

• US 20100202448A1
• Filed: 02/10/2009
• Published: 08/12/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/10/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Davie, Bruce, Medved, Jan, Previdi, Stefano, Luong, Steven, Tian, Jining
• Granted Patent: US 8,014,318 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/389
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/02 Topology update or discovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/03 by updating link state protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/033 by updating distance vector protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/12 Shortest path evaluation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/306 Route determination based on the nature of the carried application
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1072 Discovery involving ranked list compilation of candidate peers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information

Abstract

A node in an overlay network requests a ranked list of other nodes in the overlay network that can provide a desired piece of content or service to the requesting node. A separate node such as a router generates the ranked list using a routing algorithm, returning the list to the requesting node so that the requesting node may acquire the desired content or service from the nearest node in the overlay network.

Claims

1. Apparatus comprising:

processor;

computer readable storage medium bearing instructions to cause the processor to;

receive node identifications from a requesting node, the node identifications being associated with respective peers to the requesting node in an overlay network using infrastructure of a backbone network;

use a shortest path first (SPF) algorithm to determine a metric associated with at least one peer and the requesting node;

based at least in part on the metric, generate a list of peers; and

return the list of peers to the requesting node.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus never originates any routing update pursuant to its cooperation with the overlay network.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the apparatus never attracts traffic pursuant to its cooperation with the overlay network.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is associated with a TENT list, the TENT list being initialized prior to generating the list of peers, the TENT list being initialized at least in part by moving into the TENT list all nodes that advertise the requesting node.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein pseudonodes are given higher preference than non-pseudonodes as part of generating the list of peers.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the instructions include setting a proximity of nodes sharing a common prefix with the requesting node to zero.

7. A tangible computer readable medium bearing instructions executable by a computer processor for:

receiving from a requesting node in a communication network a list of other nodes in the network that can provide a desired piece of content or service to the requesting node;

generating a ranked list of the other nodes; and

returning the ranked list to the requesting node.

8. The medium of claim 7, wherein the ranked list is generated at least in part using a shortest path first (SPF) routing algorithm.

9. The medium of claim 7, wherein the processor never originates any routing update pursuant to its cooperation with the network.

10. The medium of claim 9, wherein the processor never attracts traffic pursuant to its cooperation with the network.

11. The medium of claim 7, wherein the medium is associated with a TENT list, the TENT list being initialized prior to generating the ranked list, the TENT list being initialized at least in part by moving into the TENT list all nodes that advertise the requesting node.

12. The medium of claim 7, wherein pseudonodes are given higher preference than non-pseudonodes as part of generating the ranked list.

13. The medium of claim 7, wherein the instructions include setting a proximity of nodes sharing a common prefix with the requesting node to zero.

14. Computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving a list of at least two nodes from a requesting node;

executing a shortest path first (SPF) algorithm on each of the at least two nodes relative to the requesting node to generate an ordered list of the at least two nodes; and

returning the ordered list to the requesting node.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the method never originates any routing update pursuant to its cooperation with an overlay network associated with the requesting node.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the method never attracts traffic pursuant to its cooperation with the overlay network.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the method is associated with a TENT list, the TENT list being initialized prior to generating the ordered list, the TENT list being initialized at least in part by moving into the TENT list all nodes that advertise the requesting node.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein pseudonodes are given higher preference than non-pseudonodes as part of generating the ordered list.

19. The method of claim 14, comprising setting a proximity of nodes sharing a common prefix with the requesting node to zero.

20. The method of claim 14, wherein the SPF algorithm is a reverse-SPF algorithm.