SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ESTABLISHING NETWORK CONNECTIONS USING LOCAL MEDIATION SERVICES

• US 20110153718A1
• Filed: 12/22/2009
• Published: 06/23/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dish Technologies LLC (Dish Network Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sling Media Incorporated (Dish Network Corporation)
• Inventors: Rao, Padmanabha R., Dham, Vikram
• Granted Patent: US 8,626,879 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2834 Switching of information between an external network and a home network access arrangements H04L12/2856
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2589 over a relay server, e.g. traversal using relay for network address translation [TURN]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/16 Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 Parsing or analysis of headers

Abstract

Systems and methods facilitate communication between clients, servers or other nodes located on separate local area networks (LANs) or sub-networks within a home, office, campus or other environment using one or more mediation servers located within the local network environment. The server establishes a persistent connection to each available mediation service. The client requests a connection to the server by providing addresses or other connection information associated with the client to one or more of the mediation servers in communication with the server. The mediation server(s) send network information associated with the client to the server via the persistent connections. The server responds to the mediation server(s) by providing network information that can be relayed to the client. When the client and server have exchanged network information, communications between the client and server can be established using conventional or proprietary network address translation (NAT) or other techniques.

Claims

1. A method executable by a mediation server to facilitate communication between a client and a server, the method comprising:

establishing a persistent connection between the mediation server and the server;

receiving a request for a connection to the server from the client at the mediation server, wherein the request comprises first connection information associated with the client;

sending the first connection information from the mediation server to the server via the persistent connection;

receiving a response from the server at the mediation server, wherein the response comprises second connection information about the server; and

sending the second connection information about the server from the mediation server to the client.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the mediation server is one of a plurality of mediation servers, and wherein the first connection information comprises a first plurality of network addresses, wherein each of the first plurality of network addresses associates the client with one of the plurality of mediation servers, and wherein the second connection information comprises a second plurality of network addresses, wherein each of the second plurality of network addresses associates the server with one of the plurality of mediation servers.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving a first bind request from the client prior to receiving the request for a connection to the server from the client; and

responding to the first bind request with a network address associated with the client, and wherein the first connection information comprises the network address associated with the client.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the responding to the first bind request comprises responding with a port number associated with the client, and wherein the first connection information comprises the port number associated with the client.

5. The method of claim 3 further comprising:

receiving a second bind request from the server after sending the first connection information associated with the client to the server; and

responding to the second bind request with a network address associated with the server, and wherein the second connection information comprises the network address associated with the server.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the persistent connection is a transmission control protocol (TCP) session that is established responsive to a message received from the server at the mediation server prior to receiving the request from the client.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the client resides on a first local area network and the server resides on a second local area network different from the first local area network.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the client and the server are each coupled to a wide area network via a common local area network, and wherein the mediation server resides on the common local area network.

9. The method of claim 7 further comprising obtaining first routing information from the client, obtaining second routing information from the server, identifying a common network from the first and second routing information, and providing an output that indicates the common network.

10. A system to establish communications between a client and a server over a network, the system comprising:

an interface to the network; and

a processor in communication with the interface, wherein the processor is configured to establish a persistent connection with the server via the interface, to receive a request for a connection via the interface that comprises first connection information associated with the client, to send the first connection information to the server via the persistent connection, to receive a response from the server via the interface that comprises second connection information about the server, and to send the second connection information to the client via the interface.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein first connection information comprises a first plurality of network addresses, wherein each of the first plurality of network addresses associates the client with one of a plurality of mediation servers, and wherein the second connection information comprises a second plurality of network addresses, wherein each of the second plurality of network addresses associates the server with one of the plurality of mediation servers.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the processor is configured to receive a first bind request from the client prior to receiving the request for a connection, to respond to the first bind request with a network address associated with the client, to receive a second bind request from the server after sending the first network address to the server and to respond to the second bind request with a network address associated with the server, wherein the first connection information comprises the network address associated with the client and the second connection information comprises the network address associated with the server.

13. The system of claim 11 wherein the client resides on a first local area network and the server resides on a second local area network different from the first local area network, and wherein the first and second local area networks are each coupled to a wide area network via a common local area network, and wherein the interface is configured to establish the system as a node on the common local area network.

14. The system of claim 11 wherein the client resides on a first local area network and the server resides on a second local area network different from the first local area network, wherein the first and second local area networks are each coupled to a wide area network via a common local area network, and wherein the processor is further configured to obtain first routing information from the client, to obtain second routing information from the server, to identify the common local area network from the first and second routing information, and to provide an output that indicates the common local area network.

15. A method executable by a server to facilitate communications with a client, the method comprising:

establishing a plurality of persistent connections, wherein each of the persistent connections is established with one of a plurality of mediation servers;

receiving a request for a connection via at least one of the plurality of persistent connections, wherein the request comprises first connection information about the client;

responsive to the request, sending an address request to at least one of the plurality of mediation servers;

receiving at least one network address associated with the server from each of the at least one of the plurality of mediation servers; and

sending a response to at least one of the mediation servers, wherein the response comprises the at least one network address.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the first connection information comprises a listing of client addresses associated with the client from each of the plurality of mediation servers.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising selecting one of the at least one of the mediation servers to receive the response based upon the listing of client addresses and the at least one network address.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein the sending comprises sending the response to each of the at least one of the mediation servers.

19. The method of claim 16 wherein the client resides on a first local area network and the server resides on a second local area network different from the first network, wherein the first and second local area networks are each coupled to a wide area network via a common local area network, and wherein the method further comprises obtaining first routing information describing a first path from the client to a service on the wide area network, obtaining second routing information describing a second path from the server to the service on the wide area network, identifying the common local area network from the first and second routing information, and providing an output that indicates the common local area network.

20. The method of claim 16 wherein the client resides on a first local area network and the server resides on a second local area network different from the first network, wherein the first and second local area networks are each coupled to a wide area network via a common router having a wide area network address on the wide area network, and wherein the method comprises providing a request message to a registry and obtaining information about the plurality of mediation servers from the registry, and wherein at least one of the plurality of mediation servers is identified by the registry as using the same wide area network address as the server.