Network Multicast Peer Discovery Methods

• US 20130208620A1
• Filed: 06/16/2009
• Published: 08/15/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/16/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Kaufman, Matthew, Thornburgh, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 9,191,219 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/254
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/185 with management of multicast group membership

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, can include establishing communications with one or more peers in a communication group via one or more unicast communication channels; sending a participation information request on a multicast communication channel of a local network to discover peers that participate in the communication group; receiving one or more responses to the participation information request on the multicast channel of the local network from one or more peers that participate in the communication group; selecting one or more of the peers from which the one or more responses were received based on a network topology condition to reduce communication latency in at least a portion of the communication group; and communicating with the one or more selected peers to distribute information within the communication group.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

establishing communications with one or more peers in a communication group via one or more unicast communication channels to join the communication group, the communication group arranged to distribute information between group members via a peer-to-peer overlay network;

sending, after joining the communication group, a participation information request on a multicast communication channel of a local network to discover peers on the local network that already use the peer-to-peer overlay network to participate in the communication group;

receiving one or more responses to the participation information request on the multicast communication channel of the local network from one or more peers that participate in the communication group;

selecting one or more of the one or more peers from which the one or more responses were received based on a network topology condition to reduce communication latency in at least a portion of the communication group;

updating at least a portion of a topology of the communication group based on a result of the selecting; and

communicating with the one or more selected peers to distribute information within the communication group based on the topology.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

monitoring for a participation information request sent by a new peer on the multicast communication channel of the local network;

determining whether to respond to the participation information request sent by the new peer; and

selectively responding to the new peer, based on the determining, with information indicative of a participation in the communication group.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

monitoring, on the multicast communication channel of the local network, for responses to the participation information request sent by the new peer,

wherein determining whether to respond to the participation information request sent by the new peer comprises determining whether to respond based on a number of monitored responses and a maximum number of responses threshold value.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the participation information request on the multicast communication channel comprises transmitting a multicast data packet in accordance with Internet Protocol (IP) multicast, the multicast data packet comprising an IP multicast address associated with the communication group.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein transmitting the multicast data packet comprises setting a time-to-live (TTL) field of the multicast data packet to one to limit the multicast data packet to the local network.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

using a digital key associated with the communication group to authenticate or decrypt the one or more received responses,

wherein selecting one or more of the peers comprises selecting one or more received responses that are authenticated or decrypted by the digital key.

6. (canceled)

8. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

determining peer identities of one or more peers associated with a communication group, the communication group arranged to distribute information between group members via a peer-to-peer overlay network;

operating a computer associated with the communication group to send a media stream via a multicast communication channel to one or more peers, wherein the multicast communication channel is an Internet Protocol (IP) multicast communication channel, wherein the media stream includes media data that comprise video data, audio data, or both; and

inserting one or more messages into the media stream to communicate one or more of the determined peer identities to effect an update in a topology of the communication group, wherein the one or more messages are interleaved with the media data.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein inserting one or more messages comprises inserting one or more messages that comprise an Internet Protocol (IP) address associated with one of the determined peer identities.

10. A computer storage medium encoded with a computer program, the program comprising instructions that when executed by data processing apparatus cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

establishing communications with one or more peers in a communication group via one or more unicast communication channels to join the communication group, the communication group arranged to distribute information between group members via a peer-to-peer overlay network;

sending, after joining the communication group, a participation information request on a multicast communication channel of a local network to discover peers on the local network that already use the peer-to-peer overlay network to participate in the communication group;

receiving one or more responses to the participation information request on the multicast communication channel of the local network from one or more peers that participate in the communication group;

selecting one or more of the one or more peers from which the one or more responses were received based on a network topology condition to reduce communication latency in at least a portion of the communication group;

updating at least a portion of a topology of the communication group based on a result of the selecting; and

communicating with the one or more selected peers to distribute information within the communication group based on the topology.

11. The computer storage medium of claim 10, the operations further comprising:

monitoring for a participation information request sent by a new peer on the multicast communication channel of the local network;

determining whether to respond to the participation information request sent by the new peer; and

selectively responding to the new peer, based on the determining, with information indicative of a participation in the communication group.

12. The computer storage medium of claim 11, the operations further comprising:

monitoring, on the multicast communication channel of the local network, for responses to the participation information request sent by the new peer,

wherein determining whether to respond to the participation information request sent by the new peer comprises determining whether to respond based on a number of monitored responses and a maximum number of responses threshold value.

13. The computer storage medium of claim 10, wherein sending the participation information request on the multicast communication channel comprises transmitting a multicast data packet in accordance with Internet Protocol (IP) multicast, the multicast data packet comprising an IP multicast address associated with the communication group.

14. The computer storage medium of claim 13, wherein transmitting the multicast data packet comprises setting a time-to-live (TTL) field of the multicast data packet to one to limit the multicast data packet to the local network.

16. The computer storage medium of claim 10, the operations further comprising:

using a digital key associated with the communication group to authenticate or decrypt the one or more received responses,

wherein selecting one or more of the peers comprises selecting one or more received responses that are authenticated or decrypted by the digital key.

15. (canceled)

17. A system comprising:

a local network to network different endpoints;

a first endpoint in communication with the local network configured to establish communications with one or more peers in a communication group via one or more unicast communication channels, the communication group arranged to distribute information between group members via a peer-to-peer overlay network; and

a second endpoint in communication with the local network configured to perform operations comprising;

establishing communications with one or more peers in the communication group via one or more unicast communication channels to join the communication group;

sending, after joining the communication group, a participation information request on a multicast communication channel of the local network to discover peers on the local network that already use the peer-to-peer overlay network to participate in the communication group;

receiving one or more responses to the participation information request on the multicast communication channel of the local network from one or more peers that participate in the communication group;

selecting one or more of the one or more peers from which the one or more responses were received based on a network topology condition to reduce communication latency in at least a portion of the communication group;

updating at least a portion of a topology of the communication group based on a result of the selecting; and

communicating with the one or more selected peers to distribute information within the communication group based on the topology, wherein the one or more selected peers comprise the first endpoint.

18. The system of claim 17, the operations further comprising:

monitoring for a participation information request sent by a new peer on the multicast communication channel of the local network;

determining whether to respond to the participation information request sent by the new peer; and

selectively responding to the new peer, based on the determining, with information indicative of a participation in the communication group.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein sending the participation information request on the multicast communication channel comprises transmitting a multicast data packet in accordance with Internet Protocol (IP) multicast, the multicast data packet comprising an IP multicast address associated with the communication group.

20. The system of claim 17, the operations further comprising:

using a digital key associated with the communication group to authenticate or decrypt the one or more received responses,

wherein selecting one or more of the peers comprises selecting one or more received responses that are authenticated or decrypted by the digital key.