Automatic link establishment between distributed servers through an NBMA network
First Claim
1. A method of joining a new server to a group of zero or more servers connected via a non-broadcast multi-access (NBMA) communications network comprising the steps of:
- in a first mode, attempting to establish a connection between the new server and an anycast address associated with the group of servers that the new server desires to join; and
if the new server successfully establishes the connection to the anycast address, it registers the anyeast address with the communications network whereby registration informs the network that the new server is joined to the group of servers having the anycast address, and the new server maintains information respecting another server in the group to which it is connected including a natural address of the another server.
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0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The invention relates to distributed computer or server networks and to methods of automatically establishing communication links between individual servers in the network. By taking advantage of the properties of group addresses (anycast addresses) inherent in certain networking technologies, coupled with innovative discovery and hunt protocols the servers in the network all become members of an overlay spanning tree where the tree is comprised of servers as nodes and communication links as edges. Discovery and hunt protocols are implemented to locate peer servers in the network and communication links are set up as required.
120 Citations
16 Claims
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1. A method of joining a new server to a group of zero or more servers connected via a non-broadcast multi-access (NBMA) communications network comprising the steps of:
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in a first mode, attempting to establish a connection between the new server and an anycast address associated with the group of servers that the new server desires to join; and
if the new server successfully establishes the connection to the anycast address, it registers the anyeast address with the communications network whereby registration informs the network that the new server is joined to the group of servers having the anycast address, and the new server maintains information respecting another server in the group to which it is connected including a natural address of the another server. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A method of joining a new server to a group of interconnectable zero or more servers via a non-broadcast multi-access (NBMA) communications network comprising the steps of:
attempting to establish a connection between the new server and a discovery anycast address associated with the group of servers that the new server desires to join;
if the new server successfully establishes the connection to the discovery anycast address the new server registers its discovery anycast address with the communications network whereby registration informs the network that the new server is joined to the group associated with the anycast address and the new server maintains information respecting another server in the group to which it is connected including a natural address of the another server, and if the new server does not successfully establish a connection to the discovery anycast address, the new server declares itself to be a root node and flags this status internally to reflect that it is a root server.- View Dependent Claims (8, 9)
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10. A method of joining a new server to a group of servers via a non-broadcast multi-access (NBMA) communications network comprising the steps of:
successively registering the new server to an anycast address followed by a period of de-registering and attempting to establish a connection on the anycast address and continuing the registering and de-registering steps until a successful joining of the new server to the group of servers is established and, if no such successful joining is established, attempting to join the new server to the group of servers using a hunt anycast address. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
Specification