Virtual network with adaptive dispatcher

• US 7,899,047 B2
• Filed: 08/13/2007
• Issued: 03/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/27/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Levin, David E., Wahbe, Robert S., Cabrera, Luis F., Lucco, Steven E., Millet, Stephen J., Shewchuk, John P., Kaler, Christopher G., Della-Libera, Giovanni M., Lovering, Bradford H., Wortendyke, David A., Christensen, Erik B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kumar; Pankaj
• Assistant Examiner(s): Duong; Duc T
• Application Number:
  US11/838,161
• Publication Number:
  US 20090046726A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,296 Days
• Field of Search: 370/389, 370/392, 370/400, 370/401, 370/409, 370/469, 709/236, 709/245, 709/246
• US Class Current: 370/389
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/45 Network directories; Name-to-address mapping
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/32 Architecture of open systems interconnection [OSI] 7-layer type protocol stacks, e.g. the interfaces between the data link level and the physical level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

Methods and systems for providing a virtual network are disclosed. At least one layer of abstraction is created between network service applications and conventional network protocols by inserting an adaptive dispatcher between applications and network transport services on each machine in a network. The message protocol in the virtual network is extensible, allowing application programs to create new headers within any message as needed. The adaptive dispatcher contains handlers that route and dispatch messages within the virtual network based on arbitrary content within each message, including any combination of headers and/or data content. Each device on the virtual network has a virtual address to which messages are directed, allowing devices to move within the network without reconfiguring routing tables. Handlers may be automatically created when an event meeting predefined criteria occurs, including the non-occurrence of a condition, making the virtual network self-healing and adaptive to reconfiguration.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

one or more hardware processors; and

one or more computer readable media storing the following executable components that are implemented when executed by the one or more processors;

a message dispatcher that routes and dispatches a plurality of messages, wherein the message dispatcher routes each of the plurality of messages based on an application level header of the message, the application level header comprising a custom header that is included in the message by the application that sent the message and is not an address field of the message, and wherein the message dispatcher routes a first network message based on a first attribute in the application level header of said first network message, and routes a second network message based on a second attribute, different from said first attribute, in the application level header of said second network message such that the destination of each of the first and second network messages is determined based not on a destination address included in an address field of the message, but the first or second attribute included in the message by the application; and

an interface through which one or more application programs communicate with the message dispatcher to define handlers in the message dispatcher for handling messages that include a custom header that contains either the first attribute or the second attribute.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the message dispatcher comprises a transport independent message dispatcher, and the message dispatcher communicates using a transport independent protocol.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the message dispatcher routes a first network message that is addressed to a recipient and sent by a first sender, to a first server, and

wherein the message dispatcher routes a second network message that is addressed to the recipient and sent by a second sender, to a second server such that the first and second network messages that are both addressed to the same recipient are routed to different servers.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the message dispatcher routes messages using a virtual network protocol above a transport layer protocol.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, further comprising a transport adapter to convert messages between the transport layer protocol and the virtual network protocol.

6. A method for routing network messages, comprising the steps of:

receiving, from an application, a first and second network message at a message dispatcher that routes and dispatches messages;

routing the first network message based on a first attribute of the first network message that was included within the data of the first network message by the application, the first attribute not being included in an address field of the first network message;

routing the second network message based on a second attribute, different from said first attribute, of the second network message that was included within the data of the second network message by the application the second attribute not being included in an address field of the second network message such that the destination of each of the first and second network messages is determined based not on a destination address included in an address field of the message, but the first or second attribute included in the message by the application.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising the steps of:

receiving, at the message dispatcher, instructions from the application comprising a message field and a field condition;

modifying a message handler of the message dispatcher based on the received instructions, wherein the message handler determines where to route messages that include the first or the second attribute.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the instructions comprises user-input.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein each message is output to a transport adapter that converts the message from a virtual network protocol to a transport protocol.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the first attribute comprises an application created header.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein the routing of the first and second network messages is determined by one or more message handlers of the message dispatcher.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising the step of altering a first message handler when a predetermined condition occurs.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising the step of altering a network message when the message meets a predetermined condition stored in a message handler.

14. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

adding a new message handler to route messages based on a newly created type of message header.

15. The method of claim 6, wherein either of the first or second attributes correspond to a geographic location of the sender of the message.

16. The method of claim 6, wherein either of the first or second attributes correspond to a class of service of the sender of the message.

17. A computer network architecture comprising:

a plurality of data processing devices, that each include one or more processors and system memory, interconnected via a computer network, each data processing device further comprising;

a virtual message dispatcher, implemented as one or more software modules, one or more hardware modules, or a combination of software and hardware modules, that routes messages to intended destinations and dispatches messages to appropriate applications at their intended destination, wherein each message is routed based at least in part on a non-address portion of the message'"'"'s contents, said routing instructions defined by one or more stored message handlers such that the destination of each message is determined based not on a destination address included in an address field of the message, but the non-address portion of the message'"'"'s contents; and

an interface through which OSI layer 7 application programs communicate with the message dispatcher to define the one or more message handlers, wherein the virtual message dispatcher comprises a transport adapter for converting messages between a virtual network protocol used by network applications and a transport protocol used by the computer network, and wherein the virtual message dispatcher is configurable for use with a second transport protocol by adding a second transport adapter that converts messages between the second transport protocol and the virtual network protocol, without requiring any network applications to be reconfigured for use with the second transport protocol.

18. The computer network of claim 17, wherein a first message handler defines routing instructions based on a class of service.