Methodology and system for file replication based on a peergroup

• US 8,108,548 B2
• Filed: 12/22/2005
• Issued: 01/31/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Teodosiu, Dan, Rao, Ravi T., Kim, Ryan Y., Singhal, Sandeep K., Manion, Todd R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Salad, Abdullahi
• Assistant Examiner(s): Keehn, Richard G
• Application Number:
  US11/316,073
• Publication Number:
  US 20070150558A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,231 Days
• Field of Search: 709/238
• US Class Current: 709/238
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1076 Resource dissemination mechanisms or network resource keeping policies for optimal resource availability in the overlay network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes

Abstract

The claimed invention adapts an existing operating system native replication service component to interface with a general application running on a peer-to-peer network. The claimed invention provides the general application with replication services without the need for coding this functionality from scratch. The claimed invention also adapts the replication service functionality to create a topology of connections based on information received from a peer-to-peer network component, thereby making the replication service function more efficiently with a peer-to-peer network.

Claims

1. A computing device corresponding to a first node in a peer-to-peer network, comprising:

a peer-to-peer functionality object comprising peer-to-peer network functionality configured to;

authenticate, via a peer-to-peer authentication process using peer-to-peer network certificates, a set of other nodes in the peer-to-peer network; and

communicate, using a first protocol and via a peer-to-peer topology, with the peer-to-peer authenticated set of other nodes, the peer-to-peer topology comprising a set of peer-to-peer connections between the computing device and the set of other nodes;

a file replication service component native to an operating system of the computing device, the file replication service component configured to;

authenticate, via a domain or user-based authentication different from the peer-to-peer authentication process, the set of other nodes;

communicate, using a second protocol different from the first protocol and via a first file replication service topology, with the domain or user-based authenticated set of other nodes, the first file replication service topology comprising a first set of direct connections between the computing device and the set of other nodes, and the first set of direct connections being different from the set of peer-to-peer connections;

configure a client type of the file replication service component to be a peer-to-peer client type based upon peer-to-peer topology information received from a file sharing part;

configure, based on the peer-to-peer topology information received from the file sharing part, a second file replication service topology, the second file replication service topology comprising a second set of direct connections different from the first set of direct connections, a level of synchronization between the second file replication service topology and the peer-to-peer topology is greater than a level of synchronization between the first file replication service topology and the peer-to-peer topology; and

initiate a replication of a file, using the second protocol and via the second file replication service topology, across the set of other nodes that have been authenticated by the file replication service using the peer-to-peer network certificates;

the file sharing part is part of an application of the computing device configured to;

query the peer-to-peer functionality object for-peer-to-peer topology information; and

provide the peer-to-peer topology information to the file replication service component; and

a peer-to-peer security service provider component loaded onto the computing device by the file replication service component based on the peer-to-peer client type, the peer-to-peer security service configured to authenticate nodes on behalf of the file replication service component by using peer-to-peer network certificates instead of by using the domain or user-based authentication,

at least some of at least one of the peer-to-peer functionality object, the file replication service component, and the file sharing part residing on the computing device corresponding to the first node of the peer-to-peer network.

2. The computing device of claim 1, the peer-to-peer topology information comprising a list of neighbor nodes in the peer-to-peer network that are logically connected to the first node, the file replication service component configured to configure the second file replication service topology by establishing a direct connection with respective neighbor nodes on the list of neighbor nodes.

3. The computing device of claim 2, respective neighbor nodes on the list of neighbor nodes comprising an IP address of a different neighbor node, a meeting identifier, and a group membership certificate.

4. The computing device of claim 1, the file sharing part configured to provide the peer-to-peer topology to the file replication service component in an XML format.

5. The computing device of claim 1, the application comprising a general meeting application adapted to establish communication using the peer-to-peer network.

6. The computing device of claim 1, comprising:

updating the second file replication service topology when the peer-to-peer topology changes.

7. A non-signal computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions for performing operations comprising:

initializing a file replication service component native to an operating system of a first computing device in a peer-to-peer network;

authenticating, by the file replication service component, via a domain or user-based authentication different from a peer-to-peer authentication process, a set of other nodes in the peer-to-peer network;

communicating, by the file replication service component, using a first protocol via a first file replication service topology, with the domain or user-based authenticated set of other nodes, the first file replication service topology comprising a first set of direct connections between the first computing device and the set of other nodes;

configuring a client type of the file replication service component to be a peer-to-peer client type;

creating a peer-to-peer functionality object on the first computing device that comprises peer-to-peer network functionality enabling the first computing device to interact with the peer-to-peer network, the peer-to-peer functionality object configured to;

authenticate, via the peer-to-peer authentication process using peer-to-peer network certificates, the set of other nodes; and

communicate, using a second protocol and via a peer-to-peer topology, with the peer-to-peer authenticated set of other nodes, the peer-to-peer topology comprising a set of peer-to-peer connections between the computing device and the set of other nodes, and the set of peer-to-peer connections being different from the first set of direct connections;

creating a file sharing part within an application on the first computing device, the file sharing part communicatively coupled to the file replication service component and to the peer-to-peer functionality object;

querying, by the file sharing part, peer-to-peer node topology information from the peer-to-peer functionality object;

providing, by the file sharing part, the peer-to-peer topology information to the file replication service component;

loading, by the file replication service component onto the first computing device and based on the peer-to-peer client type, a peer-to-peer security service provider component, the peer-to-peer security service provider component in communicative connection with the file replication service component;

authenticating, by the file replication service component via the peer-to-peer security service provider component by using peer-to-peer network certificates instead of using the domain or user-based authentication, the set of other nodes in the peer-to-peer network; and

configuring, by the file replication service component based on the peer-to-peer node topology information provided by the file sharing part, a second file replication service topology for use by the file replication service component to establish, using the first protocol, a network of file replication connections to neighbor nodes of the first computing device in the set of other nodes, the second file replication service topology comprising a second set of direct connections different from the first set of direct connections, a level of synchronization between the second file replication service topology and the peer-to-peer topology is greater than a level of synchronization between the first file replication service topology and the peer-to-peer topology.

8. The non-signal computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, the configuring the second file replication service topology comprising transmitting data comprising a meeting identifier, a group membership certificate, and a list of neighbor node IP addresses.

9. The non-signal computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, the file sharing part comprised in a meeting application and the list of neighbor node IP addresses comprising addresses of the neighbor nodes of the first computing device in the peer-to-peer network.

10. The non-signal computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, comprising:

establishing, by the file replication service component, direct file replication connections with devices associated with the list of neighbor node IP addresses.

11. The non-signal computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, comprising updating the file replication topology.

12. The non-signal computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, the updating the file replication topology comprising:

alerting the neighbor nodes of the first computing device of a topology change via the peer-to-peer network and relaying the topology change to the file sharing part; and

re-configuring, by the file sharing part, the file replication topology based on the topology change.

13. The non-signal computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, the providing, by the file sharing part, the peer-to-peer topology information comprising providing, by the file sharing part, the peer-to-peer topology information in an XML (Extensible MarkUp Language) format.

14. A method of configuring a file replication service component on a first computing device corresponding to a first node in a peer-to-peer network, the method comprising:

authenticating, by the file replication service component native to the first computing device, a set of other nodes in the peer-to-peer network using a non-peer-to-peer authentication process;

communicating, by the file replication service component, using a first protocol via a first file replication service topology, with the non-peer-to-peer authenticated set of other nodes;

configuring a client type of the file replication service component to be a peer-to-peer client type;

creating a peer-to-peer functionality object on the first computing device that comprises peer-to-peer network functionality enabling the first computing device to interact with the peer-to-peer network, the peer-to-peer functionality object configured to;

authenticate, via a peer-to-peer authentication process using peer-to-peer network certificates, the set of other nodes; and

communicate, using a second protocol and via a peer-to-peer topology, with the peer-to-peer authenticated set of other nodes, the peer-to-peer topology comprising a set of peer-to-peer connections different from a first set of direct connections of the first file replication service topology;

retrieving, by a file sharing part, peer-to-peer node topology information from the peer-to-peer functionality object;

providing, by the file sharing part, the peer-to-peer topology information to the file replication service component;

loading a peer-to-peer security service provider component based on the peer-to-peer client type;

authenticating, by the file replication service component via the peer-to-peer security service provider component by using peer-to-peer network certificates instead of using the non-peer-to-peer authentication, the set of other nodes in the peer-to-peer network; and

configuring, by the file replication service component based on the peer-to-peer topology information provided by the file sharing part, a second file replication service topology for use by the file replication service component to establish, using the first protocol, a network of file replication connections to neighbor nodes of the first computing device in the set of other nodes, the second file replication service topology comprising a second set of direct connections different from the first set of direct connections of the first file replication service topology.

15. The method of claim 14, the retrieving peer-to-peer topology information from the peer-to-peer functionality object comprising querying the peer-to-peer functionality object for a list of neighbor nodes.

16. The method of claim 15, comprising configuring an existing file replication service object to establish the network of file replication service connections, comprising establishing a direct file replication service connection with respective each nodes on the list of neighbor nodes.

17. The method of claim 14, comprising pushing updates of the peer-to-peer node topology information by the peer-to-peer functionality object to the file sharing part and re-configuring, by the file sharing part, the file replication service component based on the updates.

18. The method of claim 14, the peer-to-peer topology information at least partially in XML format.