Method and arrangement for suppressing duplicate network resources

• US 8,392,570 B2
• Filed: 04/12/2010
• Issued: 03/05/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/06/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Arnold, Kevin, O'Rourke, David M.
• Primary Examiner(s): TRUONG, LAN DAI T
• Application Number:
  US12/758,796
• Publication Number:
  US 20100223387A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,058 Days
• Field of Search: 709/223, 709/226, 709/229, 709/230
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/26 using dedicated tools for LAN [Local Area Network] management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5058 Service discovery by the service manager
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/82 Miscellaneous aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1004 Server selection for load balancing

Abstract

A duplicate suppression protocol is introduced in order to suppress duplicate entries from appearing in a list of available network resources. With the duplicate suppression protocol of the present invention, a computer that wishes to query for network resources also asks for duplicate suppression information from the responding network resources. The duplicate suppression information for a particular network resource specifies identifiers associated with that network resource for various protocols. Thus, if a particular network resource responds to more than one network resource request from a single requesting entity, that requesting entity will be able to locate duplicate network resource information. Thus, a single unified list of network resources available for various different protocols may be presented with all duplicate network resources removed.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program which when executed by at least one processor identifies computer network resources on a computer network, the computer program comprising sets of instructions for:

receiving, from a network node, a duplicate suppression message indicating that the network node has different identifiers in different protocols;

receiving first and second network resource messages from the network node, the first network resource message identifying the network node in a first protocol and the second network resource message identifying the network node in a second protocol;

comparing each of the first and the second network resource messages to the duplicate suppression message to determine that said first network resource message and said second network resource message are from the same network node; and

storing, in a list of network resources, a single entry for the network node based on at least one of the first and second network resource messages.

2. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the computer program further comprises a set of instructions for sending a duplicate suppression request prior to receiving the duplicate suppression message.

3. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 2, wherein the set of instructions for sending the duplicate suppression request comprises a set of instructions for broadcasting the duplicate suppression request on the computer network.

4. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 3, wherein the set of instructions for broadcasting comprises a set of instructions for limiting said broadcasting.

5. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the computer program further comprises a set of instructions for broadcasting a first network resource request for the first protocol prior to receiving the first network resource message.

6. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 5, wherein the computer program further comprises a set of instructions for broadcasting a second network resource request for the second protocol prior to receiving the second network resource message.

7. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the duplicate suppression message comprises hashes of identifiers for the network node in the first and second protocols.

8. The computer readable medium of claim 7, wherein the set of instructions for comparing comprises sets of instructions for:

generating a first hash of the first network resource message and a second hash of the second network resource message;

comparing each hash of the duplicate suppression message to the first and second hashes; and

determining that the first and second network resource messages are from the same network node when the first hash matches at least one hash of the duplicate suppression message and the second hash matches at least one other hash of the duplicate suppression message.

9. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the list of network resources maintains, for the single entry, a set of associated protocols based on the first and second messages.

10. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program which when executed by at least one processor identifies computer network resources on a computer network, the computer program comprising sets of instructions for:

receiving, from a network node, a first message that includes a first identifier that identifies the network node in a first protocol;

receiving, from the network node, a second message that includes a second identifier that identifies the network node in a second protocol, wherein the second identifier is different from the first identifier;

determining that the first identifier and said second identifier are both identifiers of the same network node;

determining which of the first protocol and the second protocol is a preferred protocol; and

storing, in a list of network resources, a single entry for the network node based on the preferred protocol.

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the list of network resources maintains, for the single entry, a set of associated protocols based on the first and second messages.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the computer program further comprises a set of instructions for storing, before determining which protocol is preferred, the first identifier as an entry for the network node in the list of network resources after receiving the first message.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein the computer program further comprises sets of instructions for replacing the first identifier with the second, preferred identifier as the single entry for the network node in the list of network resources.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the computer program further comprises sets of instructions for:

receiving, from the network node, a third message that includes a third, different identifier that identifies the network node in a third protocol; and

determining that the first, second, and third identifiers are all identifiers of the same network node.

15. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program which when executed by at least one processor identifies computer network resources on a computer network, the computer program comprising sets of instructions for:

receiving, from a network node, a first message that includes a first identifier that identifies the network node in a first protocol;

receiving, from the network node, a second message that includes a second identifier that identifies the network node in a second protocol, wherein the second identifier is different from the first identifier;

determining that the first identifier and said second identifier are both identifiers of the same network node;

storing the first identifier as an entry for the network node in a list of network resources;

determining which of the first protocol and the second protocol is preferred; and

removing, when the second protocol is preferred, the first identifier as the entry for the network node in the list of network resources and adding the second identifier as the entry for the network node in the list of network resources.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the computer program further comprises a set of instructions for displaying the list of network resources.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the set of instructions for storing the first identifier in the list of network resources comprises a set of instructions for determining that the first identifier is not stored in the list of network resources.

18. A method for identifying computer network resources on a computer network, the method comprising:

receiving, from a network node, a duplicate suppression message indicating that the network node has different identifiers in different protocols;

receiving first and second network resource messages from the network node, the first network resource message identifying the network node in a first protocol and the second network resource message identifying the network node in a second protocol;

comparing each of the first and the second network resource messages to the duplicate suppression message to determine that said first network resource message and said second network resource message are from the same network node; and

storing, in a list of network resources, a single entry for the network node based on at least one of the first and second network resource messages.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising displaying the list of network resources.

20. The method of claim 18 further comprising sending a duplicate suppression request prior to receiving the duplicate suppression message.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein sending the duplicate suppression request comprises broadcasting the duplicate suppression request on the computer network.

22. A method for identifying computer network resources on a computer network, the method comprising:

receiving, from a network node, a first message that includes a first identifier that identifies the network node in a first protocol;

receiving, from the network node, a second message that includes a second identifier that identifies the network node in a second protocol, wherein the second identifier is different from the first identifier;

determining that the first identifier and said second identifier are both identifiers of the same network node;

determining which of the first protocol and the second protocol is a preferred protocol; and

storing, in a list of network resources, a single entry for the network node based on the preferred protocol.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the list of network resources maintains, for the single entry, a set of associated protocols based on the first and second messages.

24. The method of claim 23 further comprising displaying the list of network resources.

25. A method for identifying computer network resources on a computer network, the method comprising:

receiving, from a network node, a first message that includes a first identifier that identifies the network node in a first protocol;

receiving, from the network node, a second message that includes a second identifier that identifies the network node in a second protocol, wherein the second identifier is different from the first identifier;

determining that the first identifier and said second identifier are both identifiers of the same network node;

storing the first identifier as an entry for the network node in a list of network resources after receiving the first message;

determining which of the first protocol and the second protocol is preferred; and

when the second protocol is preferred, removing the first identifier as the entry for the network node in the list of network resources and adding the second identifier as the entry for the network node in the list of network resources.

26. The method of claim 25 further comprising:

broadcasting a duplicate suppression request on the computer network; and

receiving, from the network node, a duplicate suppression message indicating that the network node has different identifiers in different protocols.

27. The method of claim 25 further comprising displaying the list of network resources.