Method, apparatus, system, and article of manufacture for providing distributed convergence nodes in a communication network environment
First Claim
1. A method of operation in a communication network environment, the communication network environment including a number of networked client devices that execute end-user applications and a number of non-user network infrastructure devices, the networked client devices and the non-user network infrastructure devices communicatively coupled in at least a first, a second, and a third local area network (LAN) separated from each other by a wide area network (WAN), the LANs being IP-multicast-capable and the WAN being non-IP-multicast-capable, the method comprising:
- dynamically electing ones of the networked client devices in the first LAN as a first LAN distributed convergence node at respective times, at least the elected networked client device in the first LAN executing at least one end-user application;
designating a device in the second LAN as a second LAN distributed convergence node, the second LAN distributed convergence node being a routing distributed convergence node;
dynamically electing ones of the networked client devices in the third LAN as a third LAN distributed convergence node at respective times, at least the elected networked client device in the third LAN executing at least one end-user application; and
communicating traffic between the first and the third LAN distributed convergence nodes via the routing distributed convergence node, wherein the traffic is communicated between the networked client devices within each of the first, the second and the third LANs via the end-user applications executing on the elected networked client devices using IP multicast communication, and the traffic is communicated between the first distributed convergence node and the routing distributed convergence node and between the routing distributed convergence node and the second distributed convergence node using unicast communication.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Distributed convergence nodes referred to as “Supernodes”, embodied as a functional technology component within an end user application, automatically determine whether said component should become “active” and assume the responsibility of forwarding IP multicast data present on a LAN (which supports IP multicast communication) to a “Routing Supernode” via a WAN (which does not support IP multicast communication). The Routing Supernode, in turn, is responsible for forwarding that traffic to other Supernodes present on other LANs. The traffic sent to and from the Routing Supernode is sent via unicast communication. All Supernodes are responsible for forwarding traffic on their respective LAN across the WAN to a Routing Supernode, and for forwarding traffic received over the WAN from the Routing Supernode onto their own respective LANs. An election process determines which device in a LAN is to operate as a SuperNode.
117 Citations
23 Claims
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1. A method of operation in a communication network environment, the communication network environment including a number of networked client devices that execute end-user applications and a number of non-user network infrastructure devices, the networked client devices and the non-user network infrastructure devices communicatively coupled in at least a first, a second, and a third local area network (LAN) separated from each other by a wide area network (WAN), the LANs being IP-multicast-capable and the WAN being non-IP-multicast-capable, the method comprising:
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dynamically electing ones of the networked client devices in the first LAN as a first LAN distributed convergence node at respective times, at least the elected networked client device in the first LAN executing at least one end-user application; designating a device in the second LAN as a second LAN distributed convergence node, the second LAN distributed convergence node being a routing distributed convergence node; dynamically electing ones of the networked client devices in the third LAN as a third LAN distributed convergence node at respective times, at least the elected networked client device in the third LAN executing at least one end-user application; and communicating traffic between the first and the third LAN distributed convergence nodes via the routing distributed convergence node, wherein the traffic is communicated between the networked client devices within each of the first, the second and the third LANs via the end-user applications executing on the elected networked client devices using IP multicast communication, and the traffic is communicated between the first distributed convergence node and the routing distributed convergence node and between the routing distributed convergence node and the second distributed convergence node using unicast communication. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A system for communicating in a communication network environment, the communication network environment including a number of networked client devices that execute respective instances of end-user applications and a number of non-user network infrastructure devices, the networked client devices and the non-user network infrastructure devices communicatively coupled in at least a first, a second, and a third local area network (LAN) separated from each other by a wide area network (WAN), the LANs being IP-multicast-capable and the WAN being non-IP-multicast-capable, the system comprising:
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first distributed convergence node means in the first LAN for communicating traffic with networked client devices of the first LAN using IP multicast communication and for communicating traffic from the devices over the WAN via unicast communication; second distributed convergence node means in the second LAN for receiving the traffic communicated via unicast communication over the WAN from the first distributed convergence node means, the second distributed convergence node means being a routing distributed convergence node means for forwarding the traffic over the WAN using unicast communication; third distributed convergence node means in the third LAN for receiving the traffic communicated by the routing distributed convergence node means over the WAN using unicast communication, the third distributed convergence node means further being for distributing the received traffic to networked client devices of the third LAN via IP multicast communication and for communicating traffic from the devices over said WAN to the routing distributed convergence node means via unicast communication; and electing means for electing respective ones of the networked client devices as the first, the second, and the third distributed convergence nodes, the distributed convergence nodes being dynamically changeable as a result of the electing. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16)
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17. An apparatus adapted to be used in a communication network environment, the communication network environment including a number of networked client devices that execute respective instances of end-user applications and a number of non-user devices in the form of routers or servers, the networked client devices and non-user devices communicatively coupled in at least a first, a second, and a third local area network (LAN) separated from each other by a wide area network (WAN), the LANs being IP-multicast-capable and the WAN being non-IP-multicast-capable, the apparatus comprising:
one of the networked client devices, having a distributed convergence node module at an application level of one of the end-user applications executing on the one of the networked client devices, the distributed convergence node module including; an elector module that elects the one of networked client devices as a first distributed convergence node in the first LAN; an identifier module that identifies the one of the networked client devices from other networked client devices in the first LAN, including identification of the one of the networked client devices as the elected first distributed convergence node; and a network interface in communicatively coupled with a processor to communicate with the other networked client devices in the first LAN using IP multicast communication and to communicate with a routing distributed convergence node in the second LAN via the WAN using unicast communication when the networked client device is elected as the first distributed convergence node. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19)
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20. An apparatus adapted to be used in a communication network environment, the communication network environment including a number of networked client devices that execute respective instances of end-user applications and a number of non-user devices in the form of routers or servers, the networked client devices and non-user devices communicatively coupled in at least a first, a second, and a third local area network (LAN) separated from each other by a wide area network (WAN), the LANs being IP-multicast-capable and the WAN being non-IP-multicast-capable, the apparatus comprising:
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one of the networked client devices having a routing distributed convergence node module at an application level of one of the end-user applications executing on the one of the networked client devices, the routing distributed convergence node module including; an elector module to elect the one of the networked client devices as a routing distributed convergence node in the second LAN; an identifier module to identify the one of the networked client devices from other networked client devices of the second LAN, including identification of the one of the networked client devices as the elected routing distributed convergence node; and a network interface communicatively coupled with a processor to communicate multicast data with the other networked client devices of the second LAN using IP multicast connections and to communicate the multicast data with a first distributed convergence node in the first LAN via the non-IP-multicast-capable WAN using a first unicast connection and to communicate the multicast data with a third distributed convergence node in the third LAN via the non-IP-multicast-capable WAN using a second unicast connection, so as to forward the multicast data between the first and the third distributed convergence nodes over the non-IP-multicast-capable WAN using the first and the second unicast connections, the routing distributed convergence node in the second LAN configured to forward multicast data from each distributed convergence node of a plurality of LANs including the first and the third LANs to each other distributed convergence node of the plurality of LANs using unicast connections through the non-IP-multicast-capable WAN. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23)
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Specification