Method and arrangement for suppressing duplicate network resources

• US 9,166,926 B2
• Filed: 08/19/2014
• Issued: 10/20/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/06/2002
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Arnold, Kevin, O'Rourke, David M.
• Primary Examiner(s): TRUONG, LAN DAI T
• Application Number:
  US14/462,954
• Publication Number:
  US 20140365663A1
• Time in Patent Office: 427 Days
• Field of Search: 709/226, 709/223, 709/229, 709/230
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 computer system, comprising:

communication circuitry configured to communicate with one or more network nodes via a local area network; and

a processor coupled to the communication circuitry;

wherein the communication circuitry and the processor are configured to;

receive, from a first network node of the one or more network nodes, a duplicate suppression message;

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

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

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

2. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the communication circuitry and the processor are further configured to send a duplicate suppression request prior to receiving the duplicate suppression message.

3. The computer system of claim 2, wherein the sending the duplicate suppression request comprises broadcasting the duplicate suppression request via the local area network.

4. The computer system of claim 3, wherein the broadcasting is limited to the local area network.

5. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the communication circuitry and the processor are further configured to broadcast a first network resource request for the first protocol prior to receiving the first network resource message.

6. The computer system of claim 5, wherein the communication circuitry and the processor are further configured to broadcast a second network resource request for the second protocol prior to receiving the second network resource message.

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

8. A computer system, comprising:

communication circuitry configured to communicate with one or more network nodes via a local area network; and

a processor coupled to the communication circuitry;

wherein the communication circuitry and the processor are configured to;

receive, from a first network node of the one or more network nodes, a first message that includes a first identifier that identifies the first network node in a first protocol;

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

determine that the first identifier and the second identifier are both identifiers of the first network node;

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

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

9. The computer system of claim 8, wherein the list of network resources maintains, for the single entry, a set of associated protocols based on the first and second messages.

10. The computer system of claim 8, wherein the communication circuitry and the processor are further configured to store, 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.

11. The computer system of claim 8, wherein the communication circuitry and the processor are further configured to:

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

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

12. The computer system of claim 8, wherein the storing the single entry for the first network node based on the preferred protocol comprises removing from the list of network resources an entry for the first network node according to a non-preferred protocol.

13. The computer system of claim 8, wherein the communication circuitry and the processor are further configured to receive, from the first network node, a duplicate suppression message indicating that the first network node has different identifiers in different protocols.

14. The computer system of claim 13, wherein the communication circuitry and the processor are further configured to send a duplicate suppression request prior to receiving the duplicate suppression message.

15. A computer system, comprising:

communication circuitry configured to communicate with one or more network nodes via a local area network; and

a processor coupled to the communication circuitry;

wherein the computer system is configured to;

send a plurality of identifier requests to a plurality of network resources requesting that the network resources provide identifiers for a plurality of different protocols;

receive one or more identifiers from each of the network resources in response to the identifier requests, each identifier associated with a respective network resource for one of the protocols, wherein a first plurality of identifiers is received from a first network resource;

use the first plurality of identifiers to identify the first network resource uniquely; and

provide a single identifier of the one or more identifiers received from each of the other network resources in a list of network resources.

16. The computer system of claim 15, further comprising:

a display screen;

wherein the computer system is further configured to display the list of network resources on the display screen.

17. The computer system of claim 15, wherein at least one of the network resources is a printer.

18. The computer system of claim 15, wherein the first plurality of identifiers comprises a first identifier for the first network resource for a first one of the plurality of different protocols, and a second identifier for the first network resource for a second one of the plurality of different protocols, wherein the second identifier is different than the first identifier.

19. The computer system of claim 18, wherein the single identifier for the first network resource in the list of network resources is an identifier of the first network resource in a preferred protocol.

20. The computer system of claim 15, wherein the computer system is further configured to send a plurality of duplicate suppression requests to the plurality of network resources requesting that each of the network resources provide a duplicate suppression message indicating whether that respective network resource has different identifiers in different protocols.