Data communication protocol

• US 20060271697A1
• Filed: 07/15/2005
• Published: 11/30/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/25/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: George, Mathew, Subbarayan, Sundar, Kruse, David, Mohamed, Ahmed, Madhavarapu, Pradeep Jnana
• Granted Patent: US 8,332,526 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/230
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/182 Distributed file systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/123 received data contents, e.g. message integrity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/147 Signalling methods or messages providing extensions to protocols defined by standardisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/02 Protocol performance
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/14 Multichannel or multilink protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/18 Multiprotocol handlers, e.g. single devices capable of handling multiple protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/24 Negotiation of communication capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/50 in wire-line communication networks, e.g. low power modes or reduced link rate

Abstract

Described is a data communication protocol, in which a client and server negotiate in a manner that does not require the client to retry negotiation when servers are not capable of the client-desired protocol. In one example implementation, the desired protocol is SMB 2.0 or greater. The protocol describes a create command with possibly additional context data attached for built-in extensibility, and a compound command comprising a plurality of related commands or unrelated commands. A multi-channel command requests data transfer on a separate data channel, a signed capability verification may be used to ensure that a secure connection is established, and the protocol provides the ability to transfer extended error data from the server in response to a request.

Claims

1. In a network computing environment, a method comprising:

sending a communication from a client to a server, the communication including data that identifies a first data communication protocol and a second data communication protocol, the communication formatted such that without requiring another request, a server incapable of communicating via the second data communication protocol will respond with data indicating the first communication protocol, while a server capable of communicating via the second data communication protocol will respond with data indicating the second communication protocol;

receiving a response indicating the second communication protocol; and

invoking a driver that handles communication via the second protocol to handle communication from that server.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the second communication protocol is server message block (SMB) 2.0 or greater, and the communication from the client is otherwise formatted as an SMB1 packet with the second data communication protocol identified therein.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising, sending a create command from the client to the server, the create command having additional context data attached.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising, sending a compound command from the client to the server, the compound command comprising a plurality of related commands.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising, sending a compound command from the client to the server, the compound command comprising a plurality of unrelated commands.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising, sending a data-related command from the client to the server, the data-related command requesting data on a data channel.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising, sending a signed capability verification request from the client to the server to ensure that a secure connection is established.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising, receiving at the client extended error data from the server in response to a request.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising, sending at least one command from a set of commands from the client to the server, the set containing a create command having additional context data attached, a related compound command comprising a plurality of related commands, an unrelated compound command comprising a plurality of unrelated commands, and/or a data-related command requesting data communication on a separate data channel.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising, sending a communication from a client to another server, the communication including data that identifies a first data communication protocol and a second data communication protocol, wherein the other server is incapable of communicating via the second data communication protocol, and the client invokes another driver that handles communication via the first protocol with the other server at essentially the same time the client is communicating with the server via the second protocol.

11. At least one computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions, which when executed perform steps, comprising:

receiving, at a server, a compound request containing a plurality of commands from a client;

determining whether the compound request contains unrelated commands or related commands; and

when the compound request contains unrelated commands, handling each request as a separate request; and

when the compound request contains related commands, handling each request sequentially.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 11 wherein the compound request contains related commands including a create/open command, and wherein handling each request sequentially comprises using a file handle from the create/open command for each subsequent related command.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 11 having further computer-executable instructions comprising, processing additional context data received with the create command.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 11 having further computer-executable instructions comprising, handling an I/O-related request on a data channel that is separate from the channel on which the compound request was received.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 11 further comprising, receiving at least one command from a set of commands that is sent from the client to the server, the set containing a create command having additional context data attached, a related compound command comprising a plurality of related commands and an unrelated compound command comprising a plurality of unrelated commands, and/or a data-related command requesting data communication on a separate data channel.

16. In a computing network, a data communication protocol in which a client and server connect for communication, comprising:

a plurality of commands, including at least one command of a set containing;

a multi-channel I/O command for requesting data communication on a separate data channel from the channel on which the multi-channel command was sent;

a create command containing means for attaching additional context data;

a compound command containing a plurality of other commands;

and/or

a multi-protocol negotiate command that allows a server to negotiate which of a plurality of dialect revisions provided by a client are to be used for communication.

17. The data communication protocol of claim 16 further comprising at least one other command of a set, containing, a session setup command, a logoff session command, a tree connect command and/or a tree disconnect command.

18. The data communication protocol of claim 16 further comprising at least one other command of a set, containing, a close command, a flush command, a read command, a write command, a break_oplock command, a lock command, an echo command, a cancel command, an ioctl command, a query directory command, a change notify command, a set information command, and a query information command.

19. The communication protocol of claim 16 wherein the multi-channel I/O command comprises a read command that results in the server streaming read data to the client via the separate data channel.

20. The communication protocol of claim 16 wherein the multi-channel I/O command comprises a write command that results in the client streaming read data to the server via the separate data channel.