Methodology and system for file replication based on a peergroup

• US 20070150558A1
• Filed: 12/22/2005
• Published: 06/28/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Teodosiu, Dan, Kim, Ryan, Singhal, Sandeep, Rao, Ravi, Manion, Todd
• Granted Patent: US 8,108,548 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/220
• 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 computer system comprising:

a first peer-to-peer functionality object that contains peer-to-peer network functions, wherein the peer-to-peer functionality object communicates with a set of nodes of a logical graph;

a file replication service component;

a file sharing object wherein the file sharing object is communicatively coupled to the file replication service component and the peer-to-peer functionality object; and

wherein the file replication object retrieves topology information from the peer-to-peer functionality object and configures the file replication service component based on the topology information.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the topology information comprises a list of neighbor nodes that are logically connected to a node associated with the file sharing object and wherein configuring the file replication service component comprises directing the file replication service component to establish direct connections with the neighbor nodes.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the topology information comprises an IP address of a node, a meeting identifier, and a group membership certificate.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the file replication object configures the file replication service component by sending XML based instructions to the file replication service component.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the file replication object configures the file service component using a Windows management instrumentation object.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the file replication service component is part of a computer operating system.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the file sharing object is part of a general meeting application that establishes communication using a peer-to-peer network.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the file replication service component uses a peer-to-peer certificate to authenticate replication members.

9. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing operations comprising:

initializing a file replication service component;

creating a peer-to-peer functionality object that contains peer-to-peer network functions, wherein the peer-to-peer functionality object is enabled to communicate with a set of nodes of a logical graph;

creating a file sharing object that is communicatively coupled to the file replication service component and the peer-to-peer functionality object;

querying node topology information from the peer-to-peer functionality object; and

configuring the file replication service component to establish a network of connections based on the node topology information.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein querying node topology information and configuring the file replication service is performed by the file sharing object.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein configuring the file replication service component comprises transmitting data containing a meeting identifier, a group membership certificate, and a list of neighbor node IP addresses.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the file sharing object is part of a meeting application and further wherein the list of IP addresses comprises addresses of neighbor nodes in a peer-to-peer network.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the file replication service component establishes direct connections with devices associated with the list of node addresses.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the file replication service component is part of an operating system.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, further comprising updating the topology information.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim:

15, wherein updating the topology, information comprises alerting neighbor nodes of a topology change via the p2p network and relaying that topology change to the file sharing object, and wherein the file sharing object re-configures the FRS replication topology based on the updated topology information.

17. A method of integrating an existing file replication service object into a general application running on a peer-to-peer network, the method comprising:

creating a peer-to-peer functionality object that contains peer-to-peer network functions, wherein the object is enabled to communicate with a set of nodes of a logical graph;

modifying a parameter of a file replication service component to use a peer-to-peer client type to communicate with a device associated with a node, and a peer-to-peer certificate to authenticate a user;

retrieving node topology information from the peer-to-peer functionality object using the file sharing object; and

configuring the file replication service component to establish a network of connections based on the node topology information.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein retrieving node topology information from the peer-to-peer functionality object comprises querying the peer-to-peer functionality object for a list of neighbor nodes.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein configuring the file replication service component comprises establishing direct connections with the list of neighbor nodes.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the peer-to-peer functionality object pushes updates of the node topology to the file sharing object and wherein the file sharing object re-configures the file replication service component based on the updates.