VIRTUAL NETWORK WITH ADAPTIVE DISPATCHER

• US 20090046726A1
• Filed: 08/13/2007
• Published: 02/19/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/27/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Shewchuk, John P., Kaler, Christopher G., Della-Libera, Giovanni M., Cabrera, Luis Felipe, Levin, David E., Wahbe, Robert S., Lucco, Steven E., Lovering, Bradford H., Wortendyke, David A., Christensen, Erik B., Millet, Stephen J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,899,047 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/397
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/45 Network directories; Name-to-address mapping
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/32 Architecture of open systems interconnection [OSI] 7-layer type protocol stacks, e.g. the interfaces between the data link level and the physical level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

Methods and systems for providing a virtual network are disclosed. At least one layer of abstraction is created between network service applications and conventional network protocols by inserting an adaptive dispatcher between applications and network transport services on each machine in a network. The message protocol in the virtual network is extensible, allowing application programs to create new headers within any message as needed. The adaptive dispatcher contains handlers that route and dispatch messages within the virtual network based on arbitrary content within each message, including any combination of headers and/or data content. Each device on the virtual network has a virtual address to which messages are directed, allowing devices to move within the network without reconfiguring routing tables. Handlers may be automatically created when an event meeting predefined criteria occurs, including the non-occurrence of a condition, making the virtual network self-healing and adaptive to reconfiguration.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a message dispatcher that routes and dispatches a plurality of messages, wherein the message dispatcher has the ability to route each message based on any portion of the message'"'"'s contents, and wherein the message dispatcher routes a first network message based on a first attribute of said first network message, and routes a second network message based on a second attribute, different from said first attribute, of said second network message; and

an interface through which one or more application programs communicate with the message dispatcher to define the first attribute and second attribute.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the message dispatcher comprises a transport independent message dispatcher, and the message dispatcher communicates using a transport independent protocol.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the message dispatcher routes a first network message, addressed to a recipient from a first sender, to a first server, and

wherein the message dispatcher routes a second network message, addressed to the recipient from a second sender, to a second server.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the message dispatcher routes messages using a virtual network protocol above a transport layer protocol.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, further comprising a transport adapter to convert messages between the transport layer protocol and the virtual network protocol.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the arbitrary portion of the message'"'"'s contents comprises an application level header.

7. A method for routing network messages, comprising the steps of:

(i) routing a first network message based on a first attribute of the first network message;

(ii) routing a second network message based on a second attribute, different from said first attribute, of said second network message;

wherein the first and second attributes are selected from a set of headers and data of each network message.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising the steps of:

(iii) receiving instructions comprising a message field and a field condition;

(iv) modifying a message handler based on the received instructions.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein step (iii) comprises receiving the instructions from a network application program.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein, in step (iii), the instructions comprises user-input.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein, in steps (i) and (ii), each message is output to a transport adapter that converts the message from a virtual network protocol to a transport protocol.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein, in step (i), the first attribute comprises an application created header.

13. The method of claim 7, further comprising the step of storing routing instructions in message handlers, and

wherein steps (i) and (ii) are performed based on stored message handlers.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising the step of altering a first message handler when a predetermined condition occurs.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising the step of altering a network message when the message meets a predetermined condition stored in a message handler.

16. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

(iii) adding a new message handler to route messages based on a newly created type of message header.

17. The method of claim 7, wherein either of the first or second attributes correspond to a geographic location of the sender of the message.

18. The method of claim 7, wherein either of the first or second attributes correspond to a class of service of the sender of the message.

19. A computer network architecture comprising a plurality of data processing devices interconnected via a computer network, each data processing device comprising:

a virtual message dispatcher that routes messages to intended destinations and dispatches messages to appropriate applications at their intended destination, wherein each message is routed based at least in part on a non-address portion of the message'"'"'s contents, said routing instructions defined by one or more stored message handlers; and

an interface through which OSI layer 7 application programs communicate with the message dispatcher to define the one or more message handlers,

wherein the virtual message dispatcher comprises a transport adapter for converting messages between a virtual network protocol used by network applications and a transport protocol used by the computer network, and

wherein the virtual message dispatcher is configurable for use with a second transport protocol by adding a second transport adapter that converts messages between the second transport protocol and the virtual network protocol, without requiring any network applications to be reconfigured for use with the second transport protocol.

20. The computer network of claim 19, wherein a first message handler defines routing instructions based on a class of service.