EFFICIENT SERVICE DISCOVERY FOR PEER-TO-PEER NETWORKING DEVICES

• US 20130013779A1
• Filed: 09/14/2012
• Published: 01/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Augustin Prats, Brian Tucker, Jason Conn, Joshua Graessley, Michael Van Milligan, Rory L.P. Mcguire
• Original Assignee: Augustin Prats, Brian Tucker, Jason Conn, Joshua Graessley, Michael Van Milligan, Rory L.P. Mcguire
• Inventors: McGuire, Rory L. P., Milligan, Michael Van, Conn, Jason, Graessley, Joshua, Prats, Augustin, Tucker, Brian
• Granted Patent: US 8,572,248 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/225
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/30 Types of network names
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/50 Network service management, e.g. ensuring proper service fulfilment according to agreements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4511 using domain name system [DNS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4541 Directories for service discovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1065 Discovery involving distributed pre-established resource-based relationships among peers, e.g. based on distributed hash tables [DHT] pre-configuration of logical or physical connections H04L67/1053
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/00 Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/18 between terminal devices

Abstract

Techniques for discovering and/or advertising services are described herein. A first bitmask is received from a remote device over a wireless network, the first bitmask having one or more bits that have a predetermined logical value. Each bit represents a particular service provided by the remote device. A logical operation is performed between the first bitmask and a second bitmask locally generated within a local device, where the second bitmask represents a service being searched by the local device. It is determined whether the remote device is potentially capable of providing the service being searched by the local device based on a result of the logical operation.

Claims

1. A machine-implemented method for discovering and/or advertising a service in a wireless environment, the method comprising:

receiving domain name system (DNS) information identifying a service available for access in a network;

creating a DNS packet based on the received DNS information, the DNS packet including one or more domain names having one or more pointers referenced to one or more character strings that previously appear in the DNS packet without reciting the entire character strings; and

generating a key/value pair from the DNS packet, wherein the key/value pairs is used to represent the service to be available for access in the network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the pointers specifies an offset from beginning of the DNS packet to a byte starting to encode a corresponding character string previously occurred in the DNS packet.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein generating a key/value pair from the DNS packet comprises:

creating a key of the key/value pair based on a name field and a type field of a resource record of the DNS packet; and

creating a value of the key/value pair based on a data field of the resource record of the DNS packet.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the key includes information describing a compression method used to generate the key.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the DNS packet includes a first resource record and a second resource record, the second resource record being a subsequent resource record of the first resource record, wherein the second resource record includes a pointer referenced to a character string occurred in the first resource record without reciting the entire character string in the second resource record.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the DNS packet includes a resource record having a name field and a data field, and wherein the data field includes a first pointer pointing to a first character string of the name field, without reciting the first character string in the data field of the resource record.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the name field of the resource record further includes a second pointer pointing to a second character string located in a question entry of the DNS packet that is before the resource record, without reciting the second character string in the name field of the resource record.

8. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having instruction stored therein, which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method for discovering and/or advertising a service in a wireless environment, the method comprising:

receiving domain name system (DNS) information identifying a service available for access in a network;

creating a DNS packet based on the received DNS information, the DNS packet including one or more domain names having one or more pointers referenced to one or more character strings that previously appear in the DNS packet without reciting the entire character strings; and

generating a key/value pair from the DNS packet, wherein the key/value pairs is used to represent the service to be available for access in the network.

9. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein each of the pointers specifies an offset from beginning of the DNS packet to a byte starting to encode a corresponding character string previously occurred in the DNS packet.

10. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein generating a key/value pair from the DNS packet comprises:

creating a key of the key/value pair based on a name field and a type field of a resource record of the DNS packet; and

creating a value of the key/value pair based on a data field of the resource record of the DNS packet.

11. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the key includes information describing a compression method used to generate the key.

12. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the DNS packet includes a first resource record and a second resource record, the second resource record being a subsequent resource record of the first resource record, wherein the second resource record includes a pointer referenced to a character string occurred in the first resource record without reciting the entire character string in the second resource record.

13. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the DNS packet includes a resource record having a name field and a data field, and wherein the data field includes a first pointer pointing to a first character string of the name field, without reciting the first character string in the data field of the resource record.

14. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the name field of the resource record further includes a second pointer pointing to a second character string located in a question entry of the DNS packet that is before the resource record, without reciting the second character string in the name field of the resource record.

15. A data processing system, comprising:

a domain name system (DNS) processing unit to receive information identifying a service available for access in a network and to create a DNS packet based on the received DNS information, the DNS packet including one or more domain names having one or more pointers referenced to one or more character strings that previously appear in the DNS packet without reciting the entire character strings; and

a key/value generator to generate a key/value pair from the DNS packet, wherein the key/value pairs is used to represent the service to be available for access in the network.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein each of the pointers specifies an offset from beginning of the DNS packet to a byte starting to encode a corresponding character string previously occurred in the DNS packet.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein generating a key/value pair from the DNS packet comprises:

creating a key of the key/value pair based on a name field and a type field of a resource record of the DNS packet; and

creating a value of the key/value pair based on a data field of the resource record of the DNS packet.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the key includes information describing a compression method used to generate the key.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the DNS packet includes a first resource record and a second resource record, the second resource record being a subsequent resource record of the first resource record, wherein the second resource record includes a pointer referenced to a character string occurred in the first resource record without reciting the entire character string in the second resource record.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein the DNS packet includes a resource record having a name field and a data field, and wherein the data field includes a first pointer pointing to a first character string of the name field, without reciting the first character string in the data field of the resource record.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the name field of the resource record further includes a second pointer pointing to a second character string located in a question entry of the DNS packet that is before the resource record, without reciting the second character string in the name field of the resource record.