SCALABLE PEER MATCHING

• US 20160255142A1
• Filed: 02/24/2016
• Published: 09/01/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/26/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Hunt, Brandon T., Burba, Alexander
• Granted Patent: US 10,270,849 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1046 Joining mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1048 Departure or maintenance mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1055 involving connection limits involving dynamic management of active down- or uploading connections H04L67/1085
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/107 with limitation or expansion of the discovery scope
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1089 Hierarchical topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1093 Some peer nodes performing special functions

Abstract

The techniques and systems described herein implement an improved peer matching service by coordinating peer matching requests across multiple peer matching nodes configured within a peer matching unit so that resource consumption can be spread out and resource limitations are not exceeded. Moreover, the peer matching service can determine if a peer matching unit is overloaded (e.g., experiencing an increased number of requests in a given time interval that is causing performance degradation), and the peer matching service can implement an action to scale out the number of requests within the peer matching unit (e.g., re-distribute some peer matching requests to another peer matching unit). In various examples, the peer matching service can determine if peer devices are co-located peer devices based on location information and can generate a list that prioritizes the co-located peer devices.

Claims

1. A device comprising:

one or more processors;

memory storing a first version of a list of peer identifiers corresponding to a set of peer devices that have registered with a plurality of peer matching nodes for peer matching services associated with a content identifier; and

one or more modules stored on the memory and executable by the one or more processors to;

identify a first set of changes to the first version of the list of peer identifiers, the first set of changes occurring at a particular peer matching node of the plurality of peer matching nodes, an individual change in the first set of changes including an addition of a new peer identifier to the first version of the list of peer identifiers based at least in part on a reception of a new request from a new peer device to register with the particular peer matching node for peer matching services associated with the content identifier;

generate first information representative of the first set of changes to the first version of the list of peer identifiers;

send, to a hub that is configured to update a second version of the list of peer identifiers based on a second set of changes that occur across at least two of the plurality of peer matching nodes for peer matching services associated with the content identifier, the first information representative of the first set of changes to the first version of the list of peer identifiers;

receive, from the hub, second information representative of the second set of changes to the second version of the list of peer identifiers;

update the first version of the list of peer identifiers based at least in part on the second information received from the hub; and

provide the first version of the list of peer identifiers to at least one peer device that has registered with the particular peer matching node.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the first information representative of the first set of changes to the first version of the list of peer identifiers comprises multiple new peer identifiers added during a most recent time interval.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein an individual change in the first set of changes includes a removal of an expired peer identifier from the first version of the list of peer identifiers based at least in part on a determination that an existing peer device is no longer registered with the particular peer matching node for peer matching services associated with the content identifier.

4. The device of claim 3, wherein the first information representative of the first set of changes to the first version of the list of peer identifiers comprises multiple expired peer identifiers removed during a most recent time interval.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein an individual change in the first set of changes includes updated metadata representative of a peer state changing from a first peer state to a second peer state that is different than the first peer state.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the one or more modules are further executable by the one or more processors to:

determine that a failure has occurred and the device has been re-started;

send, to the hub, a request for all the peer identifiers maintained in the second version of the list of peer identifiers; and

receive, from the hub, all the peer identifiers maintained in the second version of the list of peer identifiers.

7. The device of claim 1, wherein the set of peer devices comprises a swarm, and wherein updating the first version and the second version of the list of peer identifiers avoids swarm fragmentation.

8. A device comprising:

one or more processors;

memory storing a list of peer identifiers corresponding to a set of peer devices that have registered with a plurality of peer matching nodes for peer matching services associated with a content identifier; and

one or more modules stored on the memory and executable by the one or more processors to;

receive, from an individual peer matching node of the plurality of peer matching nodes, first information representative of a first set of changes to the list of peer identifiers, an individual change in the first set of changes comprising an addition of a new peer identifier that has registered with the individual peer matching node;

generate, based at least in part on the first information received from individual ones of the plurality of peer matching nodes, second information representative of a second set of changes to the list of peer identifiers, the second set of changes to the list of peer identifiers occurring across at least two of the plurality of peer matching nodes; and

provide, to individual ones of the plurality of peer matching nodes, the second information representative of the second set of changes to the list of peer identifiers.

9. The device of claim 8, wherein an individual change in the first set of changes comprises a removal of an expired peer identifier from the list of peer identifiers.

10. The device of claim 8, wherein the first information is received in response to a request for the first information sent from the device to individual ones of the peer matching nodes.

11. The device of claim 8, wherein the one or more modules are further executable by the one or more processors to:

associate a version number with the second information representative of the second set of changes to the list of peer identifiers;

receive a request for the version number from a particular peer matching node that was previously unavailable to receive the second information representative of the second set of changes to the list of peer identifiers; and

subsequently provide, based at least in part on the version number, the second information representative of the second set of changes to the list of peer identifiers to the particular peer matching node.

12. The device of claim 8, wherein:

the set of peer devices comprises a swarm; and

the plurality of peer matching nodes are configured to operate within a peer matching unit based at least in part on a predicted number of peer devices that make up the swarm during a given time interval.

13. The device of claim 12, wherein the plurality of peer matching nodes are configured to operate within the peer matching unit based on a pre-defined operating capacity of a total operating capacity for an individual peer matching node.

14. The device of claim 12, wherein the one or more modules are further executable by the one or more processors to:

receive a request for all the peer identifiers in the list of peer identifiers from a new peer matching node that has joined the peer matching unit; and

provide all the peer identifiers in the list of peer identifiers to the new peer matching node.

15. A device comprising:

one or more processors;

memory; and

one or more modules stored on the memory and executable by the one or more processors to;

assign one or more content identifiers to a peer matching unit;

receive information indicative of a number of peer devices that have registered with a plurality of peer matching nodes configured within the peer matching unit for peer matching services associated with the one or more content identifiers;

determine that the number of peer devices exceeds a threshold number of peer devices; and

implement an action to scale out peer device requests associated with the one or more content identifiers across a plurality of peer matching units.

16. The device of claim 15, wherein the action comprises:

activating one or more overflow peer matching units; and

reassigning a content identifier of the one or more content identifiers from the peer matching unit to the one or more overflow peer matching units to reduce the number of peer devices that have registered with the plurality of peer matching nodes configured within the peer matching unit for peer matching services associated with the one or more content identifiers.

17. The device of claim 16, wherein peer device requests associated with the content identifier are split between the peer matching unit and the one or more overflow peer matching units.

18. The device of claim 15, wherein the action comprises re-assigning a content identifier of the one or more content identifiers to one or more other peer matching units to reduce the number of peer devices that have registered with the plurality of peer matching nodes configured within the peer matching unit for peer matching services associated with the one or more content identifiers.

19. The device of claim 18, wherein peer device requests associated with the content identifier are split between the peer matching unit and the one or more other peer matching units.

20. The device of claim 15, wherein the one or more modules are further executable by the one or more processors to provide one or more assignments of the one or more content identifiers to a discovery service accessible to the peer devices to direct the peer devices to the peer matching unit.