US 4,718,005 AGranted

Distributed control of alias name usage in networks

AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation

InventorsBarry A. Feigenbaum, Dennis D. Gibbs, Robert Sachsenmaier

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Abstract

Computer systems linked to nodes in a communication network communicate directly with each other to establish name associations for entities (e.g. programs, storage files, etc.) susceptible of being shared across the network, and thereafter communicate further by names (rather than addresses) to establish sessions (i.e. logical connections over the network) between entities. Each system maintains a table of names assigned to locally accessible entities. The name and session establishment processes are architected to avoid dependence on any "central" or "master" system, and to allow for extension of communications relating to these processes across devices linking portions of the network associated with different communication media or channels.

Claims9

Dependent claims

For a data communication network comprising multiple computing nodes linked by communication media and/or channels, each node serving one or more entities, a method of establishing logical name associations between nodes and their respectively served entities, for permitting programs and/or operators at said nodes to share entities dispersed across said network and initiate communications with said entities by associated names without having to determine physical locations of said entities, comprising:

maintaining name association tables at said nodes indicating names adopted at said nodes for respectively served entities;
at any node seeking to adopt a new name association, broadcasting a Name Check request message over said network indicating the name to be adopted and the physical address location in said network of the node proposing the adoption;
receiving said request at other nodes, and comparing the proposed name with names stored in the name association tables at said other nodes;
at any of said other nodes finding a name in their table matching the proposed name, transmitting an acknowledgment message over said network addressed specifically to the node which originated said Name Check request;
and
at the node which originated said Name Check, adopting or rejecting said name conditional upon the number of said acknowledgments received in response to said Name Check.

3 more elements

For a data communication network comprising multiple computing nodes, each node serving one or more entities which may be shared by other nodes, each node having a physical address in said network and being capable of having one or more alias names associated with either the node or its respectively served entities, a method for establishing a communication session between a pair of entities having associated alias names, using only the associated names and not information regarding the physical locations of the entities, comprising:

maintaining name association tables at said nodes for storing indications of logical names associated with respectively served entities;
at a node seeking to establish a session between a respectively served first entity having a first name and a second entity having a second name, comparing said second name to the names stored in the name association table maintained at the respective node;
establishing a session between said first and second entities, by means of processing operations performed entirely within the respective node--i.e. without any communications over said network--if the second name matches a name stored in the respective name table;
and if the second name does not match any name in the respective name table, successively
broadcasting a Call Name check message over said network from the node seeking to establish said session, said message containing said second name and the address in said network of the node originating the broadcast;
timing out a predetermined time interval at said originating node immediately following said broadcast;
receiving said Call Name check message at other nodes in said network;
at each said other node, comparing the second name in said received message with names stored in the respective table and transmitting an acknowledgment message directed by address specifically to the node which broadcast the Name Check message if and only if a match is detected between said second name and a name in the respective table;
at the node which originated the Name Check broadcast, monitoring acknowledgments of said broadcast received during said timeout interval;
and
conditional upon said received acknowledgments, either initiating further communications with an acknowledging other node, for continuing the process of seeking to establish said session, or aborting said process.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.