Method and apparatus for supporting dependent logical units in advanced peer-to-peer networks with branch extenders

In a peer-to-peer network comprising end nodes, network nodes which serve the end nodes for locating resources in the network and for calculating network routes, branch extender nodes which act as owners of all resources in a branch domain controlled by the branch extender node, and dependent logical units (DLUs) supported by a DLU server function at a DLUS network node of the network and by a DLU requester function at a DLUR node of the network, apparatus for locating the DLUR capability to a node within the branch domain of a branch extender node, comprising

• means for establishing a control point to Server (CP-SVR) communication pipe between the DLUS node and the DLUR node over which control messages are transmitted for supporting the DLUs served by the DLUR node,
• means at the DLUS node for marking the DLUR node as located in a different peer-to-peer network than the DLUS node,
• means at the DLUS node for registering the DLUR node the owner of the DLUs served by the DLUR node,
• means at the branch extender node responsive to a resource locate search request for determining if the request is to activate a DLU supported by the DLUR node,
• means responsive when the request is not to activate a DLU supported by the DLUR node for registering with the DLUS node that the branch extender is the owner of the resource being located, and
• means responsive when the request is to activate a DLU supported by the DLUR node for registering with the DLUS that the DLUR node is the owner of the DLU.

In a peer-to-peer network comprising end nodes, network nodes which serve the end nodes for locating resources in the network and for calculating network routes, branch extender nodes which act as owners of all resources in a branch domain controlled by the branch extender node, and dependent logical units (DLUs) supported by a DLU server function at a DLUS network node of the network and by a DLU requester function at a DLUR node of the network, a method of locating the DLUR capability to a node within the branch domain of a branch extender node, comprising:

• registering the DLUR node at the DLUS node as being in a different network than the DLUS node,
• in response to a request received at the DLUS node to establish a communication session between an application at a node in the network and a DLU served by the DLUR node, determining if the DLUR is registered as being in the same network as the DLUS,
• in response to the registration of the DLUR as being in a different network than the DLUS, initiating a Locate search request for the DLUR from the DLUS node to obtain trunk addresses to the branch extender node,
• at the branch extender node, in response to a reply to the Locate search request, substituting in the reply trunk address vectors of the branch extender node for the DLUR node trunk address vectors and forwarding the reply to the DLUS node,
• sending the branch extender trunk address vectors to the node containing the application,
• calculating a network route to the branch extender node from the node containing the application using the branch extender trunk address vectors,
• transmitting a BIND command to the branch extender node, and
• forwarding the BIND from the branch extender node to the DLUR node to activate the communication session.