Distributed control of alias name usage in networks

Claim 2

1 . A method of exchanging controlling communications between nodes in a data communication network comprising multiple computing nodes linked by communication media and/or channels, characterized in that it comprises: broadcasting a message over said media and/or channels requesting a controlling response from any node in said network; said message containing an origin address representing the physical location in said network of the node originating the broadcast; receiving said message at plural other nodes in said network and determining existence at said other nodes of predetermined conditions defined by information in said message; and conditionally transmitting response messages from other nodes having said predetermined conditions to said originating node.

Claim 9

The method of Claim 4 characterized in that said adoption or rejection of the proposed name, by the node which originated said Name Check request, is determined by: timing out a predetermined time interval after transmission of said Name Check request; counting the number of acknowledgments received during said interval; rejecting the name if one or more acknowledgments are received during said interval; and adopting the name if no acknowledgments are received during said interval.

Claim 10

The method of Claim 4 characterized in that it comprises: repeating said Name Check broadcasting and comparing and acknowledging actions for a predetermined number of times; timing out a predetermined interval at the node originating said Name Check after each broadcasting of said Name Check and before the next broadcasting thereof; in each said interval, monitoring the acknowledgments received from other nodes in response to the respective Name Check braodcast; adopting the proposed name if no acknowledgments are received during any one of said timeout intervals; and rejecting the proposed name if one or more acknowledgments are received during each of said timeout intervals.

Claim 11

The method according to either Claim 5 or Claim 6 characterized in that it comprises: broadcasting a Duplicate Use message over said network if more than one acknowledgment is received during a said timeout interval, said message indicating said proposed name; receiving said message at said other nodes and comparing said name with names stored in respective tables; at other nodes having matching names in respective tables, marking respective table entries with a Duplicate Use indication; and at other nodes having name table entries marked as in Duplicate Use, inhibiting operations requiring use of the respective name.

Claim 12

The method of Claim 4 characterized in that it comprises: at any node seeking to adopt a new name association, checking the respective name table for entries indicating existing association of the name with an entity; rejecting adoption of the new name association if there is an existing local association, and in that instance eliminating said Name Check broadcasting step; and proceeding with said Name Check broadcasting step and other operations conditional thereon only if a local association is not found.

Claim 13

9 . 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, 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, characterized in that it comprises: 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.

Claim 14

9 . 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, 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, characterized in that it comprises: 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.

Claim 15

The method of Claim 9 characterized in that said further communications include: a Call Request communication directed from said seeking node to said second entity; and a second acknowledgment continuing the establishing process, directed from the node serving said second entity to the node seeking to establish the session.

Claim 16

The method of Claim 10 characterized in that said nodes are adapted for establishing Listening State associations between respectively served entities and other entities, for regulating communication traffic between entities, and said second acknowledgment is given only on condition that a Listening State association pre-exists between said second name and said first name at a node serving an entity associated with said second name and receiving a said Call Request.

Claim 17

The method of Claim 9 characterized in that: said process is continued if one acknowledgment is received and aborted if either no acknowledgment or more than one acknowledgment is received; and said node seeking to continue said process is responsive to receipt of more than one acknowledgment to broadcast a message over said network indicating existence of conflicting name usage; said message having the effect of informing the computing systems at the nodes which issued the acknowledgments that their uses of said second name are conflicting.