Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Alaa H Abdelhalim

Peter Alexi Gurevich

Roger Duncan Seielstad

Richard Thomas Russo

Aaron Matthew Tyler

Saad Syed

Asad Yaqoob

Chandan Rama Reddy

Manoj Krishna Ghosh

Jeremy Sadler

Christopher Scott Dickens

Bruce L Green

Blaine Young

Andrew Sveikauskas

P Daniel Suberviola, Ii

C Scott Dickens

Vittal Pai

Described herein are various principles for operating transfer protocols using adaptive flow control techniques. In accordance with some of these principles, a client may adaptively negotiate with a server regarding a window size to use when communicating datagrams using a connectionless content unit transfer protocol like the Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP). In some implementations, a client may inform a server whether to increase or decrease a window size. In these implementations, the client may increase the window size upon determining that a previous window size has led to successful transfer of content without any loss of datagrams and the client may decrease the window size upon detecting a loss of a datagram. Because of the limited resources available in some environments in which these techniques may be used, in some implementations a window size may be increased by small amounts but may be decreased drastically upon detecting a loss.

Client-adjustable window size for connectionless transfer protocols

A form of multicast, referred to as 'on-demand multicast,' provides a methodology that allows for 'on demand' multicasting of data. On-demand multicast allows clients to join or leave a transmission at any point. There is no transmission session start or end time&#x2014;the session is continuously available, although data is not necessarily continuously transmitted. Data blocks missed by late-joining clients are retransmitted per amalgamated client requests through multiple transmission cycles until all clients that have joined the transmission session receive all content. Once a client has received all data blocks comprising the content for the session, the client may exit the ongoing session.

Reliable multicast with automatic session startup and client backfill support

A system and a process for deploying a computer file involves a client computer applying the computer file concurrently with downloading the computer file from a file server. The concurrent operations can be performed even when the data of the computer file is downloaded out of order. The computer file includes a plurality of file segments. The client computer obtains information defining the file segments and monitors the received data of the computer file during downloading. When downloading of a file segment is complete, the client computer applies the completed segment concurrently with receiving other segments of the computer file from the file server. The process can be used when the computer file is downloaded using a multicast protocol, but is not limited to use with multicast protocols. The client computer can request only needed segments of the computer file.

Concurrently applying an image file while it is being downloaded using a multicast protocol

Described herein are various principles for operating a connectionless content unit transfer protocol to transmit content of a content unit to multiple clients using a shared buffer. A server may transfer content of one or more content units to each of multiple clients upon request from the client using individual buffers. For each content unit being transferred, the server may maintain a count of the aggregate size of buffers for transferring content of that content unit. If the server determines that the aggregate size of the buffers transmitting a particular content unit is larger than the content unit itself, the server may establish a shared buffer for transferring that content unit to clients. A server using a shared buffer in this manner may transfer content of the content unit to clients using the shared buffer until all requesting clients have received the content unit.

Shared buffer for connectionless transfer protocols

Reliable multicast with automatic session startup and client backfil support

A slow client that participates in a reliable multicast session may reduce the speed of data transfer for other clients in the session. A multicast server can mitigate the effect of a slow client by identifying and disconnecting one or more clients that are slowing down the session, or by using other criteria to identify clients to be disconnected. The server may monitor the performance of clients in the session based on factors such as the rate at which each of the clients is able to receive data, the number or rate of packets lost by a client, the amount of time that a client has spent as the slowest client in the session, the identity of a particular client, etc. A client that has been identified for disconnection based on the server's detection efforts, or that has been identified by an administrator, may be disconnected.

Disconnecting selected participant in multicast session

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Bellevue, WA, United States of America

Alaa H Abdelhalim