Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Other

David C Steere

Yun Lin

Shishir P Pardikar

Navjot Virk

Mohammed Samji

Brian Scott Aust

Atul Adya

David George De Vorchik

Abolade Gbadegesin

Dan Teodosiu

Timothy P McKee

Jason Fergus Moore

William Michael Zintel

Bruce Wayne Copeland

Rohan Kumar

Viraj B Mody

Thomas W Kleinpeter

Danilo D'Amico Almeida

Jin Li

Philip Andrew Chou

Ido Miles Ben-Shachar

Nikolaj Skallerud Bjorner

Cheng Huang

Ahmed Hassan Mohamed

Ashwin Palekar

Joy Chik

Meher P Malakapalli

Alexandra K Heron

Muthukaruppan Annamalai

Naizhi Li

Eyal Schwartz

John T Spivey

Huisheng Liu

Harel M Williams

Tudor Baraboi

Patrick E Bozeman

Tom Kleinpeter

Kunal Nayyar

Tom Galvin

Michael J Bohlander

Clients may subscribe to resources for the purpose of receiving notifications of changes in the resource (e.g., a file is added to a shared folder). Storing subscriptions within persistent storage provides data security in the event of a service failure, at the cost of high latency in accessing subscription data. An efficient method for tracking a resource is provided herein. A subscription service creates subscriptions and monitors resources for a client. Upon a subscribed resource change, a notification service stores a notification of the change into a queue associated with the client. Efficient resource tracking is achieved because notification and subscription data is stored in low latency soft memory. The notification service is configured to detect a failure in the notification service and/or subscription service. In the event a service fails, the client provides a recovery mechanism by resubscribing to resources with which the client has an interest.

Resource tracking

One or more techniques and/or systems are provided for processing data requests received over various communication protocols. In particular, a data transfer component may be configured to process data requests and/or responses between requesting devices and data handlers utilizing various communication protocols (e.g., peer-to-peer communication protocols, web based communication protocols, etc.). In particular, communication protocol functionality may be abstracted away from the data handlers, and may be handled by the data transfer component. In this way, data handlers may be communication protocol agnostic because the data transfer component may perform the communication protocol functionality on behalf of the data handlers, which may allow the data handlers to be more 'lightweight' and focus primarily on fetching and/or formatting requested data.

Communication protocol abstraction

A source device and a target device may endeavor to form a secure communication session whereby encrypted messages may be transmitted over an untrusted network, such as the internet. However, the exchange of many messages in the establishment of the communication session may involve considerable latency and computational resources, particularly in scenarios featuring many communication sessions (e.g., peer-to-peer communication sessions.) Techniques for initiating a communication session may be devised that enables the initiation of a communication session with only two exchanged messages, or even with a single message transmitted from the source device to the target device. Some embodiments of these techniques may also permit the inclusion of advantageous security features, such as authentication via public certificate to detect man-in-the-middle attacks and the inclusion of nonces to detect replay attacks, without increasing the number of messages involved in the initiation of the communication session.

Low-latency peer session establishment

Clients may subscribe to resources for the purpose of receiving notifications of changes in the resource (e.g., a file is added to a shared folder). Storing subscriptions within persistent storage provides data security in the event of a service failure, at the cost of high latency in accessing subscription data. An efficient method for tracking a resource is provided herein. A subscription service creates subscriptions and monitors resources for a client. Upon a subscribed resource change, a notification service stores a notification of the change into a queue associated with the client. Efficient resource tracking is achieved because notification and subscription data is stored in low latency soft memory. The notification service is configured to detect a failure in the notification service and/or subscription service. In the event a service fails, the client provides a recovery mechanism by resubscribing to resources the client is interested in.

Implementing a consistent user name-space on networked computing devices includes various components and methods. When a network connection between a local or host computing device and one or more remote computing devices is present, remote items are represented using the same methodology as items located on the host computing device. To the user, remote and local items are indistinguishable. When the network connection is lost or items located on a remote computer are otherwise unavailable, the unavailable items remain represented on the host computing device. Unavailable items are represented in a way that informs the user that the items may not be fully accessed.

System and method for generating a consistent user name-space on networked devices

A system and method for implementing a consistent user name-space on networked computing devices is provided. When a network connection between a local or host computing device and one or more remote computing devices is present, remote items are represented using the same methodology as items located on the host computing device. To the user, remote and local items are indistinguishable. When the network connection is lost or items located on a remote computer are otherwise unavailable, the unavailable items remain represented on the host computing device. Unavailable items are represented in a way that informs the user that the items may not be fully accessed.

System and method for generating a consistent user namespace on networked devices

Various embodiments introduce the notion of a replication entity which implements a highly scalable file replication system. In one embodiment, the replication entity resides in the form of a scalable replication service. In at least some embodiments, the replication service provides a 'drive in the sky' facility that can be used by individuals, such as subscribers, to synchronize their individual machines, such that their files are automatically replicated to a safe and always-on location. Alternatively or additionally, individuals such as subscribers can also access their files via a web-based interface when they are away from their machines.

Scalable file replication and web-based access

The present invention provides a novel client side caching (CSC) infrastructure that supports transition states at the directory level to facilitate a seamless operation across connectivity states between client and remote server. More specifically, persistent caching is performed to safeguard the user (e.g., client) and/or the client applications across connectivity interruptions and/or bandwidth changes. This is accomplished in part by caching to a client data store the desirable file(s) together with the appropriate file access parameters. Moreover, the client maintains access to cached files during periods of disconnect. Furthermore, portions of a path can be offline while other portions upstream can remain online. CSC operates on the logical path which cooperates with DFS which operates on the physical path to keep track of files cached, accessed and changes in the directories. In addition, truth on the client is facilitated whether or not a conflict of file copies exists.

Persistent caching directory level support

Implementations of the present invention relate to a communication framework that is readily adaptable to a wide variety of resources intended to be accessible through a firewall. In general, a communication framework at a gateway server can provide a specific connection to a requested resource in accordance with a wide range of resource and/or network access policies. In one instance, a client requests a connection to a specific resource behind a firewall. The communication framework authenticates the connection, and quarantines the connection until determining, for example, that the client is using an appropriate resource features. If appropriately authenticated, the communication framework can pass control of the connection to an appropriately identified protocol plug-in processor, which facilitates a direct connection to the requested resource at an application layer of a communication stack.

Providing consistent application aware firewall traversal

The invention provides a distributed file system configured to delegate file system operations to clients. The client obtains a delegation associated with an object managed by the server. The delegation enables the client to perform a file system operation on behalf of the server. The client caches the object and enables users associated with the client to access the object in accordance with the delegation.

System and method for delegating file system operations

Various embodiments can utilize a distributed solution for scheduling connections between peers in a file sharing environment. In accordance with at least some embodiments, individual nodes in a peer-to-peer system include scheduling software that enables the nodes to make scheduling decisions with regard to how, when and where connections are made with other peers. Scheduling decisions can be based on a number of different parameters. In at least some embodiments, a synchronization negotiation manager is embodied with logic that drives the negotiation and scheduling process. This logic is represented by an innovative state machine that is designed to implement the negotiation and synchronization process.

Scheduling connections between peers in a peer-to-peer file sharing environment

The invention provides a system and method for managing cached objects using notification bonds. A server is configured to manage original objects. A client creates cached objects from the original objects and establishes notification bonds with the server. Each notification bond enables the client to obtain a notification from the server in response to an object related event associated with an original object. The client uses the data in the notification to update the cache object corresponding to the original object without synchronizing other cache objects.

System and method for managing cached objects using notifications bonds

Truth on client persistent caching

The present invention is directed at a system and method for managing and evicting objects stored in a cache. The invention provides a mechanism for determining which objects to evict based on a weight that is calculated for each object stored in the cache. The weight is determined by at least two factors, including file size, file type, primary user, last access time, and the like, and by the relative importance of each of the factors. The weight for each object may be determined autonomously and/or may be determined upon a trigger event. The factors and their relative importance may be obtained from a policy applicable to one or several computers.

System and method for managing objects stored in a cache

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Redmond, WA, United States of America

David C Steere