Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Opnet Technologies, Inc.

Riverbed Technology, Inc.

Nishant Gupta

Alain J Cohen

Patrick J Malloy

Aditya G Bhandarkar

Pradeep Singh

Karthik Raman

Farookh P Mohammed

Antoine D Dunn

John Wilson Strohm

Ryan Gehl

Prasanna Sukumar

Mahesh Lavannis

William E Bardon, Jr

Dharma Kiritkumar Shukla

Todd R Manion

Akash Jeevan Sagar

Raymond Edward Endres

Ori Amiga

Michael James Ott

Vinod Jeyachandran

Alexander M Tkatch

Akezyt Janedittakarn

David Boyd

Nitin Sharma

Raymond Onley

Kent Hundley

David Manowitz

Ghanaie-Sichanie Arash

David James Boyd

A user interface to a network simulator facilitates the use of application layer parameters and application layer logic. The user interface is configured to allow the user to define the input in a graphic form, or a text/programming form, or a combination of both. The user interface provides common graphic forms for both inputting the data to the simulator as well as for displaying the resultant data from the simulator. In response, the simulator and user interface may provide updated information to reflect the impact of changes made to application layer parameters and logic.

Application level interface to network analysis tools

A unified data access mechanism can provide transparent access to data that is either stored locally or remotely. Application programs can direct data requests and data modifications to this singular component without foreknowledge of where the data is stored. The unified data access mechanism can work in concert with a synchronization mechanism that can maintain data synchronization between local data and remote data. Requested or modified data can be identified as stored locally or remotely based on the namespace of the data. If the data is stored remotely, the user credentials associated with the user's process space within which the application program is executing can be utilized to identify, and then provide, relevant authentication information to the remote data store, should it be required.

Transparent access mechanism for local and remote data

A back-end locator service can be utilized to identify a specific computing device, from among multiple computing devices in a domain, that is the most appropriate computing device to handle a particular type of request for data or other resources. The data or resources hosted by the domain can be divided among multiple computing devices. The domain can expose a network-based application program interface where successive requests by a client computing device become more specific as to the data or resources requested. Responses from the computing devices in the domain can, at some point in time, be informed by the back-end locator service and can comprise location-specific resource identifiers. The client computing device can utilize such location specific resource identifiers to direct further communications to the appropriate, specific computing device without having to incur redirection inefficiencies.

Context-specific network resource addressing model for distributed services

A user interface to a network simulator facilitates the use of application layer parameters and application layer logic. The user interface is configured to allow the user to define the input in a graphic form, or a text/programming form, or a combination of both. Preferably, the user interface provides common graphic forms for both inputting the data to the simulator as well as for displaying the resultant data from the simulator, thereby easing the progression from the analysis of output from one simulation to the generation of new input for a subsequent simulation.

Service-oriented systems employing pipeline architecture to accommodate third party extensions for extending existing functionality or providing additional functionality are provided. User or third party provided plug-ins are registered through metadata and executed in a pipeline along with platform operations. The pipeline is extendable on the fly with newly uploaded plug-ins. Dependency analyses for ordering synchronous or asynchronous pipeline operations enable multiple parties to extend the system and operate predictably. Loop detection mechanisms prevent misuse of system resources through accidental or malicious creation of infinite loops with exceptions for non-degenerate infinite loops.

Service-oriented pipeline based architecture

In a network simulation system, a compiler is provided to support incremental updates to the configuration data associated with the modeled network. Each incremental change is identified and logged, to facilitate configuration management and select roll-backs to prior configurations. Because each update is processed and managed individually, and integrated automatically into the overall system configuration, the overhead associated with keeping a configuration database up-to-date is substantially reduced, thereby increasing the likelihood that all configuration changes will be reflected in the modeled network. In a preferred embodiment, the same data is used to incrementally update the configuration model and to execute the change in the actual system, thereby further reducing the overhead and assuring a correspondence between the modeled network and the actual network.

Incremental update of virtual devices in a modeled network

Traffic flows through an administered network from an off-network source and/or to an off-network destination are simulated and analyzed by selecting an ingress and/or egress node within the administered network, the ingress node capable of collecting traffic from an off-network source, and the egress node capable of routing traffic to an off-network destination. Traffic flow is mapped from the source or ingress node through the administered network to the egress node. The traffic flow may be simulated and analyzed. The ingress and/or egress nodes may be selected in a variety of ways.

Mapping off-network traffic to an administered network

Growing community of inventors

Sammamish, WA, United States of America

Nishant Gupta