At+t Corp.

Thomas B London

Partha P Dutta

Dalibor F Vrsalovic

Karl Andres Siil

Daniel N Zenchelsky

John J Chiang

Sinisa Srbljic

Sihai Xiao

A system and method for providing peer-level access control on networks that carry packets of information, each packet having a 5-tuple having a source and destination address, a source and destination port, and a protocol identifier. The local rule base of a peer is dynamically loaded into a filter when the peer is authenticated, and ejected when the peer is loses authentication. The local rule base is efficiently searched through the use of hash tables wherein a hashed peer network address serves as a pointer the peer's local rules. Each rule comprises a 5-tuple and an action. The action of a rule is carried out on a packet when the 5-tuple of the rule corresponds to the 5-tuple of the packet.

System and method for providing peer level access control on a network

A cache for use with a network filter that receives, stores and ejects local rule bases dynamically. The cache stores a rule that was derived from a rule base in the filter. The cache rule is associated in the cache with a rule base indicator indicating from which rule base the cache rule was derived, and a rule base version number indicating the version of the rule base from which the cache rule was derived. When the filter receives a packet, the cache is searched for a rule applicable to a received packet. If no such rule is found, the filter rule base is found, and an applicable rule is carried out and copied to the cache along with a rule base indicator and version number. If a cache rule is found, it is implemented if its version number matches the version number of the rule base from which it was derived. Otherwise, the cache rule is deleted. The cache provides an efficient way of accurately implementing the rules of a dynamic rule base without having to search the entire rule base for each packet.

Session cache and rule caching method for a dynamic filter

A scalable distributed caching system on a network receives a request for a data object from a user. The caching system carries out a locator function that locates a directory cache for the object. The directory cache stores a directory list that identifies the locations of object caches that purport to store copies of the object requested by the user. The object caches on the object directory list are polled, and in response send messages to the cache that received the user request indicating if each object cache stores a copy of the requested object. The receiving cache sends a message requesting a copy of the object to the object cache that sent the message first received by the receiving cache indicating that an object cache stores the requested object. The object cache that sent the first received message then sends a copy of the object to the receiving cache, which stores a copy and then sends a copy to the user. The directory list for the object is then updated by adding the network address of the receiving cache. Outdated copies of objects stored on object caches are deleted in a distributed fashion to maintain the coherence of the cached copies. This is further reinforced by the association of time-to-live parameters with the each copy and each object cache address on directory lists.

Scalable network object caching

Random data is derived from the value of the elapsed time over which a loop is counted on a multitasking computer. The random data can be manipulated and whitened to produce random numbers of arbitrary length that pass both chi-squared and compression tests for randomness. The present invention does not rely on devices such as noise generators, leaky capacitors, gas discharge tubes, or keyboard strokes to generate random data, and reliably generates random data at a substantially higher rate than other systems and methods that can be implemented using only a general purpose computer executing instructions stored in computer readable memory. The present invention is advantageously portable among UNIX-based platforms, and operates without occupying UNIX timers or signals.

System and method for generating random numbers

A system and method for determining if a received identifier could be equivalent to one of a set of predetermined identifiers. Predetermined identifiers are encoded into an output. The coded output is stored on a node in a network. An identifier is received over the network and is tested against the coded output. The test reveals if the received identifier could be equivalent to one of a set of predetermined identifiers encoded into the output. An action can be taken that depends upon the outcome of the test. The present invention is useful in efficiently routing messages in a network, determining the authorization of user requests, and other applications.

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Mountain View, CA, United States of America

Thomas B London