The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 27, 1997
Filed:
Aug. 21, 1995
Joshua S Auerbach, Ridgefield, CT (US);
John E Drake, Jr, Pittsboro, NC (US);
Prabandham M Gopal, Wayne, NJ (US);
Elizabeth A Hervatic, Apex, NC (US);
Marc A Kaplan, Katonah, NY (US);
Shay Kutten, Rockaway, NJ (US);
Marcia L Peters, Pittsboro, NC (US);
Michael J Ward, New Haven, CT (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A multinode, multicast communications network has a distributed control for the creation, administration and operational mode selection operative in each of the nodes of the network. Each node is provided with a Set Manager for controlling either creation of, administration or access to a set of users to whom a multicast is to be directed. The Set Manager maintains a record of the local membership of all users associated with the node in which the Set Manager resides. A given Set Manager for each designated set of users is assigned the task of being the Set Leader to maintain membership information about the entire set of users in the multicast group. One of the Set Managers in the communications network is designated to be the Registrar which maintains a list of all the Set Leaders in the network. The Registrar insures that there is one and only one Set Leader for each set of users, answers inquiries about the membership of the sets and directs inquiries to appropriate Set Leaders if necessary. All of the set creation, administration and control functions can therefore be carried out by any node of the system and provision is made to assume the function at a new node when failure or partition in the network occurs.