Patent ID: 11863457
Assignee: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC
Field: Digital communication (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G  H | IPC H

Claim 8:
9. A computing device connectable to other computing devices in a distributed computing system via a computer network, comprising:
a processor; and
a memory containing instructions executable by the processor to provide an operating system and one or more applications executing on the computing device, the memory also including additional instructions executable by the processor to cause the computing device to:
receive, via the computer network, a packet from another computing device in the distributed computing system, the received packet including:
a header with a first header field containing data representing a delivery time and a second header field containing data representing a network address identifying one of the applications executing on the computing device; and
a payload containing data representing a copy of information transmitted to the identified application and to other applications executing on other computing devices in the distributed computing system; and

inspect the data in the header field of the received packet to identify the delivery time;
perform a comparison of the identified delivery time to a system time at the computing device; and
based on the performed comparison, temporarily store the received packet in a buffer without allowing access to the received packet to the identified application identified by the network address in the second header field prior to the identified delivery time being expired, thereby preventing the identified application from accessing the information in the payload of the packet prior to the identified delivery time being expired; and
allowing the packets or the payload of the packets to be accessed by the identified application after expiration of the delivery time, thereby providing time-sensitive data delivery of the copies of the same information in the payload to the identified application.