Patent ID: 8392515
Filing Date: 2013-03-05
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. In a federation infrastructure comprising a plurality of nodes that each include one or more processors and system memory and that are organized into a ring of nodes, the plurality of nodes being configured to route messages to one another through the ring, each of the plurality of nodes storing a routing table that includes one or more of a predecessor node of said node in the ring of nodes, a successor node of said node in the ring of nodes, or a plurality of neighbor nodes of said node in the ring of nodes including one or more first neighbor nodes in a first direction of said node in the ring of nodes and one or more second neighbor nodes in a second opposite direction of said node in the ring of nodes, a method for forming a subfederation within the federation infrastructure, the method comprising: an act of determining that a joining node selected from the plurality of nodes in the federation infrastructure desires to join an identified subfederation within the federation infrastructure; an act of the joining node accessing a first group table corresponding to the joining node, the first group table including membership information identifying zero or more subfederations within the federation infrastructure, each subfederation comprising a subset of the plurality of nodes in the federation infrastructure that are organized into a sub-ring, wherein each of the plurality of nodes in the federation maintains neighborhood information for each subfederation of which the node is aware; an act of the joining node determining that no entry for the identified subfederation exists in the joining node's first group table; based on the determination, an act of the joining node routing a group join message to a rendezvous point comprising one of the plurality of nodes in the federation infrastructure, such that the rendezvous point checks a second group table corresponding to the rendezvous point for an entry corresponding to the identified subfederation; and an act of the joining node receiving an indication from the rendezvous point indicating that the rendezvous point's second group table does not include a corresponding entry for the identified subfederation and that the joining node is the first member of the identified subfederation.