Patent ID: 7249173
Filing Date: 2007-07-24
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method comprising: discovering nodes on a network using a node discovery protocol in a network interface device capable of invoking multiple node discovery protocols over the network through use of a common program interface that abstracts details of the multiple node discovery protocols from a data processing system coupled with the network interface device wherein said discovering enables the data processing system to receive communication information relating to at least one of the nodes discovered by the network interface device; and providing the data processing system with block-level storage access to the at least one of the discovered nodes over the network via the network interface device, receiving a node query from the data processing system; and in response to the node query, returning the communication information; wherein the node discovery protocols comprise at least three node discovery protocols comprising: a node registration protocol registering the discovered devices; a node identification protocol discovering the availability of the discovered node on the network; and a connection discovery protocol discovering communication information needed to establish a session to the discovered device; and wherein the network interface device and the data processing system are part of a single generally programmable machine computer, and the network interface device is an application specific hardware component of the generally programmable computer and is not itself a generally programmable computer.