Patent ID: 7796539
Filing Date: 2010-09-14
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method in a network having nodes and a transport layer protocol providing end to end data transfer, wherein N of the nodes are members of a virtual communications ring for multicast communication among the N nodes, each of the N member nodes being logically associated with only a logically upstream one of the N nodes and a logically downstream one of the N nodes, and wherein for the communications ring one of the N nodes functions as a manager node for managing changes in ring membership, the method comprising: receiving a first request from the manager node via the communication ring by one of the N member nodes, wherein the first request is received by the one node from the one node's upstream node and is for signaling the one node to participate in insertion of a N+1th, non-member node in the communications ring; forwarding, by the one node, the received first request to the one node's downstream node in the communication ring; and sending by the one node to the one node's downstream node a reply for the manager node responsive to the received first request, wherein the receiving of the first request includes: receiving a compute distance message from the manager node, wherein the compute distance message has an address of the N+1th node; and wherein the method includes: computing, by the one node, a distance between the one node and the N+1th node; and wherein sending the reply includes: sending a distance computed message for the manager node, wherein the distance computed message includes the computed distance; wherein the reply provides the manager node information for enabling the N nodes and the N+1th node to multicast messages around the communication ring, so that the first request is passed around the ring back to the manager node and respective distances for the distance computer message are generated by the non-manager ones of the N nodes, wherein responsive to the replies the manager node selects a location for inserting the N+1th node as the N+1th member node between two selected ones of the N nodes in the communications ring such that communications distances for the multicasted messages tend to be shorter due to the selected location of the N+1th node than communications distances that would arise for other possible locations of the N+1th node in the communications ring.