Patent ID: 8028076

Claim:
A method of managing communications of an edge traversal service of a host computer, the method comprising: upon detecting a request by a host process of the host computer, the request indicating an initiation of acceptance edge traversal traffic by the host process: designating the requesting host process as an active edge traversal endpoint associated with the edge traversal service; upon determining that the requesting host process causes a zero-to-one transition from zero active edge traversal endpoints associated with the edge traversal service to one active edge traversal endpoint associated with the edge traversal service, initiating transmission of edge traversal service beacons from the edge traversal service of the host computer; and upon determining that the requesting host process does not cause a zero-to-one transition from zero active edge traversal endpoints associated with the edge traversal service to one active edge traversal endpoint associated with the edge traversal service, maintaining a current beacon transmission state; and upon detecting a second request by a second host process of the host computer, the second request indicating a termination of acceptance edge traversal traffic by the second host process: deleting the requesting second host process as an active edge traversal endpoint associated with the edge traversal service; upon determining that the requesting second host process causes a one-to-zero transition from one active edge traversal endpoint associated with the edge traversal service to zero active edge traversal endpoints associated with the edge traversal service, terminating transmission of edge traversal service beacons from the host computer; and upon determining that the requesting second host process does not cause a one-to-zero transition from one active edge traversal endpoint associated with the edge traversal service to zero active edge traversal endpoints associated with the edge traversal service, maintaining a current beacon transmission state.