Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
1998-09-21
2002-06-25
Lintz, Paul R. (Department: 2171)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C707S793000, C707S793000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06411966
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computer networks and is more particularly related to a system for registration of data, such as Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, in compliance with a dynamic Domain Naming System (DNS) convention. The invention minimizes traffic between client computers and DNS server computers while minimizing incremental zone transfer network traffic between DNS server computers.
2. The Prior State of the Art
Increasingly, client computer-server computer computing has become a normal trend for the delivery of computational services. A server computer will have a desired application and a client computer will have software component capable of accessing the server computer for the desired services. This may take place over a communications network, such as an Ethernet Local Area Network (“LAN”), or it may occur over a more direct connection through a modem. In either case, the bulk of the computing is provided by the server computer or server computer application and the results are communicated to the client computer portion or client computer application that will then display the results for the user.
It becomes a somewhat difficult process in many instances to anticipate adequate resources for running the server computer application for a certain level of load created by a particular number of users desiring the services provided by the server computer application. The resources used are typically hardware resources, such as CPU time, network bandwidth, disk and memory usage, etc., but may also include software component resources, such as operating system facility usage.
It is important to anticipate adequate resources for the server computer application in order to reduce frustration on the part of the user and to allow the client computer-server computer software component to work most effectively. One of the most common user frustrations is having an unusually long delay in receiving the results of the services provided by the service application or simply not having the server computer application available to provide the desired services, both due to inadequate hardware and system resources. Furthermore, actual errors in the services provided may occur due to the lack of resources available for running the server computer application.
Increasingly, client computers and server computers are standardizing in the way that they communicate, particularly in view of the advances in use and exploitation of the Internet. Of the many areas of standardization, one example is in Internet machine addressing protocol, which is directed towards the reality that computers and people don't remember address information in the same way. While people remember address names with words, computers remember and store information, including address names, numerically. To help people and computers communicate, a translation program is need to translate address names expressed in words into address names expressed in numbers, and vice a versa. In order for a computer to find a specific resource on the Internet, such as a document, a Universal Resource Locator (URL) is used as the address for the document. A person wanting to locate the document enters the words of the URL on a computer that is in communication with the Internet. The computer identifies server computers, including itself, with an IP address that is numerically expressed.
The Microsoft Corporation has in the past produced computer networking software components that perform the registration of IP addresses using the Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS). WINS could be used to translate names expressed in words into names expressed in numbers, and vice a versa. In this way, WINS could be used to use to automatically publish machine name IP addresses. Translation software fundamentally is used to translate text names of server computers into the numeric names that computers recognize, which is then published as IP addresses so that server computers located on geographically disbursed computer networks, such as the Internet, can find one another.
The WINS server computer method is a method for automatic registration of machine host names and IP addresses that is handled through a WINS protocol and server computer. As a machine gets a new IP address, the address information is put on a WINS server computer. When the database of a WINS server computer is relatively small, the WINS server computer is relatively easy to use and maintain. The WINS server computer, however, is disadvantaged in that it does not scale very well since the namespace of the database thereof is flat and cannot be partitioned.
A more common server computer than a WINS server computer is a Domain Naming System (DNS) server computer. DNS is a general-purpose distributed database for storing of DNS data that is published by software entities. Although there are many uses for a DNS system and the general-purpose nature of the DNS database, such as its use as a mechanism for client-server rendezvous, one popular use is “name to address translation”, or the act of converting human-friendly names into machine-friendly addresses. DNS is also used for address-to-name translation of the taking of an IP address and finding out the name associated with it. Computers and other resources having an Internet presence use DNS to provide a textually expressed name. In addition to the responsibility of DNS for converting machine names into IP addresses and vice versa, DNS also coordinates IP addressing in the vast and distributed database that is representative of all published machines.
WINS differs from standard DNS in two significant ways. Standard DNS information for a particular domain is configured through static configuration files. That is, the files must be updated by hand for the most part. The standard WINS information database is built dynamically without human intervention, although static records can also be added to the WINS database by manually entry. A WINS client computer will register its name with the WINS server computer when it boots. As long as the name is not already in use, the WINS server computer will allow the client computer to use that name.
WINS and DNS interface in a methodology knows as WINS Referral that functions on DNS server computers. In WINS Referral, queries are made by a client computer for a name and if the name is not found in the DNS database, then the query is referred instead to WINS. The WINS Referral methodology then determines if the queried name is in WINS or not. If the queried name is found in WINS, then the answer to the query is returned first back to DNS and then back to the client.
WINS and standard DNS are used to resolve different types of services. DNS is used to resolve service types like HTTP for web access, or FTP for file transfer, or POP for mail transfer, or TELNET for terminal access. WINS name resolution is used to resolve names of NETBIOS services. Some NETBIOS services include, for example, the ability to share directories and printers.
One of the many goals of DNS is to provide access to DNS data that is useable by computers connected on networks, called hosts. The terms host and client computer are used interchangeably herein. One example of this goal is the DNS mechanism for naming resources in such a way that the names are usable in different hosts, networks, protocol families, internets, and administrative organizations.
The DNS distributed general-purpose database is partitioned into zones. Each zone is hosted by a DNS server. In general, no single DNS server holds a copy of the entire DNS database. The database consists of records, where each record has five parts. The five parts of each DNS record are the Name, Time To Live, Class, Type, and Data. For the purposes of this present application, only the Name, the Type and the Data will be discussed. The Names in the DNS records form a hierarchy or tree. An example record type is the Host record, which is an “A record”. The Name corresponds to the name of a host on the netw
Curtis Glenn Alexander
Kwan Stuart Lup-Sing
Lintz Paul R.
Microsoft Corporation
Workman, Nydegger & Seel
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