Method and system for combining computer network protocols

Details Method and system for combining computer network protocols Method and system for combining computer network protocols

1997-10-10

2001-05-08

Nguyen, Chau (Department: 2663)

Multiplex communications

Pathfinding or routing

Switching a message which includes an address header

C370S466000, C370S469000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06229809

ABSTRACT:

COPYRIGHT NOTICE
A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever. The copy-right owner does not hereby waive any of its rights to have this patent document maintained in secrecy, including without limitation its rights pursuant to 37 C.F.R. §1.14.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to computer networking protocols generally, and more particularly to methods and systems for combining previously incompatible protocols so that each runs in native format without tunneling.
TECHNICAL BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Computer networking is accomplished using components which include a set of networking protocols. A wide variety of protocols are known, and not all combinations of protocols are compatible with one another. Familiar protocols include the Transmission Control Protocol (“TCP”), the Internet Protocol (“IP”), the NetWare Core Protocol (“NCP”) (NETWARE is a trademark of Novell, Inc.), the User Datagram Protocol (“UDP”), the Sequenced Packet Exchange protocol (“SPX”), the Internetwork Packet Exchange protocol (“IPX”), and many others.
Protocol stack components interface with one another through the exchange of data packets and other data/control structures such as event control blocks (“ECBs”), and through calls to one another's routines. ECBs are described in “ODI Specification Protocol: Stacks and MLIDs (C Language),” which is commercially available from Novell, Inc. of Orem, Utah. Protocol incompatibilities manifest themselves as a lack of space, encoding differences, or a difference in functionality in the structures and/or routines that are available for one protocol to communicate with another protocol. For instance, IPX packets use 10-byte source and destination addresses while the IP packet format only allocates 4-byte addresses. Thus, full IPX addresses are incompatible with IP addresses.
Such incompatibilities limit the availability of protocol functionality. For instance, NCP defines a wide variety of routines for using and managing information in networks, including file system services, directory services, printing services, and security services. But these services rely on lower-level services provided by IPX. Thus, network users whose system does not support IPX generally do not have access to NCP services. Stated differently, NCP and IP are incompatible in conventional systems (as are SPX and IP, NCP and UDP, SPX and UDP, and TCP and IPX).
“Tunneling” is a process which links otherwise incompatible protocols by continually encapsulating structures used by one protocol into (more or less) equivalent structures used by another protocol. However, this encapsulation process adds significant overhead to the network and also introduces the risk that information will be lost or corrupted by improper encapsulation or decapsulation.
To illustrate tunneling, consider first a conventional system, containing no tunneling, in which an NCP service calls an IPX service. The system does not use IP or any other alternative to IPX, but instead relies on IPX. After receiving information from the NCP protocol, the IPX protocol would call lower level protocols to transmit information over a “wire”; as used herein, “wires” include one or more links such as copper wire, cable, optical fibers, microwave transceivers, satellites, and other transmission media. At the other end of the wire, a second instance of IPX would receive the information and pass it upward in turn to a second instance of NCP.
Now assume that transmission over the wire is to be accomplished using IP. In a tunneling system, both IP and IPX are used, even though IP and IPX duplicate much of each other's functionality from a network architecture point of view. The first NCP instance hands information to the first IPX instance, as before. However, in the tunneling system the first IPX instance has been modified so that it calls an encapsulation routine from an encapsulation module instead of calling the lower level protocols. The encapsulation routine encapsulates the information, which is in IPX format, creating a packet that fits IP format and then calls IP (hence “tunneling” into IP through IPX). IP transmits the information over the wire (with the assistance of lower level protocols as is usual for IP) to a second IP instance. The second IP instance hands the received information to a second conversion module. The conversion module converts the information back into IPX format and passes it to a second instance of IPX. Finally, the second IPX instance passes the information up to a second instance of NCP.
In view of the inefficiencies and risks of tunneling and the benefits of connectivity, it would be an advancement in the art to provide a system and method for placing otherwise incompatible network protocols in communication with one another without tunneling through one protocol into another protocol that duplicates much of the first protocol's network functionality.
It would be an additional advancement to provide such a system and method which reduces or eliminates the use of conversion routines.
It would also be an advancement to provide such a system and method which do not require changes in packet formats or other data/control structures that are already in wide use by numerous individuals and institutions.
Such a method and system for combining network protocols is disclosed herein.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a method and system for combining previously incompatible network protocols without tunneling. In one embodiment of the invention, an IP stack is modified to contain an IP-compatible component IP′ which registers a predetermined and relatively small set of identifiers and service routines with a Link Support Layer (“LSL”) in an Open Data Interface (“ODI”) component. An NCP stack is similarly modified to include an NCP-compatible component NCP′ which utilizes the registered identifiers and routines. The ODI component underlies both IP′ and NCP′ and performs low-level services such as transport of data packets over the wire.
In this embodiment, no version of IPX is required (although IP, IP′, and IPX can run concurrently or in turns on the same system if desired, with each handling their respective network connections). A registered transport function replaces a corresponding transport function of IP. Thus, a system of the present invention may operate in the following manner:
(a) an IP′ protocol stack is provided at a source, and a second IP′ stack is provided at a destination;
(b) NCP′ protocol stacks are provided at the source and destination;
(c) each IP′ registers a transport function with an ODI component;
(d) each NCP′ obtains the address of the registered transport function so it can call the registered function directly;
(e) an application or other entity at the source requests an NCP′ service (the service is preferably identical with the corresponding NCP service, at least from the point of view of applications and users);
(f) in the course of servicing the request, the source NCP′ invokes the registered transport function (rather than calling an IPX transport function, as NCP would in a conventional system without IP or in a tunneling system which uses both IP and IPX);
(g) the source IP′ uses the registered transport routine in place of the corresponding transport routine that would be used by IP, manipulates the data appropriately, and passes the data over the wire to the destination IP′ using ODI or other low-level support as needed; and
(h) at the destination, the process is reversed, with IP′ passing data to NCP′ using the registered transport function.
The features and advantages of the present invention will becom

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