Electrical computers and digital processing systems: support – Multiple computer communication using cryptography – Having particular address related cryptography
Reexamination Certificate
1999-02-19
2002-12-10
Hayes, Gail (Department: 2131)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: support
Multiple computer communication using cryptography
Having particular address related cryptography
C709S203000, C709S208000, C709S217000, C709S220000, C709S228000, C713S160000, C713S161000, C713S178000, C713S179000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06493824
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to network computing systems, and more particularly, to a secure method for remotely waking up a computer on a network.
2. Background of the Invention
Computer networks are commonly used in offices or corporate environments to interconnect personal computers. Well-known local area networks (LANs), such as Ethernet, Token Ring, and ARCnet, are widely used to interconnect a group of computers and other devices that are dispersed over a relatively limited area, such as an office or building, and new LANs continue to be developed. These local area networks provide an efficient and economical way for personal computers to share information and peripherals.
Of course, computer networks are not limited to the confines of an office or building. Smaller networks are commonly interconnected into wide area networks (WANs), such as the Internet, to provide a communications link over a larger area. The Internet is actually a collection of networks that share the same namespace (a set of names in which all names are unique) and use the well-known transmission control protocol/internet protocol (TCP/IP). The Internet currently connects over four hundred networks and tens of thousands of nodes in over forty-two countries. It is estimated that the Internet is now accessed by more than 10 million people every day.
As is well known in the art, the transmission of data packets across networks is governed by a set of rules called “transport protocols”. In order for two computers in a local area network to communicate with one another, each computer must use the proper transport protocol for the particular network. During the last decade, many different transport protocols have evolved for use in different networks. For example, TCP/IP is the transport protocol widely used in UNIX based networks and with Ethernet 802.3 LANs; IPX/SPX is the transport protocol used by Novell Corporation's NetWare developed by IBM to operate underneath Microsoft's NetBIOS network interface; DECnet is the transport protocol used by Digital Equipment Corporation for linking computer systems to DECnet-based networks; AppleTalk is the transport protocol developed by Apple Computer, Inc. for linking systems to Apple Macintosh network systems; and XNS is the transport protocol developed by Xerox Corporation that was used in early Ethernet networks. The transport protocols, which are all well known in the art, are often implemented as software drivers which can be loaded into and out of a computer system.
In order to connect to a network, a computer is usually provided with one or more network interface cards (NICs) that provide a data link to the network. Each network interface card has a unique address, referred to herein as its “destination address”, which enables each computer to be individually addressed by any other computer in the network. The destination address is typically, but not always, a 12 digit hexadecimal number (e.g., 00AA00123456) that is programmed into memory located on the network interface card and is generally hidden from the user's view. Users are not expected to know and remember the destination address of every computer in the network. Instead, every computer generally has a computer name (commonly corresponding to the user's name and/or machine location) that is more widely known. When a user desires to send a message to another computer, the transport protocol in the network is responsible for converting the name of the other computer into the corresponding destination address to establish a communications link between the two computers.
Because wide area networks often include a collection of a wide variety of machines, organizations and individuals, these networks must provide the means to exchange data between dissimilar machines and across many different transport protocols. Each transport protocol has its own version of addressing information that enables it to exchange electronic mail, data files, programs, etc. between one LAN and another LAN. As a data packet is transmitted across different networks, the addressing information for one transport protocol is replaced by the addressing information for the next transport protocol. Over the Internet, this LAN addressing information is abstracted from the Internet address.
The address of an individual, computer, or organization on the Internet has several layers or components including the domain name or user name, the underlying identifiers used by the transport protocol(s) that govern the data exchange, and the actual destination address. Each transport protocol is designed to extract the appropriate destination address to ensure that each message packet is routed to its intended recipient.
To illustrate the distinctions between the various layers of addressing information, consider an individual computer user in Atlanta that wishes to send an e-mail message to a destination computer in Seattle where the computer in Atlanta is connected to an Internet service provider and the computer in Seattle is connected to a corporate local area network. Generally, the user in Atlanta will know, or can readily obtain, the recipient's computer (e.g., www.recipient.com), but will not know the recipient's Internet address or actual destination address. Nonetheless, the transport protocols will abstract the destination address from the message packet as it is transmitted across the network.
Therefore, the user in Atlanta will simply type the recipient's computer name, www.recipient.com, as the address of the destination computer. The message packet will be sent via the Internet, where the TCP/IP transport protocol will convert the computer name into a more primitive Internet address, which is a 32-bit value that identifies the host's network ID and host ID within the network, e.g., 123.234.5.6. The message packet is then routed to the corporate LAN in Seattle, where a component in the LAN, typically a network router, switch, or server, converts the Internet address into the destination address of the recipient's network interface card, e.g., 00AA00123456.
Meanwhile, the network interface card of the destination computer is designed to continually monitor incoming packets over the network. When the network interface card detects an incoming packet containing its destination address, the network interface card will determine that it is the intended recipient of the packet, and will forward information content of the packet to the destination computer's core, thereby completing the communications link.
In normal operations, in which both the source computer and the destination computer are operating in full power mode, all of these address conversions occur automatically and completely invisible to the user, and the communications link is readily established between the two computers. However, efforts are now being made to extend the use of network computing to power management applications, in which one or more of the computers may be operating in a low power mode. In particular, there is increasing demand for power management systems that minimize the energy consumption of computer systems, yet still allow the possibility for receiving remote communications from other computers via a network. These power management systems must provide a mechanism for remotely “waking” a computer system from a low power mode to permit the computer system to receive network communications.
Generally stated, “power management” refers to a computer system's ability to conserve or otherwise manage the power that it consumes. Although power management concerns were originally focused on battery-powered portable computers, these concerns now extend to AC-powered “desktop” computer systems as well. In particular, government initiatives encourage computer manufacturers to develop energy-efficient computers.
Power management techniques include the ability to dynamically power down a computer or certain components within a computer when t
Crisan Adrian
Novoa Manuel
Arani Taghi T.
Compaq Information Technologies Group L.P.
Conley & Rose & Tayon P.C.
Hayes Gail
Heim Michael F.
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