Abstract: A protocol and methods for peer network device discovery is presented. The peer discovery protocol includes a peer discovery marker than can be used with an existing networking protocol such as Transmission Control Protocol (“TCP”) to discover peer network devices. The peer discovery protocol also includes a peer discovery table to record network addresses of peer network devices and their associated host network devices. The peer discovery method allows a first peer network device such as an edge router, to send out a peer discovery request with the peer discovery protocol to other peer network devices as the peer network device is sending data packets for a host network device. Once a second peer network device receives a peer discovery request, the second peer network device attempts to establish a two-way, peer-to-peer data-flow to the first peer network device that sent the peer discovery requests.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
July 1, 1998
Date of Patent:
July 31, 2001
Assignee:
3Com Corporation
Inventors:
Michael S. Borella, Guido M. Schuster, Jerry J. Mahler, Ikhlaq Sidhu