Abstract: A system and method for efficiently accessing replicas of a storage object. A first node may perform a find operation to determine a plurality of nodes that each store a replica of a first storage object. For each node in the plurality of nodes, the first node may establish a direct connection to the node. The first node may then access the replicas of the first storage object using the respective direct connections to the plurality of nodes. In one embodiment, the nodes may be nodes in a peer-to-peer network. Establishing a direct connection to each storage object replica may enable the first node to communicate with each node in a single hop without having to pass messages via intermediate nodes in the peer-to-peer network.

Abstract: A mechanism for describing dynamic display objects in a distributed computing environment is described. A service in a distributed computing environment may generate results data for a client in response to client requests. The service may provide schemas describing the presentation characteristics of results data. The schemas may include information for use in presenting the results data. The results data may include data elements, and the presentation schema may include presentation elements each including information describing the presentation characteristics of one or more of the data elements. The client may map data elements to corresponding presentation elements from the schema, and may use the element corresponding to a data element to present the data element. Using the dynamic display objects, display behavior may be altered without having to rebuild code.

Abstract: A system and method for performing goal-oriented storage management for a distributed data storage network. Storage management software may execute on each node to cause the distributed data storage network to converge toward a system-wide storage goal. In various embodiments, the system-wide storage goal may be defined to accomplish any of various kinds of optimizations or performance improvements for the system, such as balancing storage utilization, achieving appropriate data replication, increasing performance, increasing fault tolerance, etc.

Abstract: A system and method for efficiently accessing replicas of a storage object. A first node may perform a find operation to determine a plurality of nodes that each store a replica of a first storage object. For each node in the plurality of nodes, the first node may establish a direct connection to the node. The first node may then access the replicas of the first storage object using the respective direct connections to the plurality of nodes. In one embodiment, the nodes may be nodes in a peer-to-peer network. Establishing a direct connection to each storage object replica may enable the first node to communicate with each node in a single hop without having to pass messages via intermediate nodes in the peer-to-peer network.

Abstract: A peer-to-peer platform that may provide mechanisms through which peers may discover each other, communicate with each other, and cooperate with each other to form peer groups is described. The peer-to-peer platform may comprise several layers including a peer-to-peer platform layer, a peer-to-peer services layer, and a peer-to-peer applications layer. At the highest abstraction level, the peer-to-peer platform may be viewed as a set of protocols. Each protocol may be defined by one or more messages exchanged among participants of the protocol. In one embodiment, the peer-to-peer platform may include, but is not limited to, one or more of a peer discovery protocol, a peer resolver protocol, a peer information protocol, a peer membership protocol, a pipe binding protocol, and an endpoint routing protocol. To underpin this set of protocols, the peer-to-peer platform may define a number of concepts including peer, peer group, advertisement, message, pipe, and endpoint.

Abstract: A mechanism for describing dynamic display objects in a distributed computing environment is described. A service in a distributed computing environment may generate results data for a client in response to client requests. The service may provide schemas describing the presentation characteristics of results data. The schemas may include information for use in presenting the results data. The results data may include data elements, and the presentation schema may include presentation elements each including information describing the presentation characteristics of one or more of the data elements. The client may map data elements to corresponding presentation elements from the schema, and may use the element corresponding to a data element to present the data element. Using the dynamic display objects, display behavior may be altered without having to rebuild code.

Abstract: In a distributed computing environment, a service advertisement may include information for a client to access a particular service. A service may publish the service advertisement in a space which stores documents such as eXtensible Markup Language (XML) documents. The advertisement may include a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) and an XML schema for the service that specifies XML messages which are usable to invoke functions of the service. A client may access the space and read the advertisement to construct a gate for access to the service. The client may send a first XML message to the service at the URI, wherein the first XML message is specified in the XML schema, to invoke one or more functions of the service. The service may send a second message specified in the XML schema (e.g., a message including the results of the invoked function(s)) to the client.

Abstract: A mechanism for describing dynamic display objects in a distributed computing environment is described. A service in a distributed computing environment may generate results data for a client in response to client requests. The service may provide schemas describing the presentation characteristics of results data. The schemas may include information for use in presenting the results data. The results data may include data elements, and the presentation schema may include presentation elements each including information describing the presentation characteristics of one or more of the data elements. The client may map data elements to corresponding presentation elements from the schema, and may use the element corresponding to a data element to present the data element. Using the dynamic display objects, display behavior may be altered without having to rebuild code.

Abstract: A system and method for efficiently accessing replicas of a storage object. A first node may perform a find operation to determine a plurality of nodes that each store a replica of a first storage object. For each node in the plurality of nodes, the first node may establish a direct connection to the node. The first node may then access the replicas of the first storage object using the respective direct connections to the plurality of nodes. In one embodiment, the nodes may be nodes in a peer-to-peer network. Establishing a direct connection to each storage object replica may enable the first node to communicate with each node in a single hop without having to pass messages via intermediate nodes in the peer-to-peer network.

Abstract: Embodiments of event message endpoints in a distributed computing environment are described. A set of event messages that may be generated by a service in the distributed computing environment may be described in a data representation language event message schema for the service. For each event message in the schema, the endpoint may subscribe as a consumer of the event. A service may send a message including a data representation language representation of the event to each event message endpoint subscribed to the event. The event message endpoint may extract the representation of the event from the message and distribute it to clients with registered interest in the event type. The event message endpoint may type check the event message and/or the representation of the event against the message schema. Event messages endpoints may also authenticate the sender of the message and verify the integrity of message.

Abstract: A service discovery mechanism may allow clients in a distributed computing environment to search for services. The service discovery mechanism may allow a client to request a capability credential from a service. In one embodiment, the client may present to the service a set of desired capabilities. The service may then respond with a capability credential that may convey to the client the rights to use the requested capabilities. A complete service advertisement may be needed to create a message endpoint for accessing the service. In an embodiment, the capability credential may be used by a client to obtain a complete advertisement for the requested capabilities. The capability credential may provide an additional level of security for the service provider. The capability credential that may be used to receive the complete advertisement may also be used to construct a message gate to communicate with the service where the gate embeds the capability credential in each message to the service.

Abstract: A system and method supporting communication sessions for nodes in a network. A sender node may initiate a send operation to send a message to one or more receiver nodes. For each receiver node, the message may pass from the sender node to the receiver node via a path including a plurality of nodes. At each node through which the message passes, the node may store state information regarding the message. The state information may include information specifying a link via which the message was received. Each receiver node may issue one or more replies to the message. The replies from each receiver node may pass from the receiver node to the sender node via the same path by which the message reached the respective receiver node. This may be accomplished using the state information stored on each node in the path.

Abstract: Embodiments of a system and method using message authentication with message gates are described. A message gate is the message endpoint for a client or service in a distributed computing environment. A message gate may provide a secure endpoint that sends and receives type-safe messages. Gates may perform the sending and receiving of messages between clients and services using a protocol specified in a service advertisement. In one embodiment, the messages are eXtensible Markup Language (XML) messages. For a client, a message gate represents the authority to use some or all of a service's capabilities. Each capability may be expressed in terms of a message that may be sent to the service. Creation of a message gate may involve an authentication service that may authenticate the client and/or service and that generates an authentication credential. A message gate may perform verification of messages against a message schema to ensure that the messages are allowed.

Abstract: A network having a plurality of nodes interconnected by links (virtual communication channels) is disclosed. In one embodiment, the nodes may communicate with each other in a decentralized or peer-to-peer manner. A method for establishing the links among the nodes is disclosed. The links may be established such that the system is able to operate efficiently. In particular, the manner in which the nodes are interconnected by links may enable the system to efficiently route messages and efficiently recover from network failures.

Abstract: A system and method for efficiently linking together replicas of a storage object. The location of a first replica of the storage object may be stored on a node in a network. When new replicas of the storage object are created, the node that stores the new replica may efficiently lookup the location of the first replica and utilize the location information to perform an efficient process to link the new replica to the first replica and any other existing replicas by causing routing information to be created on various nodes.

Abstract: In a distributed computing environment, a message gate may be the message endpoint for a client or service to communicate with another client or service. Message gates may be pre-generated and built into the device. For example, message gates may be generated during the build of embedded software as a means of including a built-in secure message endpoint that does not have to be constructed at runtime. A generation tool may be provided for the pre-construction of gates. The generation tool may include an XML parser, a code generator and a code compiler. In one embodiment, the code generator may be a Java source code generator and the code compiler may be a Java code compiler. During the build of the software for which built-in message gates is desired, the generation tool is run with input from all the relevant XML schemas for which gates are desired. The parser may receive a message schema corresponding to each service or service type that a message interface will be desired in the device.

Abstract: A system and method for re-mapping location-independent addresses in a computer network. A first node may send a first message addressed to a location-independent address, where the first message comprises a request to host an instance of the location-independent address. A second node with which the location-independent address is associated may receive the first message, possibly after the first message was propagated through a path of intermediate nodes. The second node may send a response message to the first node, where the response message indicates whether the second node is granting permission to the first node to host an instance of the location-independent address. The response message may also specify whether the second node is giving up its own instance of the location-independent address.

Abstract: Various embodiments of mechanisms for bridging data representation language messaging based distributed computing environments to foreign environments are described. A device proxy may implement a device protocol and a distributed computing environment protocol to bridge devices into the distributed computing environment. A client proxy is described that implements the distributed computing environment protocol on behalf of a foreign client such as a browser. A service proxy is described that implements the distributed computing environment protocol on behalf of a foreign service. A transport proxy is described that routes data representation language messages between two different message transports. A distributed computing environment client proxy may allow distributed computing environment clients to access Remote Method Invocation (RMI)-based environment services. An RMI-based environment client proxy may allow RMI-based environment clients to access distributed computing environment services.

Abstract: A mechanism for securely decompiling representations of objects into copies of the objects is described. A virtual machine may include extensions for decompiling data representation language representations of objects into objects. The decompiler API may accept a data stream, which includes a representation of the object, and output a copy of the object. In one embodiment, during the decompilation of the representation of objects on a client, each message may be checked to verify that the user has access rights to the object. Access right information for the object may be embedded in the message(s) containing the representation of the object. In one embodiment, when the user is done using the client, the user may log off or otherwise signal the user is finished with the client. The client may detect that the user is finished, and may then proceed to delete objects created by decompilation of representations.

Abstract: A system and method for pre-allocating replicas for a distributed file sharing system. Creating a new file may involve creating a plurality of replicas for the file on a plurality of nodes. In one embodiment nodes in the system may pre-allocate sets of file replicas, where the pre-allocated replicas can be used to satisfy requests to create new files. Pre-allocating the file replicas may decrease the latency of file creation requests by enabling the requests to be satisfied without performing replica allocation in response to the requests.