Systems and methods for providing presence tracking in a distributed computing system

Abstract

Providing presence tracking of nodes of a logical network in a distributed computing system. Each node in a logical network tracks the presence of all other nodes on the network. This presence information is used by the protocol to optimize bandwidth utilization of the shared physical media, by not attempting to communicate with a device that does not appear to be or is unlikely to be present. In one embodiment, the presence tracking is applied to a power line carrier (PLC) physical media because of PLC's low-bandwidth characteristics, low baud rate characteristics and the widespread usage of plugged-in devices, the presence of which on the network is generally more transient by nature.

1 . A method for providing presence tracking of nodes of a logical network having an underlying physical network medium in a distributed computing system, comprising: 
 tracking by each node in the logical network the presence state of at least one other node; and    optimizing bandwidth utilization of the physical network medium based upon the presence state of at least one node in the logical network.    
   
   
       2 . A method according to  claim 1 , wherein said tracking includes tracking by each node in the logical network the presence state of all other nodes in the logical network.  
   
   
       3 . A method according to  claim 1 , wherein said optimizing includes ignoring communications to a node that has an associated presence state that indicates the node is not in the present state.  
   
   
       4 . A method according to  claim 3 , wherein said optimizing includes ignoring communications to a node that has an associated presence state that indicates the node is in the absent state.  
   
   
       5 . A method according to  claim 1 , wherein said tracking includes tracking the presence state of at least one other node by periodically sampling whether a keep alive message has been received.  
   
   
       6 . A method according to  claim 1 , wherein said optimizing includes optimizing at least one variable corresponding to a network layer of the protocol.  
   
   
       7 . A method according to  claim 6 , further comprising: 
 assigning values to the at least one variable by an Address Space Arbitrator (ASA), wherein the ASA is an entity responsible for managing the network.    
   
   
       8 . A computer readable medium for automatically tuning a network having an associated protocol and a plurality of nodes forming a logical network having an underlying physical network medium having stored thereon at least one computer-executable module comprising computer executable instructions for performing a method, the method comprising: 
 tracking by each node in the logical network the presence state of at least one other node; and    optimizing bandwidth utilization of the physical network medium based upon the presence state of at least one node in the logical network.    
   
   
       9 . A computer readable medium according to  claim 8 , further including asserting by each node on the network its presence state by sending a periodic keep alive message.  
   
   
       10 . A computer readable medium according to  claim 8 , wherein said tracking includes tracking the presence state of at least one other node by periodically sampling whether a keep alive message has been received.  
   
   
       11 . A computer readable medium according to  claim 8 , wherein the logical network has a node identification (node ID) address space for identifying each node and its associated values for sending and sampling keep alive messages.  
   
   
       12 . A computer readable medium according to  claim 11 , wherein the node ID address space is split into two parts, wherein each part is assigned different values for sending and sampling keep alive messages.  
   
   
       13 . A computer readable medium according to  claim 11 , wherein said optimizing includes tuning parameters relating to how often a node sends and samples keep alive messages.  
   
   
       14 . A computer readable medium according to  claim 12 , wherein a first group of node IDs are assigned to fast presence devices, while a second group of node IDs part are assigned to slow presence devices.  
   
   
       15 . A distributed computing system capable of automatically tuning a logical network having an associated protocol and an underlying physical network medium, comprising: 
 a plurality of nodes, wherein each node in the logical network includes a presence tracking component that tracks the presence state of at least one other node; and    a tracking table including the presence state of the at least one other node;    wherein bandwidth utilization of the physical network medium is optimized based upon the presence state of the plurality of nodes in the logical network.    
   
   
       16 . A distributed computing system according to  claim 15 , wherein the tracking table has a node identification (node ID) for identifying each node and its associated values for sending and sampling keep alive messages.  
   
   
       17 . A distributed computing system according to  claim 16 , wherein the tracking table is split into two parts, wherein each part is assigned different values for sending and sampling keep alive messages.  
   
   
       18 . A distributed computing system according to  claim 16 , wherein the network is optimized according to network tuning parameters relating to how often a node sends and samples keep alive messages.  
   
   
       19 . A distributed computing system according to  claim 16 , wherein a first group of node IDs are assigned to fast presence devices, while a second group of node IDs part are assigned to slow presence devices.  
   
   
       20 . A distributed computing system according to  claim 16 , wherein the tracking table is managed by an Address Space Arbitrator by using a hint value provided in description information associated with each node.