1. Field
This disclosure is generally related to data synchronization. More specifically, this disclosure is related to service discovery by executing synchronization of collections between peers on a network using exact match names.
2. Related Art
In many computing applications, it is often important for peers on a network to synchronize their respective collections of data. The proliferation of digital content creates a vast number of collections which require reconciliation. Content-centric network (CCN) architectures have been designed to facilitate accessing and processing such digital content. A CCN includes entities, or nodes, such as network clients, forwarders (e.g., routers), and content producers, which communicate with each other by sending “interest” packets for various content items and receiving “content object” packets in return. CCN interests and content objects are identified based on a unique name, which is typically a hierarchically structured variable length identifier (HSVLI) which comprises contiguous name components ordered from a most general level to a most specific level.
A current CCN synchronization protocol uses a longest-prefix match method, where an interest in “/parc/events/” will match both “/parc/events/calendar.txt” and “/parc/events/conference.txt.” This current synchronization protocol is based on responses that extend the name of an interest. This synchronization protocol is described in the following applications:                U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/720,736, entitled “DYNAMIC ROUTING PROTOCOLS USING DATABASE SYNCHRONIZATION,” by inventors Van L. Jacobson and Marc E. Mosko, filed 19 Dec. 2012 (hereinafter “U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/720,736”); and        U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/681,306, entitled “DATA TRANSPORT BY NAMED CONTENT SYNCHRONIZATION,” by inventors Van L. Jacobson and Marc E. Mosko, filed 19 Nov. 2012 (hereinafter “U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/681,306”);the disclosures of which are herein incorporated by reference in their entirety.        
As CCN architectures evolve, there is a need to discover devices and services offered by those devices based on a synchronization protocol that allows the use of exact name match, rather than the current longest-prefix match. In such a new architecture, the current CCN synchronization protocol will not work.