Systems and methods for enabling wide area multicast domain name system

Abstract

Systems, methods, and computer-readable media for implementing zero-configuration networking over a wide area network. Disclosed are systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for implementing zero-configuration networking over a wire area network by utilizing agents, application programming interfaces (API), and a controller. The controller can implement polices for communication between the agents and APIs, enabling zero-configuration network

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present technology pertains to zero-configuration networking and more specifically to wide area multicast domain name system in zero-configuration networking.

BACKGROUND

Zero-configuration networking automatically creates a usable computer network between networked devices (e.g., computers, printers, peripherals, etc.) based on the Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). Zero-configuration networking includes service discovery, address assignment and hostname resolution. The networked devices can be automatically connected using multicast Domain Name Systems.

However, there are several configurations where zero-configuration networking cannot operate. For example, discovery of networked devices is bound to a simple VLAN, Multicast DNS frames cannot cross single subnet, can only operate over a single gateway solution, limited in scale and performance in large scale networked environments and further there is no heterogeneous solution for communication between different protocols (e.g., wireless, wired, etc).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order to describe the manner in which the above-recited and other advantages and features of the disclosure can be obtained, a more particular description of the principles briefly described above will be rendered by reference to specific embodiments thereof which are illustrated in the appended drawings. Understanding that these drawings depict only exemplary embodiments of the disclosure and are not therefore to be considered to be limiting of its scope, the principles herein are described and explained with additional specificity and detail through the use of the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a diagram of an example prior art communication network;

FIG. 2 illustrates a diagram of an example network architecture of a data center;

FIG. 3A illustrates a diagram of an example session management of a network;

FIG. 3B illustrates example agent policies;

FIG. 4 illustrates a diagram of an example flow process of a network;

FIGS. 5-10 illustrate example packet structures for communication of a wide area zero configuration network.

FIG. 11 illustrates an example network device; and

FIG. 12 illustrates example system embodiments.

DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS

Various embodiments of the disclosure are discussed in detail below. While specific implementations are discussed, it should be understood that this is done for illustration purposes only. A person skilled in the relevant art will recognize that other components and configurations may be used without parting from the spirit and scope of the disclosure.

Various embodiments of the disclosure are discussed in detail below. While specific implementations are discussed, it should be understood that this is done for illustration purposes only. A person skilled in the relevant art will recognize that other components and configurations may be used without parting from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. Thus, the following description and drawings are illustrative and are not to be construed as limiting. Numerous specific details are described to provide a thorough understanding of the disclosure. However, in certain instances, well-known or conventional details are not described in order to avoid obscuring the description. References to one or an embodiment in the present disclosure can be references to the same embodiment or any embodiment; and, such references mean at least one of the embodiments.

Reference to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the disclosure. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, nor are separate or alternative embodiments mutually exclusive of other embodiments. Moreover, various features are described which may be exhibited by some embodiments and not by others.

The terms used in this specification generally have their ordinary meanings in the art, within the context of the disclosure, and in the specific context where each term is used. Alternative language and synonyms may be used for any one or more of the terms discussed herein, and no special significance should be placed upon whether or not a term is elaborated or discussed herein. In some cases, synonyms for certain terms are provided. A recital of one or more synonyms does not exclude the use of other synonyms. The use of examples anywhere in this specification including examples of any terms discussed herein is illustrative only, and is not intended to further limit the scope and meaning of the disclosure or of any example term. Likewise, the disclosure is not limited to various embodiments given in this specification.

Without intent to limit the scope of the disclosure, examples of instruments, apparatus, methods and their related results according to the embodiments of the present disclosure are given below. Note that titles or subtitles may be used in the examples for convenience of a reader, which in no way should limit the scope of the disclosure. Unless otherwise defined, technical and scientific terms used herein have the meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure pertains. In the case of conflict, the present document, including definitions will control.

Additional features and advantages of the disclosure will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or can be learned by practice of the herein disclosed principles. The features and advantages of the disclosure can be realized and obtained by means of the instruments and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims. These and other features of the disclosure will become more fully apparent from the following description and appended claims, or can be learned by the practice of the principles set forth herein.

Overview

Additional features and advantages of the disclosure will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or can be learned by practice of the herein disclosed principles. The features and advantages of the disclosure can be realized and obtained by means of the instruments and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims. These and other features of the disclosure will become more fully apparent from the following description and appended claims, or can be learned by the practice of the principles set forth herein.

The approaches set forth herein can be used to implement zero-configuration networking over a wide area network. Disclosed are systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for configuring a wide area multicast domain name system. The system, method and computer-readable storage media configured to receive, at a controller, a request to advertise a first device from a first local area network and verify one or more policies are configured to enable the first device to advertise one or more services. The system, method and computer-readable storage media are also configured to receive, at the controller, a query to discover advertised services from a second device from a second local area network, verify the one or more policies are configured to enable the second device to discover the advertised services and in response to the verification, providing the second device with the advertised services. In some examples, the first local area network and second local area network connected by a wide area network. In some examples, the connections (e.g., advertising and discovery) between the controller and first device and the second device are facilitated by one or more agent running on one or more gateway server. In some examples, the connections facilities by the one or more agents and the controller expires after a predetermined time. In some examples, the predetermined time can be reset when the agent sends a heartbeat to the controller.

The system, method and computer-readable storage media are also configured to connect from the second device to the first device, and send and receive data between the first device and the second device over the wide area network. In some examples, the connections between each of the devices and the one or more agents is verified by one or more local area agent policies and the connections between the one or more agents and the controller is verified by one or more wide area agent policies.

Description

The disclosed technology addresses the need in the art for implementing zero-configuration networking over a wide area network. Disclosed are systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for implementing zero-configuration networking over a wire area network by utilizing agents, application programming interfaces (API), and a controller. The controller can implement polices for communication between the agents and APIs, enabling zero-configuration network A description of network computing environments and architectures, as illustrated in FIGS. 1-2, is first disclosed herein. A discussion of session management and flow as illustrated in FIGS. 3-4 will then follow. A discussion of packet structure as illustrated in FIG. 5-10 will then follow. The discussion then concludes with a description of example devices, as illustrated in FIGS. 11 and 12. These variations shall be described herein as the various embodiments are set forth. The disclosure now turns to FIG. 1.

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a prior art communication network 100 illustratively including networks 110, 120 and 130. In FIG. 1, networks 110, 120 and 130 are unable to automatically configure communication between devices using a zero-configuration networking.

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of an example communication network 200 illustratively including networks 110, 120 and 130. Each network (e.g., 110, 120, 130, etc.) can have one or more devices 212, 222, 232 (e.g., servers, computing devices, printers, smart phones, networked components, televisions, endpoints, etc.). Each network (e.g., 110, 120, 130, etc.) can run zero-configuration services, including, but not limited to multicast Domain Name System 214, 224, 234 (mDNS). Each network can also be local area service discovery gateways (SDG). mDNS (e.g., 214, 224, 234, etc.) can resolve host names to IP addresses within small networks that do not include a local name server. Each mDNS of a local area network works with the agents to announce, advertise and query for services that exist beyond the local area network.

Each network (e.g., 110, 120, 130, etc.) can also run one or more zero-configuration agents 216, 226, 236. The one or more agents (e.g., 216, 226, 236) can run on one or more gateways (not shown) and can communicate (e.g., wired, wireless, etc.) with zero configuration controller 250 over wide area network 140 (e.g., the Internet, etc.) through wide area service SDG 240. The agents can configured for high availability, dynamic load balancing, and horizontal scaling. In some examples, the agents can use loopback interfaces (e.g., that provide state full protocol reliable connection during network failures, automatic load-balance, form trusted connections, etc.). The wide area SDG can enable mDNS to operate across layer 3 boundaries (and enable zero-configuration over the wide area network). In some examples, an agent can send an advertisement to the controller, advertising services the devices (within the network the agent is connected) can provide to other networked devices across the wide area network (e.g., printing, file sharing, screen sharing, audio/video, etc.) Once connected, the agents and controller can keep an active connection (e.g., maintain the state), for example, until an agent sends a withdraw messages or a heartbeat is not received at the server from the agent. While connected, the advertised devices can be available for connection by other networked device based on one or more policies. For example, controller 250 can execute one or more policies (e.g., wide area controller policies, etc.) for enabling communication between the devices (e.g., 212, 222, 232, etc.) of the networks (e.g., 110, 120, 130, etc.) via the agents (e.g., 216, 226, 236) as shown in FIG. 3A. Agents (e.g., 216, 226, 236, etc.) can also run one or more policies (e.g., local area agent polices, wide area agent policies, etc.). In some examples, there can be more than one controller. In some examples, the controllers can run in an active/standby configuration. In some examples, the controller can be a distributed system, for example, multiple controllers can operate in a distributed fashion, however, the agents would perceive one controller.

FIG. 3A illustrates a schematic block diagram of an example communication network 300 illustratively including policies. Controller 250 can have one or more policies implemented from the one or more agents (e.g., 216, 226, 236, etc.). The policy can specify the network type, for example, the source will enable connection to devices with a wired connection type, but not other types (e.g., wireless). The policy can also deny connections from devices of other networks not in the policy, for example, devices 222 (through agent 226) of network 120) cannot communication with the wired connected devices 212 of network 110. Policies can include, local area policies and wide area policies. The policies can include attributes including, but not limited to: subnets, networks, devices, services, VLAN, port, mac address, port, service text record, etc.

An example policy 360 (e.g., wide area controller policy) can include a source (e.g., agent 216 of network 110 via 10.0.0.1) and a receiver (e.g., agent 236 of network 130 via 10.0.0.2). Under example policy 360, wired networked devices at agent 216 can connected to wired or wireless networked device at agent 236. Networked devices connected to agent 226 cannot connect to controller 250.

There can be at least three types of policies implemented in wide area zero configuration networking: local area agent policy (e.g., 361, 363, etc.), wide area agent policy (e.g., 362, 364, etc.) and wide area controller policy (e.g., 360). The local area agent policy can be enforced on the agent (e.g., gateway running agent) between the devices in the local network. The enforcement is in the layer 2 network domain and can be bi-directional. The local area agent policies can be enforced towards mDNS end-points in Layer 2 network domain. The local area agent policies can determine whether to permit or deny announcement and cache the service for further distribution. Similarly it can determines whether to listen request from another end-point to provide response. If permitted then an agent response can be based on local cache (e.g., at the agent). If denied, then the request can be denied. The wide area agent policy can be enforced on the agent for export control to the controller. The wide area agent policy can be uni-directional (egress) from the agent to the controller. This uni-directional policy is outbound towards the controller (e.g., central wide area bonjour naming server). The wide area agent policies can determine what locally discovered services are permitted/deny to be globally distributed thru the controller and what service request from local clients can be discovered from wide area network (e.g., wide area service SDG, Bonjour domain, etc.). The wide area controller policy can be enforced on the controller. The wide area controller policy can be enabled for global discovery and distribution to the agents and can be bi-directional. An example wide area controller policy can be seen in FIG. 3A.

The policies can also operate in different modes. For example, a single source to single query mode (e.g., two agent service policy configuration—source and query agents either wired or wireless connecting agents). In another example, a multiple source to multiple query mode (e.g., balanced any-to-any service boundary—wired-to-wired, wireless-to-wireless, wired-to-wireless, wireless-to-wired). In another example, multiple source to single query mode (e.g., a policy configuration from broader discovery points such as LAN agents, but single distribution point such as WAN agents).

In some examples, the agent can manage the devices within its network. For example, when a networked device (e.g., networked television 212, etc.) comes online the networked device can send notification to the agent (e.g., 216), for example, online and device type notifications. The agent can then check its policies (e.g., local area agent policy 361, wide area agent policy 362 (examples of each agent policy illustrated in FIG. 3B)) to determine if the networked device should be advertised, or should be allowed to communicate with other devices (i.e., through the zero configuration networking). The agent can then store details of the networked device in a local cache (e.g., to determine the networked device is still reachable and maintain timers). The timer can be similar to a heartbeat. For example, the timer can be a predetermined amount of time (e.g., 15 seconds, etc.) to which the agent should received a heartbeat or stay alive packet (from the networked device). Upon receiving the heartbeat, the timer resets. When the heartbeat is not received, the timer expires and the policy for accessing the networked device is deactivated. In some examples, the policy can be reactivated (when details are still available in the cache). In other examples, the policies need to be reconfigured. The agent can also work as a local proxy, for example, to facilitate communication to and from the networked device. In some examples, a timer (or heartbeat) can be between the agent (e.g., 216, 226, 236, etc.) and the controller (e.g., 250).

FIG. 4 illustrates an example flow of a communication session using zero configuration networking. Device 212 (e.g., networked television) can make announcement 472 to agent 216. For example, device 212 wishes to be available for discovery by other networked devices. Agent 216 can look up a policy (e.g., local area agent policy) for device 212 and can determine details for routing stored in cache. Agent 216 can then advertise 474 services of device 212 to controller 250 (according to wide area agent policies (e.g., egress)). Controller 250 can then verify wide area controller polices are configured to enable discovery of devices connected to agent 216.

Device 232 (e.g., receiver) can query 480 to agent 236. Agent 236 can look up the local area agent policy to determine if device 232 can communicate with agent 236. Agent 236 can then look up the wide area agent policy (e.g., egress) to determine if agent 236 can communicate with controller 250. Agent 236 can then send request 482 to controller 250 for connection. Controller 250 can then send response 484 back to agent 236 to verify agent 236 can communicate with controller 250 (and devices connected with agent 236 can discover advertised devices from controller 250). Agent 236 can then send a response 486 (to query 480) to device 232 acknowledging device 232 can discover advertised devices on wide area network 140 (and wide area service SDG 240). For example, that device 232 can discover device 212. In response to a successful query device 232 can then discover and connect to devices advertising (e.g., networked television 212). Once connected, device 232 can send and receive data 488 to device 212. The communications above can be facilitated by specific packets as shown through FIGS. 5-10.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example TCP/IP packet structure with a Bonjour Control Protocol (BCP) header and payload. In some examples, the payload can be secured using a hashing scheme (e.g., MD5). FIG. 6 illustrates an example detailed view of the BCP header. The BCP header can include a type flag (e.g., advertise, query, query response, etc.). FIG. 7 illustrates an example detailed header values of the BCP header. FIG. 8 illustrates an example advertise packet structure (e.g., as used in advertise 474 of FIG. 4). For example, the advertise packet can export services to the control based on local defined policies. FIG. 9 illustrates an example query packet structure (e.g., as used in advertise 480 of FIG. 4). FIG. 10 illustrates an example query response packet structure (e.g., as used in advertise 486 of FIG. 4).

The disclosure now turns to the example network device and system illustrated in FIGS. 11 and 12.

FIG. 11 illustrates an example network device 1100 suitable for routing, switching, forwarding, traffic management, and load balancing. Network device 1100 can be, for example, a router, a switch, a controller, a server, a gateway, and/or any other L2 and/or L3 device.

Network device 1100 can include a master central processing unit (CPU) 1104, interfaces 1102, and a bus 1110 (e.g., a PCI bus). When acting under the control of appropriate software or firmware, the CPU 1104 is responsible for executing packet management, error detection, load balancing operations, and/or routing functions. The CPU 1104 can accomplish all these functions under the control of software including an operating system and any appropriate applications software. CPU 1104 may include one or more processors 1108, such as a processor from the Motorola family of microprocessors or the MIPS family of microprocessors. In an alternative embodiment, processor 1108 is specially designed hardware for controlling the operations of network device 1110. In a specific embodiment, a memory 1106 (such as non-volatile RAM and/or ROM) also forms part of CPU 1104. However, there are many different ways in which memory could be coupled to the system.

The interfaces 1102 are typically provided as interface cards (sometimes referred to as “line cards”). Generally, they control the sending and receiving of data packets over the network and sometimes support other peripherals used with the network device 1100. Among the interfaces that may be provided are Ethernet interfaces, frame relay interfaces, cable interfaces, DSL interfaces, token ring interfaces, and the like. In addition, various very high-speed interfaces may be provided such as fast token ring interfaces, wireless interfaces, Ethernet interfaces, Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, ATM interfaces, HSSI interfaces, POS interfaces, FDDI interfaces and the like. Generally, these interfaces may include ports appropriate for communication with the appropriate media. In some cases, they may also include an independent processor and, in some instances, volatile RAM. The independent processors may control such communications intensive tasks as packet switching, media control and management. By providing separate processors for the communications intensive tasks, these interfaces allow the master microprocessor 1104 to efficiently perform routing computations, network diagnostics, security functions, etc.

Although the system shown in FIG. 11 is one specific network device of the present invention, it is by no means the only network device architecture on which the present invention can be implemented. For example, an architecture having a single processor that handles communications as well as routing computations, etc. is often used. Further, other types of interfaces and media could also be used with the router.

Regardless of the network device's configuration, it may employ one or more memories or memory modules (including memory 1106) configured to store program instructions for the general-purpose network operations and mechanisms for roaming, route optimization and routing functions described herein. The program instructions may control the operation of an operating system and/or one or more applications, for example. The memory or memories may also be configured to store tables such as mobility binding, registration, and association tables, etc.

FIG. 12 shows an example of computing system 1200 in which the components of the system are in communication with each other using connection 1205. Connection 1205 can be a physical connection via a bus, or a direct connection into processor 1210, such as in a chipset or system-on-chip architecture. Connection 1205 can also be a virtual connection, networked connection, or logical connection.

In some embodiments computing system 1200 is a distributed system in which the functions described in this disclosure can be distributed within a datacenter, multiple datacenters, a peer network, throughout layers of a fog network, etc. In some embodiments, one or more of the described system components represents many such components each performing some or all of the function for which the component is described. In some embodiments, the components can be physical or virtual devices.

Example system 1200 includes at least one processing unit (CPU or processor) 1210 and connection 1205 that couples various system components including system memory 1215, read only memory (ROM) 1220 or random access memory (RAM) 1225 to processor 1210. Computing system 1200 can include a cache of high-speed memory 1212 connected directly with, in close proximity to, or integrated as part of processor 1210.

Processor 1210 can include any general purpose processor and a hardware service or software service, such as services 1232, 1234, and 1236 stored in storage device 1230, configured to control processor 1210 as well as a special-purpose processor where software instructions are incorporated into the actual processor design. Processor 1210 may essentially be a completely self-contained computing system, containing multiple cores or processors, a bus, memory controller, cache, etc. A multi-core processor may be symmetric or asymmetric.

To enable user interaction, computing system 1200 includes an input device 1245, which can represent any number of input mechanisms, such as a microphone for speech, a touch-sensitive screen for gesture or graphical input, keyboard, mouse, motion input, speech, etc. Computing system 1200 can also include output device 1235, which can be one or more of a number of output mechanisms known to those of skill in the art. In some instances, multimodal systems can enable a user to provide multiple types of input/output to communicate with computing system 1200. Computing system 1200 can include communications interface 1240, which can generally govern and manage the user input and system output, and also connect computing system 1200 to other nodes in a network. There is no restriction on operating on any particular hardware arrangement and therefore the basic features here may easily be substituted for improved hardware or firmware arrangements as they are developed.

Storage device 1230 can be a non-volatile memory device and can be a hard disk or other types of computer readable media which can store data that are accessible by a computer, such as magnetic cassettes, flash memory cards, solid state memory devices, digital versatile disks, cartridges, battery backed random access memories (RAMs), read only memory (ROM), and/or some combination of these devices.

The storage device 1230 can include software services, servers, services, etc., that when the code that defines such software is executed by the processor 1210, it causes the system to perform a function. In some embodiments, a hardware service that performs a particular function can include the software component stored in a computer-readable medium in connection with the necessary hardware components, such as processor 1210, connection 1205, output device 1235, etc., to carry out the function.

For clarity of explanation, in some instances the present technology may be presented as including individual functional blocks including functional blocks comprising devices, device components, steps or routines in a method embodied in software, or combinations of hardware and software.

In some embodiments the computer-readable storage devices, mediums, and memories can include a cable or wireless signal containing a bit stream and the like. However, when mentioned, non-transitory computer-readable storage media expressly exclude media such as energy, carrier signals, electromagnetic waves, and signals per se.

Methods according to the above-described examples can be implemented using computer-executable instructions that are stored or otherwise available from computer readable media. Such instructions can comprise, for example, instructions and data which cause or otherwise configure a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or special purpose processing device to perform a certain function or group of functions. Portions of computer resources used can be accessible over a network. The computer executable instructions may be, for example, binaries, intermediate format instructions such as assembly language, firmware, or source code. Examples of computer-readable media that may be used to store instructions, information used, and/or information created during methods according to described examples include magnetic or optical disks, flash memory, USB devices provided with non-volatile memory, networked storage devices, and so on.

Devices implementing methods according to these disclosures can comprise hardware, firmware and/or software, and can take any of a variety of form factors. Typical examples of such form factors include laptops, smart phones, small form factor personal computers, personal digital assistants, rackmount devices, standalone devices, and so on. Functionality described herein also can be embodied in peripherals or add-in cards. Such functionality can also be implemented on a circuit board among different chips or different processes executing in a single device, by way of further example.

The instructions, media for conveying such instructions, computing resources for executing them, and other structures for supporting such computing resources are means for providing the functions described in these disclosures.

Although a variety of examples and other information was used to explain aspects within the scope of the appended claims, no limitation of the claims should be implied based on particular features or arrangements in such examples, as one of ordinary skill would be able to use these examples to derive a wide variety of implementations. Further and although some subject matter may have been described in language specific to examples of structural features and/or method steps, it is to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to these described features or acts. For example, such functionality can be distributed differently or performed in components other than those identified herein. Rather, the described features and steps are disclosed as examples of components of systems and methods within the scope of the appended claims. Moreover, claim language reciting “at least one of” a set indicates that one member of the set or multiple members of the set satisfy the claim.

Claims

1. A method comprising: receiving from a zero configuration compatible first agent of a zero configuration incompatible first local area network, at a zero configuration controller, a request to advertise a first device from the first local area network;verifying, by the controller, that one or more policies are configured to enable the first device to advertise one or more services;receiving from a zero configuration compatible second agent of a zero configuration incompatible second local area network, at the controller, a query to discover advertised services from a second device from the second local area network;verifying, by the controller, that the one or more policies are configured to enable the second device to discover the advertised services; andin response to the verification that the one or more policies are configured to enable the second device to discover the advertised services, providing the second device with the advertised services;wherein the zero configuration incompatible status of the first and second network renders the first and second networks unable to automatically configure communications between using zero-configuration networking.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first local area network and second local area network connected by a wide area network.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising: connecting, from the second device, to the first device; andsending and receiving data between the first device and the second device over the wide area network.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein advertising and discovery connections between the controller and first device and the second device are facilitated by one or more agent running on one or more gateway server.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the connections facilitated by the one or more agents and the controller expires after a predetermined time.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the predetermined time can be reset when the agent sends a heartbeat to the controller.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the connections between each of the devices and the one or more agents is verified by one or more local area agent policies and the connections between the one or more agents and the controller is verified by one or more wide area agent policies.

8. A zero configuration controller comprising: a processor; anda memory storing instructions, which when executed by the processor causes the controller to perform operations comprising: receive from a zero configuration compatible first agent of a zero configuration incompatible first local area network a request to advertise a first device from a first local area network;verify one or more policies are configured to enable the first device to advertise one or more services;receive from a zero configuration compatible second agent of a zero configuration incompatible second local area network a query to discover advertised services from a second device from the second local area network;verify the one or more policies are configured to enable the second device to discover the advertised services; andin response to verification that the one or more policies are configured to enable the second device to discover the advertised services, providing the second device with the advertised services;wherein the zero configuration incompatible status of the first and second network renders the first and second networks unable to automatically configure communications between using zero-configuration networking.

9. The controller of claim 8, wherein the first local area network and second local area network connected by a wide area network.

10. The controller of claim 9, the operations further comprising: connecting, from the second device, to the first device; andsending and receiving data between the first device and the second device over the wide area network.

11. The controller of claim 8, wherein advertising and discovery connections between the controller and first device and the second device are facilitated by one or more agent running on one or more gateway server.

12. The controller of claim 11, wherein the connections facilitated by the one or more agents and the controller expires after a predetermined time.

13. The controller of claim 12, wherein the predetermined time can be reset when the agent sends a heartbeat to the controller.

14. The controller of claim 11, wherein the connections between each of the devices and the one or more agents is verified by one or more local area agent policies and the connections between the one or more agents and the controller is verified by one or more wide area agent policies.

15. At least one non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions which when executed by a processor causes a zero configuration controller to perform operations comprising: receive from a zero configuration compatible first agent of a zero configuration incompatible first local area network a request to advertise a first device from the first local area network;verify one or more policies are configured to enable the first device to advertise one or more services;receive from a zero configuration compatible second agent of a zero configuration incompatible second local area network a query to discover advertised services from a second device from a second local area network;verify the one or more policies are configured to enable the second device to discover the advertised services; andin response to the verification that the one or more policies are configured to enable the second device to discover the advertised services, providing the second device with the advertised services;wherein the zero configuration incompatible status of the first and second network renders the first and second networks unable to automatically configure communications between using zero-configuration networking.

16. The at least one non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the first local area network and second local area network connected by a wide area network.

17. The at least one non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16, the operations further comprising: connecting, from the second device, to the first device; andsending and receiving data between the first device and the second device over the wide area network.

18. The at least one non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein advertising and discovery connections between the controller and first device and the second device are facilitated by one or more agent running on one or more gateway server.

19. The at least one non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 18, wherein the connections facilitated by the one or more agents and the controller expires after a predetermined time.

20. The at least one non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 18, wherein the connections between each of the devices and the one or more agents is verified by one or more local area agent policies and the connections between the one or more agents and the controller is verified by one or more wide area agent policies.