US 6,266,701 B1 · Apparatus and method for improving throughput on a data network

Abstract

A communication system for improving communication over a data network between an application and remote systems where each of the remote systems is configured to communicate using at least one of multiple transport layer communication protocols. The communication system accepts a request from the application to communicate with one of the remote systems, selects a transport layer communication protocols for communicating with the requested remote system, and communicates using the selected transport protocol with the requested system. In addition, the system may select one of multiple network layer communication protocols to communicate with the requested remote system. The application may be configured to communicate using a first of the transport protocols and request to communicate with a remote system using that first protocol, while the selected protocol may be another protocol. Furthermore, in one feature, the selected transport layer protocol supports selective retransmission while the requested protocol does not support selective retransmission. In another feature, the selected communication protocol supports transmission rate control while the requested protocol does not support transmission rate control.

Claims50

Dependent claims

A communication system for coupling to and enabling an application to communicate over a data network with a remote system, said communication system comprising:

a first module which interfaces with the application, said first module including a protocol selector;
a second module in communication with the first module, said second module implementing a communications protocol stack which enables the first module to communicate over the network with the remote system, said second module including a transport layer module implementing a plurality of selectable transport layer protocols for use in the communications protocol stack, wherein in response to the first module receiving a request to establish communication with the remote system using a first transport layer protocol, the protocol selector queries one or more sources of information about the remote system and based on results of that query selects one of the plurality of selectable transport layer protocols for establishing the requested communication with the remote system, wherein said selected transport layer protocol is a second transport layer protocol that is different from the first transport layer protocol if the query establishes that the remote system is accessible using the second transport layer protocol and even though the application is requesting to communicate with the remote system using the first transport layer protocol.

A server communication system for enabling a client communication system to couple over a data communication network to a one or more server applications, the server communication system comprising:

a transport layer module which during operation implements a plurality of transport layer protocols for communicating with the client communication system and the one or more server applications;
and
a call handler module coupled to the transport layer module and configured (1) to establish a first transport layer communication stream between the sever communication system and the client communication system using a first one of said plurality of transport layer protocols, (2) to accept requests over the first communication stream from client communication system to communicate with a specified one of said one or more server applications, (3) to establish a second transport layer communication stream between the sever communication system and the specified server application using a second one of said plurality of transport layer protocols, and (4) to pass information between the client communication system and the specified server application over the first and second transport layer communication streams, wherein said first and second transport layer protocols are different and said first and second transport layer communication streams exist concurrently.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Apparatus and method for improving throughput on a data network

Life of this patent

Apparatus and method for improving throughput on a data network

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims50