US 7,126,955 B2 · Architecture for efficient utilization and optimum performance of a network

Abstract

An architecture for optimizing network communications that utilizes a device positioned at two edges of a constrained Wide Area Network (WAN) link. The device intercepts outgoing network packets and reroutes them to a proxy application. The proxy application uses persistent connections with a network accelerator device at the other end of the persistent connection. The proxy applications transmit the intercepted data after compressing it using a dictionary-based compression algorithm. Packet mangling may involve spoofing the connection request at each end node; a proxy-to-proxy communication protocol specifies a way to forward an original address, port, and original transport protocol information end to end. The packet mangling and proxy-to-proxy communication protocol assure network transparency.

Claims32

Dependent claims

A method for handling packet traffic in a data network comprising the steps of:

routing outgoing packet traffic at a network layer to a proxy application running on a local network accelerator associated with a node which is a source of the packet traffic;
receiving, at the proxy application, intercepted packet traffic;
compressing data contained in the intercepted packet traffic via a dictionary based compression algorithm to produce compressed packet traffic, wherein compression occurs on data in the packet traffic that is expressed in at least at one of a fifth or a sixth layer above a transport layer (fourth layer) in the Open System Interconnection (OSI) model, and wherein inter-packet boundaries for the compressed data are determined at the transport layer;
and
transmitting compressed packet traffic to a remote network accelerator associated with a node which is a destination of the packet traffic via a persistent connection maintained with the remote network accelerator.

2 more elements

A method for enabling communication between a source node and a destination node, comprising:

employing a first proxy node to forward a stream of packets between the source node and the destination node at the network layer, wherein the stream is expressed in at least one of a fifth and a sixth layer above a transport layer (fourth layer) in the Open System Interconnection (OSI) model, and wherein inter-packet boundaries for compressing the stream are determined at the transport layer;
employing a compression dictionary to compress the stream of packets for which the inter-packet boundries are determined for the compressed stream;
communicating the compressed stream to a second proxy node over a persistent connection associated with the stream between the source node and destination node;
employing the second proxy node to decompress the compressed stream;
and
proxying the decompressed stream of packets to the destination node.

3 more elements

A system for enabling communication between a source node and a destination node, comprising:

a first network accelerator operative to perform the actions, including:
forwarding a stream of packets between the source node and the destination node at the network layer, wherein the stream is expressed in at least one of a fifth and a sixth layer above a transport layer (fourth layer) in the Open System Interconnection (OSI) model, and wherein inter-packet boundaries for compressing the stream are determined at the transport layer;
employing a compression dictionary to compress the stream of packets for which the inter-packet boundries are determined for the compressed stream;
communicating the compressed stream to a second network accelerator over a persistent connection associated with the stream between the source node and destination node;
and
a second network accelerator operative to perform actions, including:
decompressing the compressed stream;
and
proxying the decompressed stream of packets to the destination node.

6 more elements

A network device for proxying network traffic comprising:

a router that forwards a stream of packets between the source node and the destination node at the network layer, wherein the stream is expressed in at least one of a fifth and a sixth layer above a transport layer (fourth layer) of the Open System Interconnection (OSI) model, and wherein inter-packet boundaries for compressing the stream are determined at the transport layer;
a compression dictionary is employed to compress the stream of packets for which the inter-packet boundries are determined for the compressed stream;
and
a proxy application for communicating the compressed stream to another network device over a persistent connection associated with the stream between the source node and destination node, wherein the other network device enables the decompression of the compressed stream, and proxying of the decompressed stream of packets to the destination node.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Architecture for efficient utilization and optimum performance of a network

Life of this patent

Architecture for efficient utilization and optimum performance of a network

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims32