Systems and methods of improving performance of transport protocols in a multi-path environment

A network device comprising:

• a transport-layer proxy;
• and
• a multi-path traffic distributor coupled to the transport-layer proxy, wherein the transport-layer proxy is configured to:
• receive packets, each associated with a transport-layer connection, from a transport-layer endpoint;
• store the received packets in buffers associated with the corresponding connections;
• wherein the multi-path traffic distributor is configured to:
• transmit packets from the buffers to an outbound path;
• receive congestion control information from a peer multi-path traffic distributor indicating congestion on the outbound path;
• wherein the transport-layer proxy is further configured to:
• transmit control packets to the transport-layer endpoint based on occupancy of the buffers, wherein the control packets indicate the congestion control information;
• and
• wherein the multi-path traffic distributor is further configured to:
• receive information from the peer multi-path traffic distributor indicating congestion on a path between the peer multi-path traffic distributor and a second transport-layer endpoint, wherein receiving the information is based on occupancy of buffers in the peer multi-path traffic distributor.

A network device comprising:

• a transport-layer proxy;
• and
• a multi-path traffic distributor coupled to the transport-layer proxy, wherein the transport-layer proxy is configured to:
• receive packets, each associated with a transport-layer connection, from a transport-layer endpoint;
• and
• store the received packets in buffers associated with the corresponding connections;
• wherein the multi-path traffic distributor is configured to:
• transmit packets from the buffers to an outbound path in response to congestion control information received from a peer multi-path traffic distributor indicating congestion on the outbound path;
• and
• wherein the transport-layer proxy is further configured to:
• transmit flow control packets to the transport-layer endpoint based on occupancy of the buffers;
• and
• wherein the multi-path traffic distributor is further configured to:
• receive information from the peer multi-path traffic distributor indicating receive buffer occupancy in the peer multi-path traffic distributor;
• and
• transmit packets from the buffers to an outbound path in response to the information indicating receive buffer occupancy.

A network device comprising:

• a transport-layer proxy;
• and
• a multi-path traffic distributor coupled to the transport-layer proxy, wherein the transport-layer proxy is configured to:
• receive packets, each associated with a transport-layer connection, from a transport-layer endpoint;
• and
• deliver each of the received packets to the multi-path traffic distributor if the packet is in sequence;
• and
• wherein the multi-path traffic distributor is configured to:
• store each of the delivered packets in an unbound buffer which is not assigned to an outbound path;
• and
• transmit each of the delivered packets on an outbound path;
• wherein the multi-path traffic distributor is further configured to:
• receive packets from a peer multi-path traffic distributor;
• store received packets that are not in sequence in an out-of-order buffer;
• and
• deliver packets from the out-of-order buffer to the transport-layer proxy when additional packets have been received from the peer to produce an in-order sequence;
• and
• wherein the transport-layer proxy is further configured to:
• store packets delivered from the out-of-order buffer into a receive buffer;
• and
• transmit packets stored in the receive buffer to the transport-layer endpoint.