US 8,949,444 B1Granted

Flow control scheme for parallel flows

AssigneeJuniper Networks, Inc.

InventorsQingming Ma, Kannan Varadhan, Rohini Kasturi

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Abstract

A method includes a proxy device receiving from a source device a request to establish a flow to a destination device; generating, based on the request, a meta-packet that indicates that the flow to the destination device is to be proxied; determining whether a pre-established flow connecting the proxy device to another proxy device that leads toward the destination device exists; sending the meta-packet on the pre-established flow, when it is determined that the pre-established flow exists; receiving by the other proxy device, the meta-packet, and establishing the flow to the destination device based on the meta-packet, where the proxy devices assign one or more of a source address, a source port, a destination address, or a destination port, associated with the source device and the destination device, to the pre-established flow.

Claims21

Dependent claims

A method comprising:

receiving, by a first proxy device and from a first source device, a request to establish a flow to a destination device;
generating, by the first proxy device and based on the request, a meta data unit including a tag that indicates that the flow to the destination device is to be proxied;
selecting, by the first proxy device, a second proxy device based on the destination device;
determining, by the first proxy device, that a pre-established flow is not active between the first proxy device and the second proxy device;
establishing, by the first proxy device, a new flow to the second proxy device based on determining that the pre-established flow is not active between the first proxy device and the second proxy device;
determining, by the first proxy device, that a first source port number, of the first source device, is a same value as a second source port number of a second source device;
increasing, by the first proxy device, the first source port number to create a new first source port number after determining that the first source port number is the same value as the second source port number;
assigning, by the first proxy device, the new first source port number to the new flow after increasing the first source port number;
and
sending, by the first proxy device, the meta data unit on the new flow after determining that the pre-established flow is not active between the first proxy device and the second proxy device.

7 more elements

A first network device comprising:

one or more processors to:
establish and maintain pre-established flows;
receive a request, originating from a first source device, to establish a flow to a destination device;
generate, based on the request, a meta-packet including a tag that indicates that the flow to the destination device is to be proxied;
identify a second network device based on the destination device;
determine that none of the pre-established flows are active between the first network device and the second network device;
establish a new flow to the second network device based on determining that none of the pre-established flows are active between the first network device and the second network device;
determine that a first source port number, of the first source device, is a same value as a second source port number of a second source device;
increase the first source port number to create a new first source port number after determining that the first source port number is the same value as the second source port number;
assign the new first source port number to the new flow after increasing the first source port number;
and
utilize the new flow after assigning the new first source port number to the new flow.

9 more elements

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing instructions, the instructions comprising:

one or more instructions, executable by a first network device, to establish and maintain pre-established flows;
one or more instructions, executable by the first network device, to receive a request, from a source device, to establish a flow to a destination device;
one or more instructions, executable by the first network device, to generate a meta-packet based on the request,
the meta-packet including a tag that indicates that the flow to the destination device is to be proxied;
one or more instructions, executable by the first network device, to select a second network device based on the destination device;
one or more instructions, executable by the first network device, to determine whether one of the pre-established flows is active between the first network device and the second network device;
one or more instructions, executable by the first network device, to establish a new flow to the second network device when none of the pre-established flows are active between the first network device and the second network device;
one or more instructions, executable by the first network device, to determine that a first source port number, of the first source device, is a same value as a second source port number of a second source device;
one or more instructions, executable by the first network device, to increase the first source port number to create a new first source port number after determining that the first source port number is the same value as the second source port number;
one or more instructions, executable by the first network device, to assign the new first source port number to the new flow after increasing the first source port number;
and
one or more instructions, executable by the first network device, to send the meta-packet on the new flow to second network device when none of the pre-established flows are active between the first network device and the second network device.

9 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.