Method and apparatus for reducing network resource transmission size using delta compression

• US 10,326,853 B2
• Filed: 10/26/2018
• Issued: 06/18/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/05/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CloudFlare Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Cloudfare Incorporated
• Inventors: Graham-Cumming, John
• Primary Examiner(s): Chea, Philip J
• Assistant Examiner(s): Khan, Hassan A
• Application Number:
  US16/172,651
• Publication Number:
  US 20190068740A1
• Time in Patent Office: 235 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1023 based on a hash applied to IP addresses or costs
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/2876 Pairs of inter-processing entities at each side of the network, e.g. split proxies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5651 Reducing the amount or size of exchanged application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/02 Protocol performance
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/04 Protocols for data compression, e.g. ROHC

Abstract

A method and computing device for delta compression techniques for reducing network resource transmission size are described. A first version of a network resource is received. The first version of the network resource is stored regardless of a directive that a cached version is not to be used to respond to a future request for that network resource. A first request for the network resource is received. A second request for the network resource is transmitted, to a second computing device. A response including a set differences between the first version of the network resource with a most current version of the network resource is received from the second computing device without receiving the entire network resource. An updated version of the network resource is transmitted to the client device, where the updated version is generated by applying the set of differences to the first version of the network resource.

Claims

1. A method, in a network optimizer of a proxy server, of supporting a delta compression technique for reducing network resource transmission size, the method comprising:

receiving a first version of a network resource, wherein the first version of the network resource is included in a HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) response;

storing, in the proxy server, the first version of the network resource regardless of a directive associated with the network resource that a cached version of the network resource is not to be used to respond to a future HTTP request for that network resource without successful revalidation with an origin server;

receiving, from a client device, a first HTTP request for the network resource;

transmitting, to a network optimizer of a computing device, a second HTTP request for the network resource;

receiving, from the computing device, a first HTTP response including a set of one or more differences between the first version of the network resource stored in the proxy server with a most current version of the network resource without receiving the entire network resource, wherein the first HTTP response further specifies how to apply the set of differences; and

transmitting in a second HTTP response, to the client device, an updated version of the network resource, wherein the updated version is generated by applying the set of differences to the first version of the network resource stored in the proxy server, and wherein applying the set of differences includes at least one of adding content, deleting content, and moving content to the first version of the network resource to obtain the updated version of the network resource.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing a first version identifier identifying the first version of the network resource.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the second HTTP request includes the first version identifier of the first version of the network resource.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the second HTTP request for the network resource includes an indication that the second HTTP request is for a difference between the first version of the network resource and the most current version of the network resource.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first HTTP response further includes an indication that the first HTTP response contains the set of differences between versions and not the entire network resource.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first HTTP response further includes an indication of which algorithm was used to determine the set of differences.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing the updated version of the network resource in the proxy server as a second version of the network resource.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

following the storing of the updated version of the network resource, removing the first version of the network resource.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of differences is an empty set and the updated version of the network resource is the first version of the network resource.

10. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium that provides instructions that, when executed by a processor of a proxy server including a network optimizer for supporting a delta compression technique for reducing network resource transmission size, cause said processor to perform operations comprising:

receiving a first version of a network resource, wherein the first version of the network resource is included in a HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) response;

storing, in the proxy server, the first version of the network resource regardless of a directive associated with the network resource that a cached version of the network resource is not to be used to respond to a future HTTP request for that network resource without successful revalidation with an origin server;

receiving, from a client device, a first HTTP request for the network resource;

transmitting, to a network optimizer of a computing device, a second HTTP request for the network resource;

receiving, from the computing device, a first HTTP response including a set of one or more differences between the first version of the network resource stored in the proxy server with a most current version of the network resource without receiving the entire network resource, wherein the first HTTP response further specifies how to apply the set of differences; and

transmitting in a second HTTP response, to the client device, an updated version of the network resource, wherein the updated version is generated by applying the set of differences to the first version of the network resource stored in the proxy server, and wherein applying the set of differences includes at least one of adding content, deleting content, and moving content to the first version of the network resource to obtain the updated version of the network resource.

11. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 10, further comprising:

storing a first version identifier of the first version of the network resource.

12. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the second HTTP request includes the first version identifier of the first version of the network resource.

13. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the second HTTP request for the network resource includes an indication that the second HTTP request is for a difference between the first version of the network resource and the most current version of the network resource.

14. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the first HTTP response further includes an indication that the first HTTP response contains the set of differences between versions and not the entire network resource.

15. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the first HTTP response further includes an indication of which algorithm was used to determine the set of differences.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 10, further comprising:

storing the updated version of the network resource in the proxy server as a second version of the network resource.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, further comprising:

following the storing of the updated version of the network resource, removing the first version of the network resource.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the set of differences is an empty set and the updated version of the network resource is the first version of the network resource.