Architecture for efficient utilization and optimum performance of a network

• US 20040146053A1
• Filed: 01/29/2003
• Published: 07/29/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: F5 Networks, Inc. (F5 Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Itworx Egypt
• Inventors: Nabhan, Tarek, Helmy, Youssri
• Granted Patent: US 7,126,955 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/392
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/563 Data redirection of data network streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5651 Reducing the amount or size of exchanged application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

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.

Claims

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

routing outgoing network layer packets traffic to a proxy application running on a local network accelerator associated with a mode which is a source of the packet traffic network;

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; 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. A method as in claim 1 wherein a proxy to proxy protocol is employed to specify at least an original transport protocol identifier, original address, and original ports of the nodes.

3. A method as in claim 1 wherein the dictionary based compression algorithm is an LZ77 algorithm.

4. A method as in claim 1 wherein a Huffman coding algorithm is applied to the data in the packets.

5. A method as in claim 1 wherein a dictionary associated with an existing end-to-end connection is utilized to service a new connection request.

6. A data network routing device comprising:

a router, connected to receive incoming packets from a source node, the router examining the incoming packets to determine if they are addressed to a destination node which is not local to the router, and if so, routing them to a socket interface;

a proxy application, connected to receive incoming packets from the socket interface, the proxy application associated with the router, and the proxy application, acting as a proxy for the source node, also establishing a connection on behalf of the source node, the connection capable of carrying packets to the destination node; and

a data compressor, located within the proxy application, for compressing data contained in the packets prior to their transmission by the proxy application.

7. A device as in claim 6 additionally wherein

the proxy application additionally receives packets from a network connection addressed to a destructor node which is local to the router;

and additionally comprising

a data decompressor, for decompressing packets so received; and

wherein the router also forwards decompressed packets to the destination node.

8. A device as in claim 6 wherein the network connection is a persistent connection established with another data network routing device having a proxy application.

9. A device as in claim 8 wherein a proxy to proxy protocol is used to pass original source node and distinction node information between the two proxy applications.

10. A device as in claim 8 wherein a proxy to proxy protocol specifies an original protocol type for the packets.

11. A device as in claim 6 wherein the connection is a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection even if the source node and distinction node are using a different protocol.