Automatic detection and window virtualization for flow control

• US 20050063302A1
• Filed: 07/28/2004
• Published: 03/24/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 07/29/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Original Assignee: Orbital Data Corporation (Cloud Software Group)
• Inventors: Samuels, Allen R., Sutter, Paul G.
• Granted Patent: US 8,238,241 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/229
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/00 Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• 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 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/16 Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/166 IP fragmentation; TCP segmentation

Abstract

One or more flow control modules, implemented on various types of network topologies, provide a number of functionalities for controlling the flow of IP packets (such as TCP/IP packets) over a network connection. The flow control modules may be implemented within a sender and/or receiver or may be deployed into a network as a separate device without requiring significant additional resources.

Claims

1. A method to identify flow control modules within a flow control system, the method comprising:

inserting a first configuration identifier for a flow control module into an options area of header of a data packet initiating synchronization of a session; and

extracting a second configuration identifier from an options area of a header of a data packet initiating acknowledgement of synchronization of the session.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the second configuration identifier.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first configuration identifier identifies a first flow control module.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the second configuration identifier identifies a second flow control module.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the data packet is an Internet protocol (“

IP”

) data packet.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the IP data packet is a TCP packet.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the header is a TCP header.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the first flow control module is further configured to increase a window scale in response to the received configuration identifier.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the first flow control module requests a larger buffer capacity in response to the received configuration identifier.

10. The method of claim 5, wherein the IP data packet is a TCP packet.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the header is a UDP header.

12. A method for initializing a network session have fast sides and a slow side in a data path, the method comprising:

receiving at a first flow control module a synchronization signal from a first fast side and transmitting to the slow side the synchronization signal with a first flow control module configuration identifier; and

receiving at a second flow control module from the slow side the synchronization signal with the first flow control module configuration identifier and storing the first flow control module configuration identifier.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving at the second flow control module from a second fast side a synchronization acknowledgment signal and transmitting to the slow side a synchronization acknowledgment signal with a second flow control module configuration identifier; and

receiving at the first flow control module from the slow side the synchronization acknowledgment signal with the second flow control module configuration identifier and storing the second flow control module identifier.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the slow side comprises a wide area network.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the data packet is an Internet protocol (“

IP”

) data packet.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein each configuration identifier is stored in an options area of the IP data packet.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the IP data packet is a transmission control protocol (“

TCP”

) data packet.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein the first fast side comprises coupling the first flow control module with a source node.

19. The method of claim 12, wherein the second fast side comprises coupling the second flow control module with a destination node.

20. The method of claim 12, further comprising increasing buffer capacity in the first flow control module in response to

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising increasing buffer capacity in the second flow control module in response to

22. An apparatus configured to provide communication between a fast side and a slow side in a communication network, the apparatus comprising:

a receiver coupled with the fast side and the slow side and configured to receive a synchronization signal or a synchronization acknowledgment signal; and

a processing module further configured to,

insert a configuration identifier into an option portion of a header of the synchronization signal or a synchronization acknowledgment signal received from the fast side, and

extract, if present, a configuration identifier from an option portion of a header of a synchronization signal or synchronization acknowledgement signal received from the slow side.

23. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the fast side comprises receiving the synchronization signal from a source node.

24. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the fast side comprises a local area network.

25. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the fast side comprises receiving the synchronization signal from a source node.

26. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the fast side comprises receiving the synchronization acknowledgement signal from a destination node.

27. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the slow side comprises a wide area network.

28. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the extracted configuration identifier is stored in a storage state block.

29. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the communication network is an Internet protocol (“

IP”

) network.

30. The apparatus of claim 29, wherein the IP network is a TCP network.

31. The apparatus of claim 29, wherein the IP network is a UDP network.

32. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the configuration identifiers are inserted and extracted during establishing a session between a source node and a destination node.

33. The apparatus of claim 32, further comprising a buffer configured to allow data packets use of a larger capacity in response to the apparatus inserting the configuration identifier associated with the apparatus and extracting the configuration identifier associated with another apparatus.