System and method for transferring data in high latency firewalled networks

• US 20060047824A1
• Filed: 06/30/2004
• Published: 03/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Signiant Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Signiant Incorporated
• Inventors: Bowler, Ken
• Granted Patent: US 7,526,557 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/229
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0236 Filtering by address, protocol, port number or service, e.g. IP-address or URL
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/14 Multichannel or multilink protocols

Abstract

A system and method are provided for establishing multiple parallel connections between a client and a server on a single server port. Data may be transferred on the multiple parallel connections between the server and the client through an opening in a network firewall that corresponds to the single server port. A control process may accept N connection requests from a client then transfer each accepted connection to a relay process that manages that connection. Each relay process may relay data between the server and the client via the single server port. A single collective data transfer may be executed on the N parallel connections, thereby increasing throughput and data transfer rates. If the data transfer rate is primarily limited by network latency, using N parallel connections provides the advantage of increasing the data transfer rate by approximately a factor of N.

Claims

1. A method of increasing data transfer rates in a network including a firewall, the method comprising:

receiving a connection request from a client for a plurality of parallel connections to a specified server process operating at a server, the connection request received at the server on a communication port;

transmitting a list of available server ports to the client in response to the connection request;

receiving a first request from the client for a connection to a first one of the available server ports, the first request received at the server on said communication port;

accepting a first connection to the client, the first connection accepted at the server on said communication port;

creating a first process at the server to manage the first connection to the client on said communication port;

establishing a first local connection to the specified server process, the connection established by the first process to the first one of the available server ports on the specified server process;

receiving a second request from the client for a connection to a second one of the available server ports, the second request received at the server on said communication port;

accepting a second connection to the client, the second connection accepted at the server on said communication port;

creating a second process at the server to manage the second connection to the client on said communication port;

establishing a second local connection to the specified server process, the connection established by the second process to the second one of the available server ports on the specified server process; and

executing a data transfer between the specified server process and the client, wherein the data transfer occurs in parallel on the first connection and the second connection at the server on said communication port, and wherein the first process and the second process relay data between the first and second ones of the available server ports on the specified server process and the client via the first connection and the second connection at the server on said communication port.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first process and second process are created by and are child processes of a control process operating at the server.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein creating a first process at the server to manage the first connection to the client comprises transferring the first connection on said communication port from the control process to the first process via inheritance.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein creating a second process at the server to manage the first connection to the client-comprises transferring the second connection on said communication port from the control process to the second process via inheritance.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

listening on said communication port at the server for other requests from the client for connections to other ones of the available server ports.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving a third request from the client for a connection to a third one of the available server ports, the third request received at the server on said communication port;

accepting a third connection to the client, the third connection accepted at the server on said communication port;

creating a third process at the server to manage the third connection to the client on said communication port; and

establishing a third local connection to the specified server process, the connection established by the third process to the third one of the available server ports on the specified server process.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said communication port is a well-known port.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the firewall is typically open to the well-known port.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the firewall typically permits the client to access the well-known port.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said communication port is a port reserved for communication with clients.

11. A method for increasing data transfer rates in a network including a firewall, the method comprising:

accepting a first connection to a client, the first connection accepted at a server on a communication port;

creating a first process at the server to manage the first connection to the client, wherein the first process manages the first connection to the client at the server on said communication port;

accepting a second connection to the client, the second connection accepted at the server on said communication port;

creating a second process at the server to manage the second connection to the client, wherein the second process manages the second connection to the client at the server on said communication port; and

transferring data in parallel between the client and the server using the first connection and the second connection at the server on said communication port.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein accepting a first connection to a client comprises accepting the first connection by a control process operating at the server, and

wherein accepting a second connection to the client comprises accepting the second connection by the control process operating at the server.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein creating a first process at the server to manage the first connection to the client comprises creating, by the control process, the first process.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the first process and second process are child processes of the control process operating at the server.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein creating a first process at the server to manage the first connection to the client comprises:

creating, by the control process, the first process; and

transferring the first connection on said communication port from the control process operating at the server to the first process by inheritance.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein creating a second process at the server to manage the second connection to the client comprises:

creating, by the control process, the second process; and

transferring the second connection on said communication port from the control process operating at the server to the second process by inheritance.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein the first process and the second process are relay processes operating at the server that relay data between the client and a specified server process on said communication port.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein said communication port is a well-known port.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the firewall is typically open to the well-known port.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the firewall permits the client to access the well-known port.

21. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

establishing a first local connection between the first process and a specified server process that responds to a request for a connection made by the client; and

establishing a second local connection between the second process and the specified server process that responds to a request for a connection made by the client.

22. The method of claim 21 further comprising:

transferring data in parallel between the client and the server using the first connection and the local first connection, and the second connection and the local second connection.

23. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

accepting a third connection to the client, the third connection accepted at the server on said communication port; and

creating a third process at the server to manage the third connection to the client, wherein the third process manages the third connection to the client at the server on said communication port.

24. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

listening on said communication port at the server for one or more requests from the client for one or more connections to a specified server process on one or more available server ports.

25. A system for increasing data transfer rates in a network including a firewall, the system comprising:

a control process operating at the server that accepts a first connection to a client and a second connection to the client, wherein the first connection and the second connection are accepted at the server on a communication port;

a first relay process that receives the first connection transferred by the control process; and

a second relay process that receives the second connection transferred by the control process.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the first relay process manages the first connection to the client at the server on said communication port.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the second relay process manages the second connection to the client at the server on said communication port.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the first relay process establishes a first local connection to a specified server process.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the second relay process establishes a second local connection to the specified server process.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the first relay process and the second relay process relay data in parallel between the specified server process and the client on the first connection at the server on said communication port and the second connection at the server on said communication port.

31. The system of claim 25, wherein the control process accepts the first connection and the second connection in response to at least two requests from the client to be connected to a specified server process, the at least two requests from the client received by the control process on said communication port at the server.

32. The system of claim 25, wherein the first relay process and the second relay process are created at the server by the control process.

33. The system of claim 25, wherein the first relay process, the second relay process, and the control process are operating system processes running at the server.

34. The system of claim 25, wherein the first relay process inherits the first connection from the control process, and wherein the second relay process inherits the second connection from the control process.

35. The system of claim 25, wherein said communication port is a well-known port.

36. The system of claim 35, wherein the firewall is typically open to the well-known port.

37. The system of claim 35, wherein the firewall permits the client to access the well-known port.

38. A system for increasing data transfer rates in a network including a firewall, the system comprising:

a control process that accepts two or more connections to a client at the server on a communication port;

a first relay process that maintains a first connection to the client at the server on said communication port, wherein the first relay process is created by and receives the first connection from the control process;

a second relay process that maintains a second connection to a client at the server on said communication port, wherein the second relay process is created by and receives the second connection from the control process;

a server process that is accessed by the client such that data is transferred between the client and the server over the first connection and the second connection in parallel.

39. A system for increasing data transfer rates in a network including a firewall, the system comprising:

request receiving means for receiving a first request from a client for a connection to a first one of a plurality of available server ports and a second request from the client for a connection to a second one of the plurality of available server ports, the first request and the second request received at the server on a communication port;

connection accepting means for accepting a first connection and a second connection to the client, the first connection and the second connection accepted at the server on said communication port; and

data transfer means for transferring data in parallel between the client and the server using the first connection and the second connection.

40. The system of claim 39, wherein the data transfer means includes:

a first connection managing means for managing the first connection between the client and a server process that responds to a request for a connection made by the client; and

a second connection managing means for managing the second connection between the client and the server process that responds to a request for a connection made by the client.

41. The system of claim 40, wherein the first connection managing means and the second connection managing means facilitate a collective data transfer in parallel over the first connection and the second connection via said communication port.

42. The system of claim 40, wherein the first connection is transferred from the connection accepting means to the first connection managing means via inheritance.

43. The system of claim 40 further comprising local connection establishing means for establishing a first local connection between the first connection managing means and the server process on a first one of the plurality of available server ports and for establishing a second local connection between the second connection managing means and the server process on a second one of the plurality of available server ports.

44. A system for increasing data transfer rates in a network including a firewall, the system comprising:

first connection accepting means for accepting a first connection to a client, the first connection accepted at a server on a communication port;

first process creating means for creating a first process to manage the first connection to the client at the server on said communication port;

second connection accepting means for accepting a second connection to the client, the second connection accepted at the server on said communication port; and

second process creating means for creating a second process to manage the second connection to the client at the server on said communication port.

45. A method of increasing data transfer rates in a network including a firewall, wherein the method is conducted by an operating system control process running at a server, the method comprising:

receiving a first request from a client for a connection to a server process, the first request received at the server on a communication port;

accepting a first connection to the client, the first connection accepted at the server on said communication port;

creating a first child process to manage the first connection to the client, wherein the first connection is transferred to the first child process by inheritance;

receiving a second request from the client for a connection to the server process, the second request received at the server on said communication port; and

accepting a second connection to the client, the second connection accepted at the server on said communication port.

46. The method of claim 45 further comprising:

creating a second child process to manage the second connection to the client, wherein the second connection is transferred to the second child process by inheritance.

47. The method of claim 46 further comprising:

executing a collective data transfer between the server process and the client in parallel on the first connection to the client and the second connection to the client, wherein the first child process and the second child process relay data between the client and the server process via said communication port.

48. The method of claim 45, wherein said communication port is a well-known port.

49. The method of claim 45, wherein said communication port is a port reserved for communication with the client.

50. The method of claim 48, wherein the firewall permits the client to access the well-known port.

51. A method of increasing data transfer rates in a network including a firewall, the method comprising:

receiving a first request from a client for a connection to a first available port on a server process, the first request received at the server on a communication port;

accepting a first connection to the client, the first connection accepted at the server on said communication port;

establishing a first local connection to the first available port on the server process;

receiving a second request from the client for a connection to a second available port on the server process, the second request received at the server on said communication port;

accepting a second connection to the client, the second connection accepted at the server on said communication port;

establishing a second local connection to the second available port on the server process;

transferring data in parallel between the client and the server process via the first connection, the first local connection, the second connection, and the second local connection.

52. The method of claim 51, wherein the method is conducted by a control process running at the server.