Communication Socket State Monitoring System and Methods Thereof

• US 20080183861A1
• Filed: 01/24/2008
• Published: 07/31/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/26/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Bigfoot Networks, Inc. (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Inventors: Beverly, Harlan T., Musta, Charles A.
• Granted Patent: US 7,908,364 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• 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 69/162 involving adaptations of sockets based mechanisms secure socket layer H04L63/168

Abstract

The state of the communication socket is maintained at a network device and communicated to a device driver for the network device. The device driver can send messages to an interface program in application space, which stores the state information in dedicated application space memory. In response to a query from a peer program requesting the state of the communication socket, the interface program retrieves the state information from the dedicated memory. Because the state information and the interface program are located in application space, the number of kernel transitions required to determine the socket state is reduced, improving communication efficiency.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving at a data processing device from a network device first information indicative of a state of a communication socket at the data processing device; and

storing an indicator of the state of the communication socket in application space at the data processing device in response to receiving the first information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

receiving first information comprises receiving the first information at a device driver of the data processing device and sending a message from the device driver to an interface program in application space; and

storing the indicator comprises storing the indicator in response to receiving the message at the interface program.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the device driver is located in kernel space.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein

receiving first information comprises receiving the first information at a device driver of the data processing device;

and

storing the indicator comprises storing the indicator in shared memory, the shared memory accessible by a program in application space and a function in kernel space.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request for the state of the communication socket; and

determining the state of the communication socket based on the indicator.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein determining the state of the communication socket comprises accessing a first memory location, the first memory location inaccessible to kernel space.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein determining the state of the communication socket comprises accessing a first memory location, the first memory location accessible by a program in application space and a function in kernel space.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the indicator of the state of the communication socket includes information associated with the availability of the communication socket to communicate data.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the indicator of the state of the communication socket includes information associated with data communicated via the communication socket.

10. A method, comprising:

maintaining at a device driver of a data processing device first information indicative of a state of a communication socket at the data processing device; and

storing an indicator of the state of the communication socket in application space at the data processing device in response to determining a change in the first information.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the device driver is located in kernel space.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein storing the indicator comprises storing the indicator at a first memory location, the first memory location inaccessible to kernel space.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein storing the indicator comprises storing the indicator at a first memory location, the first memory location accessible to application space and accessible to kernel space.

14. A computer readable medium storing a computer program comprising instructions to manipulate a processor, the instructions comprising instructions to:

receive at a data processing device from a network device first information indicative of a state of a communication socket at the data processing device; and

store an indicator of the state of the communication socket in application space at the data processing device in response to receiving the first information.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein:

instructions to receive first information comprise instructions to receive the first information at a device driver of the data processing device and sending a message from the device driver to an interface program in application space; and

instructions to store the indicator comprise instructions to store the indicator in response to receiving the message at the interface program.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the device driver is located in kernel space.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein

instructions to receive first information comprise instructions to receive the first information at a device driver of the data processing device;

and

instructions to store the indicator comprise instructions to store the indicator in shared memory, the shared memory accessible by a program in application space and a function in kernel space.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein the instructions further comprise instructions to:

receive a request for the state of the communication socket; and

determine the state of the communication socket based on the indicator.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 18, wherein the instructions to determine the state of the communication socket comprise instructions to access a first memory location, the first memory location inaccessible to kernel space.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein the instructions to determine the state of the communication socket comprise instructions to access a first memory location, the first memory location accessible by a program in application space and a function in kernel space.