Identifying network path including network proxies

• US 20080244086A1
• Filed: 03/28/2007
• Published: 10/02/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Patel, Alpesh
• Granted Patent: US 8,024,478 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/238
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/563 Data redirection of data network streams
• 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 69/163 In-band adaptation of TCP data exchange; In-band control procedures

Abstract

A method and system for identifying a network path between a source node and a destination node are disclosed. In one embodiment, the method includes generating a proxy trace message at the source node, transmitting the proxy trace message over the network path towards the destination node, and receiving the proxy trace message at the source node. The proxy trace message follows a path taken by application messages transmitted by the source node and the received proxy trace message includes addresses of the destination node and proxies in the network path.

Claims

1. A method for identifying a network path between a source node and a destination node, the network path including one or more proxies, the method comprising:

generating a proxy trace message at the source node;

transmitting said proxy trace message over the network path towards the destination node, said proxy trace message following a path taken by application messages transmitted by the source node; and

receiving said proxy trace message at the source node, the received proxy trace message comprising addresses of the destination node and said one or more proxies.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said proxy trace message comprises a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) packet.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the TCP packet comprises an echo option in an options field of a header of the TCP packet.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the proxy trace message received at the source node comprises a counter identifying the number of proxies in the network path.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the addresses of the destination node and said one or more proxies are contained within a data field of a TCP packet.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising measuring latency with said proxy trace message.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising establishing connections between the source node and one of said one or more proxies and between the proxy and the destination node or another of said one or more proxies in the network path

8. The method of claim 1 wherein said proxy trace message comprises addresses of the source node and said one or more proxies when received at the destination node to identify the network path from the source node to the destination node.

9. A method for providing proxy information, comprising:

receiving a proxy trace message at a proxy located in a network path between a source node and a destination node;

inserting a proxy identifier into said proxy trace message and incrementing a counter in said proxy trace message; and

forwarding said proxy trace message to a destination node or another proxy in the network path.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein said proxy trace message is a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) packet.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the TCP packet comprises an echo option in an options field of a header of the TCP packet, and wherein the source node, destination node, and proxy are configured to insert their IP address into the TCP packet upon receiving the TCP packet with said echo option.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein inserting a proxy identifier comprises inserting the proxy IP address into a data field of a packet.

13. An apparatus for identifying a network path between a source node and a destination node, the network path including one or more proxies, the apparatus comprising:

a processor configured to generate a proxy trace message at the source node, transmit said proxy trace message over the network path towards the destination node, and receive said proxy trace message at the source node, the received proxy trace message comprising addresses of the destination node and said one or more proxies, wherein said proxy trace message following a path taken by application messages transmitted by the source node; and

memory for storing the addresses of said one or more proxies in the network path.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the proxy trace message comprises a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) packet.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the TCP packet comprises an echo option in an options field of a header of the TCP packet.

16. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the proxy trace message received at the source node comprises a counter identifying the number of proxies in the network path.

17. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the processor is configured to establish a connection between the source node and the proxy.

18. An apparatus for providing proxy information, comprising:

a processor configured to receive a proxy trace message at a proxy located in a network path between a source node and a destination node, insert a proxy identifier into said proxy trace message and increment a counter in said proxy trace message, and forward said proxy trace message to a destination node or another proxy in the network path; and

memory for storing said proxy identifier.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 further comprising a WCCP (Web Cache Communication Protocol) cache engine.

20. The apparatus of claim 18 wherein the proxy trace message is a TCP packet.

21. An apparatus for identifying a network path between a source node and a destination node, the network path including one or more proxies, the apparatus comprising:

means for generating a proxy trace message at the source node;

means for transmitting said proxy trace message over the network path towards the destination node, said proxy trace message following a path taken by application messages transmitted by the source node; and

means for receiving said proxy trace message at the source node, the received proxy trace message comprising addresses of the destination node and said one or more proxies.

22. An apparatus for providing proxy information, comprising:

means for receiving a proxy trace message at a proxy located in a network path between a source node and a destination node;

means for inserting a proxy identifier into said proxy trace message and incrementing a counter in said proxy trace message; and

means for forwarding said proxy trace message to a destination node or another proxy in the network path.