CONNECTION FORWARDING

• US 20090094371A1
• Filed: 12/09/2008
• Published: 04/09/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/18/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Riverbed Technology, LLC (Riverbed Technology Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Riverbed Technology Incorporated
• Inventors: Tseng, Joshua, Ly, Kand, McCanne, Steve
• Granted Patent: US 8,140,690 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/228
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• 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 67/563 Data redirection of data network streams

Abstract

Two or more network traffic processors connected with the same LAN and WAN are identified as neighbors. Neighboring network traffic processors cooperate to overcome asymmetric routing, thereby ensuring that related sequences of network traffic are processed by the same network proxy. A network proxy can be included in a network traffic processor or as a standalone unit. A network traffic processor that intercepts a new connection initiation by a client assigns a network proxy to handle all messages associated with that connection. The network traffic processor conveys connection information to neighboring network traffic processors. The neighboring network traffic processors use the connection information to redirect network traffic associated with the connection to the assigned network proxy, thereby overcoming the effects of asymmetric routing. The assigned network proxy handles redirected network traffic in much the same way that it would handle network traffic received directly.

Claims

1. In a network usable by clients and servers for conveying messages therebetween comprising transactions wherein a transaction comprises one or more messages from a client forming a client request to a server and one or more messages from the server forming a server response to the client, wherein at least one message from the client might be conveyed from the client to the server via an owning proxy, a system for ensuring that the owning proxy has access to all necessary parts of the transaction, the owning proxy being a proxy that is programmed to expect such access, the system comprising:

logic in the owning proxy for maintaining connection status;

logic in the owning proxy for conveying connection status information to neighboring proxies, wherein connection status information indicates at least one transaction owned by the owning proxy and neighboring proxies are proxies that can, or might be expected to, receive messages as part of a transaction owned by the owning proxy but not directed to the owning proxy; and

at least one neighboring proxy with logic for tracking transaction ownership and logic for transferring messages to an owning proxy when indicated by tracked transaction ownership information.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the owning proxy is a client-side proxy connected with at least one client via a local area portion of the network.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the owning proxy is a server-side proxy connected with at least one server via a local area portion of the network.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the logic of the neighboring proxy for transferring messages to an owning proxy is adapted to modify a destination address of a message received by the neighboring proxy.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the logic of the neighboring proxy for transferring messages to an owning proxy is adapted to encapsulate at least a portion of a message received by the neighboring proxy using a tunneling protocol.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the logic for tracking transaction ownership includes logic adapted to store the connection status information and logic adapted to determine if a message received by the neighboring proxy is associated with a transaction indicated by the connection status information.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

at least one additional proxy adapted to form an association with the owning proxy, wherein the owning proxy and the additional proxy each include logic adapted to facilitate communication of messages between a client and a server via the owning proxy and the additional proxy over at least a portion of the network.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the owning proxy is adapted to process messages to produce transformed messages, wherein the transformed messages are equivalent to messages previously received by the owing proxy from the client.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the owning proxy is adapted to process messages to produce transformed messages, wherein the transformed messages are equivalent to messages previously received by the owing proxy from the server.