IN-KERNAL CONTENT-AWARE SERVICE DIFFERENTIATION

• US 20090307350A1
• Filed: 08/19/2009
• Published: 12/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ashish Mehra, Douglas Morgan Freimuth, Renu Tewari, Thiemo Voigt
• Original Assignee: Ashish Mehra, Douglas Morgan Freimuth, Renu Tewari, Thiemo Voigt
• Inventors: Freimuth, Douglas Morgan, Mehra, Ashish, Tewari, Renu, Voigt, Thiemo
• Granted Patent: US 8,024,424 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• 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 67/564 Enhancement of application control based on intercepted application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 Parsing or analysis of headers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

The increasing number of Internet users and innovative new services such as e-commerce are placing new demands on Web servers. It is becoming essential for Web servers to provide performance isolation, have fast recovery times, and provide continuous service during overload at least to preferred customers. The invention describes a kernel-based architecture for content-aware service differentiation that protects Web servers against overload by controlling the amount and rate of work entering the system. We have invented a mechanism that provides admission control and service differentiation based on connection and application level information. The application header-based connection control uses application-level information (such as URIs and cookies for HTTP) to define different service differentiation actions. The present invention provides the kernel mechanisms that are more efficient and scalable than application level controls implemented in current Web servers.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising a policy agent, said policy agent including:

a communicator to communicate from a user space to a kernel with an application interface;

an initializer to instantiate service differentiation rules for an application tag within the kernel which include classification and action rules; and

a manager to delete and update rules on a user request.

4. A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable program code means embodied therein for causing rule installation, the computer readable program code means in said computer program product for causing a computer to effect the functions of claim 1.

2. A method comprising:

forming a rule, including the steps of;

communicating from a user space to a kernel with an application interface;

instantiating service differentiation rules for an application tag within the kernel which include classification and action rules; and

deleting and adding rules based upon a user request.

3. A method as in claim 2, further comprising updating rules based upon a user request.