SESSION MIGRATION OVER CONTENT-CENTRIC NETWORKS

• US 20110265174A1
• Filed: 04/22/2010
• Published: 10/27/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/22/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Palo Alto Research Center, Inc. (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Smetters, Diana K., Thornton, James D., Jacobson, Van L.
• Granted Patent: US 8,375,436 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context

Abstract

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for facilitating session migration. During operation, the system receives a communication packet from a client destined to a remote server. The system determines whether the communication packet belongs to a pre-existing communication session, and whether session state information associated with the session is available locally. In response to the communication packet belonging to a pre-existing communication session and the session state information being unavailable locally, the system constructs an interest requesting the session state information, disseminates the interest over a network, and receives the session state information.

Claims

1. A computer-executable method for facilitating session migration, comprising:

receiving, at an intermediary network device, a packet from a client destined to a remote server;

determining whether the packet belongs to a pre-existing communication session;

determining whether state information associated with the communication session is available at the intermediary network device;

in response to the communication packet belonging to a pre-existing communication session and the session state information being unavailable, constructing an interest requesting the session state information, wherein the interest comprises a hierarchically structured variable-length name;

disseminating the interest over a network; and

receiving the session state information, thereby facilitating session migration.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising reconstructing the pre-existing communication session using the received session state information.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the network comprises a content-centric network (CCN), and wherein the interest is a CCN interest.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the client is a mobile device, and wherein the packet is a wireless Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) packet.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the interest is constructed based on a transport signature included in the wireless TCP packet, and wherein the transport signature identifies the session.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the intermediary network device is located at a wireless base transceiver station.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the client is virtual private network (VPN)-enabled, and wherein the packet is a VPN packet.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the interest is constructed based on a transport signature corresponding to a VPN tunnel.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the intermediary network device is a VPN host.

10. A system for facilitating session migration, comprising:

a number of intermediary network devices coupled to a network, wherein at least one intermediary network device comprises;

a receiving mechanism configured to receive a packet from a client destined to a remote server;

a first determination mechanism configured to determine whether the packet belongs to a pre-existing communication session;

a second determination mechanism configured to determine whether state information associated with the communication session is available at the intermediary network device;

an interest-construction mechanism configured to construct an interest requesting the session state information, in response to the communication packet belonging to a pre-existing communication session and the session state information being unavailable at the intermediary network device, wherein the interest comprises a hierarchically structured variable-length name;

an interest-disseminating mechanism configured to disseminate the interest over the network; and

a session-state receiving mechanism configured to receive the session state information, thereby facilitating session migration.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising a session-construction mechanism configured to reconstruct the pre-existing communication session using the received session state information

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the network comprises a content-centric network (CCN), and wherein the interest is a CCN interest.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the client is a mobile device, and wherein the packet is a wireless Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) packet.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the interest is constructed based on a transport signature included in the wireless TCP packet, and wherein the transport signature identifies the session.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the intermediary network devices are located at base transceiver stations.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the client is virtual private network (VPN)-enabled, and wherein the packet is a VPN packet.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the interest is constructed based on a transport signature corresponding to a VPN tunnel.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the intermediary network devices are VPN hosts.

19. A computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform a method for facilitating session migration, the method comprising:

receiving, at an intermediary network device, a packet from a client destined to a remote server;

determining whether the packet belongs to a pre-existing communication session;

determining whether state information associated with the session is available at the intermediary network device;

in response to the communication packet belonging to a pre-existing communication session and the session state information being unavailable at the intermediary network device, constructing an interest requesting the session state information, wherein the interest comprises a hierarchically structured variable-length name;

disseminating the interest over a network; and

receiving the session state information.

20. The storage medium of claim 19, wherein the method further comprises reconstructing the pre-existing communication session using the received session state information.

21. The storage medium of claim 19, wherein the network comprises a content-centric network (CCN), and wherein the interest is a CCN interest.

22. The storage medium of claim 19, wherein the client is a mobile device, and wherein the packet is a wireless TCP packet.

23. The storage medium of claim 22, wherein the interest is constructed based on a transport signature included in the wireless TCP packet, and wherein the transport signature identifies the session.

24. The storage medium of claim 22, wherein the intermediary network device is located at a base transceiver station.

25. The storage medium of claim 19, wherein the client is virtual private network (VPN)-enabled, and wherein the packet is a VPN packet.