System and Method for Determining Transmitting Frequency to Maintain Remote Application Server Connectivity

• US 20130007484A1
• Filed: 07/01/2011
• Published: 01/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/01/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Gobriel, Sameh, Maciocco, Christian, Fleming, Kristoffer, Prat, Gideon, Tai, Tsung-Yuan Charlie
• Granted Patent: US 8,566,625 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/320
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3209 Monitoring remote activity, e.g. over telephone lines or network connections
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3287 by switching off individual functional units in the computer system
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/145 avoiding end of session, e.g. keep-alive, heartbeats, resumption message or wake-up for inactive or interrupted session
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/25 Maintenance of established connections
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A system and method for maintaining connectivity between a host system running an Always-On-Always-Connected (AOAC) application and an associated remote application server includes determining a timing interval Ti for sending keep-alive messages. The timing interval Ti may be determined by selecting a value for a timeout (Ti) to a value between a maximum timeout (T_max) and a minimum timeout (T_min), transmitting a keep-alive message, at an interval based on Ti, across a network connection between a client platform running an Always-On-Always-Connected (AOAC) application and a remote application server associated with the AOAC application, checking a status of the network connection, increasing the value for T_min if the network connection is still active and decreasing the value for T_max if the network connection has been dropped.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method, comprising:

a. selecting a value for a timeout (Ti) to a value between a maximum timeout (T_max) and a minimum timeout (T_min);

b. transmitting a keep-alive message, at an interval based on Ti, across a network connection between a client platform running an Always-On-Always-Connected (AOAC) application and a remote application server associated with said AOAC application;

c. checking a status of said network connection;

d. increasing said value for T_min if said network connection is still active; and

e. decreasing said value for T_max if said network connection has been dropped.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising repeating (a)-(e) for up to a maximum predetermined number of iterations or until a difference between two subsequent values for Ti is within a threshold value.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising establishing a new network connection status between said client platform and said remote application server if said previous network connection has been dropped.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising initializing a value for T_max and a value for T_min, wherein said initial value of T_max is based on either a TCP default session timeout or historical data associated with said network connection, and wherein said initial value of T_min is based on a Network Address Translation (NAT) device timeout or historical data associated with said network connection.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein increasing said value for T_min if said network connection is still active comprises increasing T_min to the current timeout Ti;

and

wherein decreasing said value for T_max if said network connection has been dropped comprises decreasing T_max to the current timeout Ti.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said status of said network connection is checked based on whether said client platform receives a handshake reply from said remote application server.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

establishing a primary network connection between said client platform and said remote application server;

establishing at least one concurrent network connection between said client platform and said remote application server;

wherein said keep-alive message in step (b) is transmitted across said at least one concurrent network connection; and

wherein said checks said status of said at least one concurrent network connection in step (c) by comparing data received on said primary network connection and data received on said at least one concurrent network connection.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

establishing a plurality of concurrent connections running in parallel, each of said plurality of concurrent connections operating at a different timeout values.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising transmitting keep-alive messages across said primary network connection using a default working keep-alive timeout T_primary, said default timeout T_primary fixed until a final value for Ti is determined on said at least one concurrent network connection.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said keep-alive message in step (b) is transmitted across said network connection from said remote application server to said client platform every timeout Ti.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

increasing Ti if said at said remote application server receives a handshake reply from said client platform; and

decreasing Ti if said at said remote application server does not receive a handshake reply from said client platform.

12. A computer readable non-transitory medium having instructions stored thereon, the instruction when executed by a processor cause the processor to:

a. transmit a keep-alive message, at an interval based on a value for a timeout (Ti), across a network connection between a client platform running an Always-On-Always-Connected (AOAC) application and a remote application server associated with said AOAC application, wherein Ti has a value between a maximum timeout (T_max) and a minimum timeout (T_min);

b. check a status of said network connection;

c. increase said value for T_min if said network connection is still active; and

d. decrease said value for T_max if said network connection has been dropped.

13. The medium of claim 12, further comprising instructions to repeat (a)-(d) for up to a maximum predetermined number of iterations or until a difference between two subsequent values for Ti is within a threshold value.

14. The medium of claim 12,

wherein increasing said value for T_min if said network connection is still active comprises instructions to increase T_min to the current timeout Ti;

and

wherein decreasing said value for T_max if said network connection has been dropped comprises instructions to decrease T_max to the current timeout Ti.

15. The medium of claim 12, wherein said status of said network connection is checked based on whether said client platform receives a handshake reply from said remote application server.

16. The medium of claim 12, further comprising instructions to:

establish a primary network connection between said client platform and said remote application server;

establish at least one concurrent network connection between said client platform and said remote application server;

wherein said keep-alive message of (a) is transmitted across said at least one concurrent network connection; and

wherein checking said status of said network connection comprises checking said at least one concurrent network connection of (b) by comparing data received on said primary network connection and data received on said at least one concurrent network connection.

17. The medium of claim 16, further comprising instructions to:

establish a plurality of concurrent connections running in parallel, each of said plurality of concurrent connections operating at a different timeout values.

18. The medium of claim 16, further comprising instructions to transmit keep-alive messages across said primary network connection using a default working keep-alive timeout T_primary, said default timeout T_primary fixed until a final value for Ti is determined on said at least one concurrent network connection.

19. The medium of claim 12, wherein said keep-alive message of (b) is transmitted across said network connection from said remote application server to said client platform every timeout Ti.

20. The medium of claim 19, further comprising instructions to:

increase Ti if said at said remote application server receives a handshake reply from said client platform; and

decrease Ti if said at said remote application server does not receive a handshake reply from said client platform.

21. A client platform system, comprising:

a host system configured to operate in a first power state and a low-power state, said host system further configured to execute at least one Always-On-Always-Connected (AOAC) application while in said first power state;

circuitry configured to establish a communication link between said host system and an associated remote application server, said circuitry further configured to transmit keep-alive messages at a timeout interval Ti to said remote application server while said host remains in said low-power state, said keep-alive messages configured to maintain connectivity and presence of said AOAC application with said remote application server while said host system is in said low-power state; and

memory configured to store said keep-alive messages, said memory configured to be accessible to said NIC while said host system remains in said low-power state,

wherein said client platform system is further configured to iteratively determine said timeout interval Ti while said client platform system is in said first power state by;

a. transmitting keep-alive messages, at an interval based on a value for a timeout (Ti), across a network connection between said client platform and said remote application server, wherein Ti has a value between a maximum timeout (T_max) and a minimum timeout (T_min);

b. checking a status of said network connection;

c. increasing said value for T_min if said network connection is still active;

d. decreasing said value for T_max if said network connection has been dropped; and

repeating (a)-(d) for up to a maximum predetermined number of iterations or until a difference between two subsequent values for Ti is within a threshold value.

22. The system of claim 21,

wherein increasing said value for T_min if said network connection is still active comprises increasing T_min to the current timeout Ti;

and

wherein decreasing said value for T_max if said network connection has been dropped comprises decreasing T_max to the current timeout Ti.