System and Method for Mobility and Multi-Homing Content Retrieval Applications

• US 20130086142A1
• Filed: 09/30/2011
• Published: 04/04/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Klein, Thierry E., Hampel, K. Georg
• Granted Patent: US 9,215,283 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/101 based on network conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/148 Migration or transfer of sessions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/326 in the transport layer [OSI layer 4] H04L69/16 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0011 for data sessions of end-to-end connection

Abstract

A controller function residing underneath a client application in a TCP/IP stack or session layer monitors state and status information associated with session-based application layer functions (e.g., content retrieval) and uses this information to migrate one or more sessions from a first client interface to a second client interface (e.g., 3G, 4G, LTE, 802.11x, WiMAX) and to a different application function serving entity (e.g., a different content server, cache server, service provider).

Claims

1. An method for migrating a content retrieval session associated with a content retrieval application at a host from a first server via a first interface to a second server via a second interface, the method comprising:

establishing a transport connection with the second server using the second interface;

transmitting a content request message toward the second server via the second interface, said content request message including an identifier associated with content to be retrieved and an indication of content portions received by said content retrieval application;

analyzing a content bearing data stream received via said second interface to identify further content portions received by said content retrieval application; and

forwarding, toward said content retrieval application, identified content portions not received by said content retrieval application.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising suppressing the delivery of content received via said first interface.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising caching content request messages sent by the content retrieval application, said content identifier within said content request message transmitted toward the second server via the second interface being derived from a cached content request message.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising caching a representation of content portions delivered to the content retrieval application, said indication of content portions received by said content retrieval application being derived from a cached content portion representation.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said transport connection with said second server being established in response to a control signal.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said control signal is associated with one or more of a congestion level indicator received via said first interface, a congestion level indicator received via said second interface, a determination that a preferred service provider is associated with said second interface, a determination that a preferred server is associated with said second interface, a determination that a reduced cost is associated with said second interface, a determination that a performance increase is associated with said second interface, and a determination that a preferred network is associated with said second interface.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second servers comprise the same server.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said indication of content portions received by said content retrieval application is based on an octet count.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein a DNS location service to identify said second server.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein a uniform resource indicator (URI) or uniform resource locator (URL) used for a DNS request for said DNS location service is derived from a prior DNS request sent by the host.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein said DNS request is derived from said content request message.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of said first and second servers comprise proxy servers.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein:

said content request message comprises an HTTP get message; and

said indication of content portions received by said content retrieval application is based on an octet count, said octet count included as a RANGE entry of said get message.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein TCP is used as a transport mechanism.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein further data delivery by the first server is suppressed by transmitting via said first interface a TCP RST message.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein a byte count includes all bytes of payload data that represent content data portions that have been delivered via the first interface and acknowledged.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein byte counting is continued for content data portions delivered via the second interface.

18. An apparatus for migrating a content retrieval session associated with a content retrieval application at a host from a first server via a first interface to a second server via a second interface, comprising:

a processor configured to;

establish a transport connection to the second server using the second interface;

transmit a content request message toward the second server via the second interface, said content request message including an identifier associated with content to be retrieved and an indication of content portions received by said content retrieval application;

analyze a content bearing data stream received via said second interface to identify further content portions received by said content retrieval application; and

forward, toward said content retrieval application, identified content portions not received by said content retrieval application.

19. A computer readable medium including software instructions which, when executed by a processor, perform a method for migrating a content retrieval session associated with a content retrieval application at a host from a first server via a first interface to a second server via a second interface, comprising:

establishing a transport connection to the second server using the second interface;

transmitting a content request message toward the second server via the second interface, said content request message including an identifier associated with content to be retrieved and an indication of content portions received by said content retrieval application;

analyzing a content bearing data stream received via said second interface to identify further content portions received by said content retrieval application; and

forwarding, toward said content retrieval application, identified content portions not received by said content retrieval application.

20. A computer program product, wherein a computer is operative to process software instructions which adapt the operation of the computer such that computer performs a method for migrating a content retrieval session associated with a content retrieval application at a host from a first server via a first interface to a second server via a second interface, comprising:

establishing a transport connection to the second server using the second interface;

transmitting a content request message toward the second server via the second interface, said content request message including an identifier associated with content to be retrieved and an indication of content portions received by said content retrieval application;

analyzing a content bearing data stream received via said second interface to identify further content portions received by said content retrieval application; and

forwarding, toward said content retrieval application, identified content portions not received by said content retrieval application.