DETERMINING AN EFFICIENT KEEP-ALIVE INTERVAL FOR A NETWORK CONNECTION

• US 20130151719A1
• Filed: 02/11/2013
• Published: 06/13/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/08/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Herzog, Shai, Qureshi, Rashid, Raastroem, Jorge, Bao, Xuemei, Bansal, Rajeev, Bragg, Scott Michael, Zhang, Qian
• Granted Patent: US 9,313,236 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1066 Session management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/141 Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70
• 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: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/16 Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/163 In-band adaptation of TCP data exchange; In-band control procedures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/28 Timers or timing mechanisms used in protocols

Abstract

Systems and methods for use in communication between a client and a server, via a networking device, are provided. The method may include sending a request to establish a data connection from the client to the server via the networking device, setting a data connection keep-alive interval for the data connection to a predetermined safe value, and sending a request to establish a test connection between the client and the server. The method may further include determining an efficient keep-alive interval for communication between the client and server via the networking device, using the test connection, setting the data connection keep-alive interval to the efficient keep-alive interval determined using the test connection, and uploading the efficient keep-alive interval from the client to the server in an efficient keep-alive interval notification message, for communication to other clients connected to the server.

Claims

1. A method for use in communication between a plurality of clients and a server, via respective networking devices, comprising:

at the server, providing a data store configured to store efficient keep-alive intervals received from the plurality of clients via the respective networking devices;

receiving a request for a data connection from a requesting client;

querying the data store to determine if a cached efficient keep-alive interval is present in the data store, which has been received from another client connected to the same or a related networking device and stored in the data store; and

if the cached efficient keep-alive interval is present, sending the cached efficient keep-alive interval from the server to the requesting client for application to the data connection.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising, if no cached efficient keep-alive interval is present at the server, then:

receiving a request to establish a test connection between the server and the client.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising, if no cached efficient keep-alive interval is present at the server, then:

setting a predetermined safe keep-alive value;

storing the predetermined safe keep-alive value at the server; and

sending the predetermined safe keep-alive value from the server to the requesting client, to cause the requesting client to set the keep-alive value for the data connection to the predetermined safe keep-alive value.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the predetermined safe keep-alive value is sent to the client during establishment of the data connection.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising, if no cached efficient keep-alive interval is present at the server, then:

determining an efficient keep-alive interval for communication between the client and the server via the networking device using the test connection, by, on each of one or more passes through a control loop;

receiving a keep-alive message from the client at the server, at an increasingly incremented test connection keep-alive interval, over the test connection while concurrently exchanging data over the data connection;

sending an acknowledgment to the client in response to the keep-alive message successfully received on the test connection; and

after sending the acknowledgment, receiving from the client via the test connection a new efficient keep-alive interval set to the test connection keep-alive interval value.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising,

receiving a request at the server from the client to set the data connection keep-alive interval to an efficient keep-alive interval determined at the client upon completion of the control loop;

receiving a message containing the efficient keep-alive interval from the requesting client; and

caching the efficient keep-alive interval in the data store for availability to other requesting clients.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

after receiving the request, identifying from the request at least one of an APN, DNS suffix and subnet of the requesting client;

wherein querying the data store includes determining if an efficient keep-alive interval has been stored for the at least one of the APN, DNS suffix and subnet of the requesting client.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

at the server, selecting a test group from among the plurality of clients;

receiving an efficient keep-alive interval from each client in the test group; and

if a statistical variance between the efficient keep-alive intervals determined for the clients in the test group is below a threshold value, then computing an aggregate efficient keep-alive interval based on the test group, and storing the aggregate efficient keep-alive interval at the server for use with other client devices connected to the server via the networking device.

9. A method for use in communication between a plurality of clients and a server, via respective networking devices, comprising:

at the server, providing a data store configured to store efficient keep-alive intervals received from the plurality of clients via the respective networking devices;

receiving a first request for a first data connection from a first requesting client;

querying the data store to determine if a cached efficient keep-alive interval is present in the data store, which has been received from another client connected to the same or a related networking device and stored in the data store;

upon determining that no cached efficient keep-alive interval is present in the data store, receiving an efficient keep-alive interval from the first requesting client, and caching the efficient keep-alive interval in the data store for availability to other requesting clients;

receiving a second request for a second data connection from a second requesting client;

querying the data store to determine if a cached efficient keep-alive interval is present in the data store which has been received from the first client connected to the same or the related networking device and stored in the data store; and

upon determining that the cached efficient keep-alive interval is present in the data store, sending the cached efficient keep-alive interval from the server to the second requesting client for application to the data connection.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

after receiving the first request, identifying from the first request at least one of an APN, DNS suffix and subnet of the first requesting client.

11. The method of claim 10, querying the data store to determine if a cached efficient keep-alive interval is present in the data store which has been received from another client includes determining if an efficient keep-alive interval has been stored for the at least one of the APN, DNS suffix and subnet of the first requesting client.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

after receiving the second request, identifying from the second request at least one of an APN, DNS suffix and subnet of the second requesting client.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein querying the data store to determine if a cached efficient keep-alive interval is present in the data store which has been received from the first client includes determining if an efficient keep-alive interval has been stored for the at least one of the APN, DNS suffix and subnet of the first requesting client which matches the at least one of the APN, DNS suffix and subnet of the second requesting client.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the networking device is one or more of a network address translation (NAT) device, a firewall device, a load balancer, and a Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) device.

15. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

at the server, selecting a test group from among the plurality of clients;

receiving an efficient keep-alive interval from each client in the test group; and

if a statistical variance between the efficient keep-alive intervals determined for the clients in the test group is below a threshold value, then computing an aggregate efficient keep-alive interval based on the test group, and storing the aggregate efficient keep-alive interval at the server for use with other client devices connected to the server via the networking device.

16. The method of claim 9, further comprising, if no cached efficient keep-alive interval is present at the server, then:

receiving a request to establish a test connection between the server and the first requesting client.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising, if no cached efficient keep-alive interval is present at the server, then:

setting a predetermined safe keep-alive value;

storing the predetermined safe keep-alive value at the server; and

sending the predetermined safe keep-alive value from the server to the first requesting client, to cause the first requesting client to set the keep-alive value for the data connection to the predetermined safe keep-alive value.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the predetermined safe keep-alive value is sent to the client during establishment of the data connection.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising, if no cached efficient keep-alive interval is present at the server, then:

determining an efficient keep-alive interval for communication between the first requesting client and the server via the networking device using the test connection, by, on each of one or more passes through a control loop;

receiving a keep-alive message from the client at the server, at an increasingly incremented test connection keep-alive interval, over the test connection while concurrently exchanging data over the data connection;

sending an acknowledgment to the first requesting client in response to the keep-alive message successfully received on the test connection; and

after sending the acknowledgment, receiving from the first requesting client via the test connection a new efficient keep-alive interval set to the test connection keep-alive interval value.

20. A method for use in communication between a plurality of clients and a server, via respective networking devices, comprising:

at the server, providing a data store configured to store efficient keep-alive intervals received from the plurality of clients via the respective networking devices;

receiving a first request for a first data connection from a first requesting client;

querying the data store to determine if a cached efficient keep-alive interval is present in the data store, which has been received from another client connected to the same or a related networking device and stored in the data store;

upon determining that no cached efficient keep-alive interval is present in the data store, then;

sending a predetermined safe keep-alive value from the server to the first requesting client, to cause the first requesting client to set the keep-alive value for the data connection to the predetermined safe keep-alive value;

receiving a request to establish a test connection between the server and the first requesting client;

determining an efficient keep-alive interval for communication between the first requesting client and the server via the networking device using the test connection, by, on each of one or more passes through a control loop;

receiving a keep-alive message from the client at the server, at an increasingly incremented test connection keep-alive interval, over the test connection, until no more keep-alive messages are received on the test connection;

sending an acknowledgment to the first requesting client in response to each keep-alive message successfully received on the test connection; and

after completion of the control loop, receiving from the first requesting client a new efficient keep-alive interval determined by the first requesting client, which is set to a largest value for the test connection keep-alive interval at which an acknowledgement was sent by the server during the control loop;

caching the efficient keep-alive interval in the data store for availability to other requesting clients;

receiving a second request for a second data connection from a second requesting client;

querying the data store to determine if a cached efficient keep-alive interval is present in the data store which has been received from the first requesting client connected to the same or the related networking device and stored in the data store; and

upon determining that the cached efficient keep-alive interval is present in the data store, sending the cached efficient keep-alive interval from the server to the second requesting client for application to the data connection.