CONNECTION CACHE METHOD AND SYSTEM

• US 20140237067A1
• Filed: 04/28/2014
• Published: 08/21/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Openwave Mobility Inc. (Enea AB)
• Original Assignee: Openwave Mobility Inc. (Enea AB)
• Inventors: TODD, Darren Richard
• Granted Patent: US 9,686,373 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/213
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3055 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the status of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring if the computing system is on, off, available, not available error or fault processing without redundancy G06F11/0703; error detection or correction by redundancy in data representation G06F11/08; error detection or correction by redundancy in operation G06F11/14; error detection or correction by redundancy in hardware G06F11/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0882 Utilisation of link capacity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1031 Controlling of the operation of servers by a load balancer, e.g. adding or removing servers that serve requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5682 Policies or rules for updating, deleting or replacing the stored data

Abstract

A method, apparatus and computer program product for maintaining a connection cache at an intermediate server, wherein the connection cache relating to resource requests from a plurality of devices to a plurality of servers remote therefrom. The method comprises monitoring resource requests addressed to a plurality of said remote servers during a first time period; generating statistics data on the basis of the monitored resource requests; establishing a plurality of connections from the intermediate server to a subset of the plurality of remote servers, said subset being determined on the basis of the generated statistics data; and storing data indicative of the plurality of established connections in a connection cache. Caching of connections in this manner ensures efficient use of proxy server resources by only caching connections to “popular” remote servers.

Claims

1. A method of maintaining a connection cache at an intermediate server, the connection cache relating to resource requests from a plurality of devices to a plurality of servers remote therefrom, the method comprising:

monitoring resource requests addressed to a plurality of the remote servers during a first time period;

generating statistics data on the basis of the monitored resource requests;

establishing a plurality of connections from the intermediate server to a subset of the plurality of remote servers, the subset being determined on the basis of the generated statistics data; and

storing data indicative of the plurality of established connections in a connection cache.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a further resource request addressed to a particular remote server of the plurality of remote servers;

identifying, from the connection cache, data corresponding to the further resource request; and

utilizing whichever established connection corresponds to the identified data to forward the further resource request to the particular remote server.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising, responsive to receipt of a termination request in respect of the utilized connection, modifying data corresponding to the utilized connection in the connection cache.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the termination request is received from a device associated with the utilized connection and wherein the data corresponding to the utilized connection is modified to indicate that the utilized connection is available for further resource requests.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the termination request is received from a remote server associated with the utilized connection and wherein the data corresponding to the utilized connection is modified to indicate that the utilized connection has been closed.

6. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

monitoring resource requests addressed to the plurality of remote servers during a second time period;

updating the statistics data on the basis of the resource requests monitored during the second time period;

closing a plurality of connections from the intermediate server to a subset of the plurality of remote servers, the subset being determined on the basis of the generated statistics data; and

modifying data indicative of the plurality of closed connections in the connection cache.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the connection cache comprises a data structure which indicates a plurality of established connections from the intermediate server to the plurality of remote servers and a plurality of respective status indicators.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the statistics data indicates a ranking of the plurality of remote servers based on number or rate of connection requests in respect thereof, and the subset of remote servers is selected on the basis of the ranking.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the resource request is a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request.

10. An intermediate server for maintaining a connection cache, the connection cache relating to resource requests from a plurality of devices to a plurality of servers remote therefrom, the intermediate server comprising a processor configured to:

monitor resource requests received addressed to a plurality of the remote servers during a first time period;

generate statistics data on the basis of the monitored resource requests;

establish a plurality of connections from the intermediate server to a subset of the plurality of remote servers, the subset being determined on the basis of the generated statistics data; and

store data indicative of the plurality of established connections in a connection cache.

11. The intermediate server of claim 10, wherein the processor is further configured to:

receive a further resource request addressed to a particular remote server of the plurality of remote servers;

identify, from the connection cache, data corresponding to the further resource request; and

utilize whichever established connection corresponds to the identified data to forward the further resource request to the particular remote server.

12. The intermediate server of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to, responsive to receipt of a termination request in respect of the utilized connection, modify data corresponding to the utilized connection in the connection cache.

13. The intermediate server of claim 12, wherein the termination request is received from a device associated with the utilized connection and wherein the data corresponding to the utilized connection is modified to indicate that the utilized connection is available for further resource requests.

14. The intermediate server of claim 12, wherein the termination request is received from a remote server associated with the utilized connection and wherein the data corresponding to the utilized connection is modified to indicate that the utilized connection has been closed.

15. The intermediate server of claim 10, wherein the processor is further configured to:

monitor resource requests addressed to the plurality of remote servers during a second time period;

update the statistics data on the basis of the resource requests monitored during the second time period;

close a plurality of connections from the intermediate server to a subset of the plurality of remote servers, the subset being determined on the basis of the generated statistics data; and

modify data indicative of the plurality of closed connections in the connection cache.

16. The intermediate server of claim 10, wherein the connection cache comprises a data structure which indicates a plurality of established connections from the intermediate server to the plurality of remote servers and a plurality of respective status indicators.

17. The intermediate server of claim 10, wherein the statistics data indicates a ranking of the plurality of remote servers based on number of connection requests in respect thereof, and the subset of remote servers is selected on the basis of the ranking.

18. The intermediate server of claim 10, wherein the resource request is a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request.

19. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising computer-executable instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause a computing device to perform a method of maintaining a connection cache at an intermediate server, the connection cache relating to resource requests from a plurality of devices to a plurality of servers remote therefrom, the method comprising:

monitoring resource requests addressed to a plurality of the remote servers during a first time period;

generating statistics data on the basis of the monitored resource requests;

establishing a plurality of connections from the intermediate server to a subset of the plurality of remote servers, the subset being determined on the basis of the generated statistics data; and

storing data indicative of the plurality of established connections in a connection cache.