SERVER CONTROLLED THROTTLING OF CLIENT TO SERVER REQUESTS

• US 20150207823A1
• Filed: 04/24/2014
• Published: 07/23/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/20/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: MAHBOD, Aurash, KIRKPATRICK, Ficus
• Granted Patent: US 10,212,194 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/60 Scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests, e.g. requests for application data transmissions using the analysis and optimisation of the required network resources admission control or resource allocation H04L47/70

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention provide methodologies for server-controlled throttling of client to server requests in order to improve client-server communication performance. Embodiments of the invention relate to systems and methods that provide routines for real-time monitoring of requests originating from client devices, for analyzing the characteristics of the requests, for developing protocols for managing requests within a client-server infrastructure, and for facilitating client adherence to the developed protocols. The systems and methods contemplated by the present invention involve means for monitoring the requests received by servers from client devices, means for analyzing the characteristics of the requests, means for developing client-server communication protocols intended to improve client-server communication performance, and means for delivering the protocols to a plurality of client devices.

Claims

1. A method, implemented by one or more processors executing instructions stored at computer-readable storage media, for throttling client-to-server resource requests, the method comprising:

producing one or more data sets, wherein each data set comprises a plurality of data points representing a characteristic of an instance of client-server communication;

determining whether a condition for triggering a client-server communication parameter update has been met; and

when a condition for triggering a client-server communication parameter update has been met;

calculating updated client-server communication parameters; and

transmitting the updated client-server communication parameters to one or more clients.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the updated client-server communication parameters comprise one or more of the group consisting of:

a socket timeout and a request retry limit.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein each data point in each data set corresponds to an instance of client-server communication involving a client that is a member of a unique class of clients.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the class of clients is defined by one or more of the group consisting of:

a network carrier, a geographic location, a characteristic of an affiliated user account, an IP address range, and a type of client device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein each data point represents one or more of the group consisting of:

a user-facing latency associated with a client-to-server request, a backend latency associated with the processing of a client-to-server request, and an on-the-wire latency associated with the processing of a client-to-server request.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining whether a condition for triggering a client-server communication parameter update comprises:

calculating statistical characteristics of the one or more data sets; and

determining whether the statistical characteristics of one of the one or more data sets exceeds a threshold.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the threshold is determined based on current values of client-server communication parameters.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein calculating updated client-server communication parameters utilizes one or more of the group consisting of:

statistical characteristics of the one or more data sets, historical client-server communication performance, and the presence of an event.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the event is selected from one or more of the group consisting of:

a server reset of a data transfer limit, a network carrier reset of a data transfer limit, and the release of new content at the server.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the updated client-server communication parameters to one or more clients comprises one of more of the group consisting of:

transmitting the updated client-server communication parameters in the header of a response to a client request,

transmitting the updated client-server communication parameters in the payload of a response to a client request, and

transmitting the updated client-server communication parameters via a push notification.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein transmitting the updated client-server communication parameters via a push notification comprises one of the group consisting of:

transmitting the updated client-server communication parameters via a broadcast, and

transmitting the updated client-server communication parameters via a multicast.

12. A server comprising a processor and a computer readable storage medium having stored thereon processor executable instructions, the server further comprising:

a client-server communication monitoring module configured to produce one or more data sets and to determine whether a condition for triggering a client-server communication parameter update has been met;

a client-server communication analysis module configured to calculate updated client-server communication parameters; and

a client command transmission module configured to transmit the updated client-server communication parameters to one or more clients;

wherein each data set comprises a plurality of data points representing a characteristic of an instance of client-server communication.

13. The server of claim 12, wherein the updated client-server communication parameters comprise one or more of the group consisting of:

a socket timeout and a request retry limit.

14. The server of claim 12, wherein each data point in each data set corresponds to an instance of client-server communication involving a client that is a member of a unique class of clients.

15. The server of claim 14, wherein each data point represents one or more of the group consisting of:

a user-facing latency associated with a client-to-server request, a backend latency associated with the processing of a client-to-server request, and an on-the-wire latency associated with the processing of a client-to-server request.

16. The server of claim 12, wherein each data point represents one or more of the group consisting of:

a user-facing latency associated with a client-to-server request, a backend latency associated with the processing of a client-to-server request, and an on-the-wire latency associated with the processing of a client-to-server request.

17. The server of claim 12, wherein the determining whether a condition for triggering a client-server communication parameter update comprises:

calculating statistical characteristics of the one or more data sets; and

determining whether the statistical characteristics of one of the one or more data sets exceeds a threshold.

18. A system for server-controlled throttling of client-to-server requests, the system comprising:

a server comprising a processor and a computer readable storage medium, the server configured to;

produce one or more data sets, wherein each data set comprises a plurality of data points representing a characteristic of an instance of client-server communication;

determine whether a condition for triggering a client-server communication parameter update has been met;

calculate updated client-server communication parameters; and

transmit the updated client-server communication parameters to a client; and

a client comprising a processor and a computer readable storage medium, the client configured to;

transmit a request to the server;

receive the updated client-server communication parameters from the server; and

implement procedures for transmitting requests to the server that utilize the updated client-server communication parameters.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the updated client-server communication parameters comprise one or more of the group consisting of:

a socket timeout and a request retry limit.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein each data point represents one or more of the group consisting of:

a user-facing latency associated with a client-to-server request, a backend latency associated with the processing of a client-to-server request, and an on-the-wire latency associated with the processing of a client-to-server request.