METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR REDUCING NETWORK RESOURCE TRANSMISSION SIZE USING DELTA COMPRESSION

• US 20160014226A1
• Filed: 03/17/2015
• Published: 01/14/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/05/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CloudFlare Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CloudFlare Incorporated
• Inventors: Graham-Cumming, John
• Granted Patent: US 9,729,657 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1023 based on a hash applied to IP addresses or costs
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/2876 Pairs of inter-processing entities at each side of the network, e.g. split proxies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5651 Reducing the amount or size of exchanged application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/02 Protocol performance
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/04 Protocols for data compression, e.g. ROHC

Abstract

A near end network optimizer receives, from a client device, a request for a network resource. Responsive to determining that a version of the network resource is stored in the near end network optimizer, a request for the network resource is transmitted to a far end network optimizer along with a version identifier that identifies that version. The near end network optimizer receives, from the far end network optimizer, a response that includes a differences file that specifies the difference(s) between the version of the network resource stored in the near end network optimizer with a most current version of the network resource. The response does not include the entire network resource. The near end network optimizer applies the specified difference(s) to the version that it has stored to generate an updated version of the network resource, and transmits the updated version of the network resource to the client device.

Claims

1. A method in a near end network optimizer for supporting a delta compression technique for reducing network resource transmission size, wherein the near end network optimizer is coupled with a client device and coupled with a far end network optimizer, the method comprising:

receiving, from the client device, a first request for a network resource;

responsive to determining that a version of the network resource is stored in the near end network optimizer, transmitting a second request for the network resource to the far end network optimizer, the second request including a version identifier that identifies the version of the network resource stored in the near end network optimizer;

receiving, from the far end network optimizer, a first response that includes a differences file that specifies a set of one or more differences between the version of the network resource stored in the near end network optimizer with a most current version of the network resource, wherein the first response does not include the entire network resource;

applying the set of differences specified in the differences file to the version of the network resource stored in the near end network optimizer to generate an updated version of the network resource; and

transmitting, to the client device, a second response that includes the updated version of the network resource.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing the updated version of the network resource in the near end network optimizer.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

storing a version identifier associated with the updated version of the network resource in the near end network optimizer.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the version identifier is included in the first response received from the far end network optimizer.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein prior to storing the version identifier associated with the updated version of the network resource, generating the version identifier by hashing the updated version of the network resource.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the updated version of the network resource and the version identifier are stored in a dynamic dictionary of the near end network optimizer.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the dynamic dictionary of the near end network optimizer is built as resources are received from the far end network optimizer.

8. A method in a far end network optimizer that participates in reducing network resource transmission size through use of delta compression, wherein the far end network optimizer is coupled with a near end network optimizer that itself is coupled with a plurality of client devices, the method comprising:

receiving, from the near end network optimizer, a first request for a network resource on behalf of one of the plurality of client devices, the first request including a version identifier that identifies a first version of the network resource stored in the near end network optimizer; and

responsive to determining that the first version of the network resource is accessible to the far end network optimizer, performing the following;

retrieving a second version of the network resource, the second version being a most current version of the network resource,

determining a set of one or more differences between the first version and the second version of the network resource, and

transmitting the set of differences to the near end network optimizer.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

storing the second version of the network resource in the far end network optimizer.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

storing a version identifier associated with the second version of the network resource in the far end network optimizer.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

transmitting the version identifier associated with the second version of the network resource to the near end network optimizer.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

generating the version identifier by hashing the second version of the network resource.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the second version of the network resource and the version identifier are stored in a dynamic dictionary of the far end network optimizer.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the dynamic dictionary of the far end network optimizer is built as requests are received from the near end network optimizer and resources are retrieved in response to those requests.

15. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium that provides instructions that, when executed by a processor of a near end network optimizer, cause said processor to perform operations comprising:

receiving, from a client device, a first request for a network resource;

responsive to determining that a version of the network resource is stored in the near end network optimizer, transmitting a second request for the network resource to a far end network optimizer, the second request including a version identifier that identifies the version of the network resource stored in the near end network optimizer;

receiving, from the far end network optimizer, a first response that includes a differences file that specifies a set of one or more differences between the version of the network resource stored in the near end network optimizer with a most current version of the network resource, wherein the first response does not include the entire network resource;

applying the set of differences specified in the differences file to the version of the network resource stored in the near end network optimizer to generate an updated version of the network resource; and

transmitting, to the client device, a second response that includes the updated version of the network resource.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 15, further comprising instructions, that when executed by the processor, cause said processor to perform the following operation:

storing the updated version of the network resource in the near end network optimizer.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, further comprising instructions, that when executed by the processor, cause said processor to perform the following operation:

storing a version identifier associated with the updated version of the network resource in the near end network optimizer.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the version identifier is included in the first response received from the far end network optimizer.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein prior to storing the version identifier associated with the updated version of the network resource, generating the version identifier by hashing the updated version of the network resource.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the updated version of the network resource and the version identifier are stored in a dynamic dictionary of the near end network optimizer.

21. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein the dynamic dictionary of the near end network optimizer is built as resources are received from the far end network optimizer.

22. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium that provides instructions that, when executed by a processor of a far end network optimizer, cause said processor to perform operations comprising:

receiving, from a near end network optimizer that is coupled with the far end network optimizer, a first request for a network resource on behalf of one of a plurality of client devices, the first request including a version identifier that identifies a first version of the network resource stored in the near end network optimizer; and

responsive to determining that the first version of the network resource is accessible to the far end network optimizer, performing the following;

retrieving a second version of the network resource, the second version being a most current version of the network resource,

determining a set of one or more differences between the first version and the second version of the network resource, and

transmitting the set of differences to the near end network optimizer.

23. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 22, further comprising instructions, that when executed by the processor, cause said processor to perform the following operation:

storing the second version of the network resource in the far end network optimizer.

24. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 23, further comprising instructions, that when executed by the processor, cause said processor to perform the following operation:

storing a version identifier associated with the second version of the network resource in the far end network optimizer.

25. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 24, further comprising instructions, that when executed by the processor, cause said processor to perform the following operation:

transmitting the version identifier associated with the second version of the network resource to the near end network optimizer.

26. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 24, further comprising instructions, that when executed by the processor, cause said processor to perform the following operation:

generating the version identifier by hashing the second version of the network resource.

27. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 24, wherein the second version of the network resource and the version identifier are stored in a dynamic dictionary of the far end network optimizer.

28. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 24, wherein the dynamic dictionary of the far end network optimizer is built as requests are received from the near end network optimizer and resources are retrieved in response to those requests.