PRE-FETCHING RANDOM-VALUE RESOURCE LOCATORS

• US 20180159948A1
• Filed: 11/21/2017
• Published: 06/07/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/02/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ViaSat Incorporated
• Original Assignee: ViaSat Incorporated
• Inventors: LEPESKA, PETER J., TSILLAS, DEMETRIOS J.
• Granted Patent: US 10,880,396 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/185 Space-based or airborne stations; Stations for satellite systemsH04B7/204 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/146 Markers for unambiguous identification of a particular session, e.g. session cookie or URL-encoding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5681 Pre-fetching or pre-delivering data based on network characteristics
• 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

Once resolved, a random-value universal resource locator (RV-URL) identifies a resource on a host server and constitutes an instruction to a local device executing a network transaction to fetch the resource. Embodiments of the invention resolve and pre-fetch an RV-URL from a remote host server and then pre-position, on a client-side of a communications link to the remote server, both resolution information indicating how the RV-URL was resolved and the pre-fetched resource. Later, when the client device is executing a network transaction and encounters an RV-URL, the client device determines whether resolution information for the RV-URL is locally stored. If so, the client device uses the resolution information to resolve the RV-URL to the same value that was used during pre-fetch. The client device then sends a request for the resolved RV-URL. The request is intercepted on the client-side of the communications link, where it is determined whether a locally cached pre-fetched resource corresponds to the intercepted request. If so, the locally cached pre-fetched resource is provided to the local device as a complete response to the request, which can then be discarded.

Claims

1. A method of accelerating execution of a network transaction, the method comprising:

identifying, by a pre-fetch module, a random-value universal resource locator (RV-URL) expected to be fetched by a client device as part of a network transaction, the identified RV-URL comprising a variable field and a random-value function for generating a random value for the variable field;

resolving, by the pre-fetch module, the identified RV-URL to produce a resolved pre-fetch RV-URL, wherein the variable field of the resolved pre-fetch RV-URL contains a random value generated by the random-value function; and

pre-fetching, by the pre-fetch module, a resource identified by the resolved pre-fetch RV-URL from a host server identified by the resolved pre-fetch RV-URL.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

providing, to the client device, resolution information comprising the random value; and

providing, to the client device, the pre-fetched resource.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein resolving the identified RV-URL comprises:

executing the random-value function to produce the random value, and

inserting the random value into the variable field of the identified RV-URL.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein:

the random-value function comprises a random-number function, and

the random value is a random number generated by the random-number function.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein pre-fetching the resource comprises:

generating a pre-fetch request for the resource identified by the resolved pre-fetch RV-URL, and

sending the pre-fetch request to the host server.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein pre-fetching the resource further comprise receiving, in response to the pre-fetch request, a response from the host server comprising the pre-fetched resource.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein the resolution information further comprises the resolved pre-fetch RV-URL.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein the resolution information further comprises the pre-fetch request.

9. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

receiving, at the pre-fetch module, hints for executing the network transaction,

wherein identifying an RV-URL comprises encountering the RV-URL in the hints.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein:

the hints comprise information from a prior execution of the network transaction, and

the identified RV-URL was used in the prior execution of the network transaction to fetch a resource.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising forwarding the hints to the client device.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising, prior to forwarding the hints to the client device, adding, by the pre-fetch module, to the hints the random value contained in the variable field of the resolved pre-fetch RV-URL.

13. The method of claim 2, wherein providing the resolution information and the pre-fetched resource to the client device comprises sending, by the pre-fetch module, the resolution information and the pre-fetched resource over a communications link to the client device.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the communications link comprises a satellite link.

15. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

caching the resolution information on a client-side of the communications link; and

caching the pre-fetched resource on the client-side of the communications link.

16. The method claim 15 wherein:

caching the resolution information on a client-side of the communications link comprises caching the resolution information at the client device; and

caching the pre-fetched resource on a client-side of the communications link comprises caching the pre-fetched resource at a client proxy associated with the client device.

17. An apparatus, disposed on a server-side of a communications network, for accelerating execution of a network transaction by a client device disposed on a client-side of the communications network, the apparatus comprising:

processor circuitry; and

digital storage having stored therein non-transient instructions that cause the processor circuitry to perform a method comprising;

identifying a random-value universal resource locator (RV-URL) expected to be fetched by the client device as part of the network transaction, the identified RV-URL comprising a variable field and a random-value function for generating a random value for the variable field;

resolving the identified RV-URL to produce a resolved pre-fetch RV-URL, wherein the variable field of the resolved pre-fetch RV-URL contains a random value generated by the random-value function; and

pre-fetching a resource identified by the resolved pre-fetch RV-URL from a host server identified by the resolved pre-fetch RV-URL.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the method further comprises:

providing, to the client device, resolution information comprising the random value; and

providing, to the client device, the pre-fetched resource.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein resolving the identified RV-URL comprises:

executing the random-value function to produce the random value, and

inserting the random value into the variable field of the identified RV-URL.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein:

the random-value function comprises a random-number function, and

the random value is a random number generated by the random-number function.

21. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein pre-fetching the resource comprises:

generating a pre-fetch request for the resource identified by the resolved pre-fetch RV-URL, and

sending the pre-fetch request to the host server.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein pre-fetching the resource further comprises receiving, in response to the pre-fetch request, a response from the host server comprising the pre-fetched resource.

23. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the resolution information further comprises the resolved pre-fetch RV-URL.

24. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the resolution information further comprises the pre-fetch request.

25. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving hints for executing the network transaction,

wherein identifying an RV-URL comprises encountering the RV-URL in the hints.

26. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein:

the hints comprise information from a prior execution of the network transaction, and

the identified RV-URL was used in the prior execution of the network transaction to fetch a resource.

27. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the method further comprises forwarding the hints to the client device.

28. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the method further comprises, prior to forwarding the hints to the client device, adding to the hints the random value contained in the variable field of the resolved pre-fetch RV-URL.

29. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein providing the resolution information and the pre-fetched resource to the client device comprises sending the resolution information and the pre-fetched resource over a communications link to the client device.

30. The apparatus of claim 29, wherein the communications link comprises a satellite link.