Application prioritization in a stateless protocol
First Claim
1. A method of providing message prioritization in a networking environment, comprising steps of:
- determining, by each of at least two application programs, per-message classification input information for each of a plurality of outbound messages generated by the application program, wherein the per-message classification input information for the outbound messages generated by at least one of the application programs differs among at least two of those outbound messages;
storing, by each of the application programs in a message header of each of the outbound messages generated by the application program, the determined per-message classification input information for the outbound message; and
transmitting the outbound messages from the application programs to a network device, wherein the network device is configured to;
use the stored classification input information in combination with prioritization policy information accessible to the network device to assign per-message priority information that balances message handling priority among the plurality of outbound messages generated by the application programs;
store the assigned per-message priority information and an encrypted version of the classification input information in the message header of each of the outbound messages in a particular manner when forwarding the outbound messages to an intended receipt thereof in an order that is determined using the assigned per-message priority information, wherein the particular manner causes the encrypted version to be automatically returned to the network device in a related subsequent inbound message, if any, from the intended recipient that receives the forwarded outbound message; and
decrypt the encrypted version of the classification input information to yield the classification input information for use when assigning the per-message priority information to the related subsequent inbound message.
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Abstract
Techniques are disclosed that enable an application to prioritize its traffic in an application-specific manner, such that traffic which is most important to this application can be prioritized over traffic that is less important to this application, where this prioritization information is reflected in differential treatment of the traffic within the network. An application conveys relative priority information for its traffic to a Web proxy or edge server, and this device then consults stored policy information to determine how the traffic should be prioritized in the network. The Web proxy also ensures that usage of network resources is balanced among multiple applications. Cookies are used for transmitting priority information between the edge server and application in an efficient manner.
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Citations
9 Claims
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1. A method of providing message prioritization in a networking environment, comprising steps of:
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determining, by each of at least two application programs, per-message classification input information for each of a plurality of outbound messages generated by the application program, wherein the per-message classification input information for the outbound messages generated by at least one of the application programs differs among at least two of those outbound messages; storing, by each of the application programs in a message header of each of the outbound messages generated by the application program, the determined per-message classification input information for the outbound message; and transmitting the outbound messages from the application programs to a network device, wherein the network device is configured to; use the stored classification input information in combination with prioritization policy information accessible to the network device to assign per-message priority information that balances message handling priority among the plurality of outbound messages generated by the application programs; store the assigned per-message priority information and an encrypted version of the classification input information in the message header of each of the outbound messages in a particular manner when forwarding the outbound messages to an intended receipt thereof in an order that is determined using the assigned per-message priority information, wherein the particular manner causes the encrypted version to be automatically returned to the network device in a related subsequent inbound message, if any, from the intended recipient that receives the forwarded outbound message; and decrypt the encrypted version of the classification input information to yield the classification input information for use when assigning the per-message priority information to the related subsequent inbound message. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3)
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4. A method of providing message prioritization in a networking environment, comprising steps of:
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receiving, at a network device from each of a plurality of application programs, a plurality of outbound messages for forwarding to intended recipients thereof, wherein a message header of each of the outbound messages received from at least two of the application programs specifies message-specific classification input information generated by the application program to influence message-specific prioritization of the plurality of outbound messages generated by that application program and wherein the message-specific classification input information in the message header differs among at least two of the outbound messages received from at least one of the application programs; classifying the plurality of received outbound messages, by the network device, using prioritization policy information accessible to the network device and, for the received outbound messages specifying the classification input information in their message header, the classification input information, to assign per-message priority information that balances message handling priority among the plurality of received outbound messages received from the plurality of application programs; storing the assigned per-message priority information in the message header of each of the received outbound messages and, for each of the received outbound messages specifying the classification input information, replacing the classification input information from the message header with an encrypted version thereof, such that the encrypted version will automatically be returned to the network device in a related subsequent inbound message, if any, from the intended recipient and can thereby be decrypted by the network device when classifying the related subsequent inbound message; and forwarding each of the received outbound messages from the network device to the intended recipient thereof in an order that is determined using the assigned per-message priority information. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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Specification