Systems and methods for automatic installation and execution of a client-side acceleration program

• US 7,810,089 B2
• Filed: 12/30/2005
• Issued: 10/05/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Original Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Inventors: Shetty, Anil, Verzunov, Sergey, Venkatraman, Charu, He, Junxiao, Sundarrajan, Prabakar
• Primary Examiner(s): Zen; Wei Y
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nahar; Qamrun
• Application Number:
  US11/324,203
• Publication Number:
  US 20060195840A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,740 Days
• Field of Search: 717/174, 717/175, 717/176, 717/177, 717/178, 709/219, 709/247
• US Class Current: 717/174
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416

Abstract

The present invention is directed towards systems and methods for dynamically deploying and executing an acceleration program on a client to improve the performance and delivery of remotely accessed applications. The acceleration program of the present invention is automatically installed and executed on a client in a manner transparent to and seamless with the operation of the client. An appliance may intercept a request of the client to establish a communication session or connection with a server, and transmit the acceleration program to the client. In some cases, the appliance determines whether the application being accessed by the client can be accelerated and only provides the acceleration program if the application can be accelerated. Upon receipt of the acceleration program, the client automatically performs a silent installation of the acceleration program and executes the acceleration program upon completion of the installation.

Claims

1. A method for dynamically providing an acceleration program to a client to automatically install and execute, the acceleration program accelerating access by the client to a remotely accessed application, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) receiving, by an appliance, a request by a client to establish a communication session with a server;

(b) transmitting, by the appliance, to the client an acceleration program comprising a network driver for performing, on the client, acceleration of a client'"'"'s access to an application provided via the server;

(c) upon receipt of the acceleration program, automatically executing, by the client, a silent installation of the network driver to storage of the client; and

(d) upon installation of the network driver, automatically executing, by the client, the network driver in memory allocated to a network stack of the client, wherein the network driver intercepts network traffic at a protocol layer of the network stack and performs a plurality of acceleration techniques at a single point of execution.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising transmitting, by the appliance, the acceleration program to the client upon establishment of the communication session with the server.

3. The method of claim 1, comprising establishing, by the acceleration program, the communication session with the server.

4. The method of claim 1, comprising installing the acceleration program on the client without one of a reboot of the client or interaction by a user of the client.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein one of step (b), step (c) or step (d) are performed on the client transparently to one of a user of the client, an application of the client, or the server.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the network driver comprises a filter device driver interfaced to a transport layer of the network stack.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the acceleration program provides client-side accelerated access to an application on the server transparently to one of a network layer, a session layer, or application layer of the network stack.

8. The method of claim 1, comprising transmitting, by the appliance, a first program to the client, the first program comprising the acceleration program.

9. The method of claim 8, comprising upon receipt of the first program, automatically executing, by the client, the first program to install and execute the acceleration program.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the first program comprises executable instructions provided to and executed on a browser.

11. The method of claim 1, comprising the steps of:

(e) receiving, by the appliance, a request from the client to access an application on the server, and

(f) transmitting, by the appliance, a message to the client communicating to the acceleration program to perform at least one acceleration technique on communications between the client and the server.

12. The method of claim 11, comprising:

(g) determining, by the appliance, whether the application is capable of being accelerated; and

(h) transmitting, by the appliance, the message to the client if the application is capable of being accelerated.

13. The method of claim 1, comprising performing, by the acceleration program, on the client one of the following acceleration techniques:

compression;

decompression;

Transmission Control Protocol connection pooling;

Transmission Control Protocol connection multiplexing;

Transmission Control Protocol buffering; and

caching.

14. The method of claim 1, comprising performing, by the acceleration program, one of encryption or decryption of communications between the client and the server.

15. The method of claim 1, comprising establishing, by the network driver, a virtual private network connection with one of the appliance or the server.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the appliance comprises one of a cache, a gateway, a server, a firewall, a proxy, a router, a switch, or a bridge.

17. A method for dynamically providing an acceleration program to a client for accelerating access by the client to a remotely accessed application, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) receiving, by an appliance, a request from a client to access an application via a server;

(b) determining, by the appliance, the application is capable of being accelerated; and

(c) transmitting, by the appliance to the client, an acceleration program to the client for automatic installation and execution on the client;

(d) upon receipt of the acceleration program, automatically executing, by the client, a silent installation of a network driver of the acceleration program on the client; and

(e) upon installation of the network driver, automatically executing, by the client, the network driver in a network stack of the client, wherein the network driver intercepts network traffic at a protocol layer of the network stack and performs a plurality of acceleration techniques at a single interface point.

18. The method of claim 17, comprising upon receipt of the acceleration program, automatically executing and installing, by the client, the acceleration program.

19. The method of claim 17, comprising one of receiving, installing or executing, by the client, the acceleration program transparently to one of an application on the client, a user on the client, or the server.

20. The method of claim 17, comprising determining, by the appliance, the application is not capable of being accelerated, and forwarding the request to the server.

21. The method of claim 17, comprising determining, by the appliance, the application is capable of being accelerated by one of the following acceleration techniques:

compression;

decompression;

Transmission Control Protocol connection pooling;

Transmission Control Protocol connection multiplexing;

Transmission Control Protocol buffering; and

caching.

22. The method of claim 21, comprising transmitting, by the appliance, the acceleration program configured to provide the acceleration technique determined, by the appliance, to be capable of accelerating the application.

23. The method of claim 21, comprising, performing, by the acceleration program, one of the acceleration techniques.

24. The method of claim 17, comprising providing, by the acceleration program, a virtual private network to one of the appliance or the server.

25. The method of claim 17, wherein the appliance comprises one of a cache, a gateway, a server, a firewall, a proxy, a router, a switch, or a bridge.

26. A system for dynamically providing an acceleration program to a client for accelerating access by the client to a remotely accessed application, the system comprising a processor;

means for receiving a request from a client to access an application via a server;

means for determining the application is capable of being accelerated;

means for transmitting an acceleration program to the client, the acceleration program configured for automatic installation and execution on the client;

wherein the client upon receipt of the acceleration program, automatically executes a silent installation of a network driver of the acceleration program on the client and upon installation of the network driver automatically executes the network driver in a network stack of the client, wherein the network driver intercepts network traffic at a protocol layer of the network stack and performs a plurality of acceleration techniques at a single place of execution.

27. The system of claim 26, comprising means for determining, by the system, the application is not capable of being accelerated, and forwarding the request to the server.

28. The system of claim 26, comprising means determining, by the system, the application is capable of being accelerated by one of the following acceleration techniques:

compression;

decompression;

Transmission Control Protocol connection pooling;

Transmission Control Protocol connection multiplexing;

Transmission Control Protocol buffering; and

caching.

29. The system of claim 28, comprising means for transmitting, by the system, the acceleration program configured to provide the acceleration technique determined, by the system, to be capable of accelerating the application.

30. The system of claim 26, comprising means for establishing a virtual private network with the acceleration program.

31. The system of claim 26, comprising one of a cache, a gateway, a server, a firewall, a proxy, a router, a switch, or a bridge.