Transaction accelerator for client-server communications systems

• US 8,762,455 B2
• Filed: 08/20/2012
• Issued: 06/24/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2002
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Riverbed Technology, LLC (Riverbed Technology Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Riverbed Technology Incorporated
• Inventors: McCanne, Steven, Demmer, Michael J.
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, PHUOC H
• Application Number:
  US13/589,896
• Publication Number:
  US 20130041940A1
• Time in Patent Office: 673 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/216, 709/236, 709/246
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/288 Distributed intermediate devices, i.e. intermediate devices for interaction with other intermediate devices on the same level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/289 Intermediate processing functionally located close to the data consumer application, e.g. in same machine, in same home or in same sub-network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5651 Reducing the amount or size of exchanged application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5682 Policies or rules for updating, deleting or replacing the stored data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

For an accelerated transaction, a client directs a request to a client-side transaction handler that forwards the request to a server-side transaction handler, which in turn provides the request, or a representation thereof, to a server for responding to the request. The server sends the response to the client via the server-side transaction handler and the client-side transaction handler. When data is to be sent between handlers, the sending transaction handler compares data segments with segments stored in its persistent segment storage and replaces segments with references to entries in its persistent segment storage that match or closely match the segments to be replaced. The transaction accelerators could handle multiple clients and/or multiple servers and the segments stored in the persistent segment stores can relate to different transactions, different clients and/or different servers. Persistent segment stores can be prepopulated with segment data from other transaction accelerators.

Claims

1. In a computer network wherein nodes initiate transactions with other nodes and the network carries transactions electronically including a request message from a first node to a second node and a response message from the second node to the first node, a method comprising:

receiving a modified message transported to the first node, wherein the first node is operably connected to a cluster via a first transport connection and wherein the second node is operably connected to the cluster via a second transport connection, and wherein the modified message includes a segment reference to a matching data pattern stored in a client-side auxiliary data store;

replacing the segment reference included in the modified message with a matching data pattern retrieved from a server-side auxiliary data store, to form a reconstructed message; and

transmitting the reconstructed message from the first node to the cluster via the first transport connection.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting the reconstructed message from the cluster to the second node via the second transport connection.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the cluster is configured to receive all messages between the first node and the second node.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the second node is a server.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the cluster includes at least two server-side nodes.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the cluster is operably coupled to two or more servers.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising bypassing the cluster such that the first node is operably connected to the second node.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first node is operably coupled with the server-side auxiliary data store.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first node is a server-side proxy node.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the first node is operably coupled, over the network, with a client-side proxy node, and wherein the modified message is received at the server-side proxy node from the client-side proxy node.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the client-side auxiliary data store is operably coupled to the client-side proxy node and configured to store the matching data pattern corresponding to the segment reference included in the modified message.

12. The method of claim 11, requesting, from the client-side proxy node by the server-side proxy node, segment data corresponding to the segment reference when the matching data pattern is not present in the server-side auxiliary data store.

13. A transaction accelerator for use in a computer network wherein nodes initiate transactions with other nodes and the network carries transactions electronically including a request message from a first node to a second node and a response message from the second node to the first node, comprising:

a receiver configured to receive a modified message transported to the first node, wherein the first node is operably connected to a cluster via a first transport connection and wherein the second node is operably connected to the cluster via a second transport connection, and wherein the modified message includes a segment reference to a matching data pattern stored in a client-side auxiliary data store;

a transaction transformer configured to replace the segment reference included in the modified message with a matching data pattern retrieved from a server-side auxiliary data store, to form a reconstructed message; and

a transmitter configured to transmit the reconstructed message from the first node to the cluster via the first transport connection.

14. The transaction accelerator of claim 13, wherein the transmitter is further configured to transmit the reconstructed message from the cluster to the second node via the second transport connection.

15. The transaction accelerator of claim 14, wherein the cluster is configured to receive all messages between the first node and the second node.

16. The transaction accelerator of claim 15, wherein the second node is a server.

17. The transaction accelerator of claim 13, wherein the cluster includes at least two servers.

18. The transaction accelerator of claim 13, wherein the cluster is operably coupled to two or more servers.

19. The transaction accelerator of claim 13, wherein the transmitter is further configured to bypass the cluster such that the first node is operably connected to the second node.

20. The transaction accelerator of claim 13, wherein the first node is operably coupled with the server-side auxiliary data store.

21. The transaction accelerator of claim 13, wherein the first node is a server-side proxy node.

22. The transaction accelerator of claim 21, wherein the first node is operably coupled, over the network, with a client-side proxy node, and wherein the modified message is received at the server-side proxy node from the client-side proxy node.

23. The transaction accelerator of claim 22, wherein the client-side auxiliary data store is operably coupled to the client-side proxy node and configured to store the matching data pattern corresponding to the segment reference included in the modified message.

24. The transaction accelerator of claim 23, wherein the transaction transformer is further configured to request, from the client-side proxy node by the server-side proxy node, segment data corresponding to the segment reference when the matching data pattern is not present in the server-side auxiliary data store.