Network-based hyperspeed communication and defense

• US 9,432,282 B2
• Filed: 07/01/2011
• Issued: 08/30/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/24/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: University of Tulsa
• Original Assignee: University of Tulsa
• Inventors: Shenoi, Sujeet, Guernsey, Daniel, Rice, Mason
• Primary Examiner(s): Bates, Kevin
• Assistant Examiner(s): Scott, Mark A
• Application Number:
  US14/000,449
• Publication Number:
  US 20130339545A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,887 Days
• Field of Search: 709/240
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/40163 by assigning priority to messages according to a message field
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/22 Alternate routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/24 Multipath
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/30 Routing of multiclass traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/50 using label swapping, e.g. multi-protocol label switch [MPLS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/24 Traffic characterised by specific attributes, e.g. priority or QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0263 Rule management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1408 by monitoring network traffic monitoring network traffic per se H04L43/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1416 Event detection, e.g. attack signature detection

Abstract

This invention relates to the use of optimal (hyperspeed) paths for command and control (and other high priority) traffic and suboptimal (slower) paths for all other traffic in order to implement sophisticated network service differentiation and defensive techniques. A reaction time window is created to ensure that packets sent along hyperspeed paths can arrive sufficiently in advance of malicious traffic in order to alert network devices and initiate defensive actions. Assortments of defensive options are available to networks employing the invention and the inventive algorithms.

Claims

1. A method for communicating a high-priority signal across a network ahead of a lower-priority signal, the method comprising the steps of:

assigning a priority to each signal entering the network;

analyzing each signal to determine the priority of each signal;

identifying a harmful signal associated with any of the signals entering the network as each signal travels toward its desired destination;

generating a high-priority signal in response to the identification of said harmful signal;

identifying and selecting at least one service differentiation technique for the network;

defining a plurality of electronic communication paths, each path capable of carrying a plurality of signals, wherein the step of defining the plurality of paths identifies at least one optimal communication path and at least one suboptimal communication path corresponding with the selected service differentiation technique;

establishing a target reaction window, wherein the target reaction window defines a desired time difference between the at least one optimal communication path and the at least one suboptimal communication path; and

delivering, within the target reaction window, the high-priority signal along the optimal communication path to the desired destination prior to delivering any of the lower-priority signals along said at least one suboptimal communication path to the desired destination to enable deployment of the selected defensive technique, wherein the step of identifying and selecting at least one service differentiation technique for the network includes selecting a defensive technique for exploiting the target reaction window.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the service differentiation techniques is a queue priority technique.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the service differentiation techniques is a delay variation technique.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the service differentiation techniques is a route variation technique.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of selecting optimum service differentiation techniques from the group consisting of a queue priority, a delay variation, a route variation and combinations thereof.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of analyzing identifies marketable data.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the marketable data is selected from the group consisting of online games, music, video, telecommunications, video communications, streaming video, cloud computing services and applications, business communications, network command, control and optimization, or combinations thereof.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of defining an optimum service differentiation technique using the steps of assessing each signal entering the network, analyzing each signal to determine the priority of each signal and selecting at least one service differentiation technique for the network.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the defensive technique is selected from the group consisting of precognition, distributed filtering, teleporting packets, quarantining network devices, tagging and tracking suspicious packets, projecting holographic network topologies, transfiguring networks, and combinations thereof;

wherein teleporting packets enables packets to be transported by masked routes across the network without detection, and wherein projecting holographic network topologies conceals the network'"'"'s real topology and projects an illusory topology, and wherein transfiguring networks enables the network topology to be dynamically manipulated.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein each high-priority signal and each low-priority signal further comprise a plurality of packets, each packet being encrypted and/or encapsulated in another packet, wherein each packet is transmitted along the optimal communications path to a stage point, where it is converted to its original form and forwarded further along the at least one suboptimal communication path.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising a plurality of optimal communications paths and further comprising fragmenting the packets, the fragments being teleported along a plurality of optimal communications paths.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein at least on of the plurality of packets is an Internet Control Message Protocol packet.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising an origination point and a termination point, wherein the high-priority signal delivers a sentinel message to at least the termination point within the target reaction window to enable the deployment of a defensive technique.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of reserving the optimal path for high-priority signals.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the network is selected from the group consisting of local area networks, service provider networks, enterprise networks, the Internet, cloud infrastructures, and combinations thereof.

16. A method for flexible high-priority electronic communication suitable for communicating a plurality of signals across a network, the network having a plurality of electronic communication paths and each signal having a signal priority, the method comprising the steps of:

determining a priority for each signal entering the network;

generating a high-priority signal in response to detection of a harmful signal, wherein the assigned priority of the harmful signal is lower than the high-priority signal;

selecting at least one service differentiation technique for a target reaction window, wherein the step of selecting said at least one service differentiation technique defines the plurality of paths for electronically communicating the signals; and

employing one or more of the selected service differentiation techniques to flexibly optimize the electronic communication of the high-priority signal along at least one of the paths to provide delivery of a transmitted high-priority signal faster than transmitted lower-priority signals to a desired destination within the same target reaction window.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein at least one of the service differentiation techniques is a queue priority service differentiation technique.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein at least one of the service differentiation techniques is a delay variation technique.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein at least one of the service differentiation techniques is a route variation service differentiation technique.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the route variation sends the lower-priority signals along a path having a greater path time.

21. The method of claim 16, wherein the target reaction window defines a desired time difference between an optimized communication path for the high-priority signal and a greater path time for the lower-priority signal.

22. The method of claim 16, further comprising the step of selecting the service differentiation techniques from the group consisting of a queue priority, a delay variation, a route variation and combinations thereof.

23. The method of claim 16, wherein the step of determining a priority for each signal entering the network comprises the step of analyzing the signal.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the step of analyzing the signal includes identifying marketable data.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the marketable data is selected from the group consisting of online games, music, video, telecommunications, video communications, streaming video, cloud computing services and applications, business communications, network command, control and optimization, or combinations thereof.

26. The method of claim 23, further comprising the step of defining an optimum service differentiation technique using the steps of determining a priority for each signal entering the network and selecting at least one service differentiation technique.

27. The method of claim 23, wherein the step of determining a priority for each signal entering the network further comprises selecting a defensive technique for leveraging the target reaction window associated with the signals.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the defensive technique is selected from the group consisting of precognition, distributed filtering, teleporting packets, quarantining network devices, tagging and tracking suspicious packets, projecting holographic network topologies, transfiguring networks, and combinations thereof;

wherein teleporting packets enables packets to be transported by masked routes across the network without detection, and wherein projecting holographic network topologies conceals the network'"'"'s real topology and projects an illusory topology, and wherein transfiguring networks enables the network topology topology to be dynamically manipulated.

29. The method of claim 16, wherein the network is selected from the group consisting of local area networks, service provider networks, enterprise networks, the Internet, cloud infrastructures, and combinations thereof.

30. A method for delivering high-priority signals over a network faster than lower-priority signals, the method comprising:

identifying a plurality of paths, wherein each path includes an origination node and a termination node;

identifying a reaction window, the reaction window defining a desired time difference between an optimal path and at least one suboptimal path;

selecting from the identified plurality of paths, the optimal path and at least one suboptimal path from the plurality of paths satisfying the reaction window, wherein the selecting step is determined by the reaction window for each origination node and termination node, and wherein the selecting step is determined based on at least one service differentiation technique in response to harmful signals; and

delivering the high-priority signal from the origination node to the termination node along the selected optimal path before the lower-priority signal arrives at the termination node from the origination node along said at least one suboptimal path, wherein the lower-priority signal includes a harmful signal.

31. The method of claim 30, further comprising selecting a plurality of suboptimal paths satisfying the reaction window.

32. The method of claim 31, further comprising selecting a suboptimal path having the smallest reaction window.

33. The method of claim 30, wherein the identifying a plurality of paths step further comprises identifying each path at each node in the network, the nodes being between the origination node and termination node, wherein the optimal path and suboptimal paths for each node are identified therefrom.

34. The method of claim 33, further comprising the step of ranking each identified optimal path and suboptimal path from each node.

35. The method of claim 30, further comprising the step of continuously updating the identity of optimal and suboptimal paths across the network, thereby maintaining a ranked set of optimal paths and suboptimal paths.