Secure communications using adaptive data compression

• US 9,432,338 B2
• Filed: 10/23/2013
• Issued: 08/30/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/23/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Roskind, James Anthony
• Primary Examiner(s): Ferris, Derrick
• Assistant Examiner(s): VOGEL, JAY L.
• Application Number:
  US14/061,688
• Publication Number:
  US 20150110131A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,042 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/38 by adapting coding or compression rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1441 Countermeasures against malicious traffic countermeasures against attacks on cryptographic mechanisms H04L9/002
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/04 Protocols for data compression, e.g. ROHC

Abstract

Aspects of the subject technology relate to systems, methods, and machine-readable media for communicating using adaptive data compression. A system is configured to compare operation of an encrypted communications channel to at least one operational threshold for the encrypted communications channel and select a level of compression for the encrypted communications channel based on the comparing. The system is further configured to compress data packets to be transmitted over the encrypted communications channel in accordance with the level of compression, encrypt the data packets, and transmit, via a network, the encrypted and compressed data packets to a destination.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for communicating using adaptive data compression, the method comprising:

determining whether an encrypted communications channel operating with a level of compression is operating below an operational threshold based on a capacity of the encrypted communications channel;

decreasing the level of compression when the encrypted communications channel is operating below the operation threshold;

compressing, in accordance with the level of compression, data packets to be transmitted over the encrypted communications channel;

creating, when the encrypted communications channel is operating below the operational threshold, at least one padding data packet, wherein the data of the at least one padding data packet comprises padding data;

encrypting the compressed data packets and the at least one padding data packet;

transmitting, over the encrypted communications channel, the compressed and encrypted data packets to a destination; and

transmitting, over the encrypted communications channel, the encrypted at least one padding data packet to the destination.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising adding, when the encrypted communications channel is operating below the operational threshold, empty data to at least one of the data packets to be transmitted.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

calculating the capacity of the encrypted communications channel; and

identifying the operational threshold based on the capacity of the encrypted communications channel.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the capacity of the encrypted communications channel is calculated based on a current congestion window and a round trip time (RTT) for the encrypted communications channel.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting an initial set of data packets at a default level of compression before the determining of whether the encrypted communications channel is operating below an operational threshold.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the data packets are compressed using at least one of a Huffman encoding or a Lempel-Ziv-Welch (LZW) encoding.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising identifying a set of data packets to be compressed from the data packets to be transmitted based on the level of compression, wherein compressing the data packets comprises compressing the set of data packets to be compressed.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the data packets are encrypted using at least one of a secure sockets layer (SSL) protocol or a transport layer security (TLS) protocol.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising increasing, when the encrypted communications channel is operating above the operational threshold, the level of compression for the encrypted communications channel.

10. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a machine-readable medium comprising instructions stored therein, which when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

determining whether an encrypted communications channel operating with a level of compression is operating above or below an operational threshold based on a capacity of the encrypted communications channel;

decreasing the level of compression when the encrypted communications channel is operating below the operational threshold;

creating at least one padding data packet when the encrypted communications channel is operating below the operational threshold, wherein data of the at least one padding data packet comprises padding data;

compressing, in accordance with the level of compression, data packets to be transmitted over the encrypted communications channel;

encrypting the compressed data packets and the at least one padding data packet; and

transmitting, via a network, the compressed and encrypted data packets and the encrypted at least one padding data packet to a destination.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising increasing the level of compression when the encrypted communications channel is operating above the operational threshold.

12. The system of claim 10, further comprising adding empty data to at least one of the data packets to be transmitted when the encrypted communications channel is operating below the operational threshold.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise:

calculating the capacity of the encrypted communications channel; and

identifying the operational threshold based on the capacity of the encrypted communications channel.

14. A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising instructions stored therein, which when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

comparing operation of an encrypted communications channel operating with a first level of compression to at least one operational threshold for the encrypted communications channel, wherein the at least one operational threshold is based on a capacity of the encrypted communications channel;

selecting a second level of compression for the encrypted communications channel based on the comparing, wherein the second level of compression is lower than the first level of compression when the encrypted communications channel is operating below the at least one operational threshold;

creating at least one padding data packet when the encrypted communications channel is operating below the at least one operational threshold, wherein data of the at least one padding data packet comprises padding data;

compressing, in accordance with the second level of compression, data packets to be transmitted over the encrypted communications channel;

encrypting the compressed data packets;

encrypting the at least one padding data packet;

transmitting, via a network, the compressed and encrypted data packets to a destination; and

transmitting, via the network, the encrypted at least one padding data packet to the destination.

15. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the second level of compression is higher than the first level of compression when the encrypted communications channel is operating above the at least one operational threshold.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the at least one operational threshold comprises a first operational threshold and a second operational threshold, and wherein the second level of compression is equal to the first level of compression when the encrypted communications channel is operating above the first operational threshold and below the second operational threshold.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the operations further comprise:

calculating the capacity of the encrypted communications channel; and

identifying the at least one operational threshold based on the capacity of the encrypted communications channel.