System and method for improving internet communication by using intermediate nodes

• US 9,742,866 B2
• Filed: 11/03/2015
• Issued: 08/22/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/28/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bright Data, Ltd. (f/k/a Luminati Networks)
• Original Assignee: Hola Networks Ltd.
• Inventors: Shribman, Derry, Vilenski, Ofer
• Primary Examiner(s): SCOTT, RANDY A
• Application Number:
  US14/930,894
• Publication Number:
  US 20160105530A1
• Time in Patent Office: 658 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0864 Round trip delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/029 Firewall traversal, e.g. tunnelling or, creating pinholes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0407 wherein the identity of one or more communicating identities is hidden cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for anonymous credentials or for identity based cryptographic systems H04L9/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/141 Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/567 Integrating service provisioning from a plurality of service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/59 Providing operational support to end devices by off-loading in the network or by emulation, e.g. when they are unavailable
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/60 Scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests, e.g. requests for application data transmissions using the analysis and optimisation of the required network resources admission control or resource allocation H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

A method for fetching a content from a web server to a client device is disclosed, using tunnel devices serving as intermediate devices. The client device access an acceleration server to receive a list of available tunnel devices. The requested content is partitioned into slices, and the client device sends a request for the slices to the available tunnel devices. The tunnel devices in turn fetch the slices from the data server, and send the slices to the client device, where the content is reconstructed from the received slices. A client device may also serve as a tunnel device, serving as an intermediate device to other client devices. Similarly, a tunnel device may also serve as a client device for fetching content from a data server. The selection of tunnel devices to be used by a client device may be in the acceleration server, in the client device, or in both. The partition into slices may be overlapping or non-overlapping, and the same slice (or the whole content) may be fetched via multiple tunnel devices.

Claims

1. A method for fetching a content over the Internet by a first device identified in the Internet by a first identifier, from a first server identified in the Internet by a second identifier, via a group of multiple devices, each identified in the Internet by an associated group device identifier, wherein the content is partitioned into a plurality of content slices, each content slice containing at least part of the content, and identified using a content slice identifier, and for each of the content slices, comprising the steps of:

(a) selecting a second device from the group;

(b) the first device sending over the Internet a first request to the selected second device using the selected second device identifier, the first request including the content slice identifier and the second identifier;

(c) in response to receiving the first request, the selected second device sending over the Internet a second request to the first server using the second identifier, the second request including the content slice identifier;

(d) in response to receiving the second request, the first server sending over the Internet the content slice to the selected second device; and

(e) in response to receiving the content slice, the selected second device sending over the Internet the content slice to the first device,

wherein each of the multiple devices is a client device.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the content is composed of bits, nibbles, bytes, characters, words, or strings, and the partitioning is based on bit, nibble, byte, multi-byte, number, character, word, or string level.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the content is composed of files, or programs, and the partitioning is based on file or program level.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the content is a website content comprising multiple webpages, and the partitioning is based webpages level.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein all of the parts of the content are included in all of the content slices.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein all of the content slices have the same size.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least two content slices are the same.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein part of the content is included in two or more content slices.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the partitioning is sequential in the content.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the partitioning is non-sequential in the content.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein the number of content slices is equal to the number of devices in the group.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein a distinct device is selected for each content slice.

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein the number of content slices is higher than the number of devices in the group.

14. The method according to claim 1, wherein the number of content slices is lower than the number of devices in the group.

15. A method for fetching a content over the Internet from a first server identified in the Internet by a second identifier via a group of multiple devices, each identified in the Internet by an associated group device identifier, the method comprising the step of partitioning the content into a plurality of content slices, each content slice containing at least part of the content, and identified using a content slice identifier, and for each of the content slices, comprising the steps of:

(a) selecting a device from the group;

(b) sending over the Internet a first request to the selected device using the group device identifier of the selected device, the first request including the content slice identifier and the second identifier;

(c) in response to receiving the sent first request by the selected device, receiving over the Internet the content slice from the selected device; and

wherein the method further comprising the step of constructing the content from the received plurality of content slices,

and wherein each of the devices in the group is a client device.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the content is composed of bits, nibbles, bytes, characters, words, or strings, and the partitioning is based on bit, nibble, byte, multi-byte, number, character, word, or string level.

17. The method according to claim 15, wherein the content is composed of files, or programs, and the partitioning is based on file or program level.

18. The method according to claim 17, wherein the content is a website content comprising multiple webpages, and the partitioning is based webpages level.

19. The method according to claim 15, wherein all of the parts of the content are included in all of the content slices.

20. The method according to claim 15, wherein all of the content slices have the same size.

21. The method according to claim 15, wherein at least two content slices are the same.

22. The method according to claim 15, wherein part of the content is included in two or more content slices.

23. The method according to claim 15, wherein the partitioning is sequential in the content.

24. The method according to claim 15, wherein the partitioning is non-sequential in the content.

25. The method according to claim 15, wherein the number of content slices is equal to the number of devices in the group.

26. The method according to claim 25, wherein a distinct device is selected for each content slice.

27. The method according to claim 15, wherein the number of content slices is higher than the number of devices in the group.

28. The method according to claim 15, wherein the number of content slices is lower than the number of devices in the group.