Load-balanced, persistent connection techniques

• US 10,178,185 B2
• Filed: 05/08/2017
• Issued: 01/08/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Torok, Fred, Deramat, Frederic Johan Georges, Gundeti, Vikram Kumar, VanLund, Peter Spalding
• Primary Examiner(s): Zand, Davoud A
• Application Number:
  US15/589,589
• Publication Number:
  US 20170244793A1
• Time in Patent Office: 610 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2803 Home automation networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2503 Translation of Internet protocol [IP] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4552 Lookup mechanisms between a plurality of directories; Synchronisation of directories, e.g. metadirectories
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1006 with static server selection, e.g. the same server being selected for a specific client
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1027 Persistence of sessions during load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/142 Managing session states for stateless protocols; Signalling session states; State transitions; Keeping-state mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/143 Termination or inactivation of sessions, e.g. event-controlled end of session
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/145 avoiding end of session, e.g. keep-alive, heartbeats, resumption message or wake-up for inactive or interrupted session
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/303 Terminal profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/14 Multichannel or multilink protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/25 Maintenance of established connections

Abstract

Techniques for creating a persistent connection between client devices and one or more remote computing resources, which may form a portion of a network-accessible computing platform. This connection may be considered “permanent” or “nearly permanent” to allow the client device to both send data to and receive data from the remote resources at nearly any time. In addition, both the client device and the remote resources may establish virtual channels over this single connection. If no data is exchanged between the client device and the remote computing resources for a threshold amount of time, then the connection may be severed and the client device may attempt to establish a new connection with the remote computing resources.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform acts comprising;

receiving, from a client device, a first request to connect to one or more of multiple server instances;

establishing a first connection between the client device and a first server instance of the multiple server instances at least partly in response to receiving the first request;

dropping the first connection at least partly based on an amount of data transferred between the client device and the first server instance over a period of time;

receiving, from the client device, a second request to connect to one or more of the multiple server instances; and

establishing a second connection, between the client device and a second server instance of the multiple server instances, based at least partly on dropping the first connection.

2. The system as recited in claim 1, the acts further comprising, prior to the dropping, iterating between sending data over a first channel of the first connection and receiving data over a second channel of the first connection.

3. The system as recited in claim 1, the acts further comprising storing an indication that the client device has established the first connection with the first server instance, the indication comprising a device identifier (DID) associated with the client device and an identifier of the first server instance.

4. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein:

dropping the first connection at least partly based on an amount of data transferred between the client device and the first server instance over a period of time comprises dropping the first connection when no data has been transferred between the client device and the first server instance for 15 minutes; and

establishing the second connection comprises establishing the second connection based at least partly on receiving the second request.

5. One or more computing devices comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform acts comprising;

receiving, from a client device, a request to connect to one or more of multiple server instances;

routing the request such that the client device establishes a first connection with a first server instance of the multiple server instances;

severing the first connection based on at least one of a property of the first connection, a property of the first server instance, or a property of the client device; and

establishing a second connection, between the client device and a second server instance of the multiple server instances, based at least partly on severing the first connection.

6. The one or more computing devices as recited in claim 5, wherein the severing is based at least in part on the property of the first connection, the property of the first connection comprising an amount of data sent to the client device from the first server instance or received by the first server instance from the client device over a period of time.

7. The one or more computing devices as recited in claim 5, wherein the severing is based at least in part on the property of the first server instance, the property of the first server instance comprising an indication that a physical server hosting the first server instance is being shut down.

8. The one or more computing devices as recited in claim 5, wherein:

the request is received by a load-balancing service that is associated with a virtual internet protocol (VIP) address called by the client device,

the load-balancing service selects the second server instance for establishing the second connection, and

establishing the second connection between the client device and the second server instance substantially balances a processing load across the multiple server instances.

9. The one or more computing devices as recited in claim 5, wherein the severing is based at least in part on the property of the client device, the property of the client device being that the client device is not authorized to connect to the first server instance.

10. The one or more computing devices as recited in claim 5, the acts further comprising storing an indication that the client device has established the first connection with the first server instance, the indication comprising a device identifier (DID) associated with the client device and an identifier associated with the first server instance.

11. The one or more computing devices as recited in claim 10, the acts further comprising:

accessing the indication to obtain the identifier associated with the first server instance;

sending data to the first server instance, the data intended for the client device; and

sending, by the first server instance, the data to the client device.

12. The one or more computing devices as recited in claim 11, wherein the data comprises an audio signal for output on a speaker of the client device.

13. The one or more computing devices as recited in claim 11, wherein the data comprises a control message instructing the client device to perform an operation.

14. The one or more computing devices as recited in claim 5, the acts further comprising:

establishing a first channel of the first connection over which to send data to the client device; and

receiving data from the client device over a second channel of the first connection.

15. The one or more computing devices as recited in claim 5, wherein the the client device comprises a voice-controlled device, and wherein the request is generated by the client device based at least in part on a voice command received by the client device.

16. A method comprising:

receiving, by a computing device and from a client device, a request to connect to one or more of multiple server instances;

at least partly in response to receiving the request, establishing, by the computing device, a first connection between the client device and a first server instance of the multiple server instances;

dropping, by the computing device, the first connection based on at least one of a property of the first connection, a property of the first server instance, or a property of the client device; and

based at least in part on dropping the first connection, establishing a second connection between the client device and a second server instance of the multiple server instances different from the first server instance, wherein the second server instance is selected for establishing the second connection to substantially balance a processing load across the multiple server instances.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the dropping is based at least in part on the property of the first connection, the property of the first connection comprises at least one of an amount of data transferred over the first connection over a period of time, an amount of time from establishing the first connection, or a bandwidth of the first connection.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein establishing the second connection includes permitting a variable amount of time to elapse between dropping the first connection and establishing the second connection.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

measuring an amount of time within which an amount of data transferred over the first connection is below a threshold amount of data;

determining that the amount of time is greater than a first threshold amount of time, and is equal to a second threshold amount of time, and

dropping the first connection based at least in part on the determining.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

iterating between sending data over a first channel of the first connection and receiving data over a second channel of the first connection.