Application prioritization in a stateless protocol

• US 20040006602A1
• Filed: 07/02/2002
• Published: 01/08/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 07/02/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Majikes, John J., Joseph, Dinakaran, Gottimukkala, Sivaram, Bess, Roger A., Delima, Roberto, Hawrysz, Jason Paul, Huynh, Lap Thiet
• Granted Patent: US 7,337,236 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/207
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/142 Managing session states for stateless protocols; Signalling session states; State transitions; Keeping-state mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/61 taking into account QoS or priority requirements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed that enable an application to prioritize its traffic in an application-specific manner, such that traffic which is most important to this application can be prioritized over traffic that is less important to this application, where this prioritization information is reflected in differential treatment of the traffic within the network. An application conveys relative priority information for its traffic to a Web proxy or edge server, and this device then consults stored policy information to determine how the traffic should be prioritized in the network. The Web proxy also ensures that usage of network resources is balanced among multiple applications. Cookies are used for transmitting priority information between the edge server and application in an efficient manner.

Claims

1. A method of providing application-specific prioritization in a networking environment, comprising steps of:

determining, by an application, priority information for outbound messages of the application;

annotating the outbound messages with the determined priority information; and

transmitting the annotated outbound messages from the application, wherein the annotations enable devices in a network path of each transmitted message to prioritize delivery of the message to a recipient.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the priority information is relative prioritization, indicating how individual ones of the outbound messages should be prioritized as contrasted to other ones of the outbound messages.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the annotations comprise a cookie in a header of each outbound message.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of receiving, by the application, previously-determined priority information on inbound massages, wherein the determining step uses the previously-determined priority information as an input.

5. A method of providing application-specific prioritization in a networking environment, comprising steps of:

receiving priority information generated by an application for its outbound messages;

classifying the outbound messages, using the received priority information; and

forwarding the outbound messages to the intended recipients using one or more priority values indicated by the classification thereof.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the priority information is relative prioritization, indicating how individual ones of the outbound messages should be prioritized as contrasted to other ones of the outbound messages.

7. The method according to claim 5, wherein the priority information for a particular outbound message is received in a cookie associated with the particular outbound message.

8. The method according to claim 5, wherein the classifying step further comprises the step of comparing the received priority information to prioritization policy.

9. The method according to claim 5, wherein the classifying step further comprises the step of comparing the received priority information to one or more policy rules and wherein the classification is determined from the comparing step.

10. The method according to claim 5, wherein the forwarded messages include the classification and wherein the forwarded classification on a particular forwarded message will be automatically returned by a recipient of the particular forwarded message on subsequent messages which are related to the particular forwarded message, and further comprising the steps of:

receiving one or more subsequent messages which are related to the particular forwarded message, including the forwarded classification; and

passing each of the subsequent messages and its classification to the application.

11. The method according to claim 10, further comprising the steps of:

using the classification to determine a priority of the subsequent message; and

using the determined priority in the passing step.

12. The method according to claim 10, wherein the classification is encoded in the forwarded message.

13. The method according to claim 10, wherein the classification is encrypted in the forwarded message.

14. A system for providing application-specific prioritization of messages in a networking environment, comprising:

means for determining, by an application, priority information for outbound messages of the application;

means for annotating the outbound messages with the determined priority information; and

means for transmitting the annotated outbound messages from the application, wherein the annotations enable devices in a network path of each transmitted message to prioritize delivery of the message to a recipient.

15. The system according to claim 14, wherein the priority information is relative prioritization, indicating how individual ones of the outbound messages should be prioritized as contrasted to other ones of the outbound messages, and wherein the annotations comprise a cookie in a header of each outbound message.

16. The system according to claim 14, further comprising means for receiving, by the application, previously-determined priority information on inbound massages, wherein the means for determining uses the previously-determined priority information as an input.

17. A system for providing application-specific prioritization in a networking environment, comprising:

means for receiving priority information generated by an application for its outbound messages;

means for classifying the outbound messages, using the received priority information; and

means for forwarding the outbound messages to the intended recipients using one or more priority values indicated by the classification thereof.

18. The system according to claim 17, wherein the priority information is relative prioritization, indicating how individual ones of the outbound messages should be prioritized as contrasted to other ones of the outbound messages, and wherein the priority information for a particular outbound message is received in a cookie associated with the particular outbound message.

19. The system according to claim 17, wherein the means for classifying further comprises means for comparing the received priority information to prioritization policy.

20. The system according to claim 17, wherein the means for classifying further comprises means for comparing the received priority information to one or more policy rules and wherein the classification is determined from operation of the means for comparing.

21. The system according to claim 17, wherein the forwarded messages include the classification and wherein the forwarded classification on a particular forwarded message will be automatically returned by a recipient of the particular forwarded message on subsequent messages which are related to the particular forwarded message, and further comprising:

means for receiving one or more subsequent messages which are related to the particular forwarded message, including the forwarded classification; and

means for passing each of the subsequent messages and its classification to the application.

22. The system according to claim 21, further comprising:

means for using the classification to determine a priority of the subsequent message; and

means for using the determined priority during operation of the means for passing.

23. A computer program product for providing application-specific prioritization of messages in a networking environment, the computer program product embodied on one or more computer-readable media and comprising:

computer-readable program code means for determining, by an application, priority information for outbound messages of the application;

computer-readable program code means for annotating the outbound messages with the determined priority information; and

computer-readable program code means for transmitting the annotated outbound messages from the application, wherein the annotations enable devices in a network path of each transmitted message to prioritize delivery of the message to a recipient.

24. The computer program product according to claim 23, wherein the priority information is relative prioritization, indicating how individual ones of the outbound messages should be prioritized as contrasted to other ones of the outbound messages, and wherein the annotations comprise a cookie in a header of each outbound message.

25. The computer program product according to claim 23, further comprising computer-readable program code means for receiving, by the application, previously-determined priority information on inbound massages, wherein the computer-readable program code means for determining uses the previously-determined priority information as an input.

26. A computer program product for providing application-specific prioritization of messages in a networking environment, the computer program product embodied on one or more computer-readable media and comprising:

computer-readable program code means for receiving priority information generated by an application for its outbound messages;

computer-readable program code means for classifying the outbound messages, using the received priority information; and

computer-readable program code means for forwarding the outbound messages to the intended recipients using one or more priority values indicated by the classification thereof.

27. The computer program product according to claim 26, wherein the priority information is relative prioritization, indicating how individual ones of the outbound messages should be prioritized as contrasted to other ones of the outbound messages, and wherein the priority information for a particular outbound message is received in a cookie associated with the particular outbound message.

28. The computer program product according to claim 26, wherein the computer-readable program code means for classifying further comprises computer-readable program code means for comparing the received priority information to prioritization policy.

29. The computer program product according to claim 26, wherein the computer-readable program code means for classifying further comprises computer-readable program code means for comparing the received priority information to one or more policy rules and wherein the classification is determined from operation of the computer-readable program code means for comparing.

30. The computer program product according to claim 26, wherein the forwarded messages include the classification and wherein the forwarded classification on a particular forwarded message will be automatically returned by a recipient of the particular forwarded message on subsequent messages which are related to the particular forwarded message, and further comprising:

computer-readable program code means for receiving one or more subsequent messages which are related to the particular forwarded message, including the forwarded classification; and

computer-readable program code means for passing each of the subsequent messages and its classification to the application.

31. The computer program product according to claim 30, further comprising:

computer-readable program code means for using the classification to determine a priority of the subsequent message; and

computer-readable program code means for using the determined priority during operation of the computer-readable program code means for passing.