Systems and Methods of Symmetric Transport Control Protocol Compression

• US 20080046616A1
• Filed: 08/21/2006
• Published: 02/21/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/21/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Original Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Inventors: Nanjundaswamy, Shashi, Venkatraman, Charu, Shetty, Anil, He, Junxiao, Verzunov, Sergey, Annamalaisami, Saravana, Suganthi, Josephine, Bhushan, Bharath
• Granted Patent: US 8,694,684 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 710/68
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0272 Virtual private networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/166 at the transport layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/04 Protocols for data compression, e.g. ROHC
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/06 Optimizing the usage of the radio link, e.g. header compression, information sizing , discarding information system modifying transmission characteristic according to link quality by modifying frame length H04L1/0007; dynamic adaptation of the packet size for flow control or congestion control H04L47/365
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/06 Transport layer protocols, e.g. TCP [Transport Control Protocol] over wireless transmission control protocol/Internet protocol [TCP/IP] or user datagram protocol [UDP] H04L69/16

Abstract

A method for compressing a stream of application layer network traffic communicated over a transport layer connection of a virtual private network connection between a client and a server using an appliance. The appliance intercepts one or more transport layer packets of a stream of application network traffic communicated via a transport layer connection of a virtual private network connection between a client and a server. The appliance accumulates data from a payload of the intercepted transport layer packets, determines data accumulated for transmission should be compressed based on one or more compression trigger, and compresses the accumulated data into a self-contained compression block for transmission.

Claims

1. A method for compressing a stream of application layer network traffic communicated over a transport layer connection of a virtual private network connection established between a client and a server via an appliance, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) intercepting, by an appliance, one or more transport layer packets comprising a stream of application network traffic communicated via a transport layer connection of a virtual private network connection between a client and a server;

(b) accumulating, by the appliance, data from a payload of the one or more intercepted transport layer packets;

(c) determining, by the appliance, to compress accumulated data for transmission; and

(d) compressing, by the appliance, the accumulated data into a self-contained compression block.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein step (c) comprises determining, by the appliance, the point in the stream to compress the accumulated data based on receipt of a predetermined quantity of data for transmission.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein step (c) comprises determining, by the appliance, the point in the stream to compress the accumulated data based on intercepting a transport layer packet comprising information indicating to transmit data immediately.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein step (c) comprises determining, by the appliance, the point in the stream to compress the accumulated data based on intercepting a transport layer packet comprising information identifying transmission of data has finished.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein step (c) comprises determining, by the appliance, the point in the stream based on expiration of a timer set to a predetermined amount of time to wait before compressing the accumulated data.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising establishing, by the appliance, a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) connection between the client and the server.

7. The method of claim 1, comprising performing, by one of the client or the server via the transport layer connection, a transaction having a boundary transparent to one of the transport layer connection, the appliance, or the intercepted transport layer packets.

8. The method of claim 1, comprising intercepting, by the appliance, a transport layer packet, compressing data from a payload of the transport layer packet, and adding the compressed data to the self-contained compression block.

9. The method of claim 1, comprising transmitting, by the appliance, the self-contained compression block to one of the client or the server via the transport layer connection.

10. The method of claim 9, comprising accelerating, by the appliance, transmission of the self-contained block using one or more of the following techniques:

TCP connection pooling;

TCP connection multiplexing;

TCP buffering; and

caching.

11. A system for compressing a stream of application layer network traffic communicated over a transport layer connection of a virtual private network connection established between a client and a server via an appliance, the system comprising:

means for intercepting, by an appliance, one or more transport layer packets comprising a stream of application network traffic communicated via a transport layer connection of a virtual private network connection between a client and a server;

means for accumulating, by the appliance, data from a payload of the one or more intercepted transport layer packets;

means for determining, by the appliance, to compress accumulated data for transmission; and

means for compressing, by the appliance, the accumulated data into a self-contained compression block.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the appliance determines the point in the stream to compress the accumulated data based on receipt of a predetermined quantity of data for transmission.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the appliance determines the point in the stream to compress the accumulated data based on intercepting a transport layer packet comprising information indicating to transmit data immediately.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the appliance determines, the point in the stream to compress the accumulated data based on intercepting a transport layer packet comprising information identifying transmission of data has finished.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the appliance determines the point in the stream based on expiration of a timer set to a predetermined amount of time to wait before compressing the accumulated data.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the appliance establishes a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) connection between the client and the server.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein one of the client or the server perform via the transport layer connection a transaction having a boundary transparent to one of the transport layer connection, the appliance, or the intercepted transport layer packets.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the appliance intercepts a transport layer packet, compresses data from a payload of the transport layer packet, and adds the compressed data to the self-contained compression block.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein appliance transmits the self-contained compression block to one of the client or the server via the transport layer connection.

20. The system of claim 11, wherein the appliance, transmits the self-contained block using one or more of the following techniques:

TCP connection pooling;

TCP connection multiplexing;

TCP buffering; and

caching.