DETERMINING AN EFFICIENT KEEP-ALIVE INTERVAL FOR A NETWORK CONNECTION

• US 20100312899A1
• Filed: 06/08/2009
• Published: 12/09/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/08/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Zhang, Qian, Raastroem, Jorge, Bao, Xuemei, Bansal, Rajeev, Herzog, Shai, Bragg, Scott Michael, Qureshi, Rashid
• Granted Patent: US 8,375,134 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/228
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1066 Session management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• 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 67/145 avoiding end of session, e.g. keep-alive, heartbeats, resumption message or wake-up for inactive or interrupted session
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/16 Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/163 In-band adaptation of TCP data exchange; In-band control procedures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/28 Timers or timing mechanisms used in protocols

Abstract

Systems and methods for use in communication between a client and a server, via a networking device, are provided. The method may include sending a request to establish a data connection from the client to the server via the networking device, setting a data connection keep-alive interval for the data connection to a predetermined safe value, and sending a request to establish a test connection between the client and the server. The method may further include determining an efficient keep-alive interval for communication between the client and server via the networking device, using the test connection, setting the data connection keep-alive interval to the efficient keep-alive interval determined using the test connection, and uploading the efficient keep-alive interval from the client to the server in an efficient keep-alive interval notification message, for communication to other clients connected to the server.

Claims

1. A method for use in communication between a client and a server, via a networking device, comprising:

sending a request to establish a data connection from the client to the server via the networking device;

setting a data connection keep-alive interval for the data connection to a predetermined safe value;

sending a request to establish a test connection between the client and the server;

determining an efficient keep-alive interval for communication between the client and server via the networking device, using the test connection;

setting the data connection keep-alive interval to the efficient keep-alive interval determined using the test connection; and

uploading the efficient keep-alive interval from the client to the server in an efficient keep-alive interval notification message, for communication to additional clients connected to the server.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the efficient keep-alive interval notification message includes network device identifying data including one or more of APN and DNS suffix, as well as the determined efficient keep-alive interval.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the client is a one of a plurality of clients connected to the server via the networking device, the method further comprising:

applying the efficient keep-alive interval to connections between additional clients included in the plurality of clients and the server via the networking device.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein applying the efficient keep-alive interval includes:

from each of the other of the plurality of clients, sending a request to initiate a respective data connection with the server, and an associated networking device notification message to identify to the server the networking device via which the client is connected to the server;

in response to a server determination that the efficient keep-alive interval for the connections to clients via the networking device has been uploaded and stored at the server, downloading the efficient keep-alive interval to each of the additional clients.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the networking device notification message includes APN and DNS suffix, and the server determination is based on the APN and DNS suffix and on a client subnet detectable from the data connection between the client and server.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

sending an error message from at least one of the additional clients to the server, indicating that the efficient keep-alive interval downloaded from the server is resulting in a connection time-out on a data connection between the corresponding client and the server.

7. The method of claim 6, after sending the error message from the corresponding client,

sending a request for an updated efficient keep-alive interval to the server from the corresponding client;

and

receiving an updated efficient keep-alive interval at the corresponding client, which has been calculated at the server in response to the error message from the corresponding client.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the efficient keep-alive interval includes:

setting the test connection keep-alive interval to the predetermined safe value;

on each of one or more passes through a control loop,

setting the data connection keep-alive interval to a current value for the test connection keep-alive interval;

incrementing the test connection keep-alive interval by a predetermined increment value;

sending a keep-alive message from the client to the server, at the incremented test connection keep-alive interval, over the test connection; and

if it is determined that an acknowledgement is received to the keep-alive message on the test connection, then setting the data connection keep-alive interval to the test connection keep-alive interval value.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

if it is determined that no acknowledgement is received on the test connection in response to a keep-alive message on the test connection, then checking the status of the data connection by determining whether an acknowledgement has been received on the data connection during a concurrent time interval; and

if it is determined that no acknowledgment was received on the data connection during the concurrent time interval, then outputting a message indicating that no efficient keep-alive value was computed due to a network failure.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

if it is determined that an acknowledgement was received on the data connection during the concurrent time interval, then decrementing the test connection keep-alive interval by a decrement value.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

determining if the test connection keep-alive interval is less than or equal to the data connection keep-alive interval; and

if it is determined that the test connection keep-alive interval is less than or equal to the data connection keep-alive interval, then outputting an output value indicating the current value of the data connection keep-alive value as the efficient keep-alive value.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the client is configured to reestablish the test connection and re-determine the efficient keep-alive interval using the test connection, upon detecting a failure in the data connection at the efficient keep-alive interval.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the networking device is one or more of a network address translation device, firewall, and load balancer.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the client is one or more of a mobile computing device, portable data assistant, desktop computing device, laptop computing device, medial player device, and mobile telephone.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the client is a mobile telephone and the networking device is a network address translation device that functions as an access point in a mobile telephone network.

16. A method for use in communication between a plurality of clients and a server, via respective networking devices, comprising:

at the server, providing a data store configured to store efficient keep-alive intervals received from the plurality of clients via respective networking devices;

receiving a request for a data connection from a requesting client;

querying the data store to determine if a cached efficient keep-alive interval is present in the data store, which has been received from another client connected to the same or a related networking device and stored in the data store; and

if the cached efficient keep-alive interval is present, sending the cached efficient keep-alive interval from the server to the requesting client for application to the data connection.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

if no cached efficient keep-alive interval is present, then receiving an efficient keep-alive interval from the requesting client, and caching the efficient keep-alive interval in the data store for availability to other requesting clients.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

after receiving the request, identifying from the request at least one of an APN, DNS suffix and subnet of the requesting client;

wherein querying the data store includes determining if an efficient keep-alive interval has been stored for the at least one of the APN, DNS suffix and subnet of the requesting client.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

at the server, selecting a test group from among the plurality of clients;

receiving an efficient keep-alive interval from each client in the test group; and

if a statistical variance between the efficient keep-alive intervals determined for the clients in the test group is below a threshold value, then computing an aggregate efficient keep-alive interval based on the test group, and storing the aggregate efficient keep-alive interval at the server for use with other client devices connected to the server via the networking device.

20. A method for use in communication between a plurality of clients and a server, via a networking device, comprising:

sending a request to establish a data connection from the client to the server via the networking device;

setting a data connection keep-alive interval for the data connection to a predetermined safe value;

sending a request to establish a test connection between the client and the server;

determining an efficient keep-alive interval for communication between the client and server via the networking device, using the test connection, by

setting the test connection keep-alive interval to the predetermined safe value;

on each of one or more passes through a control loop,

setting the data connection keep-alive interval to a current value for the test connection keep-alive interval;

incrementing the test connection keep-alive interval by a predetermined increment value;

sending a keep-alive message from the client to the server, at the incremented test connection keep-alive interval, over the test connection; and

if it is determined that an acknowledgement is received to the keep-alive message on the test connection, then setting the data connection keep-alive interval to the test connection keep-alive interval value.

if it is determined that no acknowledgement is received on the test connection in response to a keep-alive message on the test connection, then checking the status of the data connection by determining whether an acknowledgement has been received on the data connection during a concurrent time interval; and

if it is determined that an acknowledgement was received on the data connection during the concurrent time interval, then decrementing the test connection keep-alive interval by a decrement value; and

determining if the test connection keep-alive interval is less than or equal to the data connection keep-alive interval; and

if it is determined that the test connection keep-alive interval is less than or equal to the data connection keep-alive interval, then outputting an output value indicating the current value of the data connection keep-alive value as the efficient keep-alive value;

uploading the efficient keep-alive interval from the client to the server in an efficient keep-alive interval notification message.