SYSTEMS AND METHODS OF USING PACKET BOUNDARIES FOR REDUCTION IN TIMEOUT PREVENTION

• US 20120278470A1
• Filed: 07/09/2012
• Published: 11/01/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Original Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Inventors: Plamondon, Robert, Samuels, Allen, Ovisannikov, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 9,496,991 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1887 Scheduling and prioritising arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/189 Transmission or retransmission of more than one copy of a message
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/28 characterised by path configuration, e.g. LAN [Local Area Networks] or WAN [Wide Area Networks] wireless communication networks H04W ; arrangements for dividing the transmission path H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/56 Packet switching systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2001/0092 Error control systems characterised by the topology of the transmission link
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/00 Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0829 Packet loss
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/40 using split connections
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/2876 Pairs of inter-processing entities at each side of the network, e.g. split proxies
• 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 69/16 Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/166 IP fragmentation; TCP segmentation

Abstract

Systems and methods for utilizing transaction boundary detection methods in queuing and retransmission decisions relating to network traffic are described. By detecting transaction boundaries and sizes, a client, server, or intermediary device may prioritize based on transaction sizes in queuing decisions, giving precedence to smaller transactions which may represent interactive and/or latency-sensitive traffic. Further, after detecting a transaction boundary, a device may retransmit one or more additional packets prompting acknowledgements, in order to ensure timely notification if the last packet of the transaction has been dropped. Systems and methods for potentially improving network latency, including retransmitting a dropped packet twice or more in order to avoid incurring additional delays due to a retransmitted packet being lost are also described.

Claims

1. A method for reducing transmission timeouts, comprising:

(a) receiving, by a device via a connection between a sender and a receiver, a first packet transmitted from the sender to the receiver, the first packet having a first retransmission timeout time;

(b) transmitting, by the device, the first packet to the receiver;

(c) generating, by the device, at least one additional packet; and

(d) transmitting, by the device, the at least one additional packet to the receiver prior to the first retransmission timeout time.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

(e) receiving, by the device from the receiver, an acknowledgement for the at least one additional packet prior to receiving an acknowledgement for the first packet and prior to the first retransmission timeout time, the acknowledgement indicating that one or more packets were not received; and

(f) retransmitting, by the device, the one or more packets prior to the first retransmission timeout time, responsive to receipt of the acknowledgement.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein (f) further comprises transmitting, by the device, an indication to the sender indicating the one or more packets were not received and should be retransmitted.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the at least one additional packet comprises generating a plurality of packets, responsive to determining the connection has a loss rate exceeding a threshold.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein transmitting the at least one additional packet comprises transmitting the plurality of packets after a period of time.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the at least one additional packet comprises transmitting the at least one additional packet immediately following the first packet.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the at least one additional packet comprises determining that the first packet is the last packet of a transaction between the sender and receiver;

and generating the at least one additional packet responsive to the determination.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one additional packet comprises a duplicate of the first packet.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one additional packet comprises a portion of the first packet.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one additional packet comprises a packet generated according to a forward error correction technique.

11. A system for reducing transmission timeouts, comprising:

a device in communication with a sender and a receiver comprising;

a packet processor configured for receiving a first packet from the sender and transmitting the first packet to the receiver, the first packet having a first retransmission timeout time; and

a flow controller configured for generating at least one additional packet, and transmitting the at least one additional packet to the receiver prior to the first retransmission timeout time.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the packet processor is further configured for receiving, from the receiver, an acknowledgement for the at least one additional packet prior to receiving an acknowledgement for the first packet and prior to the first retransmission timeout time, the acknowledgement indicating that one or more packets were not received;

and retransmitting, by the device, the one or more packets prior to the first retransmission timeout time, responsive to receipt of the acknowledgement.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the flow controller is further configured for transmitting an indication to the sender indicating the one or more packets were not received and should be retransmitted.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the flow controller is further configured for generating a plurality of packets, responsive to determining the connection has a loss rate exceeding a threshold.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the flow controller is further configured for transmitting the plurality of packets after a period of time.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the flow controller is further configured for transmitting the at least one additional packet immediately following the first packet.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the flow controller is further configured for determining that the first packet is the last packet of a transaction between the sender and receiver;

and generating the at least one additional packet responsive to the determination.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the at least one additional packet comprises a duplicate of the first packet.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the at least one additional packet comprises a portion of the first packet.

20. The system of claim 11, wherein the at least one additional packet comprises a packet generated according to a forward error correction technique.