APPLICATION AND NETWORK-BASED LONG POLL REQUEST DETECTION AND CACHEABILITY ASSESSMENT THEREFOR

• US 20130041974A1
• Filed: 10/12/2012
• Published: 02/14/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Seven Networks LLC (SoftBank Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Seven Networks Inc
• Inventors: Luna, Michael, Tsombaljuk, Andrei
• Granted Patent: US 8,966,066 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/213
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 3/10 Objective types, i.e. instruments for examining the eyes independent of the patients' perceptions or reactions
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 3/1005 for measuring distances inside the eye, e.g. thickness of the cornea A61B3/11 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 3/117 for examining the anterior chamber or the anterior chamber angle, e.g. gonioscopes
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1076 for measuring dimensions inside body cavities, e.g. using catheters A61B3/1005 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2/1694 Capsular bag spreaders therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 3/563 Protractors for use in geodesy G01C1/00; protractor heads for drawing machines B43L13/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/12 Avoiding congestion; Recovering from congestion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1045 Proxies, e.g. for session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/613 for the control of the source by the destination control signals issued by the client directed to the server or network components specially adapted for selective content distribution H04N21/637
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/288 Distributed intermediate devices, i.e. intermediate devices for interaction with other intermediate devices on the same level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/289 Intermediate processing functionally located close to the data consumer application, e.g. in same machine, in same home or in same sub-network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5682 Policies or rules for updating, deleting or replacing the stored data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]

Abstract

Systems and methods for application and network-based long poll request detection and cacheability assessment therefore are disclosed. In one aspect, embodiments of the present disclosure include a method, which may be implemented on a distributed proxy and cache system, including, determining relative timings between a first request initiated by the application, a response received responsive to the first request, and a second request initiated subsequent to the first request also by the application. The relative timings can be compared to request-response timing characteristics for other applications to determine whether the requests of the application are long poll requests.

Claims

1. A method for detecting a long poll request initiated at a mobile device, the method comprising:

detecting a first request initiated by a client on the mobile device;

detecting a second request initiated by the client on the mobile device after a first response is received at the mobile device responsive to the first request;

using a response delay time interval relative to an idle time interval to determine whether requests initiated by the client are long poll requests;

wherein, the response delay time interval is between time of the first request and receipt of the response;

wherein, the idle time interval is between time of the response to time of the second request.

2. The method of claim 1,

detecting a third request, and detecting a trend in response delays based on when responses for the second and third requests are received;

wherein, the trend indicates an increase in response delays;

wherein, the increase indicates cacheability for the long poll requests and a third response received is stored as cache elements in a local cache;

wherein, the trend indicates that the response delays are constant or substantially constant;

wherein, the trend indicates cacheability for the long poll requests and a third response received is stored as cache elements in a local cache.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising,

in response to detecting at least one decreasing delay interval from the trend;

waiting for a fourth request to be received;

wherein, a fourth response received for the fourth request is cached responsive to detection of an increase in delay interval from the previous delay interval;

the fourth response is cached responsive to detecting repeatability in content with prior responses.

4. The method of claim 3, the fourth response is cached responsive to detecting that it is the same with at least one or two prior responses.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein, substantially constant includes a tolerance within 0-5%, 5-10%, 10-15%, or 15-20% of one of the response delays.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising,

determining that content received for the application is cacheable, when the received responses indicate repeatability, using the responses received for the requests generated by the application;

storing the content received for the application as cache elements in a local cache of the mobile device responsive to determining cache-ability;

responding to subsequent requests generated by the application using the cache elements stored on the mobile device, to satisfy the subsequent requests without a need to send the outgoing request over a wireless network.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein, the first response is received response to the first request, a second response is received response to the second request, and repeatability is indicated when the first and second responses are the same.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein, the third response is received response to the third request;

and repeatability is indicated when the first, second, and third responses are the same or when any two out of the first, second, and third responses are the same.

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising,

timing responses to the subsequent requests using the cached response on the cache of the mobile device to correspond to a manner in which a content server would respond, using the response delay interval time.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein, the requests initiated by the client are determined to be long poll requests if the response delay time interval is greater than the idle time interval.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein, the requests initiated by the client are determined to be long poll requests if the response delay interval time is greater than a threshold value;

wherein, the threshold value is determined by a proxy server external to the mobile device, the proxy server being able to communicate over a wireless network with the different mobile devices.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising, determining the threshold value using response delay interval times for requests generated by other clients.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein, the other clients reside on the same mobile device and the threshold value is determined by a local proxy on the mobile device.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein, the other clients reside on different mobile devices.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising, determining the threshold value based on network delays.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising, determining the threshold value based on delays of servers to which the requests are directed.

17. A system for determining whether to cache content received from long poll requests of a mobile application, the system comprising:

a processor coupled to a machine-readable memory;

means for, detecting that requests generated by the mobile application are long poll requests using relative timings between a first request initiated by the mobile application, a first response received responsive to the first request, and a second request initiated subsequent to the first request also by the mobile application;

means for, determining that content received for the mobile application is cacheable, when the received responses indicate repeatability, using the responses received responsive to the requests generated by the mobile application;

means for, storing the content received for the mobile application as cache elements in a local cache responsive to determining that cache-ability.

18. The system of claim 17, further comprising,

means for, responding to subsequent requests generated by the mobile application using the cache elements stored in the local cache, to satisfy the subsequent requests without a need to send the subsequent requests over a wireless network;

wherein, the first and second requests for use in computing the relative timings are detected during a long poll hunting period.

19. The system of claim 17, further comprising,

means for, detecting a second response received for the second request;

means for, detecting repeatability in timing of the first request and the first response and of the second request and the second response;

wherein, the content received for the application is stored as cache elements in the local cache of the mobile device if the timing is detected to be repeatable;

20. The system of claim 17, wherein, the first and second requests for use in computing the relative timings are selected for use after a long poll hunting period has settled.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein, the relative timings are determined by:

wherein, the relative timings are used to determine whether the second request is immediately or near-immediately re-requested after the response to the first request is received;

determining a first request time when the first request is initiated;

determining a response time when the response to the first request is received;

determining a second request time when the second request, subsequent to the first request initiated by the application;

wherein, the application is a mobile client residing on a mobile device;

wherein, the long poll requests are initiated over a cellular network.

24. The system of claim 22, wherein, the relative timings are determined using a first request initiated by the application, a response received responsive to the first request, and a second request initiated subsequent to the first request also by the application;

wherein, the first and second requests occur after a long poll hunting period or during a long poll hunting period.

25. The system of claim 22, further comprising a proxy server external to the mobile device, the proxy server being able to wirelessly communicate with the local proxy on the mobile device;

wherein, the proxy server monitors a host for updated responses different from those stored in the local cache for corresponding requests initiated by the application on the mobile device;

wherein, the proxy server monitors is able to wirelessly communicate with multiple mobile devices in a wireless network and monitor the host on behalf of multiple mobile devices running the same application;

wherein, the local proxy responds to subsequent requests generated by the application using the cache elements stored on the mobile device, to satisfy the subsequent requests without a need to send the request over a wireless network.

21. A machine-readable memory having stored thereon instructions which when executed by a processor causes the processor to perform a method for detecting requests for a persistent connection from an application, the method, comprising:

determining relative timings between a first request initiated by the application, a response received responsive to the first request, and a second request initiated subsequent to the first request also by the application;

using the relative timings to determine whether requests generated by the application are long poll requests by comparing the relative timings to request-response timing characteristics for other applications.

23. A system for caching content received for long poll requests initiated at a mobile device, the system comprising:

a local proxy on the mobile device which determines relative timings between requests initiated by an application;

wherein, the relative timings are used to determine whether requests generated by the application are long poll requests;

the local proxy further stores the content received for the application as cache elements in a local cache of the mobile device responsive to detection that at least two responses received for requests from the application are the same;

wherein, the relative timings are used by the local proxy remote from the mobile device to monitor a host to which the requests generated by the application are directed.