Network traffic management through protocol-configurable transaction processing

• US 8,533,308 B1
• Filed: 10/05/2005
• Issued: 09/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/12/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: F5 Networks, Inc. (F5 Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: F5 Networks, Inc. (F5 Incorporated)
• Inventors: Rothstein, Jesse Abraham
• Primary Examiner(s): Colin, Carl
• Assistant Examiner(s): SHAW, PETER C
• Application Number:
  US11/243,844
• Time in Patent Office: 2,897 Days
• Field of Search: 709223-226, 370/229, 370/235
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/00 Arrangements affording multiple use of the transmission path
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/18 Multiprotocol handlers, e.g. single devices capable of handling multiple protocols

Abstract

A traffic management device or other intermediate network device is configured to enable the device to support connection splitting and/or connection aggregation or to otherwise process network transactions for an arbitrary transaction-oriented protocol. The configuration may be accomplished by providing one or more traffic management rules defined by way of a scripting language and provided to an interpreter. The traffic management rule may follow a basic approach common to many protocols and is adapted to the particular protocol being supported. The rule may configure the network device to inspect incoming data, extract length and record type specifiers, buffer an appropriate amount of data to determine transactions or transaction boundaries, and perform other operations. Transaction processing may be enabled for various kinds of protocols, including application-level, proprietary, quasi-proprietary, and special-purpose protocols, protocols for which limited information is available, and protocols not natively supported by the network device.

Claims

1. A method operating on an intermediate network device that manages communication of data over a network, comprising:

enabling a configuration of the intermediate network device by a user;

employing the configuration to determine a boundary of a transaction in accordance with a foreign protocol, wherein the foreign protocol is not natively supported by the intermediate network device without a configuration change to the intermediate network device, and wherein determining the boundary is based in part on, when a record type for the data in the foreign protocol is determined to be session-specific by inspecting a network protocol header for a record type specifier indicating that the record type is session-specific, extracting session-related information from the data to further identify the boundary; and

employing the determined boundary of the transaction to manage communication between at least one client and at least one backend server, to enable the intermediate network device to perform, based on the foreign protocol, connection splitting that employs the determined boundary to allocate two or more requests on a same input connection to two or more different backend servers if the two or more requests are received on the same input connection, or a multiple-client connection aggregation that employs the determined boundary to direct two or more other requests from two or more different client devices to use a same backend server connection to a particular backend server if the two or more other requests are received from multiple client connections.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the boundary of the transaction further includes determining whether the foreign protocol employs fixed-length headers.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the intermediate network device is a traffic management device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the foreign protocol is an application-level protocol situated above Transmission Control Protocol (TCP).

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

inspecting a first quantity of a received data to determine a record length, wherein the first quantity is associated with a determined header length; and

releasing a second quantity of the received data associated with the determined record length.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the received data is received from a client connection, and wherein releasing the second quantity of received data further comprises selecting a server connection on which to release the second quantity of the received data.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein enabling the configuration of the intermediate network device further comprises evaluating a script defining at least one traffic management rule.

8. A non-transitory, processor-readable storage medium having executable instructions for performing the method of claim 1.

9. A network device for managing communication of data over a network, comprising:

a transceiver for communication with a computing device; and

a management system that is configured to perform actions, including;

enabling a configuration of the network device by a user;

employing the configuration to determine a boundary of a transaction in accordance with a protocol, wherein determining the boundary further includes, when a record type for the data is determined to be session-specific by inspecting a network protocol header for a record type specifier indicating that the record type is session-specific, extracting session-related information from the data to further identify the boundary, and wherein the protocol is foreign to the network device, wherein the foreign protocol is not natively supported by the network device without a configuration change to the network device; and

employing the determined boundary of the transaction to manage communication between at least one client and at least one backend server, to enable the network device to perform, based on the protocol, connection splitting that employs the determined boundary to allocate two or more requests on a same input connection to two or more different backend servers if the two or more requests are received on the same input connection, or a multiple-client connection aggregation that employs the determined boundary to direct two or more other requests from two or more different client devices to use a same backend server connection to a particular backend server if the two or more other requests are received from multiple client connections.

10. The network device of claim 9, wherein determining the boundary of the transaction further includes determining whether the protocol employs fixed-length headers.

11. The network device of claim 9, wherein the network device is at least one of a traffic management device, a proxy device, a full proxy, a router, a firewall, a load balancer, a gateway, a port translator, a sequence translator, or a network address translator.

12. The network device of claim 9, wherein the protocol is an application-level protocol situated above Transmission Control Protocol (TCP).

13. The network device of claim 9, wherein the actions further comprise:

inspecting a first quantity of a received data to determine a record length, wherein the first quantity is associated with a determined header length; and

releasing a second quantity of the received data associated with the determined record length.

14. The network device of claim 13, wherein the received data is received from a client connection, and wherein releasing the second quantity of received data further comprises selecting a server connection on which to release the second quantity of the received data.

15. The network device of claim 9, wherein enabling the dynamic configuration of the network device further comprises evaluating a script containing at least one traffic management rule.

16. A traffic management device for managing communication between at least one client and at least one backend server connection, comprising:

a transceiver configured to exchange data between the at least one client and the at least one backend server connection;

means for processing the data to determine a boundary of a transaction at least by when it is determined that a record type of the data is session-specific by inspecting a network protocol header for a record type specifier indicating that the record type is session-specific then, extracting session-related information from the data to further identify the boundary, wherein the protocol is foreign to the traffic management device, wherein the foreign protocol is not natively supported by the traffic management network device without a configuration change to the traffic management network device; and

a processor configured to manage the communication between the at least one client and the at least one backend server connection based on the determined boundary of the transaction, wherein determining the boundary of the transaction enables the traffic management device to perform connection splitting that employs the determined boundary to allocate two or more requests on a same input connection to two or more different backend servers if the two or more requests are received on the same input connection, or a multiple-client connection aggregation that employs the determined boundary to direct two or more other requests from two or more different client devices to use a same backend server connection to a particular backend server if the two or more other requests are received from multiple client connections.

17. The traffic management device of claim 16, wherein the processor is configured to split a connection with a client based on the determined boundary of the transaction.

18. The traffic management device of claim 16, wherein the processor is configured to aggregate a plurality of client connections to the at least one backend server connection based on the determined boundary of the transaction.