Network protocol proxy

• US 9,054,913 B1
• Filed: 11/29/2010
• Issued: 06/09/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Software, Inc. (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Franke, Michael, McDonald, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Hwang, Joon H
• Assistant Examiner(s): NDIAYE, CHEIKH T
• Application Number:
  US12/955,785
• Time in Patent Office: 1,653 Days
• Field of Search: 709/224, 709232-235, 709/227, 709/228, 370/229, 370/230, 370/252, 370/253
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/182 Distributed file systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/115 using a dedicated packet
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/125 by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/193 at the transport layer, e.g. TCP related
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/25 with rate being modified by the source upon detecting a change of network conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1045 Proxies, e.g. for session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/14 Multichannel or multilink protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/163 In-band adaptation of TCP data exchange; In-band control procedures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/321 Interlayer communication protocols or service data unit [SDU] definitions; Interfaces between layers

Abstract

A network proxy can be provided as a layer between an application layer protocol (such as the Remote Desktop Protocol) and a transport layer protocol (such as TCP). The network proxy can intercept communications between the application layer protocol and the transport layer protocol. The network proxy can transmit communications on multiple connections, without the application layer or transport layer protocols being aware of the parallelization.

Claims

1. A method of managing a plurality of network connections, the method comprising:

by a network proxy implemented on a first host system comprising computer hardware;

intercepting a network connection request from an application running on the first host system, the network connection request intended to open a single logical network connection to a second host system;

in response to intercepting the network connection request, opening a plurality of parallel logical network connections to the second host system instead of the single logical network connection;

establishing a congestion control connection with the second host system, wherein the network proxy implemented on the first host system is configured to send test packets to a remote network proxy implemented on the second host system;

receiving a message from the application;

monitoring, by at least one of the network proxy and the remote network proxy, the congestion control connection to determine a level of congestion; and

transmitting the message to the second host system over the plurality of parallel logical network connections.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said intercepting the connection request comprises causing the application to connect to a port bound to the network proxy.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising throttling one or more of the plurality of parallel logical network connections in response to detecting the network congestion.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said throttling comprises closing one or more of the plurality of parallel logical network connections.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said intercepting the connection request comprises injecting a library into the application, the library comprising one or more routines configured to perform said intercepting.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said intercepting the connection request comprises registering a library with an operating system of the first host system, the library comprising one or more routines configured to perform said intercepting.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said intercepting the connection request comprises replacing a library used by the application, the library comprising one or more routines configured to perform said intercepting.

8. A system for managing a plurality of network connections, the system comprising:

a hardware appliance on a host computer system, the hardware appliance having a network proxy implement therein, the network proxy comprising;

an interceptor module configured to intercept a connection request from an application process attempting to open a single logical connection from the application process to a remote host system;

a connections manager configured to;

establish parallel logical connections to the remote host system in place of the single logical connection;

establish a congestion control connection with the remote host system, wherein the network proxy implemented on the host computer system is configured to send test packets to a remote network proxy implemented on the remote host system;

receiving a message from the application process;

monitor, by at least one of the network proxy and the remote network proxy, the congestion control connection to determine a level of congestion; and

distribute a message to the remote host system over the parallel logical connections.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein an injector module is configured to use a library injection technique to inject the interceptor module into the application process.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the connections manager is configured to distribute the message over the parallel logical connections using a round-robin algorithm.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the application process is an application layer process, and wherein the network proxy is interposed between the application layer process and a transport layer process.

12. The system of claim 8, further comprising identifying a target port number associated with the connection request.

13. The system of claim 12, further comprising sending a message including the target port number to the remote host system, such that the remote host system is configured to receive the message at the target port number.

14. The system of claim 8, further comprising modifying the connection request to include a new port number of a network proxy on the remote host system.

15. The system of claim 8, wherein the network connections are Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connections.

16. A system for managing a plurality of network connections, the system comprising:

a hardware appliance on a client computer system, the hardware appliance having a client network proxy implemented therein, the client network proxy comprising;

an injector module configured to inject an interceptor module into an application process executing on the client computer system;

the interceptor module configured to intercept a connection request from the application process, the connection request intended to open a single Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection to a remote host system;

a connections manager configured to;

establish parallel TCP connections to a server network proxy implemented in the remote host system in place of the single TCP connection, the parallel TCP connections being abstracted from the application process;

establish a congestion control connection with the remote host system, wherein the client network proxy implemented on the client computer system is configured to send test packets to the server network proxy implemented in the remote host system;

receiving a message from the application process;

monitor, by at least one of the client network proxy and the server network proxy, the congestion control connection to determine a level of congestion; and

distribute a message received from the application process over the parallel TCP connections to the server network proxy.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the connections manager is further configured to throttle one or more of the parallel TCP connections in response to detecting the network congestion.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising computer-executable instructions configured to implement a method of managing a plurality of network connections, the method comprising:

intercepting, with a network proxy running on a first host system, a network connection request from an application running on the first host system

in response to intercepting the network connection request, opening a plurality of logical network connections to a second host system;

establishing a congestion control connection with the second host system, wherein the network proxy implemented on the first host system is configured to send test packets to a remote network proxy implemented on the second host system;

receiving a message from the application;

monitoring, by at least one of the network proxy and the remote network proxy, the congestion control connection to determine a level of congestion; and

transmitting the message to the second host system over the plurality of logical network connections.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein said intercepting the connection request comprises injecting a library into the application, the library comprising one or more routines configured to perform said intercepting.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein said intercepting the connection request comprises registering a library with an operating system of the first host system, the library comprising one or more routines configured to perform said intercepting.

21. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein said intercepting the connection request comprises replacing a library used by the application, the library comprising one or more routines configured to perform said intercepting.

22. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the network connection request is configured to request a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) connection, and wherein said opening the plurality of logical network connections comprises opening Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connections instead of the requested UDP connection.