Protocol fallback

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10362069-B2
Application number	US-201514958865-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 3, 2015
Priority date	Dec 3, 2015
Publication date	Jul 23, 2019
Grant date	Jul 23, 2019

Abstract

A session is established between an initiating device and a remote device. A session request is transmitted from the initiating device to the remote device according to a preferred networking protocol. If no provisional response to the request is received at the initiating device within an initial duration, the initiating device transmits another session request to the other device according to a non-preferred protocol. If a provisional response to the request is received within the initial duration, the initiating device continues to monitor the elapsed time for an so extended duration. If no final response to the request is received within the extended duration, the initiating device transmits another session request to the other device according to a non-preferred protocol. If a final response is received within the extended duration, a session between the initiating device and the other device is established according to the preferred networking protocol.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of establishing a session between an initiating device and a remote device, the method comprising:
at the initiating device, using one or more hardware processors to perform operations comprising:
transmitting a session request from the initiating device to the remote device according to a first networking protocol, wherein the first network protocol is a stateless transport layer protocol;
setting a protocol fallback timer to a timeout value; and
retransmitting, responsive to the protocol fallback timer expiring without receiving a final response, the session request to the remote device using a second networking protocol instead of the first networking protocol, wherein the second networking protocol is a stateful transport layer protocol.

2. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the session request comprises a request identifier.

3. A method according to claim 1 , further comprising, at the initiating device:
setting a retry timer when transmitting the session request, the retry timer set to a second timeout value that is less than the timeout value; and
responsive to the retry timer expiring without receiving either a final response or a provisional response:
retransmitting the session request to the remote device using the first protocol; and
resetting the retry timer to the second timeout value.

4. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the first protocol is a User Datagram Protocol, and the second protocol is Transport Control Protocol.

5. A method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
setting a retry timer when transmitting the session request, the retry timer set to a second timeout value that is less than the timeout value; and
receiving a provisional acknowledgement prior to the retry timer expiring again, and in response, clearing the retry timer and extending the protocol fallback timer.

6. A method according to claim 4 , wherein the session request is retransmitted using Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) over TCP.

7. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the session request is a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) session request to setup a Voice over IP session.

8. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the remote device is a communications controller, wherein a communication event is established between the initiating device and a responding device under the control of the communication controller based on the established session between the initiating device and the communication controller.

9. A method according to claim 8 , wherein each of said session requests identifies the responding device, wherein in response to receiving any of said session requests the communications controller is able to transmit a communication event invite to the responding device identified therein.

10. A method according to claim 8 , wherein the communication event is a call, a screen sharing session, or a shared whiteboard session.

11. A method according to claim 1 , further comprising, at the initiating device: applying a compression function to the session request before transmitting it to reduce its size, and the session request, once compressed, is transmitted once the remote device in a single packet of the first protocol.

12. A method according to claim 1 , further comprising, at the initiating device:
determining that a compression function applied to a second session request produces a size of packet that is too large to be encapsulated in a single packet of the first protocol and in response transmitting the second session request using the second protocol.

13. A computer readable storage device comprising instructions, which when executed on a processor of an initiating device to establish a communication event between an initiating device and a responding device under the control of a remote communications controller cause the initiating device to perform operations comprising:
transmitting a session request from the initiating device to the responding device according to a first networking protocol, wherein the first network protocol is a stateless transport layer protocol;
setting a protocol fallback timer to a timeout value; and
retransmitting, responsive to the protocol fallback timer expiring without receiving a final response, the session request to the responding device using a second networking protocol instead of the first networking protocol, wherein the second networking protocol is a stateful transport layer protocol.

14. The computer-readable storage device of claim 13 , wherein the operations further comprise:
setting a retry timer when transmitting the session request, the retry timer set to a second timeout value that is less than the timeout value; and
responsive to the retry timer expiring without receiving either a final response or a provisional response:
retransmitting the session request to the responding device using the first protocol; and
resetting the retry timer to the second timeout value.

15. The computer readable storage device of claim 13 , wherein the session request comprises a request identifier and wherein the session request is retransmitted using HTTP over TCP.

16. The computer readable storage device of claim 13 , wherein the communication event is one of: a call, a screen sharing session, or a shared whiteboard session.

17. The computer readable storage device of claim 13 , wherein the operations further comprise:
setting a retry timer when transmitting the session request, the retry timer set to a second timeout value that is less than the timeout value; and
receiving a provisional acknowledgement prior to the retry timer expiring, and in response, clearing the retry timer and extending the protocol fallback timer.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein the session request comprises a message used to setup a call.

19. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
repeatedly retransmitting the session request using the stateless transport layer protocol prior to expiry of the protocol fallback timer.

20. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises:
responsive to the retransmitting, utilizing the stateful transport layer protocol for subsequent messages to the remote device.

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Skuratovich Uladzimir A
• Kumar Namendra
• Belenko Andrey
• Moore Timothy Mark

Classifications

• H04L69/165

  Combined use of TCP and UDP protocols; selection criteria therefor · CPC title

• H04L69/28

  Timers or timing mechanisms used in protocols · CPC title

• H04L69/40

  for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection (management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06) · CPC title

• H04L69/04

  Protocols for data compression, e.g. ROHC · CPC title

• H04L69/161

  Implementation details of TCP/IP or UDP/IP stack architecture; Specification of modified or new header fields · CPC title