Smart spoofing to improve spoofing performance when resources are scarce

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10581978-B2
Application number	US-201715665331-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 31, 2017
Priority date	Jul 31, 2017
Publication date	Mar 3, 2020
Grant date	Mar 3, 2020

Abstract

Systems and methods described herein are directed to techniques for selective TCP spoofing of a TCP connection between a first and a second host based on spoofing resource conditions and characteristics of the hosts involved in the TCP connection. In implementations, spoofing resource conditions may be based on a percentage of available resources in use by each of a TCP spoofer and a TCP spoofer peer. In implementations, characteristics of the hosts may be determined by tracking i) each TCP connection application type seen for each host over a time window; and ii) packet loss conditions of local hosts over a time window.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
receiving, at a TCP spoofer, a message from a local host including a request to initiate a TCP connection with a remote host;
determining from the message an IP address of the local host;
based on the determined IP address of the local host, determining: characteristics of applications in use by the local host over a time window or packet loss conditions of the local host over the time window;
determining spoofing resource conditions of the TCP spoofer; and
determining at the TCP spoofer whether to spoof the TCP connection from the local host to the remote host using at least:
the determined spoofing resource conditions of the TCP spoofer; and
the characteristics of applications in use by the local host over the time window or the packet loss conditions of the local host over the time window.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: determining spoofing resource conditions of a TCP spoofer peer associated with the remote host, wherein the determination of whether to spoof the TCP connection from the local host to the remote host uses the determined spoofing resource conditions of the TCP spoofer peer.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein determining spoofing resource conditions of the TCP spoofer and the TCP spoofer peer comprises determining a percentage of available resources in use by each of the TCP spoofer and the TCP spoofer peer.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein determining spoofing resource conditions of the TCP spoofer and the TCP spoofer peer comprises calculating an effective connection control block (CCB) resource percentage in use.

5. The method of claim 1 , the method comprising determining the packet loss conditions of the local host over the time window, wherein the packet loss conditions are determined by computing a packet loss level value based on a number of packets lost by the local host during the time window divided by a total number of packets transmitted by the local host during the time window, wherein the determination of whether to spoof the TCP connection uses the packet loss level value.

6. The method of claim 1 , the method comprising determining characteristics of applications in use by the local host over a time window, wherein determining characteristics of applications in use by the local host over the time window comprises classifying each TCP connection application type seen for the local host over the time window and counting a number of application types of each TCP connection application type seen.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein determining characteristics of applications in use by the local host over the time window further comprises: determining a most frequently used application type by the local host over the time window.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
determining from the message an IP address of the remote host; and
based on the determined IP address of the remote host, determining characteristics of applications in use by the remote host over a time window.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein determining characteristics of applications in use by the remote host over the time window comprises:
classifying each TCP connection application type seen for the remote host over the time window;
counting a number of application types of each TCP connection application type seen for the remote host; and
determining a most frequently used application type by the remote host over the time window.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: spoofing the TCP connection, including the three-way handshake of the TCP connection.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: spoofing the TCP connection, not including the three-way handshake of the TCP connection.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
making a determination that the TCP connection should not be spoofed using at least the determined spoofing resource conditions of the TCP spoofer and TCP spoofer peer; and
forwarding the TCP connection unspoofed.

13. The method of claim 2 , wherein the TCP spoofer and TCP spoofer peer are each a component of a satellite terminal or an IP Gateway.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the remote host is an internet host.

15. A system, comprising:
one or more non-transitory computer-readable mediums having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the system to:
receive, at a TCP spoofer, a message from a local host including a request to initiate a TCP connection with a remote host;
determine from the message an IP address of the local host;
based on the determined IP address of the local host, determine: characteristics of applications in use by the local host over a time window or packet loss conditions of the local host over the time window;
determine spoofing resource conditions of the TCP spoofer; and
determine at the TCP spoofer whether to spoof the TCP connection from the local host to the remote host using at least:
the determined spoofing resource conditions of the TCP spoofer; and
at least one of the characteristics of applications in use by the local host over the time window or the packet loss conditions of the local host over the time window.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the system to: determine spoofing resource conditions of a TCP spoofer peer associated with the remote host, wherein the determination of whether to spoof the TCP connection from the local host to the remote host uses the determined spoofing resource conditions of the TCP spoofer peer.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein determining spoofing resource conditions of the TCP spoofer and the TCP spoofer peer comprises determining a percentage of available resources in use by each of the TCP spoofer and the TCP spoofer peer.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein determining spoofing resource conditions of the TCP spoofer and the TCP spoofer peer comprises calculating an effective connection control bock (CCB) resource percentage in use.

19. The system of claim 15 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to determine the packet loss conditions of the local host over the time window, wherein the packet loss conditions are determined by computing a packet loss level value based on a number of packets lost by the local host during the time window divided by a total number of packets transmitted by the local host during the time window, wherein the determination of whether to spoof the TCP connection uses the packet loss level value.

20. The system of claim 15 wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to determine characteristics of applications in use by the local host over a time window, wherein determining characteristics of applications in use by the local host over the time window comprises classifying each TCP connection application type seen for the local host over the time window and counting a number of application types of each TCP connection application type seen.

21. The system of claim 20 , wherein determining characteristics of applications in use by the local host over the time window further comprises: determining a most frequently used application type by the local host over the time window.

22. The system of claim 21 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to:
determine from the message an I

Assignees

• Hughes Network Systems Llc

Inventors

• Border John

Classifications

• H04W80/06

  Transport layer protocols, e.g. TCP [Transport Control Protocol] over wireless {(transmission control protocol/Internet protocol [TCP/IP] or user datagram protocol [UDP] H04L69/16)} · CPC title

• H04W28/0242

  Determining whether packet losses are due to overload or to deterioration of radio communication conditions · CPC title

• H04L67/2876

  Pairs of inter-processing entities at each side of the network, e.g. split proxies · CPC title

• H04L47/40 Primary

  using split connections · CPC title

• H04L69/163

  In-band adaptation of TCP data exchange; In-band control procedures · CPC title