Adjusting communications parameters based on known characteristics

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10764168-B1
Application number	US-201314041994-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Sep 30, 2013
Priority date	Sep 30, 2013
Publication date	Sep 1, 2020
Grant date	Sep 1, 2020

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed for determining for determining parameters for a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection between two computing nodes before the connection is established. In embodiments, the latency of data transmission between two computing nodes and the throughput capacity of a network link are measured, and from this data, TCP parameters for a future network connection between two computing nodes are determined. This information is sent to a TCP stack that stores it in its route table. Then, the TCP stack uses TCP parameters based on the information stored in the route table.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for adjusting Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) parameters in a TCP connection, comprising:
determining information indicative of latency or throughput capacity for a network link between a first computing node and a second computing node prior to establishing the TCP connection between the first computing node and the second computing node;
determining a value of a TCP parameter for the TCP connection between the first computing node and the second computing node over the network link, the value being based on the information indicative of latency or throughput capacity;
configuring the TCP connection between the first computing node and the second computing node to produce a configured TCP connection, the configured TCP connection being configured based at least in part on the value of the TCP parameter;
transmitting at least an initial data packet over the configured TCP connection, and
sending, based on a commonality of a third computing node and the first computing node, an indication of the value of the parameter to the third computing node, wherein the third computing node uses the value of the parameter to configure one or more additional TCP connections.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
storing, by the first computing node, an indication of the value of the TCP parameter in a route table that the first computing node uses to route data to a given destination; and
wherein configuring the TCP connection between the first computing node and the second computing node comprises:
determining the value of the TCP parameter based on accessing the route table for an entry that corresponds to a network address of the second computing node.

3. A system, comprising:
a processor; and
a memory bearing instructions that, upon execution by the processor, cause the system at least to:
determine information indicative of a characteristic of a network link between a first computing node and a second computing node prior to establishing a network protocol connection between the first computing node and the second computing node;
determine a value of a parameter for the network protocol connection between the first computing node and the second computing node over the network link, the value being based on the information indicative of the characteristic of the network link;
configure the network protocol connection between the first computing node and the second computing node to produce a configured network protocol connection, the configured network protocol connection being configured based at least in part on the value of the parameter;
transmit at least an initial data packet over the configured network protocol connection; and
send, based on a commonality of a third computing node and the first computing node, an indication of the value of the parameter to the third computing node, wherein the third computing node uses the value of the parameter to configure one or more additional network protocol connections.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the instructions that, upon execution by the processor, cause the system at least to determine the information indicative of the characteristic of the network link further cause the system at least to:
determine the information indicative of the characteristic of the network link based on sending data between the first computing node and the second computing node in a second connection via the network link, before establishing the network protocol connection.

5. The system of claim 3 , wherein the instructions that, upon execution by the processor, cause the system at least to determine the value of the parameter further cause the system at least to:
determine a model of at least a portion of the network link; and
determine the information indicative of the characteristic of the network link based on the model of the network link.

6. The system of claim 3 , wherein the instructions that, upon execution by the processor, cause the system at least to determine the information indicative of the characteristic of the network link further cause the system at least to:
determine the information indicative of the characteristic of the network link based on receiving user input indicative of the information indicative of the characteristic of the network link, or by automatically discovering the information indicative of the characteristic of the network link independently of modeling at least a portion of the network link or sending data between the first computing node and the second computing in a second connection via the network link.

7. The system of claim 3 , wherein the memory further bears instructions that, upon execution by the processor, cause the system at least to:
determine that the third computing node shares the commonality with the first computing node; and
determine that the third computing node is to use the value of the parameter in configuring a second connection of the one or more additional connections, in response to determining that the third computing node shares the commonality with the first computing node.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the second connection is to be configured between the third computing node and a fourth computing node, and wherein the instructions that, upon execution by the processor, cause the system at least to determine that the third computing node is to use the value of the parameter in configuring the second connection further cause the system at least to:
determine that the third computing node is to use the value of the parameter in configuring the second connection in response to determining that the fourth computing node shares a second commonality with the second computing node.

9. The system of claim 7 , wherein the instructions that, upon execution by the processor, cause the system at least to determine that the third computing node shares the commonality with the first computing node further cause the system at least to:
determine that the first computing node and the third computing node have a same or a similar hardware configuration.

10. The system of claim 7 , wherein the instructions that, upon execution by the processor, cause the system at least to determine that the third computing node shares the commonality with the first computing node further cause the system at least to:
determine that the first computing node and the third computing node have a same or a similar software configuration.

11. The system of claim 7 , wherein the instructions that, upon execution by the processor, cause the system at least to determine that the third computing node shares the commonality with the first computing node further cause the system at least to:
determine that the first computing node and the third computing node have a same or a similar physical location.

12. The system of claim 3 , wherein the instructions that, upon execution by the processor, cause the system at least to determine the value of the parameter further cause the system at least to:
determine the value of a round-trip time (RTT) of at least the initial data packet sent via the configured network protocol connection.

13. The system of claim 3 , wherein the instructions that, upon execution by the processor, cause the system at least to determine the value of the parameter further cause the system at least to:
determine the value of a window size for at least the initial data packet sent via the configured network protocol connection.

14. The system of claim 3 , wherein the instructions that, upon execution by the processor, cause the system at least to determine the value of the parameter furt

Assignees

• Amazon Tech Inc

Inventors

• Dickinson Andrew Bruce
• Wilson Matthew Shawn

Classifications

• H04L43/0882 Primary

  Utilisation of link capacity · CPC title

• H04L41/0823

  characterised by the purposes of a change of settings, e.g. optimising configuration for enhancing reliability (for optimising operational conditions of wireless networks H04W24/02) · CPC title

• H04L43/0852

  Delays · CPC title