Data packet retransmission processing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11765082-B2
Application number	US-201816047496-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 27, 2018
Priority date	Apr 17, 2015
Publication date	Sep 19, 2023
Grant date	Sep 19, 2023

Abstract

Systems and computer program products for performing retransmission of data packets over a network. A node receives a data packet with a source and a destination address. The data packet is sent along a network path to the destination address, and information associated with the data packet is sent to a controller node that is independent of the network path. A controller receives information associated with a data packet from any forwarder node within a plurality of forwarder nodes each monitoring communications along separate communications paths. An indication of a receipt acknowledgement for the data packet is received from a second forwarder node that is separate from the first forwarder node and the controller node. The receipt acknowledgement is correlated with the data packet and based on the correlating, data associated with retransmission processing of the data packet is deleted.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A network forwarder node, comprising:
a receiver that, when operating:
receives a data packet with a source address and a destination address, the network forwarder node being separate from a source node with the source address and separate from a destination node with the destination address; and
identifies a data packet type of the data packet;

a packet transmitter that, when operating sends the data packet along a network path to the destination node; and
a controller communications interface that, when operating sends to a controller node that is separate from the network forwarder node, based on a determination that the data packet type is within a set of determined data packet types and based on sending the data packet, information identifying the data packet.

2. The network forwarder node of claim 1 , wherein the controller communications interface, when operating, further defines, based on the data packet type, the information associated with the data packet to comprise data packet addressing and data packet payload data contained within the data packet.

3. The network forwarder node of claim 1 , wherein the information associated with the data packet comprises at least a portion of the data packet.

4. The network forwarder node of claim 1 , wherein the controller communications interface, when operating, further selects components of the data packet to be contents of a subset of data contained within the data packet, wherein the information associated with the data packet comprises only the subset.

5. The network forwarder node of claim 4 , wherein the subset comprises only information to identify the data packet for correlation of a receipt acknowledgement with the data packet.

6. The network forwarder node of claim 1 , further comprising a cache controller that, when operating:
stores at least a portion of the data packet into a data storage;
deletes, based on receiving an indication from the controller node to delete the data packet, the at least the portion of the data packet from the data storage; and
resends, based on a retransmission instruction from the controller node, the at least the portion of the data packet to the destination node.

7. The network forwarder node of claim 6 , wherein the cache controller, when operating, further receives a message from the controller node comprising at least one of the indication to delete the data packet and the retransmission instruction.

8. The network forwarder node of claim 1 , wherein the receiver, when operating, identifies the data packet type by at least determining a characteristic of the data packet, the characteristic comprising at least one of a subnet of an address within the data packet, a TCP port number of the data packet, and a flow direction of the data packet and wherein the data packet type is based on the characteristic.

9. A controller node, comprising:
a processor;
a memory, communicatively coupled to the processor;
a receiver, communicatively coupled to the processor and memory, that when operating:
receives information identifying a data packet from a first forwarder node, the first forwarder node being any forwarder node within a plurality of forwarder nodes each monitoring communications along separate communications paths, the first forwarder node forwarding the data packet to a destination node via a first communications path, each forwarder node further communicating with the controller node;
receives, from a second forwarder node subsequent to receiving the information, an indication of a receipt acknowledgement for the data packet that is received by the second forwarder node, and the second forwarder node communicating with the destination node via a different communication path than the first communications path; and

a message cache controller, communicatively coupled to the processor, the memory, and the receiver, that when operating:
correlates the indication of the receipt acknowledgement with the data packet; and
based on correlating the indication of the receipt acknowledgment with the data packet, deletes data associated with retransmission processing of the data packet.

10. The controller node of claim 9 , wherein the first forwarder node and the second forwarder node are separate from one another,
wherein the first forwarder node monitors a first communications path, and
wherein the second forwarder node monitors a second communications path,
the first communications path and the second communications path each comprising independent, alternative communications paths of a communications channel communicatively coupling a source node and the destination node.

11. The controller node of claim 9 , wherein the second forwarder node is separate from the first forwarder node and the controller node.

12. The controller node of claim 9 , the message cache controller, when operating, further:
determines, after an acknowledgement timeout time interval, a lack of an indication of a receipt acknowledgment for the data packet; and
based on determining the lack of the indication, causes transmission of a retransmission packet corresponding to the data packet.

13. The controller node of claim 12 ,
wherein the information associated with the data packet comprises identification information for the data packet, and
wherein the messaging cache controller causes retransmission of the retransmission packet by at least instructing the first forwarder node to send the retransmission packet.

14. The controller node of claim 12 ,
wherein the information associated with the data packet comprises data packet addressing data and data packet payload data contained within the data packet, and
wherein the message cache controller, when operating, further:
stores the information associated with the data packet; and
creates, based on determining the acknowledgement timeout time interval, the retransmission packet, and
wherein the messaging cache controller causes retransmission of the retransmission packet by at least transmitting the retransmission packet to a destination node specified for the data packet.

15. A computer program product for operating a network node, the computer program product comprising:
a storage medium readable by a processing circuit and storing instructions for execution by the processing circuit for performing a method comprising:
receiving, at a network node, a data packet with a source address and a destination address, the network node being separate from a source node with the source address and separate from a destination node with the destination address;
sending the data packet along a network path to the destination node;
identifying a data packet type of the data packet; and
sending to a controller node that is separate from the network node, based on a determination that the data packet type is within a set of determined data packet types and based on sending the data packet, information identifying the data packet.

16. The computer program product of claim 15 , wherein identifying the data packet type comprising determining a characteristic of the data packet, the characteristic comprising at least one of a subnet of an address within the data packet, a TCP port number of the data packet, and a flow direction of the data packet and wherein the data packet type is based on the characteristic.

17. The computer program product of claim 15 , the method further comprising defining, based on the data packet type, the information identifying associated with the data packet to comprise data packet addressing and da

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Le Thai Franck
• Nahum Erich M
• Pappas Vasileios
• Verma Dinesh

Classifications

• H04L45/70 Primary

  Routing based on monitoring results · CPC title

• H04L69/163

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

• H04L45/24

  Multipath · CPC title

• H04L45/42

  Centralised routing · CPC title

• H04L49/252

  Store and forward routing · CPC title