Controlling network device behavior

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9503223-B2
Application number	US-201113041019-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 4, 2011
Priority date	Mar 4, 2011
Publication date	Nov 22, 2016
Grant date	Nov 22, 2016

Abstract

A sender device is able to send packets over a network destined to a receiver device, and the sender device receives response information that is responsive to the packets. A behavior of the sender device with respect to data transmission on plural subflows of a connection is controlled based on the response information.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
sending, by a user device, packets over a plurality of subflows over a network destined to a receiver device;
receiving, by the user device, response information that is responsive to the packets, wherein the response information includes a subflow-level sequence number (SSN) of at least one of the packets, the SSN indicating a sequence number in one of the plurality of subflows over which the at least one of the packets is transmitted;
determining, based on the SSN in the response information, that the response information indicates at least one of a first condition or a second condition, wherein the first condition includes that the network between the user device and the receiving device is without a blocking intermediate device or at least one packet was lost after transmission from an intermediate device in the network between the user device and the receiver device, and the second condition includes the response information indicating that the blocking intermediate device is present between the user device and the receiver device, or a subset of the packets sent by the user device was lost before reaching the blocking intermediate device;
controlling a behavior of the user device based on the response information, wherein controlling the behavior comprises:
when the response information is determined to indicate the first condition, causing the user device to implement a first behavior with respect to data transmission over the plural of subflows, wherein the first behavior includes retransmitting a lost packet over one of the plural of subflows via a first network that is different from a second network of another one of the plural of subflows over which the lost packet was originally sent; and
when the response information is determined to indicate the second condition, causing the user device to implement a second, different behavior with respect to data transmission over the plural of subflows, wherein the second behavior includes retransmitting the lost packet over the one of the plural of subflows over which the lost packet was originally sent; and

wherein the blocking intermediate device is a device in the network that prevents at least a subset of the packets from the user device from reaching the receiver device if the packets exhibit a predefined characteristic, the predefined characteristic is a sequence number hole in the packets sent by the user device, and the sequence number hole is caused by refraining from sending a particular packet having a particular sequence number.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining that the blocking intermediate device is not present based on the response information indicating that the receiver device has received packets having sequence numbers greater than the particular sequence number.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
starting a timer upon sending a packet having a sequence number that is at least one larger than the particular sequence number.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
determining whether an indication has been received from the receiver device indicating that the receiver device has received a packet having a sequence number greater than the particular sequence number; and
in response to expiration of the timer before the user device receiving the indication, releasing the particular packet to send to the receiver device.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the timer is associated with a timeout value, the method further comprising:
setting the timeout value to satisfy all of the following conditions:
the timeout value is at least larger than a round trip time of data between the user device and the receiver device,
the timeout value is less than a value specified by an application in the user device, and
the timeout value is less than a difference between a remaining time in a timeout timer of unacknowledged data and a round trip time of data between the user device and the receiver device, where the remaining time is measured from a start of the timer.

6. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:
determining a number of attempts performed by the user device in attempting to determine whether the blocking intermediate device is present; and
in response to detecting that the number of attempts is greater than a predefined threshold, causing the user device to operate according to the second behavior.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
splitting a particular packet into plural segments; and
causing the sequence number hole by refraining from sending a particular one of the segments having a particular sequence number.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user device implementing the first behavior comprises the user device retransmitting the lost packet on a selected one of the plural of subflows that exhibits least congestion.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user device implementing the first behavior further comprises the user device maintaining a held packet in a send buffer of the user device according to a first technique, and
wherein the user device implementing the second behavior comprises the user device maintaining the held packet in the send buffer of the user device according to a second, different technique.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the user device maintaining the held packet in the send buffer according to the first technique comprises the user device sending the held packet to the receiver device in response to the user device receiving an acknowledgement at the connection level that the packets have been received by the receiver device.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the user device maintaining the held packet in the send buffer according to the second technique comprises the user device maintaining the held packet in the send buffer at the connection level as long as the packets has not been acknowledged at the connection level as well as in all subflows that the packets have been sent on.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plural of subflows are subflows between the user device and the receiver device according to a Multipath Transmission Control Protocol (MPTCP).

13. A user device comprising:
a network interface to communicate with a second network device over a network; and
at least one processor to:
send packets over a plurality of subflows over the network destined to the second network device;
receive response information that is responsive to the packets, wherein the response information includes a subflow-level sequence number (SSN) of at least one of the packets, the SSN indicating a sequence number in one of the plurality of subflows over which the at least one of the packets is transmitted;
determine, based on the SSN in the response information, that the response information indicates at least one of a first condition or a second condition, wherein the first condition includes that the network between the user device and the receiving device is without a blocking intermediate device or at least one packet was lost after transmission from an intermediate device in the network between the user device and the receiver device, and the second condition includes the response information indicating that the blocking intermediate device is present between the user device and the receiver device, or a subset of the packets sent by the user device was lost before reaching the blocking intermediate device;
control a behavior of the user device based on the response information, wherein controlling the behavior comprises:
when the response information is determined to indicate the first condition, causing the user device

Assignees

• Wu Wei
• Le Khiem
• Choi Noun
• Blackberry Ltd

Inventors

• Wu Wei
• Le Khiem
• Choi Noun

Classifications

• H04L43/10

  Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route · CPC title

• H04L1/1825 Primary

  Adaptation of specific ARQ protocol parameters according to transmission conditions · CPC title

• H04L1/1883

  using multiple timers · CPC title

• H04L47/34

  ensuring sequence integrity, e.g. using sequence numbers · CPC title

• H04L47/27

  Evaluation or update of window size, e.g. using information derived from acknowledged [ACK] packets · CPC title