Dynamic middlebox redirection based on client characteristics

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9806946-B2
Application number	US-201615251517-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 30, 2016
Priority date	Aug 21, 2012
Publication date	Oct 31, 2017
Grant date	Oct 31, 2017

Abstract

Traffic redirection methods include determining a quality-affective factor comprising a quality-affective factor in an existing connection between a client and a server in a network. The quality-affective factor is compared to a threshold to determine whether the connection would benefit from a network processing function. A router is reconfigured to exclude the middlebox from the connection, if the connection would not benefit from the network processing function and if the middlebox is already present in the connection, to cease operation of the middlebox on the connection. The router reconfiguration is delayed until the connection is idle.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A traffic redirection method, comprising:
determining a quality-affective factor comprising a quality-affective factor in an existing connection between a client and a server in a network;
comparing the quality-affective factor to a threshold to determine whether the connection would benefit from a network processing function; and
reconfiguring a router to exclude the middlebox from the connection, if the connection would not benefit from the network processing function and if the middlebox is already present in the connection, to cease operation of the middlebox on the connection, wherein said router reconfiguration is delayed until the connection is idle.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the quality-affective factor includes a throughput.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the throughput is calculated as

2
/
p

t

,

where p is a packet loss rate and t is a measured round trip time.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the quality-affective factor includes a client location.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein said determining comprises comparing the client location to a coverage map to determine a signal quality.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the quality-affective factor includes a media access control (MAC) address for the client.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein said determining includes comparing the MAC address to a table of known low-quality chipsets.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein said determining is performed periodically.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein said determining is performed when a second client arrives or departs in the network.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein said determining is performed upon a change in network congestion.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Calo Seraphin B
• Cornejo William
• Le Thai F
• Nahum Erich M
• Touma Maroun
• Verma Dinesh C

Classifications

• H04L47/10

  Flow control; Congestion control · CPC title

• H04L43/0888

  Throughput · CPC title

• H04L67/42

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L47/122 Primary

  by diverting traffic away from congested entities · CPC title

• H04L43/0841

  Round trip packet loss · CPC title