Method and apparatus for preserving end to end semantic and performance enhancement of split-TCP protocols

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9866488-B2
Application number	US-201514943128-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 17, 2015
Priority date	Nov 17, 2015
Publication date	Jan 9, 2018
Grant date	Jan 9, 2018

Abstract

In one example embodiment, a network node includes a processor configured to receive one or more data packets from a transmitter and transmit at least one first-type confirmation message to the transmitter based on a threshold, the at least one first-type confirmation message including an acknowledgement that all but at least two bytes of data included in the one or more data packets are received from the transmitter. The processor is further configured to transmit at least one second-type confirmation message to the transmitter based on at least one of a size of a buffer at the network node available for receiving data packets and an acknowledgement from an end device acknowledging receipt of the one or more data packets, the at least one second message including an acknowledgement of one or more of the at least two bytes of data.

First claim

We claim:

1. A network node, comprising:
a processor configured to,
receive one or more data packets from a transmitter,
transmit at least one first-type confirmation message to the transmitter based on a threshold, the at least one first-type confirmation message including an acknowledgement that all but at least two bytes of data included in the one or more data packets are received from the transmitter, and
transmit at least one second-type confirmation message to the transmitter based on at least one of a size of a buffer at the network node available for receiving data packets and an acknowledgement from an end device acknowledging receipt of the one or more data packets, the at least one second message including an acknowledgement of one or more of the at least two bytes of data.

2. The network node of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to,
transmit the at least one first-type confirmation message if a total size of a most recent one of the one or more data packets and the at least two unacknowledged bytes of data, is greater than the threshold, and
upon transmitting the at least one first-type confirmation message, update the at least two unacknowledged bytes of data to be the last two bytes of the most recent one of the one or more data packets.

3. The network node of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to determine a window size, the window size indicating the size of the buffer at the network node that is available for receiving the one or more data packets from the transmitter, the window size being transmitted as part of the at least one first-type confirmation message or the at least one second-type confirmation message to the transmitter.

4. The network node of claim 3 , wherein, upon determining that the window size is zero, the processor is configured to transmit the window size of zero as part of the at least one first-type confirmation message to the transmitter, the transmission of the window size of zero freezing a transmission of further data packets by the transmitter to the network node.

5. The network node of claim 4 , wherein upon determining that the window size has changed from zero to a non-zero value, the processor is configured to transmit the at least one second-type confirmation message to the transmitter, the at least one second-type confirmation message including the non-zero window size and an acknowledgement of one of the at least two unacknowledged bytes of data, the non-zero value window size and the acknowledgement of the one of the at least two unacknowledged bytes of data included in the at least one second-type confirmation message resulting in unfreezing of the transmission of further data packets by the transmitter.

6. The network node of claim 5 , wherein the processor is configured to,
transmit the received one or more data packets to the end device,
receive the acknowledgement from the end device acknowledging the receipt of the one or more data packets by the end device, and
upon receiving the acknowledgement from the end device, transmit the at least one second-type confirmation message to the transmitter indicating that the at least two unacknowledged bytes of data have been received.

7. The network node of claim 3 , wherein upon determining that the window size is greater than zero, the processor is configured to,
transmit the at least one first-type confirmation message to the transmitter,
determine whether an estimated retransmission time out (RTO) timer has expired, the RTO timer being a timer at the transmitter, which when expired, cause the transmitter to retransmit the at least two unacknowledged bytes of data to the network node, and
transmit the at least one second-type confirmation message to the transmitter if the processor determines that the estimated RTO timer has expired, the at least one second-type confirmation message including a window size of zero and an acknowledgement of one of the at least two unacknowledged bytes of data, the zero window size and the acknowledgement of the one of the at least two unacknowledged bytes of data included in the at least one second-type confirmation message resulting in a freezing of one or more retransmissions of the at least two unacknowledged bytes of data to the network node by the transmitter.

8. The network node of claim 7 , wherein upon determining that the estimated RTO timer has not expired, the processor is configured to,
determine whether a retransmission of at least one of the at least two unacknowledged bytes of data has been received at the network node from the transmitter;
transmit the at least one second-type confirmation message upon determining that the network node has received the retransmission of at least one of the at least two unacknowledged bytes of data.

9. The network node of claim 8 , wherein the processor is configured to,
transmit the received one or more data packets to the end device, and
transmit the at least one second-type confirmation message to the transmitter indicating that the at least two unacknowledged bytes of data have been received, if the processor receives the acknowledgement from the end device acknowledging the receipt of the one or more data packets by the end device.

10. The network node of claim 7 , wherein the processor is configured to estimate the RTO timer to be less than an actual RTO timer at the transmitter.

11. The network node of claim 1 , wherein
a network in which the network node, the transmitter and the end device operate is one of a 4G-LTE network or a 5G network,
the network node is a packet gateway,
the transmitter is a content server,
the end device is a mobile device operating within the network, and
a communication between the transmitter, the network node and the end device is a transport control protocol (TCP) based communication.

12. A method comprising:
receiving one or more data packets from a transmitter,
first transmitting at least one first-type confirmation message to the transmitter based on a threshold, the at least one first-type confirmation message including an acknowledgement that all but at least two bytes of data included in the one or more data packets are received from the transmitter, and
second transmitting at least one second-type confirmation message to the transmitter based on at least one of a size of a buffer at the network node available for receiving data packets and an acknowledgement from an end device acknowledging receipt of the one or more data packets, the at least one second message including an acknowledgement of one or more of the at least two bytes of data.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein
the first transmitting transmits the at least one first-type confirmation message if a total size of a most recent one of the one or more data packets and the at least two unacknowledged bytes of data, is greater than the threshold, and
upon transmitting the at least one first-type confirmation message, updating the at least two unacknowledged bytes of data to be the last two bytes of the most recent one of the one or more data packets.

14. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:
determining a window size, the window size indicating the size of the buffer at the network node that is available for receiving the one or more data packets from the transmitter, the window size being transmitted as part of the at least one first-type confirmation message or the at least one second-type confirmation message to the transmitter.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein upon determining that the window size is zero, the first transmitting transmits the window size of zero a

Assignees

• Alcatel Lucent Usa Inc

Inventors

• Kim Bongho
• Calin Doru

Classifications

• H04L47/27

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

• H04L47/18 Primary

  End to end · CPC title

• H04L69/02

  Protocol performance · CPC title

• H04L45/14

  Routing performance; Theoretical aspects · CPC title

• H04L69/16

  Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP] · CPC title