Patent ID: 9553812
Date: 2017-01-24
CPC Classifications: H04L

Claim:
1. A computer-implemented method for forwarding packets, the method comprising: receiving, by an intermediate node, a keep-alive control packet which indicates a name for an Interest message, a field which indicates that an entry in a Pending Interest Table and corresponding to the name is to be kept alive, and a time period for which the entry is to be kept alive; determining whether the keep-alive control packet corresponds to the entry in the Pending Interest Table based on the name; responsive to determining that the keep-alive control packet corresponds to the entry, updating a timeout value of the entry based on the time period indicated in the keep-alive control packet; and responsive to determining one or more interfaces specified in the entry from which the Interest message is received, forwarding the keep-alive control packet to the one or more interfaces, thereby facilitating the intermediate node and other intermediate nodes associated with the one or more interfaces to handle a potential timeout event by refraining from re-transmitting the Interest message based on the keep-alive control packet.