Patent ID: 7953869
Filing Date: 2011-05-31
Classification: H04L,H04W

Abstract:
1. In a network supporting transactions between clients that request transactions and servers that issue responses responsive to client requests, wherein packets between a client and a server travel over a network path comprising one or more hops between network nodes, a method of probing for proxies on a network path comprising: receiving, at a first probe node in the network path, a first packet from a target client directed at a target server; modifying the first packet to signal presence of the first probe node in the network path, thus forming a modified first packet; forwarding the modified first packet toward the target server; monitoring, at the first probe node, packets for the target client apparently from the target server to detect packets containing return signals, wherein a return signal is a signal from a proxy that detects the signal in the modified first packet and is an indication that the proxy detected the signal as being a proxy probing signal; acting on a successful probe if a responsive return signal is received corresponding to a signal sent from the first probe node; and updating a proxy mapping table with results of a successful probe; and following a current connection, using the updated proxy mapping from the proxy mapping table in a later connection.