Patent ID: 8566471
Filing Date: 2013-10-22
Classification: H04L,Y02D

Abstract:
1. A computer-implemented method of providing network link bonding and management comprising: establishing a plurality of physical links between a first endpoint and a second endpoint, each physical link comprising a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) link, and wherein said TCP links are in parallel with each other; establishing a logical link at an application server level between said first endpoint and said second endpoint, said logical link including said physical links; using said physical links to provide communications between said first endpoint and said second endpoint; and using said physical links to provide link redundancy and wherein said communications occur at the transport layer of the Open System Interconnect (OSI) model using a modified TCP tunnel protocol header, wherein said modified TCP tunnel protocol header includes a plurality of fields added to an original TCP tunnel protocol header to form a ten byte header to allow messages to be multiplexed over multiple TCP connections within said logical link, wherein a first field of said plurality of fields added to an original TCP tunnel protocol header comprises an ID field used for identifying a logical link for which the message is intended, and wherein a second field of said plurality of fields added to an original TCP tunnel protocol header comprises a Send sequence number field used for re-ordering messages received over multiple TCP connections, and wherein said modified TCP tunnel protocol header is always read first.