Patent ID: 6938088

Claim:
A method in a network device for caching Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) data transported in an Internet Protocol (IP) Datagram sent on a socks connection established over a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection between a source port on a source device and a destination port on a destination device, said method comprising the steps of: identifying elements of an incoming IP Datagram, comprising: the source device; the destination device; the port on the source device; and the port on the destination device; determining whether the incoming IP Datagram originates from a socks client or from a socks server; in response to the incoming IP Datagram originating from a socks client: terminating the TCP connection and the socks connection; identifying the socks connection in a table; identifying the application level protocol associated with said socks connection referring to said table, said table comprising for each socks connection an application level protocol; and determining whether said application level protocol is HTTP or not; in response to said application level protocol being HTTP: determining whether HTTP data requested by the incoming IP Datagram resides in a local cache within the network device; and in response to the HTTP data requested by the incoming IP Datagram residing in a local cache: building an outgoing IP Datagram comprising requested HTTP data retrieved from the local cache; and sending said outgoing IP Datagram to the socks client originator of the incoming IP Datagram.