Patent ID: 8024483

Claim:
A network device for managing a communication with a client device over a network, comprising: a transceiver for receiving and sending information to the client device and a server device, the network device and a plurality of gateways being interposed between the client device and the server device; and a compression system that is configured to perform actions, including: determining a plurality of different network metrics including a maximum segment size (MSS) associated with network connections with the client device and each of the plurality of gateways; selecting a plurality of predefined threshold values, wherein each selected threshold value is associated with a different one of the plurality of different network metrics for each of the client device and gateway combinations; for each of the plurality of different network metrics, evaluating if the different network metric is at or below the respective predefined threshold value from the plurality of predefined threshold values; combining a plurality of results from the plurality of evaluations to generate a combined result for each of the client device and gateway combinations; and if the combined result indicates that the network connection is a low-bandwidth connection for a given client device and gateway combination, compressing content at the network device that is sent towards the client device through the associated gateway.