Abstract: Reducing buffer usage for a TCP proxy session between a client and a server by a service gateway includes: determining a first round trip time (RTT) for a server side TCP session and determining a second RTT for a client side TCP session; comparing the first RTT with the second RTT; determining whether the second RTT exceeds the first RTT beyond a threshold; if so, then calculating a desired RTT based on the second RTT; and setting a timer according to the calculated desired RTT, where a TCP acknowledgment for the server side TCP session is delayed until the timer expires. The desired RTT may be calculated as a percentage of the second RTT or as the second RTT minus a predetermined value. The service gateway waits until the timer has expired before sending a TCP acknowledgment data packet to the server.

Abstract: Configuration of a virtual service network by a configuring node includes: determining that the virtual service is to be configured; determining a configuration associated with the virtual service and including packet forwarding policies associated with the virtual service, each packet forwarding policy including a virtual service network address and a destination; and sending the packet forwarding policies in the configuration to a network node. The network node: stores the packet forwarding policies; receives a data packet for the virtual service and including a virtual service network address; determines a match between the virtual service network address in the data packet with the virtual service network address in a given packet forwarding policy of the stored packet forwarding policies; obtains a given destination in the given packet forwarding policy; and sends the data packet to a service load balancer associated with the given destination by the network node.