Abstract: A method, system, and product are described for alleviating router congestion when the router is processing packets transmitted by computer systems having a congestion notification capability. The router marks packets transmitted between a first computer system and a second computer system when the first and second computer systems have the congestion notification capability. The marking indicates that the router is moderately congested. A marked packet is then received by the first computer system. The router then drops packets transmitted by the first computer system when the packets were transmitted subsequently to the receipt of the marked packet.

Abstract: An improved method, apparatus, and computer instructions for preventing denial of service attacks on persistent connections. A synchronize packet is received. In response to receiving the synchronize packet, a state of the persistent connection is identified. An action on the synchronize packet is deferred until a subsequent communication with a peer to the persistent connection.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and media to reduce delays associated with port assignments are disclosed. More specifically, embodiments include hardware and/or software to delay binding of selected port numbers to instances of applications. Some embodiments identify port numbers for which applications generate multiple bind calls that may connect with unique remote ports. The port numbers are stored in a port list that is accessible to the protocol stack and memory is allocated for storing flags and additional port configuration data. When a bind call is associated with a port number bound to another application instance and the port number is included in the port list, the bind call may then be delayed until a connect is received from the corresponding application instance. When the resulting four tuple is unique for the computer system, the corresponding application instance is bound to the port number and connected with the remote port.

Abstract: A method, system, and product are described for alleviating router congestion when the router is processing packets transmitted by computer systems having a congestion notification capability. The router marks packets transmitted between a first computer system and a second computer system when the first and second computer systems have the congestion notification capability. The marking indicates that the router is moderately congested. A marked packet is then received by the first computer system. The router then drops packets transmitted by the first computer system when the packets were transmitted subsequent to the receipt of the marked packet.

Abstract: A method, system, and computer program product for optimizing a message size for communication in a communication network are disclosed. The method comprises identifying a connection to a target, sending to a path maximum transmission unit value server (which is not the target) a request for a path maximum transmission unit value for the connection to the target, and, in response to receiving the path maximum transmission unit value for the connection to the target from the server, optimizing a communication by sending to the target a packet having a size in accordance with the value.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and media are disclosed for improved granularity of a response-request communication on a networked computer system. One example embodiment includes receiving the request-response communication by the networked computer system, and associating the request-response communication with a port, having a nodelay setting, from a set of ports on the networked computer system. Further, the example embodiment includes enabling, based upon the associating, the nodelay setting upon connection of the request-response communication with the port. Further still, the example embodiment includes sending, in accordance with the enabling, the request-response communication to a destination in communication with the networked computer system.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method and apparatus for waking up client devices. A method comprising determining a first network address associated with a client device and a second network address associated with the client device and transmitting at least a portion of the first network address and the second network address to a remote device while the client device is in sleep mode.

Abstract: Data communications through a split connection proxy in a data communications protocol, including receiving in a proxy from a client, asynchronously with respect to any other messages between the client and the proxy, one or more client messages including client message data items including a connection request for a connection between the client and the proxy, destination connection data identifying a destination server, and a message from the client to the destination server; and sending from the proxy to the server, asynchronously with respect to any messages between the client and the proxy and asynchronously with respect to any other messages between the proxy and the server, one or more proxy messages including proxy message data items including a connection request for a connection between the proxy and the destination server and the message from the client to the destination server.

Abstract: A method, system, and computer program product in a computer-readable medium for delivering data, received from a network, to a storage buffer assigned to an application is proposed. An application designates a communication buffer within a local data processing system for buffering data communicated with an application. The local data processing system reports to a network interface of the local data processing system a memory address of the designated communication buffer, and the data processing system creates a cookie containing the memory address. The data processing system then sends the cookie form the local data processing system to a remote data processing system, such that the remote data processing system may address data directly to the designated communication buffer.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method and apparatus for providing fragmentation at a transport level along a transmission path. The method comprises receiving a data packet from a first remote device for transmission to a second remote device, wherein the data packet includes a transport-level protocol packet encapsulated in a network-level protocol packet and determining if a size of the received data packet is greater than a maximum transmission unit (MTU) value. The method further comprises performing fragmentation of the data packet at a transport-level protocol into two or more fragments in response to determining that the size of the received data packet is greater than the MTU value and transmitting one or more of the fragments to the second remote device.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method and apparatus for handling address resolution protocol requests for a device having multiple interfaces. The method comprises receiving a message transmitted by a remote device to a host. The message includes a request to provide a value representative of an address associated with the host and the message includes a value representative of an address associated with the remote device. The method further comprises comparing at least a portion of the value representative of the address associated with the remote device to a value stored in an address field on a storage unit and discarding the message in response to determining that at least the portion of the value representative of the address associated with the remote device is substantially equal to the value stored in the address field.

Abstract: A system, apparatus and method of improving network data traffic between interconnected high-speed switches are provided. As is well known, when a packet of data is longer than a path maximum transmission unit (PMTU), the packet will be fragmented. In the case of the invention, the packet is fragmented by a transmitting router connected to a high-speed switch. When a receiving router, which is also connected to an high-speed switch, begins to receive the fragments, it will check to see whether its sub-network may handle data of a substantially longer length than the length of the fragments. If so, the receiving router will collect the fragments, reassemble them into the original packet and transmit the reassembled packet to its destination.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method and apparatus for multicast tunneling for mobile devices. The method comprises receiving a multicast packet directed to a plurality of mobile nodes, the mobile nodes being associated with a home subnet and identifying if any of the plurality of the mobile nodes are coupled to a subnet other than the home subnet, wherein each of the identified mobile nodes has an associated transmission path through which that mobile node can be reached. The method further provides that in response to determining that at least some of the mobile nodes are coupled to the subnet other than the home subnet, determining which of the identified mobile nodes has a common next hop in their associated transmission path and generating a packet including at least a portion of the multicast packet and including in the packet a list of mobile nodes that have the common next hop. The method further provides for transmitting the generated packet to the common next hop.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method and apparatus for discovering a path maximum transmission unit. The method comprises receiving a data packet from a first remote device for transmission to a second remote device and determining if a size of the received data packet is greater than a maximum transmission unit (MTU) value. In response to determining that the size of the received data packet is greater than the MTU value, the method further comprises transmitting a portion of the received data packet to the second remote device and transmitting a message to the first remote device indicating that the size of the received data packet exceeds the MTU value.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and media to sub-divide an ephemeral port range and allocate ports from the sub-divided ephemeral port ranges to facilitate communication with another destination, or target, application are contemplated. Embodiments involve a client computer system having one or more source applications. Embodiments also include hardware and/or software for categorizing transactions based upon characteristics of the transactions. Such categories correspond to categories with which sub-divisions of ephemeral port numbers are assigned. After a transaction is associated with a category, a port number selected from a pool of available port numbers in a sub-division of ephemeral port numbers assigned to that category. In many embodiments, an initial configuration is implemented via a configuration file at the startup of the client computer system. In further embodiments, assignments of ephemeral port numbers to the categories of transactions are dynamically adjusted based upon, e.g.

Abstract: A method, computer program product, and a data processing system for processing transactions of a client-server application is provided. A first data set is transmitted from a client to a server. A second data set to be transmitted to the server is received by the client. An evaluation is made to determine whether transmission of the second data set is blocked until receipt of an acknowledgment of the first data set. A number of allowable outstanding acknowledgements is increased responsive to determining that the second data set is blocked from transmission.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and products are disclosed for dynamically provisioning server resources. More particularly, methods, systems, and products are disclosed for dynamically provisioning computer system resources that include monitoring a connection performance parameter of a data communications port operating in a data communications protocol having a connection backlog queue having a connection backlog queue size; and changing the connection backlog queue size in dependence upon the monitored connection performance parameter without interrupting the operation of the data communications port and without user intervention. In typical embodiments of the present invention, monitoring a connection performance parameter includes receiving a connection request and determining that the connection backlog queue is full, and changing the connection backlog queue size in dependence upon the monitored connection performance parameter includes increasing the connection backlog queue size.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method and apparatus for handling reordered data packets. A method comprises receiving a data packet and determining if the data packet is received out of order. The method further comprises delaying transmission of an acknowledgement indicating that a data packet is missing in response to determining that the data packet is received out of order.

Abstract: A method, system, and program for redirecting client connection requests among sockets providing a same service are provided. An application requests multiple sockets from a kernel. In addition, the application generates a socket call option to bind the sockets to a particular port number and passes a list of the sockets to the kernel, where the list indicates that the sockets will all provide access to server systems providing the same service. In response, the kernel sets up the sockets, bound to the same port, and set to reference one another. Then, when a connection request is received for a first socket in the list with a queue that is full, the kernel redirects the connection request to a second socket in the list with available queue space. Thus, rather than drop the connection request from the first socket when it lacks available queue space, the connection request is redirected to another socket providing access to the same service.

Abstract: A last router in the route of a packet determines when a packet is at the last hop prior to reaching its destination, based on information conveyed in the routing table that the destination is a directly-connected host, and can then convey that information to the host by setting the TTL to zero in the packet being forwarded to its final destination. The host, being so informed that the packet is destined for its IP address, can thereby eliminate the IP address table search for the destination IP address of the incoming packet against the list of its allocated IP addresses to determine if the packet is destined for that host, thereby providing significant performance enhancements to the network system by enabling a receiving host to skip the IP address lookup process and immediately consume the received packet.