Systems and methods to detect and bypass network throttling in user datagram protocol (UDP) connections

1 . A method comprising steps of:

monitoring network traffic to and from a user device, wherein the network traffic is facilitated over a communication mode, the communication mode defining a tunnel mode, wherein the tunnel mode is configured to adapt responsive to the network traffic by detecting throttling and switch to an alternative communication mode;

collecting telemetry from the network traffic, wherein the telemetry includes a count of packets sent by a node and a count of packets received by the user device;

calculating, at the user device, a loss value based on a comparison between the counts during successive monitoring intervals;

identifying network throttling based on the telemetry, when the loss value exceeds a predefined threshold for a plurality of consecutive monitoring intervals; and

responsive to identifying network throttling, automatically transitioning from a first tunnel mode to an alternate tunnel mode selected from among a plurality of tunnel protocols based on the telemetry, thereby bypassing the network throttling,

wherein the collecting telemetry includes transmitting periodic keep-alive packets from the user device and receiving corresponding acknowledgment packets from a server, each acknowledgment including server-side packet counters used in the calculating step.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the telemetry includes a number of keep alive packets sent by a node and a number of keep alive packets received by the user device and wherein the telemetry is configured to detect if the network is throttled, each keep-alive packet including server-side packet counters used in the calculating step.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the steps further comprise:

calculating the loss value based on the telemetry by determining a difference between a number of packets sent by the node and a number of packets received by the user device during each monitoring interval; and

identifying network throttling based on the loss value, wherein the loss value defines a packet differential.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein network throttling is identified responsive to the loss value being greater than a threshold limit.

5 . The method of claim 3 , wherein telemetry is collected at various time intervals, and the steps further comprise:

calculating the loss value for each of the time intervals based on time intervals associated telemetry; and

identifying network throttling based on the loss value exceeding the threshold for at least three consecutive monitoring intervals to reduce false positives.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first tunnel mode is a Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) tunnel, and the alternate tunnel mode is a Transport Layer Security (TLS) tunnel, and wherein the transition between the tunnels is automatically triggered by the telemetry-based throttling detection without user intervention.

7 . A method implemented by an application executed on a user device, the method comprising steps of:

monitoring network traffic to and from a user device, wherein the network traffic is facilitated over a communication mode, the communication mode defining a tunnel mode, wherein the tunnel mode is configured to adapt responsive to the network traffic by detecting throttling and switch to an alternative communication mode;

collecting telemetry from the network traffic, wherein the telemetry includes a count of packets sent by a node and a count of packets received by the user device;

calculating, at the user device, a loss value based on a comparison between the counts during successive monitoring intervals;

identifying network throttling based on the telemetry, when the loss value exceeds a predefined threshold for a plurality of consecutive monitoring intervals; and

responsive to identifying network throttling, automatically transitioning from a first tunnel mode to an alternate tunnel mode selected from among a plurality of tunnel protocols based on the telemetry, thereby bypassing the network throttling,

wherein the collecting telemetry includes transmitting periodic keep-alive packets from the user device and receiving corresponding acknowledgment packets from a server each acknowledgment including server-side packet counters used in the calculating step.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the telemetry includes a number of keep alive packets sent by a node and a number of keep alive packets received by the user device and wherein the telemetry is configured to detect if the network is throttled, each keep-alive packet including server-side packet counters used in the calculating step.

9 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the steps further comprise:

calculating loss value based on the telemetry by determining a difference between a number of packets sent by the node and a number of packets received by the user device during each monitoring interval; and

identifying network throttling based on the loss value.

10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein network throttling is identified responsive to the loss value being greater than a threshold limit.

11 . The method of claim 9 , wherein telemetry is collected at various time intervals, and the steps further comprise:

calculating the loss value for each of the time intervals based on time intervals associated telemetry; and

identifying network throttling based on the loss value exceeding the threshold for at least three consecutive monitoring intervals to reduce false positives.

12 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the first tunnel mode is a Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) tunnel, and the alternate tunnel mode is a Transport Layer Security (TLS) tunnel, and wherein the transition between the tunnels is automatically triggered by the telemetry-based throttling detection without user intervention.

13 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors to perform steps of:

monitoring network traffic to and from a user device, wherein the network traffic is facilitated over a communication mode, the communication mode defining a tunnel mode, wherein the tunnel mode is configured to adapt responsive to the network traffic by detecting throttling and switch to an alternative communication mode;

collecting telemetry from the network traffic, wherein the telemetry includes a count of packets sent by a node and a count of packets received by the user device;

calculating, at the user device, a loss value based on a comparison between the counts during successive monitoring intervals;

identifying network throttling based on the telemetry, when the loss value exceeds a predefined threshold for a plurality of consecutive monitoring intervals; and

responsive to identifying network throttling, automatically transitioning from a first tunnel mode to an alternate tunnel mode selected from among a plurality of tunnel protocols, thereby bypassing the network throttling,

wherein the collecting telemetry includes transmitting periodic keep-alive packets from the user device and receiving corresponding acknowledgment packets from a server, each acknowledgment including server-side packet counters used in the calculating step.

14 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13 , wherein the telemetry includes a number of keep alive packets sent by a node and a number of keep alive packets received by the user device and wherein the telemetry is configured to detect if the network is throttled, each keep-alive packet including server-side packet counters used in the calculating step.

15 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13 , wherein the instructions further cause the one or more processors to perform steps of:

calculating the loss value based on the telemetry by determining a difference between a number of packets sent by the node and a number of packets received by the user device during each monitoring interval; and

identifying network throttling based on the loss value.

16 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein network throttling is identified responsive to the loss value being greater than a threshold limit.

17 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein telemetry is collected at various time intervals, and wherein the instructions further cause the one or more processors to perform steps of:

calculating the loss value for each of the time intervals based on time intervals associated telemetry; and

identifying network throttling based on the loss value exceeding the threshold for at least three consecutive monitoring intervals to reduce false positives.

18 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13 , wherein the first tunnel mode is a Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) tunnel, and the alternate tunnel mode is a Transport Layer Security (TLS) tunnel, and wherein the transition between the tunnels is automatically triggered by the telemetry-based throttling detection without user intervention.