System and method for improving an aggregated throughput of simultaneous connections
A client and content provider are connected by a plurality of simultaneous transport connections. The number of the transport connections that are used to transfer data is selected based on the size of the data to be transferred and may change after transfer of data has commenced based on the amount of data left and the attributes of the transport connections. In another aspect, data to be transmitted over the transport connections is organized into frames such that each frame includes data from only one data stream. The frames are sized to be less than or equal to a control window of the transport connection over which they are transmitted. Each frame may be assigned to a transport connection in a round robin fashion or based on the size of the frame and the sizes of the control windows of the transport connections.
1. A method for increasing an aggregated throughput of multiple simultaneous transport connections between computers over a computer network, the method comprising:
maintaining, by a first computer, a first plurality of simultaneous connections to a second computer and a second plurality of simultaneous transport connections to a third computer;
receiving, by the first computer, a first group of one or more requests for a data delivery to the second computer over the first plurality of simultaneous transport connections with the second computer;
delivering, by the first computer, requested data corresponding to the first group of one or more requests such the delivery of data corresponding to each requests of the first group of one or more requests must be finished before delivering data corresponding to a subsequent request to the second computer;
receiving, by the first computer, a second group of one or more requests for data delivery to a third computer over a second plurality of simultaneous transport connections with the third computer;
delivering, by the first computer, requested data corresponding to the second group of one or more requests such that delivery of data corresponding to each request of the second group of one or more requests must be finished before delivering data corresponding to a subsequent request to the third computer;
setting, by the first computer, a first number of the first plurality of simultaneous transport connections that are used to deliver the requested data corresponding to the first group of one or more requests;
setting, by the first computer, a second number of the second plurality of simultaneous transport connections that are used to deliver the requested data corresponding to the second group of one or more requests;
detecting, by the first computer, a difference between one or more first parameters of the first plurality of simultaneous transport connections and one or more second parameters of the second plurality of simultaneous transport connections;
setting, by the first computer, the first number of the first plurality of simultaneous transport connections and the second number of the second plurality of simultaneous transport connections to be different according to the difference between the one or more first parameters and the one or more second parameters.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein detecting the difference between the one or more first parameters and the one or more second parameters comprises detecting a difference in at least one of a distance from the first computer to the second computer and a distance from the first computer to the third computer, a round-trip time between the first computer and the second computer and a round-trip time between the first computer and the third computer, and a quality of a network connecting the first computer and the second computer and a quality of a network connecting the first computer and the third computer.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein setting the first number of the first plurality of simultaneous transport connections comprises increasing the first number of the first plurality of simultaneous transport connections with at least one of increase in the distance between the first computer and the second computer and the round-trip time between the first computer and the second computer; and
wherein setting the second number of the second plurality of simultaneous transport connections comprises increasing the second number of the second plurality of simultaneous transport connections with at least one of increase in the distance between the first computer and the third computer and the round-trip time between the first computer and the third computer.
4. The method of claim 2 , wherein setting the first number of the first plurality of simultaneous transport connections comprises decreasing the first number of the first plurality of simultaneous transport connections with increase of the quality of the network between the connecting the first computer and the second computer relative to the quality of the network connecting the first computer and the third computer.
5. The method of claim 4 , wherein setting the first number of the first plurality of simultaneous transport connections comprises decreasing the first number of the first plurality of simultaneous transport connections with decrease in a rate of data losses over the first plurality of simultaneous transport connections; and
wherein setting the second number of the second plurality of simultaneous transport connections comprises decreasing the second number of the second plurality of simultaneous transport connections with decrease in a rate of data losses over the second plurality of simultaneous transport connections.
6. The method of claim 4 , wherein each of the first plurality of transport connections and the second plurality of transport connections implement a transport protocol defining control windows that limit an amount of traffic that may be sent before an acknowledgement of at least some of the traffic has been received;
wherein setting the first number of the first plurality of simultaneous transport connections comprises decreasing the first number of the first plurality of simultaneous transport connections with increase of a size of the control windows for the first plurality of transport connections; and
wherein setting the second number of the second plurality of simultaneous transport connections comprises decreasing the second number of the second plurality of simultaneous transport connections with increase of a size of the control windows for the second plurality of transport connections.
7. The method of claim 6 , where the transport protocol is a Transport Control Protocol (TCP), and the control window is a smaller of a receiver window and a congestion window.