System and method for improving internet communication by using intermediate nodes
A method for fetching a content from a web server to a client device is disclosed, using tunnel devices serving as intermediate devices. The client device accesses an acceleration server to receive a list of available tunnel devices. The requested content is partitioned into slices, and the client device sends a request for the slices to the available tunnel devices. The tunnel devices in turn fetch the slices from the data server, and send the slices to the client device, where the content is reconstructed from the received slices. A client device may also serve as a tunnel device, serving as an intermediate device to other client devices. Similarly, a tunnel device may also serve as a client device for fetching content from a data server. The selection of tunnel devices to be used by a client device may be in the acceleration server, in the client device, or in both. The partition into slices may be overlapping or non-overlapping, and the same slice (or the whole content) may be fetched via multiple tunnel devices.
1. A computer-implemented method for checking a tunnel device that serves as a proxy device between a web server and a server device, the web server stores a content that is identified by a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), and for use with a database that stores a time interval value associated with the proxy device, the method comprising:
sending, by the proxy device to the server device over the Internet, a connection request;
accepting, by the server device from the proxy device over the Internet, the connection request;
sending, by the server device to the proxy device over the Internet, a HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) or HTTP Secure (HTTPS) request that comprises the URL;
implementing, by the proxy device, the request, the implementing comprises sending, by the proxy device to the web server over the Internet, the URL, and receiving, by the proxy device from the web server over the Internet, the content, in response to the sending of the URL;
sending, by the tunnel device to the server device over the Internet, the received content;
receiving, by the server device from the tunnel device over the Internet, the content;
measuring, by the server device, a time interval value associated with the implementing;
updating and storing, in the database at the server device, the measured time interval value; and
determining, at the server device, whether the proxy device is suitable for proxying or not suitable for proxying.
2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the measuring comprises measuring a latency from the sending of the URL until the receiving of the content, by the proxy device.
3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the measuring comprises measuring the latency from the sending of the URL until a starting of the receiving of the content, by the proxy device.
4. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the measuring comprises measuring the latency from the sending of the URL until a completion of the receiving of the content, by the proxy device.
5. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the measuring comprises measuring the latency from the starting of the receiving of the content until the completion of the receiving of the content, by the proxy device.
6. The method according to claim 2 , further comprising measuring the received content size.
7. The method according to claim 6 , further comprising calculating a bandwidth (BW) by dividing the measured content size by the measured time interval.
8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the measuring comprises measuring of a Round Trip Time (RTT) or a bandwidth (BW).
9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the database further associates a URL of a former implementation, an IP address of a web-server of a former implementation, a measured or estimated bandwidth (BW) of a former implementation, a measured or estimated Round Trip Time (RTT) of a former implementation, a time of day of a former implementation, a date of a former implementation, or any combination thereof.
10. The method according to claim 9 , wherein the updating comprises updating and storing in the database the IP address of the web-server, a measured or estimated bandwidth (BW) associated with the implementation, a measured or estimated Round Trip Time (RTT) associated with the implementation, a time of day of the implementation, a date of the implementation, or any combination thereof.
11. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising sending, by the server device over the Internet, the measured time interval value.
12. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising sending, by the server device over the Internet, the updated database.
13. The method according to claim 1 , further for checking the tunnel device that serves as an additional proxy device between an additional web server and the server device, the additional web server stores an additional content that is identified by an additional Internet Protocol (IP) address or an additional Uniform Resource Locator (URL), the method comprising:
sending, by the server device to the proxy device over the Internet, an additional request that comprises the additional URL;
additional implementing, by the proxy device, the additional request, the implementing comprises sending, by the proxy device to the additional web server over the Internet, the additional URL, and receiving, by the proxy device from the additional web server over the Internet, the additional content, in response to the sending of the additional URL;
sending, by the tunnel device to the server device over the Internet, the received additional content;
receiving, by the server device from the tunnel device over the Internet, the additional content;
measuring, by the server device, an additional time interval value associated with the additional implementing;
updating and storing, in the database at the server device, the measured additional time interval value; and
determining, at the server device, whether the tunnel device is suitable for proxying or not suitable for proxying.
14. The method according to claim 1 , further for checking an additional tunnel device that serves as an additional proxy device between the web server and the server device, and wherein the database stores a time interval value associated with the additional tunnel device, the method comprising:
accepting, by the server device from the additional proxy device over the Internet, a connection;
sending, by the server device to the additional proxy device over the Internet, an additional request that comprises the URL;
additional implementing, by the additional proxy device, the additional request, the implementing comprises sending, by the additional proxy device to the web server over the Internet, the URL, and receiving, by the additional proxy device from the web server over the Internet, the content, in response to the sending of the URL;
sending, by the additional tunnel device to the server device over the Internet, the received content;
receiving, by the server device from the additional tunnel device over the Internet, the content;
measuring, by the server device, an additional time interval value associated with the additional implementing;
updating and storing, in the database at the server device, the additional measured time interval value; and
determining, at the server device, whether the additional tunnel device is suitable for proxying or not suitable for proxying.
15. The method according to claim 1 , for use with a group of devices that includes the tunnel device, the method further comprises selecting, by the server device, the tunnel device from the group.
16. The method according to claim 15 , wherein database comprises an associated respective time interval value for each of the devices in the group.
17. The method according to claim 16 , wherein the selecting is based on, or uses, the respective time interval value of the selected tunnel device.
18. The method according to claim 16 , wherein the tunnel device is selected in response to being associated the lowest time interval value.
19. The method according to claim 15 , wherein the database further associates a URL of a former implementation, an IP address of a web-server of a former implementation, a measured or estimated bandwidth (BW) of a former implementation, a measured or estimated Round Trip Time (RIT) of a former implementation, a time of day of a former implementation, a date of a former implementation, or any combination thereof, wherein the tunnel device is selected based on the associated BW, RTT, time of day, date, or any combination thereof.
20. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising receiving, by the server device from a client device over the Internet, the URL, and wherein the sending of the request is in response to the receiving of the URL from the client device.
21. The method according to claim 20 , further comprising sending, by the server device to the client device over the Internet, a message in response to the measuring, to the updating, or to the determining.
22. The method according to claim 21 , wherein the message is indicative of the measured time interval value.
23. The method according to claim 21 , wherein the message is indicative of the determining.
24. The method according to claim 21 , wherein the message is indicative of the determining that the proxy device is suitable for proxying.
25. The method according to claim 21 , wherein the message comprises the IP address of the proxy device.
26. The method according to claim 1 , further for use with multiple web servers that store multiple respective contents, each identified by a respective Internet Protocol (IP) address or a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), wherein the method is repeated for each of the web servers.
27. The method according to claim 26 , wherein the repeating is dynamically repeating.
28. The method according to claim 26 , wherein the web server in each of the repetitions is selected in response to an analyzing result.
29. The method according to claim 26 , wherein the web server in each or the repetitions is selected in response to a message received from a client device.
30. The method according to claim 1 , for use with a group of devices, wherein the proxy device is added to the group in response to determining that the proxy device is suitable for proxying.
31. The method according to claim 1 , for use with a group of devices that comprises the proxy device, the method further comprising selecting, by the server device, the proxy device from the group.
32. The method according to claim 31 , wherein the selecting is based on, or uses, the time interval value associated with the devices in the group.
33. The method according to claim 31 , wherein the selecting is based on, or uses, a respective physical geographical location of each of the devices in the group.
34. The method according to claim 33 , wherein the physical geographical location includes at least one out of a country, a state or province, a city, a street, a ZIP code, longitude and latitude, or any combination thereof.
35. The method according to claim 33 , wherein the physical geographical location of each of the devices is the group is based on a geolocation.
36. The method according to claim 35 , wherein the geolocation is based on W3C Geolocation Application Programming Interface (API).
37. The method according to claim 31 , wherein the selecting comprises selecting based on a value of the IP addresses of the devices in the group.
38. The method according to claim 31 , wherein the selecting comprises randomly selecting.
39. The method according to claim 38 , wherein the randomly selecting is based on using one or more random numbers generated by a random number generator.
40. The method according to claim 39 , wherein the random number generator is hardware based and uses thermal noise, shot noise, nuclear decaying radiation, photoelectric effect, or quantum phenomena.
41. The method according to claim 39 , wherein the random number generator is software based and is based on executing an algorithm for generating pseudo-random numbers.
42. The method according to claim 31 , wherein the is based on, or uses, a load balancing or a performance optimization.
43. The method according to claim 31 , wherein the selecting is based on, or uses, sequential selection, cyclic selection, Last-In-First-Out (LIFO) scheme, or First-In-First-Out (FIFO) scheme.
44. The method according to claim 31 , wherein the selecting is based on past activities of each of the devices in the group.
45. The method according to claim 44 , wherein the selecting comprises selecting based on a timing of an event.
46. The method according to claim 44 , wherein the selecting comprises selecting based on timing of the last communication of each of the devices in the group.
47. The method according to claim 31 , wherein the selecting is based on, or uses, the IP address or the URL.
48. The method according to claim 31 , further comprising receiving, by the server device from a client device over the Internet, a message indicative of the proxy device, and wherein the selecting is based on, or uses, the message.
49. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising receiving, by the server device from a client device over the Internet, a message that comprises a criterion, and wherein the selecting is based on, or uses, the criterion.
50. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the server device is further storing, operating, or using, a server operating system.
51. The method according to claim 50 , wherein the server operating system consists or, comprises of, or based on, one out of Microsoft Windows Server®, Linux, or UNIX.
52. The method according to claim 50 , wherein the server operating system consists or, comprises of, or based on, Microsoft Windows Server® 2003 R2, 2008, 2008 R2, 2012, or 2012 R2 variant, Linux™ or GNU/Linux based Debian GNU/Linux, Debian GNU/kFreeBSD, Debian GNU/Hurd, Fedora™, Gentoo™, Linspire™, Hat® SuSE, Ubuntu®, UNIX® variant Mandriva, Red Linux, Solaris™, AIX®, Mac™ OS X, FreeBSD®, OpenBSD, or NetBSD®.
53. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the proxy device comprises a consumer computer device.
54. The method according to claim 53 , wherein the proxy device comprises a mobile device that stores, operates, or uses, a client operating system.
55. The method according to claim 54 , wherein the client operating system consists or, comprise, or is based on, Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows 8, Microsoft Windows 8.1, Linux, or Google Chrome OS.
56. The method according to claim 54 , wherein the client operating system is a mobile operating system.
57. The method according to claim 56 , wherein the mobile operating system comprises, or is based on, Android version 2.2 (Froyo), Android version 2.3 (Gingerbread), Android version 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), Android Version 4.2 (Jelly Bean), Android version 4.4 (KitKat), Apple iOS version 3, Apple iOS version 4, Apple iOS version 5, Apple iOS version 6, Apple iOS version 7, Microsoft Windows® Phone version 7, Microsoft Windows® Phone version 8, Microsoft Windows® Phone version 9, or Blackberry® operating system.
58. The method according to claim 56 , wherein the proxy device comprises, or consists of, a cellular telephone device.
59. The method according to claim 58 , wherein the cellular telephone device comprises, or consists of, a smartphone.
60. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising storing, at the server device, the received content.
61. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the accepting comprises establishing, between the server device and the proxy device over the Internet, the connection, and wherein the sending of the request by the server device to the proxy device, and the of the received content by the tunnel device to the server device over the Internet, are over the established connection.
62. The method according to claim 61 , wherein the established connection is based on, or uses, HTTP persistent connection.
63. The method according to claim 61 , wherein the established connection is based on, or uses, TCP connection that uses ‘Active OPEN’ or ‘Passive OPEN’.
64. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the steps are sequentially executed.
65. The method according to claim 1 , wherein at least two steps are concurrently executed using multitasking or multiprocessing.
66. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the content includes, consists of, or comprises, a part or whole of a computer file, audio data, voice data, multimedia data, video data, an image data, music data, a computer program, or any combination thereof.
67. The method according to claim 1 , for use with multiple tunnel devices, each serving as a proxy device between one of multiple web servers and the server device, the method further comprising accepting, by the server device from each of the multiple tunnel devices over the Internet, a connection request; and establishing by the server device a connection with each of the multiple tunnel devices over the Internet in response to the received connection request.
68. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the sending by the server device to the proxy device over the Internet of the request is in response to the accepting, by the server device from the proxy device over the Internet, the connection request.
69. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising periodically sending, by the proxy device to the server device over the Internet, a message that comprises a status of the device.
70. The method according to claim 69 , wherein the sending of the message is in response to the determined status or a status change of the proxy device.
71. The method according to claim 69 , wherein the message comprises, or is based on, an ‘heartbeat’ message.
72. The method according to claim 69 , wherein a time period between two or more sent messages is at least 10 milliseconds, 20 milliseconds, 30 milliseconds, 50 milliseconds, 100 milliseconds, 1 second, 2 seconds, 3 seconds, 5 seconds, 10 seconds, 20 seconds, 30 seconds, 50 seconds, 100 seconds, 1 minute, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, or 10 minutes.