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 method for use with a first web server that stores a first content that is identified by a first Uniform Resource Locator (URL), for use with a second web server that stores a second content that is identified by a second URL, and for use with a database, that is stored in a server device, and that includes multiple Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and a respective time interval value associated with the IP addresses, the method comprising:
selecting, by the server device, a first IP address from the multiple IP addresses;
fetching, by the server device from the first web server over the Internet, the first content, using the selected first IP address as a source address for the fetching;
measuring, by the server device, a first time interval value associated with the fetching;
updating, in the database at the server device, the first time interval value as associated with the first IP address;
selecting, by the server device, a second IP address from the multiple IP addresses, based on the time interval value associated with the second IP address; and
fetching, by the server device from the second web server over the Internet, the second content, using the selected second IP address as a source address for the fetching.
2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the fetching of the first content comprises:
sending, by the server device to the first web server over the Internet, a first request that comprises the first URL, using the selected first IP address as the source address for accessing the first web server; and
receiving, by the server device from the first web server over the Internet, the first content, in response to the sending of the first request.
3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the first request comprises a HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) or HTTP Secure (HTTPS) request.
4. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the measuring comprises measuring a latency from the sending of the first request until the receiving of the first content.
5. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the measuring comprises measuring the latency from the sending of the first request until a starting of the receiving of the first content.
6. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the measuring comprises measuring the latency from the sending of the first request until a completion of the receiving of the first content.
7. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the measuring comprises measuring the latency from a starting of the receiving of the first content until a completion of the receiving of the first content.
8. The method according to claim 4 , further comprising measuring the received first content size.
9. The method according to claim 8 , further comprising calculating a bandwidth (BW) by dividing the measured first content size by the measured time interval.
10. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the measuring comprises measuring of a Round Trip Time (RTT) or a bandwidth (BW).
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 database or a part thereof.
13. The method according to claim 12 , wherein the sending of the database or the part thereof is in response to the updating.
14. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the steps are sequentially executed.
15. The method according to claim 1 , wherein at least two steps are concurrently executed using multitasking or multiprocessing.
16. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the first or second 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.
17. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the first or second content includes, consists of, or comprises, a web page.
18. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising storing, at the server device, the received first or second content.
19. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising storing, operating, or using, by the server device, a server operating system.
20. The method according to claim 19 , wherein the server operating system consists or, comprises of, or based on, one out of Microsoft Windows Server®, Linux, or UNIX.
21. The method according to claim 19 , 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™, Mandriva, Red Hat® Linux, SuSE, Ubuntu®, UNIX® variant Solaris™, AIX®, Mac™ OS X, FreeBSD®, OpenBSD, or NetBSD®.
22. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the second IP address is different from the first IP address.
23. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the second IP address is the same as the first IP address.
24. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the selecting of the first or second IP address is based on, or uses, the time interval values associated with the multiple Internet Protocol (IP) addresses.
25. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the selecting of the first or second IP address is based on, or uses, a respective physical geographical location associated with the multiple Internet Protocol (IP) addresses.
26. The method according to claim 25 , wherein the physical geographical location includes a country, a state or province, a city, a street, a ZIP code, longitude and latitude, or any combination thereof.
27. The method according to claim 25 , wherein the physical geographical location of each of the IP addresses is based on a geolocation.
28. The method according to claim 27 , wherein the geolocation is based on W3C Geolocation Application Programming Interface (API).
29. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the selecting of the first or second IP address comprises selecting based on a value of the IP addresses.
30. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the selecting of the first or second IP address comprises randomly selecting.
31. The method according to claim 30 , wherein the randomly selecting is based on using one or more random numbers generated by a random number generator.
32. The method according to claim 31 , wherein the random number generator is hardware based and uses thermal noise, shot noise, nuclear decaying radiation, photoelectric effect, or quantum phenomena.
33. The method according to claim 31 , wherein the random number generator is software based and is based on executing an algorithm for generating pseudo-random numbers.
34. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the selecting of the first or second IP address is based on, or uses, a load balancing or a performance optimization.
35. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the selecting of the first or second IP address is based on, or uses, sequential selection, cyclic selection, Last-In-First-Out (LIFO) scheme, or First-In-First-Out (FIFO) scheme.
36. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the selecting of the first or second IP address is based on past activities of each of the devices in the group.
37. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the selecting of the first or second IP address comprises selecting based on a timing of an event.
38. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the selecting of the first or second IP address comprises selecting based on timing of the last communication that used the respective IP address.
39. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the selecting of the first or second IP address is based on, or uses, the URL.
40. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising receiving, by the server device from a client device over the Internet, a criterion, and wherein the selecting is based on, or uses, the criterion.
41. The method according to claim 1 , for use with multiple client devices, wherein each one of the multiple client devices is addressed by a respective IP address from the multiple IP addresses, and wherein the fetching of the first content comprises:
sending, by the server device over the Internet to a first client device that is addressed by the first IP address, the first URL;
receiving, by the first client device from the server device over the Internet, the sent first URL;
sending, by the first client device to the web server over the Internet, a first request that comprises the received first URL;
receiving, by the first client device from the web server over the Internet, the first content, in response to the sent first request; and
sending, by the first client device to the server device over the Internet, the received first content.
42. The method according to claim 41 , wherein the fetching of the second content comprises:
sending, by the server device over the Internet to a second client device that is addressed by the second IP address, the second URL;
receiving, by the second client device from the server device over the Internet, the sent second URL;
sending, by the second client device to the web server over the Internet, a second request that comprises the received second URL;
receiving, by the second client device from the web server over the Internet, the second content, in response to the sent second request; and
sending, by the second client device to the server device over the Internet, the received second content.
43. The method according to claim 42 , wherein the first or second client device comprises a consumer computer device.
44. The method according to claim 43 , wherein the first or second client device comprises a mobile device that stores, operates, or uses, a client operating system.
45. The method according to claim 44 , 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.
46. The method according to claim 44 , wherein the client operating system is a mobile operating system.
47. The method according to claim 46 , 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.
48. The method according to claim 42 , wherein the first or second client device comprises, or consists of, a cellular telephone device.
49. The method according to claim 48 , wherein the cellular telephone device comprises, or consists of, a smartphone.
50. The method according to claim 42 , further comprising periodically sending, by the first or second client device to the server device over the Internet, a message that comprises a respective status of the device.
51. The method according to claim 50 , wherein the sending of the message is in response to a determined status or a status change of the respective device.
52. The method according to claim 50 , wherein the message comprises, or is based on, an ‘heartbeat’ message.
53. The method according to claim 50 , 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.