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-readable, non-transitory storage medium, for use with a web server that stores a web-site that includes first, second, and third web-pages respectively identified using first, second, and third Uniform Resource Locators (URLs),
wherein the computer-readable, non-transitory storage medium contains instructions which, when executed by one or more hardware processors in a first device, cause performance of steps comprising:
initiating, by the first device, a communication with a first server over the Internet, in response to a powering up of the first device;
receiving, by the first device from the first server over the Internet, a first HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request that comprises the first URL;
sending, by the first device to the web server over the Internet, the received first HTTP request;
receiving, by the first device from the web server over the Internet, in response to the sending of the first HTTP request, the first web-page; and
sending, by the first device to the first server over the Internet, the received first web-page,
wherein the computer-readable, non-transitory storage medium contains instructions which, when executed by one or more hardware processors in a second device, cause performance of steps comprising:
initiating, by the second device, a communication with the first server over the Internet, in response to a powering up of the second device;
receiving, by the second device from the first server over the Internet, a second HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request that comprises the second URL;
sending, by the second device to the web server over the Internet, the received second HTTP request;
receiving, by the second device from the web server over the Internet, in response to the sending of the second HTTP request, the second web-page;
sending, by the second device to the first server over the Internet, the received second web-page, and
wherein the computer-readable, non-transitory storage medium contains instructions which, when executed by one or more hardware processors in a third device, cause performance of steps comprising:
initiating, by the third device, a communication with the first server over the Internet, in response to a powering up of the third device;
receiving, by the third device from the first server over the Internet, a third HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request that comprises the third URL;
sending, by the third device to the web server over the Internet, the received third HTTP request;
receiving, by the third device from the web server over the Internet, in response to the sending of the third HTTP request, the third web-page; and
sending, by the third device to the first server over the Internet, the received third web-page,
wherein each of the first, second, and third devices is a respective cellular telephone device.
2. The computer-readable, non-transitory storage medium according to claim 1 , wherein the initiating of the communication, by each of the devices, comprises initiating a respective HTTP persistent connection with the first server, and wherein the respective receiving from, and sending to, the first server, is over the respective HTTP persistent connection.
3. The computer-readable, non-transitory storage medium according to claim 1 , wherein the initiating, by each of the device, of the communication, comprises establishing a respective Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection with the first server using an ‘Active OPEN’ or ‘Passive OPEN’, and wherein the respective receiving from, and sending to, the first server, is over the respective established TCP connection.
4. The computer-readable, non-transitory storage medium according to claim 1 , further comprising instructions which, when executed by one or more hardware processors in the first server, cause performance of steps comprising:
receiving, by the first server from the first device over the Internet, the sent first web-page;
receiving, by the first server from the second device over the Internet, the sent second web-page;
receiving, by the first server from the third device over the Internet, the sent third web-page; and
constructing, by the first server, at least part of the web-site from the received first, second, and third web-pages.
5. The computer-readable, non-transitory storage medium according to claim 4 , wherein each of the web-pages comprises, or consists of, a respective object.
6. The computer-readable, non-transitory storage medium according to claim 5 , wherein the constructing comprises forming a content that includes all received objects of the received web-pages.
7. The computer-readable, non-transitory storage medium according to claim 5 , wherein each of the objects is a respective Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) object.
8. The computer-readable, non-transitory storage medium according to claim 5 , wherein each of the objects comprises, or consists of, an HTTP addressed object.
9. The computer-readable, non-transitory storage medium according to claim 8 , wherein each of the HTTP request comprises a HTTP Secure (HTTPS) request.
10. The computer-readable, non-transitory storage medium according to claim 1 , further comprising instructions which, when executed by one or more hardware processors in the first server, cause performance of steps comprising:
sending, by the first server to the first device over the Internet, the first HTTP request;
sending, by the first server to the second device over the Internet, the second HTTP request; and
sending, by the first server to the third device over the Internet, the third HTTP request.
11. The computer-readable, non-transitory storage medium according to claim 10 , further comprising instructions which, when executed by one or more hardware processors in the first server, cause performance of steps comprising:
identifying, by the first server, the first web-page;
selecting, by the first server, the first device from a group of devices, in response to the identifying of the first web-page;
identifying, by the first server, the second web-page;
selecting, by the first server, the second device from the group of devices, in response to the identifying of the second web-page;
identifying, by the first server, the third web-page; and
selecting, by the first server, the third device from the group of devices, in response to the identifying of the third web-page,
wherein the sending of the first HTTP request is responsive to the selecting of the first device,
wherein the sending of the second HTTP request is responsive to the selecting of the second device, and
wherein the sending of the third HTTP request is responsive to the selecting of the third device.
12. The computer-readable, non-transitory storage medium according to claim 11 , wherein the selecting of at least one of the devices from the group comprises selecting based on a physical geographical proximity to the web server.
13. The computer-readable, non-transitory storage medium according to claim 11 , wherein the selecting of at least one of the devices from the group comprises selecting based on past activities or on a timing of an event.
14. The computer-readable, non-transitory storage medium according to claim 11 , wherein the selecting of at least one of the devices from the group comprises randomly selecting the respective device from the group.
15. The computer-readable, non-transitory storage medium according to claim 11 , wherein the selecting of at least one of the devices from the group comprises selecting based on an attribute or a characteristic of the selected device.
16. The computer-readable, non-transitory storage medium according to claim 11 , wherein the selecting of at least one of the devices from the group comprises selecting based on a physical geographical location of the selected device.
17. The computer-readable, non-transitory storage medium according to claim 16 , wherein the physical geographical location consists of, or comprises, a country, a region, a city, a street, a ZIP code, a timezone, or any combination thereof.
18. The computer-readable, non-transitory storage medium according to claim 16 , wherein the geographical location is based on a geolocation.
19. The computer-readable, non-transitory storage medium according to claim 18 , wherein the geolocation is based on W3C Geolocation API.
20. The computer-readable, non-transitory storage medium according to claim 18 , for use with a database that associates Internet Protocol (IP) addresses to geographical locations, wherein the geographical location is based on using the IP address of the respective selected device in the database.
21. The computer-readable, non-transitory storage medium according to claim 1 , wherein at least one of the web-pages includes, consists of, or comprises, a part or whole of a computer file, audio data, voice data, multimedia data, video data, a computer program, or any combination thereof.
22. The computer-readable, non-transitory storage medium according to claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first, second, and third devices stores or operates a mobile operating system.
23. The computer-readable, non-transitory storage medium according to claim 22 , wherein the mobile operating system comprises 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.
24. The computer-readable, non-transitory storage medium according to claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first, second, and third devices stores or operates a client operating system.
25. The computer-readable, non-transitory storage medium according to claim 24 , wherein the client operating system consists or, comprises of, or is based on, Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows 8, Microsoft Windows 8.1, Linux, or Google Chrome OS.
26. The computer-readable, non-transitory storage medium according to claim 1 , wherein the web server is a publicly-accessed server.
27. The computer-readable, non-transitory storage medium according to claim 1 , further including instructions which, when executed by one or more hardware processors in the first device, cause performance of steps comprising executing a first web browser.
28. The computer-readable, non-transitory storage medium according to claim 27 , wherein the web browser consists of, comprises, or is based on, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Opera™, Mozilla Firefox®, Safari, Opera Mini™, or Android web browser.
29. The computer-readable, non-transitory storage medium according to claim 1 , further including instructions which, when executed by one or more hardware processors in the first device, cause performance of steps comprising periodically sending, by the first device, a message that comprises a status of the first device, or is in response to the status of the first device.
30. The computer-readable, non-transitory storage medium according to claim 29 , wherein the message comprises, or is based on, an ‘heartbeat’ message, and 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, or 100 seconds, 1 minute, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, minutes 5, or 10 minutes.