Peer to peer dynamic network link acceleration

Abstract

A peer to peer dynamic network acceleration method and apparatus provide enhanced communications directly between two or more enhanced clients. The enhanced clients may comprise a front-end, a back-end, or both. In general, the front-end and back-end of the enhanced clients work in concert to translate data into an enhanced protocol for communication between the enhanced clients. The enhanced protocol may provide acceleration, security, error correction, and other benefits. Data from various applications may be seamlessly translated between a first protocol and the enhanced protocol, such that the applications need not be modified to use the enhanced protocol. The enhanced clients may automatically detect one another to establish an enhanced communications channel automatically.

1 . An enhanced client computing device comprising:
 one or more processors configured to process one or more data packets of a first protocol;   at least one front-end configured to receive the one or more data packets of the first protocol from the one or more processors, and to encode the one or more data packets of the first protocol to generate one or more data packets of a second protocol;   at least one back-end configured to receive one or more incoming data packets generated by a remote front-end from one or more original data packets, and to decode the one or more incoming data packets to restore the one or more original data packets, the incoming data packets being of the second protocol and the one or more incoming data packets being of the second protocol; and   at least one network interface configured to communicate a plurality of data packets of the second protocol between the enhanced client computing device and one or more remote client computing devices.   
     
     
         2 . The enhanced client computing device of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one front-end and the at least one back-end implement preselected compatible semantics to encode and decode data packets of the first and second protocols. 
     
     
         3 . The enhanced client computing device of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one front-end is configured to request establishment of an enhanced link from a remote back-end prior to encoding the one or more data packets of the first type to generate one or more data packets of a second protocol. 
     
     
         4 . The enhanced client computing device of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one back-end is configured to receive a request to establish an enhanced link from the remote front-end prior to decoding the one or more incoming data packets to restore the one or more original data packets. 
     
     
         5 . The enhanced client computing device of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one front-end is configured to transmit one or more discovery messages via the at least one network interface and to receive responses thereto to automatically discover remote back-ends. 
     
     
         6 . The enhanced client computing device of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one back-end is configured to respond to one or more discovery messages from the at least one remote front-end via the at least one network interface. 
     
     
         7 . The enhanced client computing device of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one front-end is configured to receive one or more encoded data packets generated by a remote back-end from one or more original data packets at the remote back-end, and to decode the one or more encoded data packets to restore the one or more original data packets, the one or more encoded data packets being of the second protocol and the original data packets being of the first protocol. 
     
     
         8 . A peer to peer network acceleration system comprising:
 at least one first client computing device having one or more first applications configured to communicate via a standard protocol, the at least one first client computing device comprising a front-end configured to encode the one or more first data packets according to an enhanced protocol, and to restore one or more original data packets from one or more encoded data packets, the one or more first data packets and the one or more original data packets being of the standard protocol;   at least one second client computing device having one or more second applications that communicate via the standard protocol, the at least one second client computing device comprising a back-end configured to restore one or more first original data packets from the one or more encoded data packets, and to encode one or more second data packets according to the enhanced protocol, the one or more first original data packets and the one or more second data packets being of the standard protocol; and   at least one enhanced link between the at least one first client computing device and the at least one second client computing device, the at least one enhanced link comprising the one or more encoded data packets and the one or more second data packets after they have been encoded.   
     
     
         9 . The peer to peer network acceleration system of  claim 8 , wherein the front-end is configured to transmit one or more discovery messages and receive responses thereto to detect the back-end of the at least one second client computing device. 
     
     
         10 . The peer to peer network acceleration system of  claim 9 , wherein the front-end is configured to automatically establish the at least one enhanced link with the back-end upon detecting the back-end by communicating at least one of the one or more encoded data packets to the back-end. 
     
     
         11 . The peer to peer network acceleration system of  claim 8 , wherein the back-end is configured to respond to one or more discovery messages to identify the back-end to the front-end. 
     
     
         12 . The peer to peer network acceleration system of  claim 8 , wherein the at least one first client computing device is configured to send a request to establish the at least one enhanced link to the at least one second client computing device. 
     
     
         13 . The peer to peer network acceleration system of  claim 8 , wherein the at least one second client computing device is configured to respond to a request to establish the at least one enhanced link from the at least one first computing device. 
     
     
         14 . The peer to peer network acceleration system of  claim 8 , wherein the one or more first applications and the one or more second applications are collaboration software stored on a tangible medium selected from the group consisting of project collaboration software, groupware, instant messaging software, video conferencing software, and audio conferencing software. 
     
     
         15 . The peer to peer network acceleration system of  claim 8 , wherein the front-end is configured to intercept data packets only from the one or more first applications for encoding. 
     
     
         16 . A method for transferring data between client devices comprising:
 running a first client application on a first client device, the client application configured to generate and receive one or more first data packets of a standard protocol;   encoding the one or more first data packets according to an enhanced protocol to generate one or more first encoded data packets for transfer to a second client application on a second client device;   receiving one or more second encoded data packets of the enhanced protocol, the one or more second encoded data packets comprising data from one or more original data packets;   restoring the one or more original data packets from the one or more second encoded data packets; and   passing the one or more original data packets to the first client application.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16  further comprising connecting a communication interface of a hardware add-on to the first client device, and transferring the one or more first encoded data packets to the second client application via a network interface of the hardware add-on. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 16  further comprising downloading machine readable code and storing the machine readable code on a tangible medium accessible to the first client device, wherein encoding the one or more first packets occurs by executing the machine readable code. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 16  further comprising sending one or more discovery messages to detect the second client device. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein only the one or more first data packets from the first application are encoded to generate the one or more first encoded data packets.