Determining a transit appliance for optimization of data traffic to a software service

Abstract

Disclosed is a system and method for optimization of data transfer to a software service. In exemplary embodiments, a computer-implemented method for determining a transit appliance for data traffic to a software service through one or more interconnected networks comprising a plurality of network appliances, comprises determining performance metrics for each of the plurality of network appliances to at least one IP address associated with the software service, and selecting a transit appliance for data transfer to the IP address, the selected transit appliance based at least in part on the performance metrics.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A computer-implemented method for optimization of network traffic within a wide area network, to a software service, the method comprising:
 receiving at a first network appliance of a plurality of network appliances forming a wide area network, at least one data packet sent by a user computing device, the at least one data packet destined for a software service;   extracting a destination IP address for the software service from the at least one data packet;   querying an advertised metric table at the first network appliance for a peer transit appliance for the extracted destination IP address associated with the software service, the advertised metric table comprising an advertised performance metric for at least two network appliances of the plurality of network appliances to at least one IP address for the software service; and   transmitting the at least one data packet to the peer transit appliance, the peer transit appliance being a second network appliance of the plurality of network appliances.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 applying at least one optimization encoding technique to the at least one data packet before transmitting the at least one data packet to the peer transit appliance.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the at least one optimization encoding technique comprises at least one of compression/decompression, deduplication, TCP acceleration, performance enhancing proxy, packet reconstruction, and error correction. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising:
 receiving the at least one data packet for the software service at the second network appliance;   modifying the received at least one data packet at the second network appliance by applying at least one optimization decoding technique; and   transmitting the modified at least one data packet to the software service from the second network appliance.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving at least one response data packet from the software service at the second network appliance;   modifying the received at least one response data packet from the software service by applying at least one optimization encoding technique before transmitting the at least one response data packet to the first network appliance; and   transmitting the modified at least one response data packet to the first network appliance.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , further comprising:
 receiving the modified at least one response data packet at the first network appliance;   modifying the received at least one response data packet from the software service by applying at least one optimization decoding technique; and   transmitting the decoded at least one response data packet to the user computing device.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving the at least one data packet for the software service at the second network appliance;   modifying the received at least one data packet at the second network appliance by applying network address translation; and   transmitting the modified at least one data packet to the software service from the second network appliance.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving at least one response data packet from the software service at the second network appliance;   applying network address translation at the second network appliance to map a destination address from the at least one response data packet to an original network address; and   transmitting the at least one response data packet to the first network appliance.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 determining that a network administrator has selected the software service for optimization.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein at least one of the plurality of network appliances is hosted in an Infrastructure as a Service cloud-based environment. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the software service is hosted in a cloud environment. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein an advertised metric in the advertised metric table is based on a derived performance metric for a network appliance to an IP address associated with the software service. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the derived performance metric is based on at least one measured performance metric of data traffic from the network appliance to the IP address associated with the software service, the measured performance metric based on at least one predetermined test method. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the at least one predetermined test method is at least one of ping IP, http-ping IP, tcp-ping IP. 
     
     
         15 . A computer system for optimization of network traffic within a wide area network to a software service, the system comprising:
 a first appliance comprising at least one processor and a memory storing instructions, the instructions executable by the at least one processor to:
 receive at a first network appliance of a plurality of network appliances forming a wide area network, at least one data packet sent by a user computing device, the at least one data packet destined for a software service; 
 extract a destination IP address for the software service from the at least one data packet; 
 query an advertised metric table at the first network appliance for a peer transit appliance for the extracted destination IP address associated with the software service, the advertised metric table comprising an advertised performance metric for at least two network appliances of the plurality of network appliances to at least one IP address for the software service; and 
 transmit the at least one data packet to the peer transit appliance, the peer transit appliance being a second network appliance of the plurality of network appliances. 
   
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein the first appliance is further configured to apply at least one optimization encoding technique to the at least one data packet before transmitting the at least one data packet to the peer transit appliance. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein the at least one optimization encoding technique comprises at least one of compression/decompression, deduplication, TCP acceleration, performance enhancing proxy, packet reconstruction, and error correction. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein the system further comprises:
 the second appliance comprising at least one processor and a memory storing instructions, the instructions executable by the at least one processor to:
 receive the at least one data packet for the software service from the first network appliance; 
 modify the received at least one data packet by applying at least one optimization decoding technique; and 
 transmit the modified at least one data packet to the software service. 
   
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein the system further comprises:
 the second appliance comprising at least one processor and a memory storing instructions, the instructions executable by the at least one processor to:
 receive at least one response data packet from the software service; 
 modify the received at least one response data packet from the software service by applying at least one optimization encoding technique before transmitting the at least one response data packet to the first network appliance; and 
 transmit the modified at least one response data packet to the first network appliance. 
   
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 19 , wherein the first appliance is further configured to:
 receive the modified at least one response data packet from the second network appliance;   further modify the received at least one response data packet by applying at least one optimization decoding technique; and   transmit the decoded at least one response data packet to the user computing device.