Forum Discussion

jdchrist_41886's avatar
jdchrist_41886
Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
Apr 05, 2010

Comet Web Model/Web 2.0 Push Support

Hitting every possible resource point I can in my attempt understand if any of the F5 products support Comet/Web 2.0 Push, aka Ajax push, aka HTTP Server push.

 

 

Just learning this concept myself but per the Wikipedia definition (paraphrased):

 

 

Comet is a web application model where a long held HTTP request allows a server to send updates to the client without the browser explicitly requesting it. Comet is also known by several other names, including Ajax Push, Reverse Ajax, HTTP Streaming, and HTTP server push etc. Comet applications typically use Ajax with long polling to detect new information on the server. In long polling, the server holds on to a HTTP request until it has any new data to send (or a timeout expires). On receiving a response, the client immediately sends a new request that is held at the server. Other ways of achieving this include using HTTP chunks over a single request or not terminating a response (no Content-Length or chunk headers.

 

 

Does anyone know if F5 supports this functionality and if so which appliances/modules provide this support?

 

 

Thanks.

 

 

David

3 Replies

  • Hi David,

     

     

    LTM should be able to support a long lived HTTP-based connection if you set the TCP idle timeout on a custom TCP profile to a value that's longer than what you want an idle connection left open for. Any platform and version should support this configuration.

     

     

    The best way to confirm exact support for your scenario would be to test it. If you don't have an LTM available to test, you could download the LTM v10.1.0 virtual edition and run it in VMware. See this page for details:

     

     

    LTM Virtual Edition license/support page

     

    https://www.f5.com/trial/secure/

     

     

    LTM VE 10.1.0 release notes:

     

    https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/products/big-ip_ve/releasenotes/product/relnotes_ve_10_1_0.html

     

     

    Aaron
  • Aaron -

     

    Can LTM offload the concurrent connections from my servers to the F5 hardware? I'm looking for something similar to:

     

    http://community.citrix.com/display/ocb/2010/02/09/Using+NetScaler+Push+to+scale+Comet+applications

     

  • Hello,

     

     

    I am very interested in learning about offloading connection.

     

    It makes sense for LTM to manage the connections and communicate smartly with the web servers.

     

     

    Mike