Hello,

i’ve created simple patch for OpenVPN implementing OCC ping. Main difference of OCC ping and existing OpenVPN ping is that OCC ping is being actively replied on other side of the communication channel. This way you can configure various per-client channel reliability policies:

• Non-mobile clients might ping more frequently to ensure stable connection, and reconnect as soon as possible in case of failure.
• Mobile clients (ie. Android phones) might ping less frequently to save battery.

OCC ping can be enabled with (boolean) occ-ping directive and it integrates with all existing ping settings (ping/ping-restart/… directives) – simply instead of ‘normal’ pings OCC pings will be send.

Additionally occ-ping-compat directive makes it possible to use backward compatible OCC pings, that sends instead of newly implemented OCC_PING message, already existing OCC_REQUEST that will be always replied  by other side with OCC_REPLY. This makes it possible to use this new behavior with clients running openvpn without having OCC ping implemented.

Patch can be found here: openvpn-2.2.2-occ-ping.patch.