Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Remote data accessing – Using interconnected networks
Reexamination Certificate
1999-03-15
2002-08-13
Harrell, Robert B. (Department: 2152)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Remote data accessing
Using interconnected networks
Reexamination Certificate
active
06434609
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention pertains to global information networks, currently referred to as the Internet or Internet systems, and in particular, to a system for providing a comprehensive global information network broadcasting system and the methods of implementing the same using broadcast links to overcome the limitations in network distribution and caching systems inherent in conventional designs.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The explosion of the use of Internet and other similar systems has created massive performance demands on the Internet Protocol (IP) and the communication infrastructure associated with the Internet. The areas which are experiencing this communication and application explosion may include any IP network or Internet, public or private, or any group of computers connected together. The present invention has particular application in the current system referred to as the Internet.
The performance demands on the network are further compounded by the inherent limitations in the IP network architecture and the popularity of certain applications on the network. Some of the most popular applications on the Internet, such as the web browser, construct, or attempt to construct, a point-to-point or end-to-end connection across the network. With the Internet browser application, the Internet participant “points” the web browser to a universal resource location (“URL”) address which, in turn, the browser uses to attempt to connect to the network and display the information at the URL address.
An end-to-end connection across the network makes network performance parameters such as latency and network queuing delays into factors that dependent, at least in part, on each link in the point-to-point chain of connection. Since IP also has inherent data concentration characteristics, the performance of the network may be significantly degraded by traffic concentration on the network backbones. Thus, network performance, e.g., network latency, is often dominated by the latency of the most congested link. Thus, a problem in the conventional IP network is that “end-to-end” latency may be dominated by the link with the greatest congestion. Data concentration may cause a high latency on over-subscribed backbone links.
A problem related to network congestion and data concentration is the present rate of growth in the popularity of the Internet and it's applications. The present rate of growth makes increases in network performance, or even maintaining network performance, simply by increasing backbone size a problematic solution, e.g., at the current rate of growth in Internet usage, backbones and communication equipment may require replacement before their costs can be recovered. Thus, the conventional architecture and pricing structure for Internet service may not be self financing in some instances.
Another systemic source for network demand is the increase in the number of times that the network is being called upon to move the same data to multiple users. In practice this may be caused by the increasing popularity of particular website or the so called web portals.
The transport of redundant date problem has been addressed, in part, through the use of network caches. Network caches store data inside the network and service the user demand for data from data stored in the cache. Thus, network caches may reduce the number of identical items which are being passed end-to-end through the network by locally servicing the request for data from the local cache. The success of the network cache, however, is hampered by the fact that the ideal location, or optimal position, for the cache (or caches), is at the edge of the network infrastructure as close as possible to the end user. Thus, the optimal positioning of caches, near the edge of the network, inherently presents communication and coordination challenges.
Caching at the edges of the network, e.g., using many small caches at the network edges rather than a few large central caches at the center of the network, is further complicated by the fact that the small caches may have a limited cache community size. A limited or small cache community size means that there are few users using any one cache. A small cache community size is typically associated with a small number of request for information which makes it difficult, if not impossible, to mathematically achieve a high cache hit rate.
The cache hit rate is a mathematical term that expresses the number of hits encountered in the use of the cache per 100 requests for information. A high cache hit rate means that a high percentage of user requests are serviced by the cache. This means that the cache is working to reduce the load on the network. The cache hit rate, however, is dependent upon the number of users of the cache or members of the cache community. Thus, an engineering trade-off exists in the conventional cache design, i.e., a cache is more useful at improving latency at the edge of a network but the cache will, on average, have a lower hit rate because of the small cache community size.
Another problem in the conventional network is the level of general broadcasting that can be accomplished within the conventional architecture. As the Internet was established, the vast majority of network traffic was point to point in nature. In the present network, however, broadcast data on the network has surpassed other forms of traffic in terms of volume, but the network continues to have a point to point architecture which does not provide the physical medium or logical structure to implement broadcast within the network. The result is that the Internet is choking itself with replicated data, moving thousands of copies of the same data around at any given moment in time. The major difference now and when the network originated is the increased size of the transmission lines and switch capacity which are able to move more data. The IP network, however, is still using the same basic architecture as was found in the original system.
Another factor that effects network performance is that most of the data on the Internet is accessed infrequently. A small proportion of the data available on the Internet is receiving the majority of the inquiries or “hits” on the system.
There have been a number of attempts to improve network performance. One way of approaching the problem is by employing larger capacity storage equipment and/or faster communication equipment. This may provide faster network response time and/or ameliorate network congestion and delays in the short term. Indeed, the continuing availability of larger capacity and lower cost storage technology have made this a cost effective short term, however, stop gap, approach to network congestion. As discussed above, the rate of growth in the Internet's popularity may require equipment replacement before equipment costs can be recovered. Also, a number of United States Patents describe attempts to improve speed and storage capacity of interactive networks through a number of different methods—those patents include U.S. Pat. No. 5,442,771 issued to Robert Filepp et al. for a “Method For Storing Data In A Interactive Computer Network” and the patent issued to Ashar Aziz, U.S. Pat. No. 5,588,060 for a “Method And Apparatus For A Key Management Scheme For Internet Protocols.”
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is the goal of the present invention to address these short falls and problem areas to improve performance of the Internet. Thus, a first object of the present invention is to achieve real improvement in the performance over conventional caching system design through the use of a novel and nonobvious scheme to increase the local cache hit rates by employing methods and apparatus to improve the selection of data for storage in a local cache.
Another object of the present invention is a way to mesh a broadcast architecture into the point-to-point architecture of the Internet to enable the network to achieve the advantages of a broadcast architecture while maintaining the benefits of a point-to-point network.
Another objec
Cidera, Inc.
Cooley & Godward LLP
Harrell Robert B.
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