Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Computer-to-computer session/connection establishing – Network resources access controlling
Reexamination Certificate
1998-09-01
2003-02-11
Geckil, Mehmet B. (Department: 2152)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Computer-to-computer session/connection establishing
Network resources access controlling
C709S245000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06519646
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of computer software, and, more specifically, to optimizing network traffic.
Portions of the disclosure of this patent document contain material that is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever. Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, Solaris, Java, JavaOS, JavaStation, Hotjava Views and all Javabased trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.
2. Background Art
In a computer network environment, a computer user (client) may try to obtain a file from a central storage location (server). Existing schemes can waste time looking for the file and can often use an inefficient delivery method to provide the file to the user. These problems can be understood by reviewing networks and how they work.
A. Networks
In modem computing environments, it is commonplace to employ multiple computers or workstations linked together in a network to communicate between, and share data with, network users. A network also may include resources, such as printers, modems, file servers, etc., and may also include services, such as electronic mail. Transferring information across a network may be a time consuming process. The prior art does not provide an efficient manner to optimize the transfer and retrieval of information on a network.
A network can be a small system that is physically connected by cables or via wireless communication (a local area network or “LAN”), or several separate networks can be connected together to form a larger network (a wide area network or “WAN”). Other types of networks include the internet, telcorn networks, the World Wide Web, intranets, extranets, wireless networks, and other networks over which electronic, digital, and/or analog data may be communicated.
The Internet is a client/server system. A “client” is the computer that you use to access the Internet. When you log onto the World Wide Web portion of the Internet, you view “web pages” that are stored on a remote “server” computer. Information including data, files, and the web pages to be viewed are often transferred between the client and the server. Depending on the type of information transferred, the server or client may have to evaluate the information prior to processing. Additionally, one method for transferring the data may be more efficient than another method depending on the type of data being transferred. Some background on the Internet helps provide an understanding of these problems.
The Internet is a worldwide network of interconnected computers. An Internet client accesses a computer on the network via an Internet provider. An Internet provider is an organization that provides a client (e.g., an individual or other organization) with access to the Internet (via analog telephone line or Integrated Services Digital Network line, for example). A client can, for example, download a file from or send an electronic mail message to another computer/client using the Internet. An Intranet is an internal corporate or organizational network that uses many of the same communications protocols as the Internet. The terms Internet, World Wide Web (WWW), and Web as used herein includes the Intranet as well as the Internet.
The components of the WWW include browser software, network links, and servers. The browser software, or browser, is a user-friendly interface (i.e., front-end) that simplifies access to the Internet. A browser allows a client to communicate a request without having to learn a complicated command syntax, for example. A browser typically provides a graphical user interface (GUI) for displaying information and receiving input. Examples of browsers currently available include Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer.
A browser displays information to a client or user as pages or documents. A language called Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is used to define the format for a page to be displayed in the browser. A Web page is transmitted to a client as an HTML document. The browser executing at the client parses the document and produces and displays a Web Page based on the information in the HTML document. Consequently, the HTML document defines the Web Page that is rendered at runtime on the browser.
B. Network Communication/Data Transfer
Information servers maintain the information on the WWW and are capable of processing a client request. To enable the computers on a network including the WWW to communicate with each other, a set of standardized rules for exchanging the information between the computers, referred to as a “protocol”, is utilized. Transfer Protocols generally specify the data format, timing, sequencing, and error checking of data transmissions. Numerous transfer protocols are used in the networking environment. For example, one family of transfer protocols is referred to as the transmission control protocol/internet protocol (“TCP/IP”). The TCP/IP family of transfer protocols is the set of transfer protocols used on the internet and on many multiplatform networks.
1. Transfer Protocols
The TCP/IP transfer protocol family is made up of numerous individual protocols (e.g., file transfer protocol (“FTP”), transmission control protocol (“TCP”), and network terminal protocol (“TELNET”)). The TCP protocol is responsible for breaking up a message to be transmitted into datagrams of manageable size, reassembling the datagrams at the receiving end, resending any datagrams that get lost (or are not transferred), and reordering the data (from the datagrams) in the appropriate order. A datagram is a unit of data or information (also referred to as a packet) that is transferred or passed across the internet. A datagram contains a source and destination address along with the data. The TCP transfer protocol is often utilized to transmit large amounts of information because of its ability to break up the information into datagrams and reassemble the information at the receiving end.
Another transfer protocol that is utilized to control the transfer of information is the user datagram protocol (“UDP”). UDP is designed for applications and data transmissions where sequences of datagrams do not need to be reassembled at the receiving end. UDP does not keep track of what has been transmitted in order to resend a datagram if necessary. Additionally, UDP's header information (information regarding the source and destination and other relevant information) is shorter than the header information utilized in TCP.
2. Application Protocols
To utilize a Transfer Protocol to transfer information, an Application Protocol that defines a set of commands which one machine sends to another is utilized (e.g., commands to specify who the sender of the message is, who it is being sent to, and the text of the message). The Transfer Protocol (e.g., TCP or UDP) is utilized to ensure that the Application Protocol commands are completely transmitted to the receiving end. HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is the standard application protocol for communication with an information server on the WWW. HTTP has communication methods that allow clients to request data from a server and send information to the server.
To submit a request, the client contacts the HTTP server and transmits the request to the HTTP server. The request contains the communication method requested for the transaction (e.g., GET an object from the server or POST data to an object on the server). The HTTP server responds to the client by sending a status of the request and the requested information. The connection is then terminated between the client and the HTTP server.
A client request therefore, consists of establishing a connection between the client and the HTTP server, performing the request, and terminating the connection. The HTTP serve
Gupta Amit
Poger Elliot
Schuba Christoph
Geckil Mehmet B.
Jaroenchonwanit Bunjob
Martine & Penilla LLP
Sun Microsystems Inc.
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