Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Distributed data processing – Processing agent
Reexamination Certificate
1999-03-29
2002-08-20
Lim, Krisna (Department: 2153)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Distributed data processing
Processing agent
C709S201000, C707S793000, C707S793000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06438576
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to data networks and, more particularly, to an ability to perform distributed object rendering on a data network. Specifically, a plurality of collaborative proxy servers perform distributed object rendering so that object contents can be displayed on or consumed by various kinds of client devices, based on their respective device capabilities and specifications.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
As the Internet becomes ever more popular, more non-personal computer (PC) devices, such as so-called smart phones and PDAs (personal digital assistants), are connected to the Internet, either by wired or wireless connections. The Internet is becoming the so-called pervasive computing environment, where various kinds of information appliances/devices, as well as PCs and other server computers, are all connected. In such a pervasive computing environment it is expected that the individual appliances/devices will have different computing powers and display capabilities. For example, some devices may be capable of displaying color images while others can only display black-and-white images. Also, some devices may have large, easily viewed displays while others may have only a relatively much smaller display. It can thus be appreciated that in such a pervasive computing environment the same information objects may have to be rendered in different forms or resolutions according to different device display specifications. Various techniques have been developed to represent information in various resolutions. In “A Framework for Optimization of a Multiresolution Remote Image Retrieval System” by A. Ortega et al., Proceedings of IEEE InforCom, 1994, a system was disclosed to transmit images and video in multiple resolutions. In “The JPEG Still Picture Compression Standard,” by G. Wallace, IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics, vol. 38, no. 1, February 1992, the JPEG image compression standard was described to represent images in multiple different resolutions.
The rendering of an object into different forms or resolutions can be performed in different locations. One possible location is within the content servers. However, the content servers may easily become overloaded, especially with a large number of different client requests all coming to the same content servers. Another possible location to render the object is within a client machine which will actually consume the object. However, this is an undesirable solution since many typical client machines tend to be too limited in computing power to perform the necessary rendering function.
Alternatively, the rendering can be done by one or more proxy servers, which are positioned in the data network between the content servers and the client devices. In this scenario the device-specific information can be piggybacked on the meta-information associated with the objects, and the proxy server can perform object rendering according to the meta-information. Once the object rendering is performed by the proxy server the result can be cached (stored) at the proxy server. In this case any subsequent requests for the same object, from the same kind of device, can be served directly from the stored copy in proxy server cache. As a result, the repeated rendering of the object for the same kind of device can be avoided. In order to improve the response time, many PC servers, such as the IBM NETFINITY servers, are being deployed in the Internet as a network of proxy servers (IBM and NETFINITY are both registered trademarks of the International Business Machines Corporation). These proxy servers can work collaboratively in object rendering and caching.
For example, in the above-referenced commonly assigned U.S. Patent Application by B. Hailpern et al., entitled “Collaborative Server Processing of Content and Meta-Information with Application to Virus Checking in a Server Network,” a method was disclosed to perform virus checking based on the meta-information on the proxy network by choosing one proxy server. This approach discloses a method to perform certain computations on the object based on the meta-information by one of the proxies in the network. No specific attention was paid to the aspect of caching the objects after the computation. Also, the computation is done completely by the chosen proxy server, and is not done by more than one proxy server in a distributed way.
In the above-referenced commonly assigned U.S. Patent Application by J. Beurket et al., entitled “Method for Collaborative Transformation and Caching of Web Objects in a Proxy Network,” a method was proposed to locate one or more specialized proxies to perform the transformation and caching. Once the transformation/rendering is done and cached, all subsequent requests for the desired resolution are served by these specialized transformational proxies. In this approach the caching and rendering of an object is completely done on the same specialized proxies, and the rendering of objects is not readily performed in different stages or collaboratively by more than one different proxies in a distributed way.
In an approach described by A. Fox, entitled “Adapting to Network and Client Variation Using Infrastructural Proxies: Lessons and Perspective,” IEEE Personal Communications, pp. 10-19, August 1998, a method was disclosed to perform datatype-specific distillation on a cluster of proxies. Object rendering and caching are all performed by the specific cluster of proxies. A centralized manager is used to perform load balancing among the proxies in the cluster. A drawback of this approach is that object rendering and caching is completely done on the same cluster of proxies, and is not done in a distributed way. Other proxies in the network, but not in the same cluster, cannot participate in some of the stages in the object rendering process.
In view of the foregoing, it can be appreciated that there exists a need for a collaborative proxy system that can deploy object rendering in a distributed fashion. Prior to this invention, this need was not fulfilled.
OBJECTS AND ADVANTAGES OF THE INVENTION
It is a first object and advantage of this invention to provide a collaborative proxy system that performs object rendering in a distributed fashion.
It is another object and advantage of this invention to provide a technique to distribute object rendering processing throughout a proxy network, and to not concentrate the object rendering processing in only specialized object rendering proxies.
It is a further object and advantage of this invention to provide a collaborative proxy network wherein object processing tasks, such as rendering, are distributed in an adaptive fashion based on, for example, dynamic loading characteristics of the proxy network.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The foregoing and other problems are overcome and the objects and advantages are realized by methods and apparatus in accordance with embodiments of this invention.
In accordance with the teachings of this invention a distributed object rendering method for a collaborative data network is disclosed. The data network, which may include the Internet, has attached computing nodes, including object requestor nodes, object source nodes, and intermediate nodes which may be proxy servers. The method can allow each participating proxy server, which may be referred to simply as a “proxy” and in the plural form as “proxies”, to adapt to the dynamic load conditions of itself as well as proxies, as well as to the dynamic traffic conditions in the data network. The determination of which proxy or set of proxies is to perform object rendering and caching is based on a distributed, collaborative method that is adopted among the proxies. The criteria for such a method can include the bandwidth and current load of the network links among proxies, and/or the respective CPU usage of the proxies. If an object rendering can be staged, e.g., different resolution rendering, it can be performed by more than one of the proxies. The determination of which proxy performs which stage of the multistage rend
Huang Yun-Wu
Wu Kun-Lung
Yu Philip S.-L.
Lim Krisna
Zarick, Esq. Gail
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