Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Computer network managing – Network resource allocating
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-17
2002-10-15
Coulter, Kenneth R. (Department: 2154)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Computer network managing
Network resource allocating
C709S241000, C709S224000, C709S231000, C709S221000, C707S793000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06466980
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to techniques for dynamically reconfiguring finite but relocatable resources in a distributed computer system, and specifically, to a system and method for caching and replicating multimedia content such as objects on multimedia servers distributed throughout the Internet.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
FIG. 1
illustrates a typical distributed computer system consisting of a plurality of clients (
110
,
111
,
112
), a plurality of servers (
120
,
121
,
122
), and several independent collections of objects (
130
,
131
,
132
). These components are connected by a computer networked environment (
160
) that enables a client (e.g.,
111
) to directly place a request message (
140
) for one or more objects from a server. The system allows such server (e.g.,
121
) to establish a streaming connection (
150
) for delivering an object to the requesting client (e.g.,
111
). This environment is typical of the Internet where a browser represents the client, a web server represents the server, a web site represents the collection of objects, the Internet represents the computer-networked environment. As known, the HTTP protocol provides the ability for a client to request an object from a given server via a location bound identifier referred to as a Universal Resource Locator (URL). The Transmission control Protocol (TCP) provides the ability to stream an object (such as a web page or a video file) from the web server to the client.
FIG. 2
depicts in further detail the components of a server (e.g.,
120
) as found in the environment depicted in FIG.
1
. The server contains a finite amount of local resources (
200
) comprised of memory (
210
), CPU (
220
), disk storage (
230
), and, network bandwidth (
240
). The server is associated with a collection of objects (
130
). In this particular case, the collection is composed of four objects (
281
,
282
,
283
,
284
). Interactivity with a client such as VCR interactivity during playback (e.g., pause, rewind, stop, fast forward, etc.,), billing, security, etc. are handled by the server's service logic component (
250
). A signaling protocol (
261
) (e.g., HTTP) allows the server to receive requests (e.g.,
140
) from clients. For a client (e.g.,
111
) to access an object (e.g.,
281
) on the server's collections, the server allocates a portion of its resources (
200
) to the corresponding streaming connection (
150
). Because resources are finite, a local admission control process (
260
) is used to determine whether an incoming request can be served. A local resource management process (
270
) is used to reserve, access, monitor, and de-allocate local resources (
200
) in the server (for example, disk storage (HDD), bandwidth (B), CPU cycles (CPU), memory (MeM), etc. such as depicted in FIG.
2
). The network streaming process (
275
) relies on a streaming protocol (
271
) to deliver content to its clients by establishing and managing streaming connections (e.g.,
150
) to clients. Management of resources at any particular server (e.g.,
120
) is completely independent from management of resources at any other particular server (e.g.,
121
). Furthermore, collections (e.g.,
130
and
131
) at different servers are independent from each other. In particular, though copies (
281
,
285
) of the same object, e.g., object “O
4
” may exist on two different collections (
130
,
131
) at different servers (
120
,
121
) there exists no means of relating these copies (
281
,
285
) to each other.
As depicted in
FIG. 3
, the distributed computer system
10
(of
FIG. 1
) may employ an object directory service
300
embodied as an object request broker (ORB) which provides the directory service over a collection of object sites (e.g.,
130
,
131
,
132
), and, extends location transparency to clients (e.g.,
110
,
111
,
112
) requesting objects (e.g., a media content file
04
) from the distributed object collection (
130
,
131
,
132
). An object directory service (
300
) provides information necessary to locate any object throughout the computer-networked environment (
160
). The directory (
310
) employed particularly tracks the server associated with an object. For example, the first directory entry illustrates that object
281
is found on server
120
whereas the second directory entry illustrates that object
285
is found on server
121
.
The task of leveraging the increased availability of widely distributed content and resources becomes very important with the proliferation of the next generation of the Internet, e.g., Internet
2
. The emerging Internet projects address the creation of a leading edge network for a new generation of applications that fully exploit the capabilities of broadband networks. Very high bandwidth and bandwidth reservation will allow materials such as continuous digital video and audio to move from research use to much broader use and include images, audio, and video in a way currently not possible. In such a widely distributed environment, accountable, efficient, and self-regulated management of resources will be desirable and most importantly, necessary.
The driving force behind the movement of Internet to the next generation is the commercialization of rich multimedia content. Digital library collections produced by corporations, entertainment material created by movie studios, and interactive instructional presentations developed by universities are soon to be available over the Internet, thus creating a new and broad source of revenue.
The emerging Internet relies on the bandwidth, which is on the order of several magnitudes larger than current Internet provides. It also alleviates network resource management and QoS control by introducing correspondent reservation and monitoring mechanisms. However, it is clear, that to date, mechanisms for the collective management of multiple media connections that efficiently leverage the sharing of resources across multiple servers in a wide area network are not found.
There is envisioned three major conditions for successful commercialization of those newly arising applications: first, mechanisms need be provided to allow paying users to establish a contract with service providers to reserve required infrastructure components and resources at a mutually agreed price for which providers establish and support a guaranteed quality of service; second, the resources supply would have to be sufficient to meet random changes of the demand, which may be completely unpredictable during architectural studies; and, third, service providers should safely rely on the system for effective security, rights and royalties management, accounting and billing for the consumption of dynamically re-configurable distributed virtual resources.
The current focus of resource management in the today's Internet, if any, relates to the setup and management of individual and independent media connections to server resources. However, the danger of this approach becomes clear when the presentations reuse multiple primary sources of content. To enforce the necessary quality as well as to control the usage and distribution when reusing multiple sources of content, two approaches are possible. One approach is to copy all content onto a single server (or a cluster of servers) during authoring, and replicating, as necessary, the final result to as many servers according to predicted demand. Primary content providers would then establish copyright charges, based on a-priori market analysis. On the positive side, the control of distribution, security, and billing functions become much easier, than in case of distributed content. On the negative, if the demand is estimated incorrectly, the profit is not maximized for either primary or secondary (i.e., reuse) content providers. Finally, the most dangerous problem is that this approach leads to over-engineering of resources while it does not prevent dropout of excessive requests. Such an approach is typical for today's Internet, be
Lumelsky Leon L.
Manohar Nelson R.
Cameron Douglas W.
Coulter Kenneth R.
Scully Scott Murphy & Presser
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