Data caching among interconnected devices

• US 10,083,177 B2
• Filed: 05/30/2017
• Issued: 09/25/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 10/02/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Razer (Asia-Pacific) Pte. Ltd. (Razer Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Razer (Asia-Pacific) Pte. Ltd. (Razer Incorporated)
• Inventors: Chan, Michael A., Quan, Justin, Bornstein, Daniel R., Moss, Tom, Tong, Linda, Fleming, Michael K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Chan, Wing F
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ng, Billy H
• Application Number:
  US15/607,764
• Publication Number:
  US 20170262442A1
• Time in Patent Office: 483 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/125 characterised by the use of retention policies retention policies for HSM systems G06F16/185
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/174 Redundancy elimination performed by the file system management of the data involved in backup or backup restore using de-duplication of the data G06F11/14
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/20 of structured data, e.g. relational data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/273 Asynchronous replication or reconciliation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/275 Synchronous replication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/278 Data partitioning, e.g. horizontal or vertical partitioning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5038 considering the execution order of a plurality of tasks, e.g. taking priority or time dependency constraints into consideration scheduling strategies G06F9/4881 and subgroups
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/26 at least one of which is mobile
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72412 using two-way short-range wireless interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/10 including a GPS signal receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/12 including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

Some examples include caching data among multiple interconnected computing devices. As one example, a storage server may transmit a first data set to a first computing device, and may identifying a second computing device from a plurality of computing devices sharing a local area network with the first computing device. For instance, the second computing device may be selected from the plurality of computing devices based on battery levels of the plurality of computing devices. The storage server may identify a second data set as relevant to the first data set and may transmit the identified second data set to the second computing device. Additionally, the storage server may transmit an instruction to the first computing device indicating that the second computing device stores a data cache for the first computing device.

Claims

1. A method for caching data among multiple interconnected computing devices, the method comprising:

transmitting, from a storage server, a first data set to a first computing device;

identifying a second computing device and a third computing device from a plurality of computing devices sharing a local area network with the first computing device;

determining, at the storage server, whether a first confirmation to store cache data for the first computing device at the second computing device is received from the second computing device and whether a second confirmation to store the cache data for the first computing device at the third computing device is received from the third computing device in response to requests to store the cache data for the first computing device at the second computing device and the third computing device;

in response to failing to receive the first confirmation from the second computing device or failing to receive the second confirmation from the third computing device, reinitiating identification of another computing device sharing the local area network with the first computing device;

in response to receiving the first confirmation from the second computing device and receiving the second confirmation from the third computing device, identifying a second data set as relevant to the first data set;

transmitting, from the storage server, the identified second data set to the second computing device and the third computing device; and

transmitting, from the storage server, an instruction to the first computing device, the instruction indicating that the second computing device and the third computing device store the cache data for the first computing device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein a first bandwidth of the local area network interconnecting the first computing device and the second computing device is higher than a second bandwidth of a network connection between the first computing device and the storage server.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the second data set as relevant to the first data set is based on a data access pattern profile of at least one user of the first computing device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first data set and the second data set are two sets of data blocks that belong to a file.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first data set includes a first file, and the second data set includes a second file sharing a common property with the first file.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the common property comprises at least one of file type, owner account, file access right, file create timestamp, file modify timestamp, or file metadata.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying the second computing device comprises:

identifying the plurality of computing devices sharing the local area network with the first computing device, wherein the plurality of computing devices maintain network connections with the storage server; and

selecting the second computing device from the plurality of computing devices based on device statuses of the plurality of computing devices, wherein the device statuses comprise the battery levels of the plurality of computing devices.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the device statuses further comprise one or more of workloads of the plurality of computing devices, data transferring rates of network adapters of the plurality of computing devices, free storage available on the plurality of computing devices, or ownerships of the plurality of computing devices.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending, to the second computing device, a request to store the cache data for the first computing device at the second computing device; and

receiving, from the second computing device, the first confirmation to store the cache data for the first computing device at the second computing device.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first data set and the second data set are stored in the storage sever and belong to a user account having access to the first computing device and the second computing device.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, from the first computing device, a request for retrieving the second data set and sending the second data set to the first computing device.

12. A first computing device comprising:

a networking component configured to communicate with a second computing device, wherein the first computing device and the second computing device are interconnected within a local area network, the networking component further configured to communicate with a storage server outside of the local area network;

a storage component; and

at least one processor configured to;

receive, from the storage server, a request to store cache data for the second computing device at the first computing device, wherein the first computing device is selected by the storage server to store the cache data based on a battery level and a workload of the first computing device;

in response to the request to store the cache data for the second computing device at the first computing device, determine whether the first computing device is capable of storing the cache data for the second computing device;

in response to the first computing device being capable of storing the cache data for the second computing device, retrieve data from the storage server via the networking component;

store the data in the storage component as the cache data for the second computing device;

receive, from the second computing device, a cache inquiry for the cache data stored in the storage component; and

in response to the cache inquiry, transmit the cache data to the second computing device.

13. The first computing device of claim 12, wherein the local area network is a high-speed local area network, and the networking component connects with the storage server via the Internet.

14. The first computing device of claim 12, wherein the storage server is a cloud storage service.

15. The first computing device of claim 12, wherein the first computing device and the second computing device are personal electronic devices to which a user has access.

16. The first computing device of claim 12, wherein the first computing device switches between a low power conservation state and a high power consumption state.

17. The first computing device of claim 16, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

in response to the request from the storage server for storing the cache data for the second computing device, switch the first computing device from the low power conservation state to the high power consumption state; and

transmit to the storage server a confirmation for storing the cache data for the second computing device.

18. The first computing device of claim 16, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

in response to the cache inquiry from the second computing device, switch the first computing device from the low power conservation state to the high power consumption state; and

transmit to the second computing device a confirmation that the first computing device stores the cache data of the cache inquiry.

19. A storage server comprising:

a storage component; and

at least one processor configured to perform operations comprising;

in response to a read request for a first data set from a first computing device, transmitting the first data set stored in the storage component to the first computing device;

identifying a second computing device and a third computing device from a plurality of computing devices sharing a local area network with the first computing device;

determining whether a first confirmation to store cache data for the first computing device at the second computing device is received from the second computing device and whether a second confirmation to store the cache data for the first computing device at the third computing device is received from the third computing device in response to requests to store the cache data for the first computing device at the second computing device and the third computing device;

in response to failing to receive the first confirmation from the second computing device or failing to receive the second confirmation from the third computing device, reinitiating identification of another computing device sharing the local area network with the first computing device;

in response to receiving the first confirmation from the second computing device and receiving the second confirmation from the third computing device, identifying a second data set relevant to the first data set;

transmitting the second data set to the second computing device and the third computing device as cache data for the first computing device; and

in response to a read request for the second data set from the first computing device, transmitting an instruction to the first computing device to retrieve the second data set directly from the second computing device and the third computing device.

20. The storage server of claim 19, wherein the second computing device and the third computing device serve as data cache devices for the first computing device.