Method and computing system for transparence computing on the computer network

• US 20060117172A1
• Filed: 07/19/2005
• Published: 06/01/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/12/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tsinghua University
• Original Assignee: Tsinghua University
• Inventors: Wei, Li, Zhang, Yaoxue, Zhou, Yuezhi, Kuang, Wenyuan, Xu, Guangbin, Guo, Guanfei, Yang, Huajie
• Granted Patent: US 7,467,293 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4416 Network booting; Remote initial program loading [RIPL]

Abstract

A computing system based on Transparence Computing consists of clients and a server. There is no disk and no preinstalled OS on the client; a remote booting chip is set on the client'"'"'s mainboard for downloading and loading the OS. Boot-supporting services, OS kernel mirrors, and applications are preset on the server; After being powered, the client broadcasts the boot request to the network and the server allocates network parameters for it. The client downloads an OS-selecting script from the server. After the user selects the needed OS, the client downloads and loads the selected OS from the server. Hence, the client fulfills the user'"'"'s computing requirements just as a normal PC. The computing work is implemented on the client-side, during which the client can acquire corresponding resources such as applications, data, and documents from the server on demand. The client can be provided with private storage across the network by presetting a service in the mirror for creating virtual disks on the server, and thus data generated during or after the computing can be persistently stored on the server'"'"'s storage.

Claims

1. A computing system based on the transparence computing, comprising clients and a server connected by a computer network, wherein

(1) the client motherboard has components of:

a low power-consumption CPU, host bridge, south bridge, main memory, BIOS, PCI BUS, NIC, and other peripheral adapters;

(2) there is no disk and no preinstalled OS on the client;

(3) a remote booting chip is set on the motherboard, which stores codes of the remote booting protocol for OS remotely downloading and loading;

(4) there are boot-supporting services, varied OS kernel mirrors, applications, documents and data preset on the server;

(5) users'"'"' computing requirements are served by the system according to the following steps

a) after the client powers on to have the local environment and network initialized, the remote booting chip is detected under the CPU'"'"'s control, and the booting procedure is started on the network;

b) the remote booting codes stored in the remote booting chip are executed and the booting request is broadcast by the client on the network;

c) after receiving the booting request from the client, the server sends a response to the client, including its allocated network parameters

d) the client sends download request to the server for the OS selecting menu script;

e) the server sends the OS selecting menu script to the client, including available OS mirror options

f) the client then executes the received OS selecting menu script, and user makes the selection;

g) the client sends the download request to the server for the mirror of the selected OS kernel

h) the server sends the mirror of the selected OS kernel to the client

i) the client receives and loads the mirror of the selected OS kernel

j) hereafter, the client fulfills computing requirement requested by user, like a normal PC, the computing is implemented on the client locally, and according to the application requirements, the client can acquire corresponding resource, such as application programs, data, and documents from the server.

2. The computing system according to claim 1 wherein the said boot-supporting services are NFS service, PXE service, DHCP service, TFTP service, SAMBA service.

3. The computing system according to claim 2 wherein the said clients are network computer, PDA, home appliances, or mobile terminals.

4. The computing system according to claim 3 wherein the said OS kernel mirror includes a client daemon service which is for creating virtual disks on the client over the network;

and a corresponding server daemon service is also run on the server, which provides the client with private storage space on server for storing data generated during or after the computing process.

5. The computing system according to claim 3 wherein the said OS kernel mirror includes a client daemon service which is for creating virtual disks in the client memory, for temporarily storing data generated during or after the computing process on the client;

and the stored data can also be manually or set to be automatically exported to the server'"'"'s storage across the network before the client operation system is shut down.

6. The computing system according to claim 4 wherein the said remote booting chip is an independent ROM located on the motherboard, BIOS, or a peripheral adapter.

7. The client-booting method for the system based on the transparence computing the system comprising clients and a server connected by computer networks for supporting broadcasting wherein the said client has no disk and no preinstalled OS, the said server stores varied OS kernel mirrors and initial applications for booting a client, and a client is booted according to the following steps:

i. after being powered on, the requesting client broadcasts the boot request to the network

ii. after receiving the boot request from the client, the server sends a response to the client, which contains allocated network parameters

iii. the requesting client sends download request to the server for downloading the OS kernel mirror, and then the server transmits the mirror to the client

iv. the requesting client downloads and loads the mirror, listening to file transmission requests and sending a download request for initial applications to the server

v. after receiving the file request for initial applications from the requesting client, the server designates for the requesting client the transmitting clients which can provide the needed files according to the distribution information of the initial application file on the network;

vi. the requesting client sends file transmission requests to the transmitting clients and accomplishes file transmission

vii. after downloading the file, the requesting client sends an update message to the server notifying that a copy of the file has been saved

viii. after downloading the file, the application will be loaded by the requesting client if all requiring files are available;

ix. if all initial applications of a requesting client have already been loaded, then the booting procedure of the client is finished.

8. The client-booting method according to claim 7 wherein if the said requesting client cannot accomplish the file transmission successfully in the above mentioned step vi, it sends a redirection request to the server, the server reselects another computer as the transmitting client which has the same file for the requesting client, the requesting client then sends file transmission requests to the transmitting clients, and the file transmission is accomplished.

9. The client-booting method according to claim 8 wherein if the said server, in step v or step vi, cannot find a client having a needed initial application file as the transmitting client, the server will provide the transmission of the file by itself.

10. The client-booting method according to claim 7 wherein the said server has a waiting queue, if the server receives a number of file requests enough to cause a sudden performance drop and there are no enough booted clients, it will put part of the file requests in to the waiting queue, and the file request from the waiting queue will be processed after delay.

11. The client-booting method according to claim 10 wherein the said client is one of network computer, PDA, home appliances, and mobile terminals.

12. The self-organizing method for server clusters in the system based on the transparence computing, the system comprising clients and servers distributed randomly on computer networks, wherein the said client has no preinstalled OS, the said server stores all the OS kernel mirrors and initial applications for booting the client, all the servers on the same broadcast-reachable network belong to one server cluster, a server cluster consists of one master NC server MNCS and some slave NC servers, a client can only be served by a server in the cluster, and servers of the system self-organize themselves into server clusters according to the following steps:

Step I starting a process that is responsible for listening to messages from other servers

Step II if the server has not received any heart-beating signal for the time interval of Td, it affirms itself as the MNCS in the cluster, starting to broadcast the heart-beating signal to the network periodically and listening to service requests from clients, wherein Td is a timed value of the heart-beating period;

otherwise it affirms itself as a SNCS, and starts to listen to service requests from clients;

the SNCS sends a reflective signal to the MNCS when receiving a heart-beating signal;

Step III when receiving the first reflective signal from a SNCS, the MNCS adds it to the cluster;

the MNCS dynamically maintains the status information of the server cluster according to status information in the SNCS'"'"' reflective signal.

13. The self-organizing method according to claim 12 wherein the said clients are network computer, PDA, home appliances, and mobile terminals, etc.

14. The self-organizing method according to claim 13 wherein:

if the said MNCS has not received any reflective signal from a SNCS for a time interval of Td, it will try to contact the SNCS, and if failed after certain number of attempts, the MNCS removes the SNCS from the cluster;

if SNCS has not received any heart-beating signal for a time interval of Td, it will perform the following steps

Step 1 broadcasting a contesting signal.

Step 2 if any heart-beating signal broadcasted by the MNCS is received in a time period of Td, the processing is then ended;

Step 3 otherwise, if no contesting signal from other SNCS is received during the same period, it then upgrades itself as the MNCS, initiates the cluster status information with its own binding client status information, starts to broadcast heart-beating signal to the network, and ends the processing.

Step 4 if any contesting signal was received from other SNCS during the same period, it then makes a delay, and if any heart-beating signal is received during the delay, it confirms itself as a SNCS, and ends the processing, otherwise going to step 1.

15. The self-organizing method according to claim 14 wherein if the said MNCS receives a heart-beating signal from another MNCS, it sends the collision indication signal to that MNCS, which contains status information about the cluster;

if a MNCS A receives a collision indication signal from another MNCS B, then A compares the number of servers in its cluster with that of B'"'"'s. If the A has servers no less than B does, A adds information of B'"'"'s cluster into its own, adding B as a SNCS and sending a collision ACK signal to B;

if any MNCS receives a collision ACK, it then affirms itself as an SNCS, updating related status information and stopping broadcasting the heart-beating signal.

16. The self-organizing method according to claim 12 wherein the said client obtains services provided by the server cluster according to the following steps:

Step a broadcasting the booting request to the network after being powered on.

Step b when a SNCS receives the booting request and finds that the client is one of its affiliated clients, the service is then provided to the client;

when the MNCS receives the booting request and finds that the client belongs to none of the servers in the cluster according to maintained cluster status information, it will bind the client to a server as its affiliated client and notify that server, and the server then provides the client with the service.

Step c after loading the downloaded OS kernel mirror and initial application, the client broadcasts to the network again, its binding server will return a response, and then the booting procedure of the client is accomplished.

Step d after being booted, the client sends corresponding requests to its binding server for the service if it needs services, such as customization on demand, or application downloading.

if a client cannot get requested services from the server, it can be rebooted manually or automatically after the situation being detected.

17. A network computer system based on transparence computing, comprising clients and a server connected by computer networks supporting broadcasting, wherein the said client contains no disk and no preinstalled OS, there is a remote-booting chip formed by non-volatile storage on the mainboard of the client to store codes for remote-booting the client, the NFS service, PXE service, DHCP service, and the TFTP service are preset and executed by the server. the server also stores varied OS kernel mirrors, application programs, and documents and data for the client, after the client is powered on, the remote-booting chip is automatically detected, and the codes in it are executed, the client will perform the follows steps:

Step 1 the client broadcasts to the network;

Step 2 after receiving the broadcasting message from the client, the server sends the response message to the client, which contains the network parameters allocated for the client;

Step 3 the client sends a request to the server for downloading the OS kernel mirror;

Step 4 after receiving the request, the server transmit the requested mirror to the client;

Step 5 the client downloads and loads the mirror, shifting the control to the OS;

hereafter, the client fulfills any computing requirements from user, like a normal PC, the computing work is implemented on the client locally, and the client can acquire resources, such as application programs, data, and documents, from the server.

18. The network computer system according to claim 17, wherein between step 2 and step 3 there are processing steps as follows:

a) the client sends a request to the server for downloading an OS-selecting script;

b) the server sends the script to the client;

c) the client executes the script, prompting the user to select an OS;

the result of the selection is attached to the request sent by step 3;

19. The network computer system according to claim 18, wherein within the said OS kernel mirror, a client daemon service is preset for creating virtual disks on the server across the network;

and a corresponding server daemon service is run on the server, therefore the client can be provided with private storage space and data generated during or after the computing process on the client and can be persistently stored into servers'"'"' storage.

20. The network computer system according to claim 17, wherein within the said OS kernel mirror, a daemon service is preset for creating virtual disks in the client'"'"'s memory, therefore the client can be provided with temporary private storage space after booting, in addition, data generated during or after the computing process on the client can be temporarily stored into its memory, and the stored data is manually or preset to be automatically exported to the server'"'"'s storage on or across the network before the client system is shut down.