Configuring a communication protocol of an interactive media system

• US 20070233693A1
• Filed: 06/30/2006
• Published: 10/04/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Nellymoser, Inc. (Quad Graphics, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Nellymoser, Inc. (Quad Graphics, Inc.)
• Inventors: Baxter, Robert, Mathur, Siddharth
• Application Number:
  US11/479,087
• Publication Number:
  US 20070233693A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/752 adapting media to network capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/756 adapting media to device capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/289 Intermediate processing functionally located close to the data consumer application, e.g. in same machine, in same home or in same sub-network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/566 Grouping or aggregating service requests, e.g. for unified processing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/60 Scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests, e.g. requests for application data transmissions using the analysis and optimisation of the required network resources admission control or resource allocation H04L47/70

Abstract

A method for configuring a communication protocol between a client and a server is described. The method comprises, for each of a plurality of potential requests from the client to the server, estimating values for a plurality of attributes associated with the request, and computing a resource usage estimate, based on a plurality of the estimated attributes, that represents resources used by at least one of the client and the server in response to the request. The method also comprises determining at least one group of two or more requests to combine into a combined request based on the respective resource usage estimates for the requests to be combined, and determining whether to combine another group of requests based at least in part on a performance measure that characterizes performance of the configured communication protocol.

Claims

1. A method for configuring a communication protocol between a client and a server, the method comprising:

for each of a plurality of potential requests from the client to the server,

estimating values for a plurality of attributes associated with the request, and

computing a resource usage estimate, based on a plurality of the estimated attributes, that represents resources used by at least one of the client and the server in response to the request;

determining at least one group of two or more requests to combine into a combined request based on the respective resource usage estimates for the requests to be combined; and

determining whether to combine another group of requests based at least in part on a performance measure that characterizes performance of the configured communication protocol.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing a program module for executing the communication protocol, the module including instructions for making the combined requests.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining at least one group of two or more requests to combine into a combined request comprises selecting at least one request to combine with the request that has the smallest resource usage estimate.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining at least one group of two or more requests to combine into a combined request comprises determining a group based on

the respective resource usage estimates for the requests to be combined, and

a value representing proximity between states of a client program configured to access the communication protocol, where each request is associated with at least one client program state from which the request is able to be transmitted.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein transitions between states of the client program include at least some transitions associated with user input received by the client program.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the user input represents at least one of a button press, a screen tap, a screen drag, or a voice command.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein a value representing proximity from a first client program state associated with a first request to a second client program state associated with a second request to be combined with the first request comprises the minimum number of transitions associated with user input that are traversed over any path from the first client program state to the second client program state.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein determining at least one group of two or more requests to combine into a combined request comprises selecting at least one request to combine with a request that has the smallest resource usage estimate.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein selecting the at least one request comprises selecting a request associated with a client program state that has the smallest proximity from a client program state associated with the request that has the smallest resource usage estimate.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein selecting the at least one request comprises selecting from multiple requests corresponding to the smallest proximity, a request that has the smallest resource usage estimate.

11. The method of claim 4, wherein the performance measure comprises a combination at least two of

a total number of requests in the configured communication protocol;

a value characterizing resource usage estimates for the requests in the configured communication protocol; and

a value characterizing proximity between states associated with the requests in the configured communication protocol.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the performance measure comprises a linear combination of at least two of the total number of requests, the value characterizing resource usage estimates, and the value characterizing proximity.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the linear combination comprises a weighted sum in which each term in the sum includes a weight coefficient between zero and 1.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the value characterizing resource usage estimates comprises a sum of resource usage estimates for the requests in the configured communication protocol.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the value characterizing resource usage estimates comprises an average of resource usage estimates for the requests in the configured communication protocol.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the value characterizing resource usage estimates comprises a maximum of resource usage estimates for the requests in the configured communication protocol.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein the value characterizing proximity between states comprises a maximum proximity values for the requests in the configured communication protocol.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether to combine a group of two or more requests into a combined request comprises computing re-estimated attributes representative of corresponding estimated attributes for each of the requests to be combined.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein computing a re-estimated attribute comprises adding corresponding estimated attributes for each of the requests to be combined.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein computing a re-estimated attribute comprises selecting a maximum among corresponding estimated attributes for each of the requests to be combined.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein determining whether to combine the group of two or more requests into a combined request comprises comparing the re-estimated attributes with a budget based on constraints of the communication system.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the constraints of the communication system comprise constraints of the client, the server, or a communication channel between the client and the server.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein determining at least one group of two or more requests to combine into a combined request comprises determining a request that has the smallest resource usage estimate among requests that include at least one combined request, and selecting at least one request to combine with the request that has the smallest resource usage estimate.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein the attributes associated with the request comprise delays associated with processing the request.

25. The method of claim 1, wherein the attributes associated with the request comprise amounts of memory used to process the request.

26. The method of claim 1, wherein the attributes associated with the request comprise two or more of:

server computational delay,

client computational delay,

server memory usage,

client memory usage,

an amount of data to be transferred between the server and client, and

delay associated with transferring the data.

27. The method of claim 1, wherein estimating values for a plurality of attributes associated with the request comprises estimating the values based on information characterizing past usage of the communication system.

28. The method of claim 1, wherein computing the resource usage estimate comprises normalizing the estimated attributes based on respective maximum values of the estimated attributes over the plurality of requests.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein computing the resource usage estimate for a first request comprises computing a linear combination of the normalized estimated attributes associated with the first request.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein coefficients of the linear combination comprise weights representing the relative contribution of the attributes to the resource usage estimate.

31. The method of claim 1, wherein an instruction for processing a combined request processes the combined request in response to any of the original requests that were combined to form the combined request.

32. Software stored on a computer-readable medium, for configuring a communication protocol between a client and a server, the software including instructions for causing a computer system to:

for each of a plurality of potential requests from the client to the server,

estimate values for a plurality of attributes associated with the request, and

compute a resource usage estimate, based on a plurality of the estimated attributes, that represents resources used by at least one of the client and the server in response to the request;

determine at least one group of two or more requests to combine into a combined request based on the respective resource usage estimates for the requests to be combined; and

determine whether to combine another group of requests based at least in part on a performance measure that characterizes performance of the configured communication protocol.

33. A system for configuring a communication protocol between a client and a server, the system comprising:

an estimation module configured to

estimate values for a plurality of attributes associated with each of a plurality of potential requests from the client to the server, and

compute a resource usage estimate, based on a plurality of the estimated attributes, that represents resources used by at least one of the client and the server in response to the request; and

a configuration module configured to determine whether to combine another group of requests based at least in part on a performance measure that characterizes performance of the configured communication protocol.