Synchronization Orchestration

• US 20070255854A1
• Filed: 04/27/2006
• Published: 11/01/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/27/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Novik, Lev, Khosravy, Moe, Sadovsky, Vladimir, Pfenning, Jorg-Thomas, Levy, Marc, Thomas, Myron, Beckerman, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 7,890,646 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/248
• 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 67/61 taking into account QoS or priority requirements

Abstract

Systems and methods for orchestrating synchronizations between different targets in a synchronization community. The order and nature of synchronizations may depend on multiple factors, including the initiator of the synchronization, the data being synchronized, and other characteristics of the synchronization participants and synchronization community.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

initiating a synchronization procedure comprised of at least one synchronization operation;

planning an orchestration of the synchronization procedure to match a user'"'"'s intent, by using input data comprising at least one characteristic of a sync initiator associated with the user;

transferring synchronization data between a synchronizing entity and at least one of two or more synchronization targets by executing the synchronization procedure.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the sync initiator stores at least a portion of the synchronization data;

the input data further comprises information about the synchronization data stored by the sync initiator; and

the two or more synchronization targets involved in the transferring operation also store at least a portion of the synchronization data stored by the sync initiator.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the synchronizing entity and the two or more synchronization targets are connected by at least one communication link and the input data further comprises a quality measure value associated with the at least one communication link.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the synchronization data is transferred only over the at least one communication link if the quality measure value exceeds a specified threshold.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein the quality measure value comprises at least one of:

the measured bandwidth of the at least one communication link;

the theoretical maximum bandwidth of the at least one communication link; and

the latency of the at least one communication link.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the two or more synchronization targets are implemented in at least one separate computing device from the synchronizing entity and the sync initiator is selected from the synchronizing entity and the two or more synchronization targets.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the synchronization data is transferred between the sync initiator and the synchronizing entity before the synchronization data is transferred between the synchronizing entity and any other synchronization targets.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the synchronization data is transferred only between the sync initiator and the synchronizing entity.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the synchronization procedure is initiated by at least one of:

connection of the sync initiator;

passage of a set period of time; and

modification of at least a portion of the synchronization data.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the synchronization data is defined by at least one of:

a static synchronization topic; and

a dynamic synchronization topic.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the input data further comprises whether the sync initiator is a full participant, a partial participant, or a simple participant.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the input data further comprises instructions explicitly provided by the user.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of the two or more synchronization targets is also a second synchronizing entity that synchronizes with one or more additional synchronization targets with which the synchronizing entity is not directly connected and with which the synchronizing entity cannot synchronize directly.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the sync initiator has one or more purposes and the input data further comprises one of the one or more purposes of the sync initiator.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the input data further comprises topology information about a synchronization community that includes the synchronizing entity and the two or more synchronization targets.

16. A method of orchestrating a synchronization procedure comprised of at least two synchronization operations, each synchronization operation between a synchronizing entity and one of at least two synchronization targets, comprising:

identifying the at least two synchronization targets such that synchronization data transferred during execution of the synchronization operations is identified using at least one synchronization topic associated with a sync initiator, and all of the synchronization targets contain synchronization data associated with the at least one synchronization topic;

ordering the at least two synchronization operations such that a first synchronization operation involving the sync initiator is initiated first and any additional synchronization operations are initiated after the synchronization operation involving the sync initiator;

determining which of the at least two synchronization operations must be completed to finish synchronization with the sync initiator; and

performing the synchronization operations.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the additional synchronization operations involve only synchronization targets connected by one or more communication links having quality measure values that exceed at least one specified threshold.

18. A system for transferring synchronization data between one or more synchronization targets using a synchronization procedure with one or more synchronization operations, comprising:

an orchestration manager configured to plan an orchestration of the synchronization procedure to match the intent of a user, by identifying the one or more synchronization operations using input data comprising at least one characteristic of a sync initiator that initiates the synchronization procedure, the sync initiator being selected from the system and the one or more synchronization targets; and

a synchronization engine configured to execute the one or more synchronization operations identified by the orchestration manager.

19. The system of claim 18 further comprising:

one or more synchronization handlers configured to act as intermediaries between the system and the one or more synchronization targets and to communicate with the one or more synchronization targets, the system interacting with the one or more synchronization handlers in the same fashion regardless of how the one or more synchronization handlers are implemented and regardless of how the one or more synchronization handlers communicate with the synchronization targets.

20. The system of claim 18 wherein the sync initiator and the system are implemented in separate devices and the synchronization data is transferred between the sync initiator and the system before the synchronization data is transferred between the system and any of the other synchronization targets.