EFFICIENT UTILIZATION OF CACHE SERVERS IN MOBILE COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

• US 20080133830A1
• Filed: 08/21/2007
• Published: 06/05/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/01/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: NITTA, Daisuke, KOBAYASHI, Kazunari, KUMAGAI, Tomonori
• Granted Patent: US 8,068,512 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/113
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/061 Improving I/O performance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0638 Organizing or formatting or addressing of data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1016 IP multimedia subsystem [IMS]

Abstract

A data center includes an individual storage unit having storage areas for respective user apparatuses, a shared storage unit having a storage area for sharing by the user apparatuses, a unit configured to store data received from an external node in one of the individual storage unit and the shared storage unit that is selected according to predetermined criteria, a unit configured to generate a data arrangement list according to statistics of the received data and predetermined cache data arrangement conditions, and a unit configured to transmit an instruction signal to at least one of the shared storage unit and the individual storage unit according to the data arrangement list to cause data stored in the at least one of the shared storage unit and the individual storage unit to be transferred to a cache server provided on a core network or on a radio access network.

Claims

1. A data center for use in a mobile communication system that includes a user apparatus, a radio access network, and a core network, comprising:

an individual storage unit having storage areas for respective user apparatuses;

a shared storage unit having a storage area for sharing by the user apparatuses;

a shared/individual determining unit configured to store data received from an external node in one of the individual storage unit and the shared storage unit that is selected according to predetermined criteria;

a data arrangement information generating unit configured to generate a data arrangement list according to statistics of the received data and predetermined cache data arrangement conditions; and

a unit configured to transmit an instruction signal to at least one of the shared storage unit and the individual storage unit according to the data arrangement list to cause data stored in the at least one of the shared storage unit and the individual storage unit to be transferred to a cache server provided on the core network or a cache server provided on the radio access network.

2. The data center as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a unit configured to notify the user apparatus of a location of data requested by the user apparatus, the location being at the cache server provided on the core network or at the cache server provided on the radio access network.

3. The data center as claimed in claim 1, wherein the predetermined criteria stipulate that data requested by more than a predetermined number of users is stored in the shared storage unit.

4. The data center as claimed in claim 1, wherein the cache data arrangement conditions are defined separately for each of the cache servers provided on the core network and the radio access network, and stipulate that data is cached according to data-type-specific priority.

5. The data center as claimed in claim 4, wherein priority of a data type defined for the cache server provided on the core network is different from priority of the data type defined for the cache server provided on the radio access network.

6. The data center as claimed in claim 1, wherein the cache data arrangement conditions are defined separately for each of the cache servers provided on the core network and the radio access network, and stipulate that data is cached at a given cache server according to data-type-specific priority when an amount of data stored in the shared storage unit exceeds a storage capacity of the given cache server.

7. The data center as claimed in claim 6, wherein priority of a data type defined for the cache server provided on the core network is different from priority of the data type defined for the cache server provided on the radio access network.

8. The data center as claimed in claim 7, wherein priority of streaming data defined for the cache server provided on the radio access network is higher than priority of the streaming data defined for the cache server provided on the core network.

9. The data center as claimed in claim 8, wherein priority of audio or video streaming data defined for the cache server provided on the radio access network is higher than priority of the audio or video streaming data defined for the cache server provided on the core network.

10. The data center as claimed in claim 1, wherein the data arrangement list is updated regularly or on an irregular basis.

11. The data center as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a unit configured to refer to the data arrangement list to determine a location of data requested by the user apparatus, the location being at the cache server provided on the core network or at the cache server provided on the radio access network, and to notify the user apparatus of the location.

12. The data center as claimed in claim 11, wherein the cache server provided on the radio access network includes a primary cache area for storing data that is sent thereto according to the data arrangement list independently of a data acquisition request from a user apparatus, and further includes a secondary cache area for storing data that is sent thereto in response to a data acquisition request from a user apparatus, and wherein data requested by a user is transferred from one of the shared storage unit and the individual storage unit to the secondary cache area when the requested data is stored in neither the cache server provided on the core network nor the primary cache area.

13. A cache server for use on a radio access network or a core network in a mobile communication system that includes a user apparatus, the radio access network, the core network, and a data center which includes:

an individual storage unit having storage areas for respective user apparatuses;

a shared storage unit having a storage area for sharing by the user apparatuses;

a shared/individual determining unit configured to store data received from an external node in one of the individual storage unit and the shared storage unit that is selected according to predetermined criteria; and

a data arrangement information generating unit configured to generate a data arrangement list according to statistics of the received data and predetermined cache data arrangement conditions, said cache server comprising;

a cache storage unit configured to receive data stored in at least one of the shared storage unit and the individual storage unit from the data center according to the data arrangement list; and

a unit configured to transmit data stored in the cache storage unit to the user apparatus in response to a request from the user apparatus.

14. The cache server as claimed in claim 13, wherein the cache storage unit is provided on the radio access network, and includes:

a primary cache area for storing data that is sent thereto according to the data arrangement list independently of a data acquisition request from a user apparatus; and

a secondary cache area for storing data that is sent thereto in response to a data acquisition request from a user apparatus,

wherein data requested by a user is transferred from the data center to the secondary cache area when the requested data is stored in neither a cache server provided on the core network nor the primary cache area.

15. A cache management method for use in a data center of a mobile communication system that includes a user apparatus, a radio access network, and a core network, comprising:

storing data received from an external node in one of an individual storage unit and a shared storage unit that is selected according to predetermined criteria, the individual storage unit having storage areas for respective user apparatuses, and the shared storage unit having a storage area for sharing by the user apparatuses;

generating a data arrangement list according to statistics of the received data and predetermined cache data arrangement conditions; and

transmitting an instruction signal to at least one of the shared storage unit and the individual storage unit according to the data arrangement list to cause data stored in the at least one of the shared storage unit and the individual storage unit to be transferred to a cache server provided on the core network or a cache server provided on the radio access network.