Information distribution system, information distributing method, node, and recording medium

• US 20080215663A1
• Filed: 05/02/2008
• Published: 09/04/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/24/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
• Original Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
• Inventors: Ushiyama, Kentaro
• Granted Patent: US 8,713,145 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/201
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/134 Distributed indices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1837 Management specially adapted to peer-to-peer storage networks topology management mechanisms of peer-to-peer networks H04L67/1042
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1065 Discovery involving distributed pre-established resource-based relationships among peers, e.g. based on distributed hash tables [DHT] pre-configuration of logical or physical connections H04L67/1053
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes

Abstract

A node is provided in an information distribution system having a plurality of nodes capable of performing communication with each other via a network and in which at least one piece of distribution information is copied and stored into a plurality of nodes, the node managing node information indicative of a node that stores the copied distribution information.

The node includes: node information storing means for storing the node information; dividing determining means, when amount of the stored node information becomes equal to or larger than a predetermined reference amount, for determining that a part of the node information is divided and managed by a new node; and, node information deleting means for deleting the node information managed by the new node from the node information storing means.

Claims

1. A node in an information distribution system having a plurality of nodes capable of performing communication with each other via a network and in which at least one piece of distribution information is copied and stored into a plurality of nodes, the node managing node information indicative of a node that stores the copied distribution information, comprising:

node information storing means for storing the node information;

dividing determining means, when amount of the stored node information becomes equal to or larger than a predetermined reference amount, for determining that a part of the node information is divided and managed by a new node; and

node information deleting means for deleting the node information managed by the new node from the node information storing means.

2. The node according to claim 1,

wherein when information requesting deletion of node information which is managed by the new node is received from the node indicated in the node information managed by the new node, the node information deleting means deletes the node information indicated in the received deletion request information from the node information storing means.

3. The node according to claim 1,

when amount of node information to be managed by the node itself becomes equal to or larger than a predetermined reference amount, the dividing determining means determines that a part of the node information is divided and managed by a new node.

4. The node according to claim 1,

further comprising managing node change information transmitting means, when it is determined that the new node is going to manage node information, for transmitting managing node change information indicating that the node information is to be managed by the new node, to the node indicated in the node information to be managed by the new node.

5. The node according to claim 4,

wherein when unique identification information is associated with the distribution information and the identification information is transmitted from one of the nodes, the identification information is transferred to a node that manages the node information corresponding to the distribution information associated with the identification information by another node or a plurality of nodes, and

when it is determined that node information is going to be managed by the new node, the managing node change information transmitting means obtains new identification information to be associated with distribution information corresponding to the node information to be managed by the new node, and transmits the managing node change information including the new identification information to the node.

6. The node according to claim 1,

further comprising belonging information obtaining means for obtaining belonging information to which the node indicated in the node information belongs, which is stored in the node information storing means, and belonging information indicative of a network connection group belonged to in the network,

wherein the dividing determining means divides a part of the node information so that the node information indicative of the node having the same belonging information is to be managed by different nodes.

7. The node according to claim 1,

further comprising access frequency information obtaining means for obtaining access frequency information indicative of frequency of access to the node indicated in the node information stored in the node information storing means,

wherein the dividing determining means divides a part of the node information so that total of access frequency to the node indicated in the node information is equally divided into the node itself and the new node on the basis of the access frequency information in the nodes.

8. The node according to claim 1,

further comprising merge determining means, when the node information managed by the new node is deleted and, and then, the amount of node information stored becomes equal to or less than the predetermined reference amount, for merging the divided node information managed by the new node to the node information stored.

9. The node according to claim 8,

further comprising merge information transmitting means, when the merge is determined, for transmitting merge information indicating that the divided node information which is managed by the new node is merged to the original node information to the new node.

10. The node according to claim 8,

wherein when the node information is divided at a plurality of times, the merge determining means determines that node information most recently divided among a plurality of times is merged to the original node information.

12. A node for receiving managing node change information sent from the node of claim 4, comprising:

registration request information transmitting means for transmitting registration request information including the node information of the node itself to a new node indicated in the received managing node change information.

13. Anode for receiving managing node change information sent from the node of claim 5, comprising

registration request information transmitting means for transmitting the new identification information included in the received managing node change information together with registration request information including the node information of the node itself toward the new node.

14. The node according to claim 13,

wherein the registration request information is a request for registering the node information also in a node existing in a transfer path to the new node.

15. A node for receiving managing node change information transmitted from the node according to claim 5,

wherein when unique identification information is associated with the distribution information and the identification information is transmitted from one of the nodes, the identification information is transferred to a node that manages the node information corresponding to the distribution information associated with the identification information by another node or a plurality of nodes, and

the node further comprises deletion request information transmitting means for transmitting identification information associated with distribution information corresponding to node information managed by the node which has transmitted the managing node change information, together with information requesting deletion of the node information of the node itself, toward the node.

16. The node according to claim 15,

wherein the deletion request information denotes a request of deleting the node information in a node existing in a transfer path to the node which has transmitted the managing node change information.

17. A node for receiving merge information transmitted from the node according to claim 9, comprising:

node information storing means for storing the node information;

managing node change information transmitting means for transmitting managing node change information indicating that the node information is to be managed by the original node, to a node indicated in the node information corresponding to the merge information; and

node information deleting means for deleting the node information corresponding to the merge information.

18. The node according to claim 17,

wherein when amount of the node information corresponding to the merge information stored becomes equal to or smaller than a predetermined reference amount, the managing node change information transmitting means transmits the managing node change information to a node indicated in the node information corresponding to the merge information, and

when the amount of the node information corresponding to the merge information stored becomes equal to or smaller than the predetermined reference amount, the node information deleting means deletes the node information corresponding to the merge information.

19. The node according to claim 17, further comprising:

merge determining means, when a part of the node information corresponding to the merge information is further divided and managed by further another node and the amount of node information corresponding to the merge information becomes equal to or less than a predetermined reference amount, for determining that the further divided node information is merged to the node information corresponding to the merge information; and

node information storing means for merging the further divided node information to the node information corresponding to the merge information and storing the resultant information,

wherein the managing node change information transmitting means transmits the managing node change information to a node indicated in the node information corresponding to the merge information after the merge, and

the node information deleting means deletes the node information corresponding to the merge information after the merge.

20. A node for receiving managing node change information transmitted from the node according to claim 17, further comprising:

registration request information transmitting means for transmitting registration request information including the node information of the node itself, to the original node indicated in the received managing node change information.

21. A node for receiving managing node change information transmitted from the node according to claim 17,

wherein when unique identification information is associated with the distribution information and the identification information is transmitted from one of the nodes, the identification information is transferred to a node that manages the node information corresponding to the distribution information associated with the identification information by another node or a plurality of nodes, and

the node further comprises registration request information transmitting means for transmitting identification information associated with distribution information corresponding to the node information managed by the original node, together with registration request information of the node information of the node itself, toward the original node.

22. The node according to claim 21,

wherein the registration request information denotes a request for registering the node information also in a node existing in a transfer path to the original node.

23. A node for receiving managing node change information transmitted from the node according to claim 17,

wherein when unique identification information is associated with the distribution information and the identification information is transmitted from one of the nodes, the identification information is transferred to a node that manages the node information corresponding to the distribution information associated with the identification information by another node or a plurality of nodes, and

the node further comprises deletion request information transmitting means for transmitting identification information associated with distribution information corresponding to node information managed by the node which has transmitted the managing node change information, together with information requesting deletion of the node information of the node itself, toward the node.

24. The node according to claim 23,

wherein the deletion request information denotes a request for deleting the node information in anode existing in a transfer path to the node which has transmitted the managing node change information.

25. A recording medium in which a node process program for making a computer function as the node according to claim 1 is computer-readably recorded.

11. A node in an information distribution system having a plurality of nodes capable of performing communication with each other via a network and in which at least one piece of distribution information is copied and stored into a plurality of nodes, the node managing node information indicative of a node that stores the copied distribution information,

wherein the node information corresponding to the same distribution information is divided and managed by a plurality of nodes, and

the node comprises:

node information storing means for storing the node information; and

merge determining means, when amount of the stored node information becomes equal to or smaller than predetermined reference amount, for determining that node information corresponding to the same distribution information managed by another node is merged to the stored node information.

26. An information distribution system having a plurality of nodes capable of performing communication with each other via a network and in which at least one piece of distribution information is copied and stored into a plurality of nodes,

wherein the node for managing node information indicative of a node that stores the copied distribution information, comprises:

node information storing means for storing the node information;

dividing determining means, when amount of the stored node information becomes equal to or larger than a predetermined reference amount, for determining that a part of the node information is divided and managed by a new node;

node information deleting means for deleting the node information managed by the new node from the node information storing means; and

managing node change information transmitting means, when it is determined that the node information is to be managed by the new node, for transmitting managing node change information indicating that the node information is to be managed by the new node, to a node indicated in the node information managed by the new node, and

wherein the node which receives the managing node change information transmitted comprises registration request information transmitting means for transmitting registration request information including the node information of the node itself, to a new node indicated in the managing node change information received.

27. The information distribution system according to claim 26,

wherein a node for managing node information indicative of a node that stores the copied distribution information further comprises:

merge determining means, when the node information managed by the new node is deleted, and then, the amount of node information stored becomes equal to or less than the predetermined reference amount, for merging the divided node information managed by the new node to the node information stored; and

merge information transmitting means, when the merge is determined, for transmitting merge information indicating that the divided node information which is managed by the new node is merged to the original node information, to the new node, and

wherein a node that receives the transmitted merge information comprises;

node information storing means for storing the node information;

managing node change information transmitting means for transmitting managing node change information indicating that the node information is to be managed by the original node, to a node indicated in the node information corresponding to the merge information; and

node information deleting means for deleting the node information corresponding to the merge information, and

wherein the node that has received the managing node change information transmitted comprises

registration request information transmitting means for transmitting registration request information including the node information of the node itself, to the original node indicated in the managing node change information received.

28. An information distributing method in an information distribution system having a plurality of nodes capable of performing communication with each other via a network and in which at least one piece of distribution information is copied and stored into a plurality of nodes,

wherein a step performed in the node for managing node information indicative of a node that stores the copied distribution information comprises:

a step for storing the node information;

a step, when amount of the stored node information becomes equal to or larger than a predetermined reference amount, for determining that a part of the node information is divided and managed by a new node;

a step for deleting the node information managed by the new node; and

a step, when it is determined that the node information is to be managed by the new node, for transmitting managing node change information indicating that the node information is to be managed by the new node, to a node indicated in the node information managed by the new node, and

wherein a step performed in the node which receives the managing node change information transmitted comprises a step for transmitting registration request information including the node information of the node itself, to a new node indicated in the managing node change information received.

29. The information distributing method according to claim 28,

wherein a step performed in a node for managing node information indicative of a node that stores the copied distribution information further comprises:

a step, when the node information managed by the new node is deleted, and then, the amount of node information stored becomes equal to or less than the predetermined reference amount, for determining to merge the divided node information managed by the new node to the node information stored; and

a step, when the merge is determined, for transmitting merge information indicating that the divided node information which is managed by the new node is merged to the original node information, to the new node,

wherein a step performed in a node that receives the transmitted merge information comprises;

a step for storing the node information;

a step for transmitting managing node change information indicating that the node information is to be managed by the original node, to a node indicated in the node information corresponding to the merge information; and

a step for deleting the node information corresponding to the merge information, and

wherein a step performed in the node that has received the managing node change information transmitted comprises

a step for transmitting registration request information including the node information of the node itself, to the original node indicated in the managing node change information received.