MULTICAST DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM AND METHOD

• US 20100106779A1
• Filed: 12/30/2009
• Published: 04/29/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/13/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: YAMAUCHI, Kazushi
• Granted Patent: US 8,510,384 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/205
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1836 with heterogeneous network architecture
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1854 with non-centralised forwarding system, e.g. chaincast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2856 Access arrangements, e.g. Internet access asynchronous transfer mode networks H04L12/5601; broadband local area networks H04L12/2801; optical access or distribution networks H04Q11/0067; access to open networks H04L12/5691; digital subscriber line end-user equipment and bit-level processing of data on a PSTN-based network H04M11/00; home network gateways H04L12/2834; wireless access networks H04W
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2892 characterised by the access multiplexer architecture
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/00 Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks routing or path finding in wireless networks H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/16 Multipoint routing

Abstract

A network composed of a primary segment, in which a management server, a primary distribution server, and a data storage server are disposed, and a secondary segment, in which a plurality of targets connected to the primary segment via a router which does not support multicast, serves as an object. When a multicast distribution request is received at the management server, a secondary distribution server is temporarily built and operated on a particular target of the secondary segment, data is transmitted by unicast from the data storage server to the secondary distribution server via the router, and the data is transmitted by multicast from the secondary distribution server to the targets on the same segment.

Claims

1. A multicast distribution system comprises:

a network comprising a primary segment, in which a management server, a primary distribution server, and a data storage server are disposed, and a secondary segment, in which a plurality of targets connected to the primary segment via a router are disposed;

an agent operating unit provided in any one of the plurality of targets disposed in the secondary segment and building and operating an agent;

a distribution server activating unit provided in the agent and building and activating a secondary distribution server on the target based on distribution server activating information, which is requested to and received from the management server, when a distribution server activating command is received from the management server;

a distribution server connection ordering unit provided in the management server and transmitting a distribution server connection command to a plurality of the targets except for the target, in which the agent is built, when an activation completion notification is received from the secondary distribution server;

a distribution server connecting unit provided in each of the plurality of targets and establishing connection with the secondary distribution server when the distribution server connection command is received from the management server; and

a multicast distribution unit provided in the secondary distribution server, acquiring and temporarily retaining data from the data storage server when connection of all of the plurality of targets is confirmed, and then distributing the data to the plurality of targets by multicast.

2. The multicast distribution system according to claim 1, characterized in that the management server registers and manages agent management information representing the target, in which the agent is built, for each of one or a plurality of the secondary segment, recognizes the target, in which the agent is built, according to the agent management information when a multicast distribution request is received, and transmits the distribution server activating command to the target.

3. The multicast distribution system according to claim 2, characterized in that, when the agent is present on a plurality of the targets disposed in the secondary segment, the management server registers and manages the target, which is autonomously determined based on exchange of resource information of the plurality of targets, in the agent management information as a transmission destination target of the distribution server activating command.

4. The multicast distribution system according to claim 3, characterized in that the target having highest CPU performance, the target having a highest memory capacity, or the target having a highest priority set by a user in advance is determined as the transmission destination target of the distribution server activating command.

5. The multicast distribution system according to claim 1, characterized in that the primary distribution server is built and operated on a same computer as the management server.

6. The multicast distribution system according to claim 1, characterized in that the distribution server connecting unit is provided in each of the plurality of targets except for the target in which the agent is provided.

7. The multicast distribution system according to claim 1, wherein the multicast distribution unit repeats, to last divided data, a process of sequentially acquiring divided data, which is obtained by dividing distribution data, from the data storage server, temporarily retaining the data, and then distributing the data to the plurality of targets by multicast.

8. The multicast distribution system according to claim 1, wherein the multicast distribution unit acquires all the data distributed from the data storage server, temporarily retains the data, and then distributes the data to the plurality of targets by multicast.

9. The multicast distribution system according to claim 1, characterized in that the router is a router not supporting multicast.

10. A multicast distribution method having a network configuration comprising a primary segment, in which a management server, a primary distribution server, and a data storage server are disposed, and a secondary segment, in which a plurality of targets connected to the primary segment via a router are disposed, the method distributing data of the data storage server to the plurality of targets by multicast without intermediation of the router, the multicast distribution method characterized by comprising:

an agent operating step of building and operating an agent in any one of the plurality of targets disposed in the secondary segment;

a step of transmitting a distribution server activating command from the management server to the agent and transmitting a distribution server activating file in response to a request from the agent so as to build and activate a secondary distribution server on the target;

a step of transmitting a command to establish connection with the secondary distribution server to the plurality of targets except for the target, in which the agent is provided, when the management server receives an activation completion notification from the secondary transmission server; and

a step of acquiring and temporarily retaining data from the data storage server when connection of all of the plurality of targets is confirmed by the secondary distribution server and then distributing the data to the plurality of targets by multicast.

11. The multicast distribution method according to claim 10, characterized in that, in the step of building and activating the secondary distribution server, the management server registers and manages agent management information representing the target, in which the agent is built, for each of one or a plurality of the secondary segment, recognizes the target, in which the agent is built, according to the agent management information when a multicast distribution request is received, and transmits the distribution server activating command to the target.

12. The multicast distribution method according to claim 11, characterized in that, in the distribution server activating step, when the agent is present on a plurality of the targets disposed in the secondary segment, the target, which is autonomously determined based on exchange of information of the plurality of targets, is registered and managed in the agent management information, which is provided in the management server, as a transmission destination target of the distribution server activating command.

13. The multicast distribution method according to claim 12, characterized in that, in the distribution server activating step, the target having highest CPU performance, the target having a highest memory capacity, or the target having a highest priority set by a user in advance is determined as the transmission destination target of the distribution server activating command.

14. The multicast distribution method according to claim 10, characterized in that the primary distribution server is built and operated on a same computer as the management server.

15. The multicast distribution method according to claim 10, characterized in that the distribution server connection step is provided in each of the plurality of targets except for the target in which the agent is provided.

16. The multicast distribution method according to claim 10, wherein, in the multicast distribution step, a process of sequentially acquiring divided data, which is obtained by dividing distribution data, from the data storage server, temporarily retaining the data, and then distributing the data to the plurality of targets by multicast is repeated up to last divided data.

17. The multicast distribution method according to claim 10, wherein, in the multicast distribution step, all the data distributed from the data storage server is acquired, temporarily retained, and then distributed to the plurality of targets by multicast.

18. The multicast distribution method according to claim 10, characterized in that the router is a router not supporting multicast.