Client-Server Interaction Frequency Control

• US 20110302237A1
• Filed: 06/04/2010
• Published: 12/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Knight, Mark R., Antos, Christopher J., Velhankar, Manasi V.
• Granted Patent: US 8,892,632 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/16 Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs coordinating program control therefor G06F9/52; in regulating and control system G05B
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063116 Schedule adjustment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/101 Collaborative creation, e.g. joint development of products or services
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/103 Workflow collaboration or project management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4015 where at least one of the additional parallel sessions is real time or time sensitive, e.g. white board sharing, collaboration or spawning of a subconference

Abstract

Client-server interaction frequency control may be provided. First, a collaborative electronic document may be loaded at a client device in a document collaboration session. The client device may then request a client-server interaction with a server hosting the collaboration session. Next, the client may receive input from the server indicating a state of the server. This input may then be used by the client device to adjust a rate at which the requested client-server interaction may occur.

Claims

1. A method for controlling client-server interaction frequency, the method comprising:

loading a collaborative electronic document in a document collaboration session;

requesting to communicate with a server hosting the document collaboration session, wherein requesting to communicate with the server hosting the document collaboration session comprises requesting to make a client-server interaction for one of;

receiving and providing information associated with document collaboration;

receiving input from the server comprising a state of the server; and

adjusting a rate of client-server interaction based on the received input from the server.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein adjusting the rate of client-server interaction based on the received input from the server comprises:

determining a gating period based on the received input from the server; and

gating the requested client-server interaction for a duration of the gating period.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein gating the requested client-server interaction comprises buffering the requested client-server interaction.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein gating the requested client-server interaction with server further comprises buffering all subsequently requested client-server interactions made during the gating period.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising performing the requested client-server interaction upon gating period expiration.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising performing, upon gating period expiration, all of the requested client-server interactions buffered during the gating period.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein adjusting the rate of client-server interaction based on the received input from the server comprises adjusting the rate of client-server interaction based on a request-type of the requested client-server interaction.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein requesting to communicate with the server further comprises requesting to communicate with the server at a scheduled frequency.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein adjusting the rate of client-server interaction based on the received input from the server comprises adjusting the scheduled frequency.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein adjusting the rate of client-server interaction based on the received input from the server comprises adjusting the rate of client-server interaction based on the received input from the server based on at least one of the following:

a health of the server as indicated by the state of the server,

an activity state of the collaborative electronic document running on a client computer, and

a state of a client computer loading the collaborative electronic document.

11. A computer-readable medium having a set of instructions which when executed performs a method for controlling client-server interaction frequency, the method executed by the set of instructions comprising:

loading a collaborative electronic document on a client device;

requesting to interact with a server hosting a document collaboration session associated with the collaborative electronic document;

receiving input from the server comprising at least one of the following;

a state of the server and a state of the document collaboration session;

determining a gating period based on at least one of the following;

the received input from the server, a state of the client device, and a state of the collaborative electronic document loaded on the client device; and

gating the requested server interaction for a duration of the gating period.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein determining the gating period comprises determining the gating period further based on a request-type of the requested server interaction.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein gating the requested server interaction comprises buffering the requested server interaction at the client device.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, further comprising performing the requested server interaction upon gating period expiration.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, further comprising gating all subsequent server interaction requests made during the gating period.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein gating all subsequent server interaction requests comprises buffering the subsequent requested server interactions made during the gating period.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, further comprising performing all of the gated server interactions upon gating period expiration.

18. A system for controlling client-server interaction frequency, the system comprising:

a memory storage; and

a processing unit coupled to the memory storage, wherein the processing unit is configured to;

load a collaborative electronic document associated with a document collaboration session,

schedule a reoccurring server interaction frequency associated with updating a state of the collaborative electronic document,

request to interact with a server at the scheduled frequency,

analyze at least one variable employed in adjusting the scheduled frequency,

adjust the scheduled reoccurring server interaction frequency, and

request to interact with the server at the adjusted server interaction frequency.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the at least one variable is received from the server and provides an indication of server health.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the processing unit configured to adjust the scheduled reoccurring server interaction frequency comprises the processing unit being configured to adjust the scheduled reoccurring server interaction to occur less frequently when the received indication of server health indicates poor server health.