Reducing Latency for Served Applications by Anticipatory Preprocessing

• US 20120271876A1
• Filed: 04/19/2011
• Published: 10/25/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/19/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dish Technologies LLC (Dish Network Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Echostar Technologies LLC (Echostar Corporation)
• Inventors: Martch, Henry Gregg
• Granted Patent: US 8,751,564 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/221 Parsing markup language streams streaming G06F40/149

Abstract

A server that hosts an application transmits a state of the application to a client. The server determines that a response to the state is expected and that the response will be one of a finite number of possible responses. The server then generates one or more additional states utilizing at least one possible response from the finite set and provides the additional state(s) to the client. In some implementations, the server provides the additional state when the response is actually received. However, in other implementations, the server provides the additional state when generated and the client presents it when user input that equals the response is received. Additionally, in various implementations, the server may generate an additional state for each of the possible responses. However, in various other implementations, the server may generate additional states for a selected number of the possible responses.

Claims

1. A method for reducing latency for served applications by anticipatory preprocessing, the method comprising:

transmitting at least one first state of at least one application from at least one server, which hosts the at least one application, to at least one client;

determining, utilizing the at least one server, that at least one expected client response from the at least one client to the at least one first state will be at least one of a finite set of possible client responses;

generating, utilizing the at least one server, at least one additional state of the at least one application utilizing at least one possible client response from the finite set of possible client responses prior to receiving the at least one expected client response from the at least one client; and

providing the at least one additional state from the at least one server to the at least one client.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said operation of providing the at least one additional state from the at least one server to the at least one client further comprises providing the at least one additional state from the at least one server to the at least one client in response to receiving the at least one expected client response wherein the at least one expected client response equals the at least one potential client response.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said operation of providing the at least one additional state from the at least one server to the at least one client further comprises providing the at least one additional state from the at least one server to the at least one client prior to receiving the at least one expected client response.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the at least one client utilizes the provided at least one additional state when at least one user input corresponding to the at least one expected client response equals the at least one possible client response.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said operation of generating, utilizing the at least one server, at least one additional state of the at least one application utilizing at least one possible client response from the finite set of possible client responses prior to receiving the at least one expected client response from the at least one client further comprises generating at least one state for each possible client response of the finite set of possible client responses utilizing the respective possible client response.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said operation of generating, utilizing the at least one server, at least one additional state of the at least one application utilizing at least one possible client response from the finite set of possible client responses prior to receiving the at least one expected client response from the at least one client further comprises:

defining each of the finite set of possible client responses as potentially latency causing or not potentially latency causing; and

generating at least one state for each possible client response of the finite set of possible client responses defined as potentially latency causing utilizing the respective possible client response.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said operation of generating, utilizing the at least one server, at least one additional state of the at least one application utilizing at least one possible client response from the finite set of possible client responses prior to receiving the at least one expected client response from the at least one client further comprises:

determining a probability that each possible client response of the finite set of possible client responses will equal the at least one expected client response; and

generating at least one state for each of a number of possible client responses of the finite set of possible client responses, utilizing the respective possible client response, that have a higher determined probability than other possible client responses of the finite set of possible client responses.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the probability that each possible client response of the finite set of possible client responses will equal the at least one expected client response is determined based on statistical analysis of previous client responses.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said operation of generating, utilizing the at least one server, at least one additional state of the at least one application utilizing at least one possible client response from the finite set of possible client responses prior to receiving the at least one expected client response from the at least one client further comprises:

determining a current load of the server; and

generating at least one state for each of a selected number of possible client responses of the finite set of possible client responses utilizing the respective possible client response wherein selection of the selected number of client responses is based on the determined current load of the server.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one application comprises at least one video game.

11. A system for reducing latency for served applications by anticipatory preprocessing, comprising:

at least one communication component configured to communicate with at least one client;

at least one non-transitory storage medium that stores at least one series of instructions; and

at least one processing unit that executes the at least one series of instructions to;

transmit at least one first state of at least one application hosted by the at least one processing unit to the at least one client via the at least one communication component;

determine that at least one expected client response from the at least one client to the at least one first state will be at least one of a finite set of possible client responses;

generate at least one additional state of the at least one application utilizing at least one possible client response from the finite set of possible client responses prior to receiving the at least one expected client response from the at least one client via the at least one communication component; and

provide the at least one additional state to the at least one client via the at least one communication component.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the at least one processing unit determines a current processing load and generates at least one state for each of a selected number of possible client responses of the finite set of possible client responses utilizing the respective possible client response wherein the at least one processing unit selects the selected number based on the determined current processing load.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the at least one processing unit determines a probability that each possible client response of the finite set of possible client responses will equal the at least one expected client response and generates at least one state for each of a number of possible client responses of the finite set of possible client responses, utilizing the respective possible client response, that have a higher determined probability than other possible client responses of the finite set of possible client responses.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the at least one processing unit determines the probability that each possible client response of the finite set of possible client responses will equal the at least one expected client response by performing statistical analysis of previous client responses.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the at least one processing unit defines each of the finite set of possible client responses as potentially latency causing or not potentially latency causing and generates at least one state for each possible client response of the finite set of possible client responses defined as potentially latency causing utilizing the respective possible client response.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the at least one processing unit generates at least one state for each possible client response of the finite set of possible client responses utilizing the respective possible client response.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the at least one processing unit provides the at least one additional state to the at least one client via the at least one communication component prior to receiving the at least one expected client response.

18. The system of claim 11, further comprising the at least one client wherein the at least one client utilizes the provided at least one additional state when at least one user input corresponding to the at least one expected client response equals the at least one possible client response.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the at least one processing unit provides the at least one additional to the at least one client via the at least one communication component in response to receiving the at least one expected client response via the at least one communication component wherein the at least one expected client response equals the at least one potential client response.

20. A computer program product comprising:

a first set of instructions, stored in at least one non-transitory machine readable medium, executable by at least one processing unit to transmit at least one first state of at least one application from at least one server, which hosts the at least one application, to at least one client; and

a second set of instructions, stored in the at least one non-transitory machine readable medium, executable by the at least one processing unit to determine that at least one expected client response from the at least one client to the at least one first state will be at least one of a finite set of possible client responses;

a third set of instructions, stored in the at least one non-transitory machine readable medium, executable by the at least one processing unit to generate at least one additional state of the at least one application utilizing at least one possible client response from the finite set of possible client responses prior to receiving the at least one expected client response from the at least one client; and

a fourth set of instructions, stored in the at least one non-transitory machine readable medium, executable by the at least one processing unit to provide the at least one additional state to the at least one client.