Pre-fetching data

• US 20130041937A1
• Filed: 06/28/2012
• Published: 02/14/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Zhu, Yi Sheng, Fu, Xiao, Luo, Wen Gang
• Granted Patent: US 8,977,681 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5681 Pre-fetching or pre-delivering data based on network characteristics
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/61 taking into account QoS or priority requirements

Abstract

A pre-fetching request is received by a server from a client. The pre-fetching request is performed to pre-fetch data from a data source connected to the server according to an indication of the pre-fetching request. The pre-fetched data is sent from the server to the client upon receiving an actual request for the pre-fetched data. As such, an integrated capability of a server and a client can be employed to perform data pre-fetch, to improve overall performance of the server and the client.

Claims

1. A method for conducting data pre-fetch by a server, comprising:

receiving a pre-fetching request from a client;

executing the pre-fetching request to pre-fetch data from a data source connected to the server according to an indication of the pre-fetching request; and

sending the pre-fetched data to the client upon receiving an actual request for the pre-fetched data.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

setting an expiration time for the pre-fetching request.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein setting the expiration time for the pre-fetching request comprises:

setting the expiration time according to a credit status of the client.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein receiving the pre-fetching request from the client comprises:

checking the expiration time of the pre-fetching request and discarding expired pre-fetching requests.

5. The method according to claim 2, wherein executing the pre-fetching request comprises:

checking the expiration time of the pre-fetching request and only executing the pre-fetching request that is not expired; and

discarding expired pre-fetching requests.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein a pre-fetching request storage area is set, and receiving the pre-fetching request from the client comprises:

storing the pre-fetching request into the pre-fetching request storage area.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein a non pre-fetching request storage area is set, and executing the pre-fetching request comprises:

reading the pre-fetching request from the pre-fetching request storage area; and

executing the pre-fetching request when the non pre-fetching request storage area is empty.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein a priority is set for the pre-fetching request, and executing the pre-fetching request further comprises:

executing the pre-fetching request when the priority of the pre-fetching request is higher than a priority threshold.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein executing the pre-fetching request comprises:

setting a tracker trigger for the pre-fetching request to track variations of the pre-fetched data in the data source.

10. A device for pre-fetching data, comprising:

hardware, including a processor;

a server communication module implemented at least by the processor, to pre-fetch data from a data source connected to the device according to an indication of a pre-fetching request received from a client, so as to send the pre-fetched data upon receiving an actual request for the pre-fetched data; and

a server pre-fetched data storage module implemented at least by the processor, to store the pre-fetched data.

11. The device according to claim 10, further comprising:

a server tracker module implemented at least by the processor, to update the pre-fetched data in the server pre-fetched data storage module according to variations of the pre-fetched data in the data source.

12. The device according to claim 11, wherein the server tracker module is to check whether the pre-fetched data has varied in the data source when the device receives the actual request.

13. The device according to claim 10, further comprising:

a request management module implemented at least by the processor, to schedule execution of pre-fetching requests and execution of non pre-fetching requests, so as to preferentially execute the non pre-fetching requests.

14. An apparatus for conducting data pre-fetch by a server, comprising:

hardware, including a processor;

a receiving unit implemented at least by the hardware, to receive a pre-fetching request from a client;

an executing unit implemented at least by the hardware, to execute the pre-fetching request to pre-fetch data from a data source connected to the server according to an indication of the pre-fetching request; and

a sending unit implemented at least by the hardware, to send the pre-fetched data to the client upon receiving an actual request for the pre-fetched data.

15. The apparatus according to claim 14, further comprising:

a unit to set an expiration time for the pre-fetching request.

16. The apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the unit to set the expiration time for the pre-fetching request is to set the expiration time according to a credit status of the client.

17. The apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the receiving unit is to check the expiration time of the pre-fetching request and discard expired pre-fetching requests.

18. The apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the executing unit is to check the expiration time of the pre-fetching request and only execute the pre-fetching request that is not expired, and discard expired pre-fetching requests.

19. The apparatus according to claim 14, wherein a pre-fetching request storage area is set, and the receiving unit is to store the pre-fetching request into the pre-fetching request storage area.

20. The apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the executing unit is to set a tracker trigger for the pre-fetching request so as to track variations of the pre-fetched data in the data source.