METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR NOTIFYING A SERVER WITH CACHE INFORMATION AND FOR SERVING RESOURCES BASED ON IT

• US 20130339472A1
• Filed: 06/19/2012
• Published: 12/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: RUELLAN, Herve, FABLET, Youenn, BELLESSORT, Romain
• Granted Patent: US 9,015,269 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/214
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching

Abstract

The present invention relates to the notification of a server device with the availability of resources in cache memories of a client device and to the serving of digital resources in such a client-server communication system. The notifying method comprises: obtaining a first list of resources available in the cache memories of the client device; filtering the first list according to filtering criteria relating to a resource parameter, to obtain a filtered list of fewer resources available in the client device or splitting the first list according to splitting criteria relating to a resource parameter, to obtain a plurality of sub-lists of resources available in the client device; and notifying the server device with data structures representing the filtered list or sub-lists of resources.

Claims

1. A method of notifying a remote communication device with the availability of resources in cache memories of a local communication device, the method comprising:

obtaining a first list of resources available in the cache memories of the local communication device;

filtering the first list according to at least one filtering criterion relating to a resource parameter, to obtain a filtered list of fewer resources available in the local communication device;

notifying the remote communication device with at least one data structure representing the filtered list of resources.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of splitting is performed on the filtered list obtained from the step of filtering.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the filtering criteria comprise the device of origin of the resource, the cache validity information and the information relating to a link between the resource and a primary resource.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the data structure first notified is included in a request for a main resource from the local communication device, acting as a client device, to the remote communication device, acting as a server device.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein any subsequent data structure to notify the resources available at the local communication device is included in a subsequent request for obtaining a secondary resource from the remote communication device, wherein the secondary resource is referenced by the main resource received in response to the request for the main resource.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising obtaining a size of a request for the main source;

obtaining a maximum request size function of a communication network between the local communication device and the remote communication device;

determining a size available to transmit a first one of the data structures by difference between the obtained request size and the maximum request size;

wherein the splitting into sub-lists is also function of the determined available size.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the first list to split is first sorted according to the at least one splitting criterion and then split according to the determined available size.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining, in the first list, a primary resource and secondary resources that are linked to the primary resource in the meaning that the rendering of the primary resource requires the secondary resources;

and substituting, in the first list, the primary resource and the secondary resources with a virtual resource defining the primary and secondary resources;

wherein the data structure represents the availability of the virtual resource and not of each of the primary and secondary resources separately.

2. A method of notifying a remote communication device with the availability of resources in cache memories of a local communication device, the method comprising:

obtaining a first list of resources available in the cache memories of the local communication device;

splitting the first list according to at least one splitting criterion relating to a resource parameter, to obtain a plurality of sub-lists of resources available in the local communication device;

notifying the remote communication device with data structures, each representing a respective sub-list of resources.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the splitting provides an ordered plurality of sub-lists according to the at least one splitting criterion and the data structures are notified according to the order of their respective sub-lists in the ordered plurality.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the splitting criteria comprise the resource type and size.

12. A method of serving digital resources in a client-server communication system, comprising, at a server device:

a) sequentially receiving, from a communication device, a plurality of data structures representing the availability of respective lists of resources in cache memories of the communication device;

b) receiving, from the communication device, a request for a main resource;

c) determining secondary resources associated with the requested main resource;

d) processing the sorted secondary resources and the received data structures to determine the secondary resources available and those not available in the communication device;

e) serving the main resource in response to the received request and pushing at least one secondary resource determined as not available to the communication device.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the steps b) to e) are iterated as the server device receives a plurality of requests for main resources;

the method further comprising generating, at the server device, an additional data structure representing the list of the secondary resources pushed at step e) of an iteration, wherein the generated additional data structure is added to the set of received data structures for step d) of a next iteration.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein, for any new data structure representing the availability of resources in cache memories of the requesting communication device that is received during step d) or e), the availability of the secondary resources determined as not available in step d) and not yet pushed are checked again based on the newly received data structure.

15. A communication device in a client-server system, the communication device comprising:

cache memories storing resources;

a resource collector for obtaining a first list of resources available in the cache memories;

a resource filter for filtering the first list according to at least one filtering criterion relating to a resource parameter, to obtain a filtered list of fewer resources available in the local communication device;

a notifying module for notifying a remote communication device of the client-server system with at least one data structure representing the filtered list of resources.

17. The communication device of claim 15, wherein the resource splitter is arranged to split the filtered list obtained from the resource filter.

19. The communication device of claim 15, wherein the filtering criteria of the resource filter comprise the device of origin of the resource, the cache validity information and the information relating to a link between the resource and a primary resource.

16. A communication device in a client-server system, the communication device comprising:

cache memories storing resources;

a resource collector for obtaining a first list of resources available in the cache memories;

a resource splitter for splitting the first list according to at least one splitting criterion relating to a resource parameter, to obtain a plurality of sub-lists of resources available in the local communication device;

a notifying module for notifying a remote communication device of the client-server system with data structures, each representing a respective sub-list of resources.

18. The communication device of claim 16, wherein the resource splitter is configured to provide an ordered plurality of sub-lists according to the at least one splitting criterion;

and wherein the notifying module notifies the data structures according to the order of their respective sub-lists in the ordered plurality.

20. A server device for serving digital resources to a client device in a client-server communication system, the server device comprising:

a communication module for sequentially receiving, from a client device, a plurality of data structures representing the availability of respective lists of resources in cache memories of the communication device; and

for receiving, from the client device, a request for a main resource;

a secondary resource module for determining secondary resources associated with the requested main resource;

an availability check module for processing the sorted secondary resources and the received data structures to determine the secondary resources available and those not available in the client device;

a serving and pushing module for serving the main resource in response to the received request and for pushing at least one secondary resource determined as not available to the client device.