METHODS, SYSTEMS, AND MEDIA FOR STORED CONTENT DISTRIBUTION AND ACCESS

• US 20140115098A1
• Filed: 11/07/2011
• Published: 04/24/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/05/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Trustees Of Columbia University In The City Of New York (Columbia University)
• Original Assignee: Trustees Of Columbia University In The City Of New York (Columbia University)
• Inventors: Reich, Joshua, Laadan, Oren, Misra, Vishal, Nieh, Jason, Sherman, Alexander, Brosh, Eliahu, Rubenstein, Daniel Stuart
• Granted Patent: US 9,609,044 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4334 Recording operations recording of a television signal H04N5/76; arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/632 using a connection between clients on a wide area network, e.g. setting up a peer-to-peer communication via Internet for retrieving video segments from the hard-disk of other client devices broadcast-related systems characterised by transmission among terminal devices H04H60/80; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments

Abstract

Methods for distributing and providing access to stored content from remote storage comprising; receiving a first request to access a first portion of stored content from a requestor, wherein the first request is in a file system request format; creating a placeholder for the stored content so that the placeholder has at least one parameter identical to the stored content and the placeholder can hold the first portion of the stored content and at least a second portion of the stored content; requesting the first portion of the stored content from remote storage; receiving the first portion of the stored content from the remote storage; storing the first portion of the stored content in the placeholder; and before the second portion of the stored content has been stored in the placeholder, providing the first portion of the stored content to the requestor using a file system response format.

Claims

1. A method for distributing and providing access to stored content from remote storage, comprising:

receiving a first request to access a first portion of stored content from a requestor, wherein the first request is in a file system request format;

creating a placeholder for the stored content so that the placeholder has at least one parameter identical to the stored content and the placeholder can hold the first portion of the stored content and at least a second portion of the stored content;

requesting the first portion of the stored content from remote storage;

receiving the first portion of the stored content from the remote storage;

storing the first portion of the stored content in the placeholder; and

before the second portion of the stored content has been stored in the placeholder, providing the first portion of the stored content to the requestor using a file system response format.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a profile associated with the stored content, wherein indicators in the profile indicate an order in which a plurality of portions of the stored content are likely to be accessed;

based on the indicators in the profile, selecting a second portion of the stored content to be retrieved before it is requested by the requestor;

requesting the second portion of the stored content from the remote storage;

receiving the second portion of the stored content from the remote storage;

receiving a second request for the second portion of the stored content from the requestor after receiving the second portion of the stored content from the remote storage, wherein the second request is in the file system request format; and

providing the second portion of the stored content to the requestor using the file system response format.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the profile indicates an order location for a plurality of the portions of the stored content.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the profile indicates a probability that each of a plurality of the portions of the stored content will be accessed at given order location.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the requestor is at least one of a virtual machine and a virtual machine monitor.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising maintaining read-only copies of portions of the stored content.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising receiving requests for the read-only copies of the portions of the stored content and providing the read-only copies to a remote, peer device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote storage is in a peer device.

9. A system for distributing and providing access to stored content from remote storage, comprising:

at least one hardware processor that;

receives a first request to access a first portion of stored content from a requestor, wherein the first request is in a file system request format;

creates a placeholder for the stored content so that the placeholder has at least one parameter identical to the stored content and the placeholder can hold the first portion of the stored content and at least a second portion of the stored content;

requests the first portion of the stored content from remote storage;

receives the first portion of the stored content from the remote storage;

stores the first portion of the stored content in the placeholder; and

before the second portion of the stored content has been stored in the placeholder, provides the first portion of the stored content to the requestor using a file system response format.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the at least one hardware processor also:

determines a profile associated with the stored content, wherein indicators in the profile indicate an order in which a plurality of portions of the stored content are likely to be accessed;

based on the indicators in the profile, selects a second portion of the stored content to be retrieved before it is requested by the requestor;

requests the second portion of the stored content from the remote storage;

receives the second portion of the stored content from the remote storage;

receives a second request for the second portion of the stored content from the requestor after receiving the second portion of the stored content from the remote storage, wherein the second request is in the file system request format; and

provides the second portion of the stored content to the requestor using the file system response format.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the profile indicates an order location for a plurality of the portions of the stored content.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the profile indicates a probability that each of a plurality of the portions of the stored content will be accessed at given order location.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the requestor is at least one of a virtual machine and a virtual machine monitor.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the at least one hardware processor also maintains read-only copies of portions of the stored content.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the at least one hardware processor also receives requests for the read-only copies of the portions of the stored content and provides the read-only copies to a remote, peer device.

16. The system of claim 9, wherein the remote storage is in a peer device.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable medium containing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method for distributing and providing access to stored content from remote storage, the method comprising:

receiving a first request to access a first portion of stored content from a requestor, wherein the first request is in a file system request format;

creating a placeholder for the stored content so that the placeholder has at least one parameter identical to the stored content and the placeholder can hold the first portion of the stored content and at least a second portion of the stored content;

requesting the first portion of the stored content from remote storage;

receiving the first portion of the stored content from the remote storage;

storing the first portion of the stored content in the placeholder; and

before the second portion of the stored content has been stored in the placeholder, providing the first portion of the stored content to the requestor using a file system response format.

18. The medium of claim 17, wherein the method further comprises:

determining a profile associated with the stored content, wherein indicators in the profile indicate an order in which a plurality of portions of the stored content are likely to be accessed;

based on the indicators in the profile, selecting a second portion of the stored content to be retrieved before it is requested by the requestor;

requesting the second portion of the stored content from the remote storage;

receiving the second portion of the stored content from the remote storage;

receiving a second request for the second portion of the stored content from the requestor after receiving the second portion of the stored content from the remote storage, wherein the second request is in the file system request format; and

providing the second portion of the stored content to the requestor using the file system response format.

19. The medium of claim 18, wherein the profile indicates an order location for a plurality of the portions of the stored content.

20. The medium of claim 18, wherein the profile indicates a probability that each of a plurality of the portions of the stored content will be accessed at given order location.

21. The medium of claim 17, wherein the requestor is at least one of a virtual machine and a virtual machine monitor.

22. The medium of claim 17, wherein the method further comprises maintaining read-only copies of portions of the stored content.

23. The medium of claim 22, wherein the method further comprises receiving requests for the read-only copies of the portions of the stored content and providing the read-only copies to a remote, peer device.

24. The medium of claim 17, wherein the remote storage is in a peer device.