METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PREDICTION OF SOFTWARE DATA CONSUMPTION PATTERNS

• US 20140317243A1
• Filed: 04/25/2014
• Published: 10/23/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/02/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Code Systems Incorporated (VOXX International Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Code Systems Incorporated (VOXX International Corporation)
• Inventors: Obata, Kenji C.
• Granted Patent: US 9,251,167 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3466 Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/13 File access structures, e.g. distributed indices arrangements of input from, or output to, record carriers G06F3/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/188 Virtual file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2379 Updates performed during online database operations; commit processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9024 Graphs; Linked lists G06F16/9027 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45583 Memory management, e.g. access or allocation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/152 Virtualized environment, e.g. logically partitioned system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/064 Management of blocks
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45537 Provision of facilities of other operating environments, e.g. WINE I/O emulation G06F13/105
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/466 Transaction processing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1085 involving dynamic management of active down- or uploading connections

Abstract

A method including downloading a streaming model file and at least one initial execution file from a server via a conventional download protocol without using a specialized streaming protocol. When executed, the initial execution file only partially implements an application. The model file stores information identifying additional portions of the application file to be downloaded from the server. Data is read from the initial execution file, and stored in a local copy of the application file. Then, the application is executed by executing the local copy. Until the entire application file has been downloaded and as the application is executing, the information is read from the model file to identify a next file to download, the next file is downloaded via the conventional download protocol without using a specialized streaming protocol, next data is read from the next file, and the next data is stored in the local copy.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method performed by a server computing device connected to a requesting computing device, the method comprising:

receiving a request from the requesting computing device to download an application file via a conventional download protocol without using a specialized streaming protocol, when executing, the application file implementing an application;

in response to the request, downloading a streaming model file and one or more initial execution files to the requesting computing device via the conventional download protocol without using a specialized streaming protocol, the one or more initial execution files comprising a first portion of the application file that is less than the entire application file but contains enough data to initiate execution of the application on the requesting computing device, the streaming model file comprising download information; and

as the application is executing on the requesting computing device and until the entire application file has been downloaded to the requesting computing device, receiving requests from the requesting computing device to download one or more other files each comprising another portion of the application file in accordance with the download information of the streaming model file, and in response to the requests to download the one or more other files, downloading the one or more other files to the requesting computing device via the conventional download protocol without using a specialized streaming protocol.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the application file is a virtualized application file that when executed, at least partially implements a virtual application.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the conventional download protocol comprises Hypertext Transfer Protocol, File Transfer Protocol, or Server Message Block Protocol.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or more other files comprise one or more sequence files and one or more rest files,

the download information indicates each of the one or more sequence files is to be downloaded before the one or more rest files, and

the server computing device receives a request to download each of the one or more sequence files to the requesting computing device before receiving a request to download any of the one or more rest files to the requesting computing device.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the download information comprises a data structure storing one or more download orders and the requesting computing device is configured to analyze the data structure to determine an order in which to send requests to download the one or more other files.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein each of the one or more initial execution files each comprises one or more blocks of data, and each of the one or more blocks of data comprises an identifier that identifies a location in a local copy of the application file whereat the block of data is to be written by the requesting computing device, the application being executed by the requesting computing device by executing the local copy of the application file.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein each of the one or more initial execution files further comprises version information identifying a runtime engine configured to execute the local copy of the application file.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the requests to download one or more other files comprise requests to download sequence files each sequence file comprising a portion of the data of the application file that is not included in the first portion of the application file.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the downloading of the streaming model file, the one or more initial execution files, and the one or more other files are performed over a download pipeline,

the requests to download the one or more other files comprise a request to download a rest file, and

the method further comprises downloading the rest file when the download pipeline is idle.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein

the requests to download the one or more other files comprise a request to download one or more sequence files each comprising a portion of the application file not contained in the first portion of the application file, and

the requests to download the one or more other files further comprise a request to download one or more rest files each comprising portions of the application file ordered by frequency in which the portions of the application file were accessed during a profiling process performed when the application was executed previously.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein together the one or more initial execution files, the one or more sequence files, and the one or more rest files include duplicate copies of portions of the application file.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the streaming model file was created by a model building process that:

organized blocks of data of the application file into a data structure based at least in part on an order in which the blocks of data were accessed by the application when executed previously at least once, and

divided the blocks of data into the one or more initial execution files and the one or more other files by traversing the data structure.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the data structure comprises an origin and blocks of data in the one or more initial execution files are closer to the origin than blocks of data in the one or more other files.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the download information specifies when each of the one or more other files is to be downloaded based on distances of the blocks of data stored in the one or more other files from the origin.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the streaming model file was created by a model building process that:

organized blocks of data of the application file into a directed graph structure based at least in part on an order in which the blocks of data were accessed by the application when executed previously at least once, the directed graph structure comprising an origin, and

divided the blocks of data into the one or more initial execution files and the one or more other files by traversing the directed graph.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein the one or more other files comprise one or more sequence files and one or more rest files, the one or more sequence files comprising blocks of data organized by their distance from the origin.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein the one or more rest files comprise blocks of data organized by their frequency in the directed graph structure.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein the order in which the blocks of data were accessed by the application when executed previously at least once was recorded in one or more transcripts and the one or more rest files comprise blocks of data organized by their frequency in the one or more transcripts.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or more initial execution files each comprise one or more blocks of data,

the one or more other files comprise one or more sequence files each comprise one or more blocks of data and one or more rest files each comprising one or more blocks of data, and

the blocks of data of one or more initial execution files, the one or more sequence files, and the one or more rest files each comprise an identifier that identifies a location in a local copy of the application file whereat the block of data is to be written by the requesting computing device, the application being executable by the requesting computing device by executing the local copy of the application file.

20. A computer-implemented method performed by a management process, the method comprising:

downloading a streaming model file and one or more initial execution files from a server via a conventional download protocol without using a specialized streaming protocol, the one or more initial execution files comprising a first portion of the application file that is less than the entire application file and only partially implement an application, the streaming model file comprising download information identifying additional portions of the application file to be downloaded from the server;

reading data from the one or more initial execution files and storing the data in a local copy of the application file;

executing the application by executing the local copy of the application file; and

until the entire application file has been downloaded and as the application is executing, reading the download information of the streaming model file to identify a next file to download, downloading the next file via the conventional download protocol without using a specialized streaming protocol, reading next data from the next file, and storing the next data in the local copy of the application file.

21. The computer-implemented method of claim 20, wherein the application is executed in a virtual environment.

22. The computer-implemented method of claim 20, wherein the conventional download protocol comprises Hypertext Transfer Protocol, File Transfer Protocol, or Server Message Block Protocol.

23. The computer-implemented method of claim 20, wherein the streaming model file identifies one or more sequence files and one or more rest files, and the next file to download comprises one of the one or more sequence files or one of the one or more rest files.

24. The computer-implemented method of claim 20, wherein the streaming model file stores a directed graph structure comprising a plurality of states, and a plurality of transitions, each of the plurality of transitions connecting a pair of the states together and identifying one or more data blocks stored in a sequence file, and

reading the download information of the streaming model file to identify the next file to download comprises traversing the directed graph structure to identify a next transition, the next file to download being the sequence file storing the one or more data blocks identified by the next transition.

25. The computer-implemented method of claim 20, wherein executing the local copy of the application file comprises sending an execute command to a runtime engine to execute the local copy of the application file.

26. The computer-implemented method of claim 25, wherein the application file is a virtualized application file and the runtime engine is a virtual runtime engine.

27. The computer-implemented method of claim 20, wherein the streaming model file comprises information encoded in Extensible Markup Language (“

XML”

).

28. The computer-implemented method of claim 20, wherein the streaming model file stores a directed graph structure comprising a plurality of states, and a plurality of transitions,

each of the plurality of transitions connects a pair of the states together, comprises a weight value, and identifies one or more data blocks stored in a sequence file, and

reading the download information of the streaming model file to identify the next file to download comprises traversing the directed graph structure using a weighted depth first traversal to identify a next transition, the next file to download being the sequence file storing the one or more data blocks identified by the next transition.

29. The computer-implemented method of claim 20, wherein the streaming model file stores a directed graph structure comprising a plurality of states, and a plurality of transitions,

each of the plurality of transitions connects a pair of the states together, and identifies one or more data blocks stored in a sequence file, and

reading the download information of the streaming model file to identify the next file to download comprises traversing the directed graph structure using a breadth first traversal to identify a next transition, the next file to download being the sequence file storing the one or more data blocks identified by the next transition.

30. The computer-implemented method of claim 20, wherein reading the download information of the streaming model file to identify the next file to download comprises:

locating a data block being accessed by the application as it executes in the download information of the streaming model file, the next file being one or more files associated with the located data block; and

selecting the next file from the one or more files associated with the located data block.

31. The computer-implemented method of claim 30, wherein each of the one or more files associated with the located data block has a weight value and selecting the next file comprises selecting one of the one or more files associated with the located data block as the next file based on its weight value.