Single instance storage of information
First Claim
1. A method of reducing the space required to store information items that are transferred between a plurality of servers connected on a distributed network, the method comprising:
- (a) dividing an information item into a common portion and a unique portion, said common portion comprising information that is relatively unchanged when the information item is manipulated or transferred, and said unique portion comprising other information that is typically changed so as to generate further unique portions corresponding to the common portion, when the information item is manipulated or transferred;
(b) assinging a single-instance identifier to the common portion that is globally unique across the plurality of servers so that said common portion can be uniquely identified on any server of the distributed network;
(c) storing the uniquely identified common portion on the distributed network so that the uniquely identified common portion is not stored more that once on any given server of the distributed network; and
(d) storing said unique portion and any said generated further unique portions along with a single-instance identifier so that on any given server, there is not more that one common portion independent of the number of corresponding unique portions stored on the same server.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Information items commonly have a unique portion and a common portion that is the same for multiple items. The common portions of information items are stored once. Each common portion is assigned a globally unique single-instance identifier. Each unique portion of an information item stores the single-instance identifier of the associated common portion. A reference count, stored with the common portion, reflects the number of unique portions associated with the common portion. When an information item is created or distributed, the single-instance identifier of the common portion is used to ensure that multiple copies of the common portion are not stored.
260 Citations
28 Claims
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1. A method of reducing the space required to store information items that are transferred between a plurality of servers connected on a distributed network, the method comprising:
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(a) dividing an information item into a common portion and a unique portion, said common portion comprising information that is relatively unchanged when the information item is manipulated or transferred, and said unique portion comprising other information that is typically changed so as to generate further unique portions corresponding to the common portion, when the information item is manipulated or transferred; (b) assinging a single-instance identifier to the common portion that is globally unique across the plurality of servers so that said common portion can be uniquely identified on any server of the distributed network; (c) storing the uniquely identified common portion on the distributed network so that the uniquely identified common portion is not stored more that once on any given server of the distributed network; and (d) storing said unique portion and any said generated further unique portions along with a single-instance identifier so that on any given server, there is not more that one common portion independent of the number of corresponding unique portions stored on the same server. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A computer program product, residing on a computer readable medium, for reducing the space required to store information items that are transferred between a plurality of servers connected on a distributed network, comprising:
computer readable medium having computer executable instructions residing thereon, said computer executable instructions comprising; (a) means for dividing an information item into a common portion and a unique portion, said common portion comprising information that is relatively unchanged when the information item is manipulated or transferred, and said unique portion comprising other information that is typically changed so as to generate further unique portions corresponding to the common portion, when the information item is manipulated or transferred; (b) means for assigning a single-instance identifier to the common portion that is globally unique across the plurality of servers so that said common portion can be uniquely identified on any server of the distributed network; and (c) means for storing the uniquely identified common portion on the distributed network so that the uniquely identified common portion is not stored more than once on any given server of the distributed network; and (d) means for storing the unique portion and any said generated further unique portions along with said single-instance identifier so that on any given server, there is not more than one common portion independent of the number of corresponding unique portions stored on the same server. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
Specification