Information distribution system and method

• US 6,438,368 B1
• Filed: 05/26/2000
• Issued: 08/20/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Ikadega, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Ikadega, Inc.
• Inventors: Phillips, Robert C., Bestler, Caitlin B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Urban, Edward F.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Milord, Marceau
• Application Number:
  US09/579,574
• Time in Patent Office: 816 Days
• Field of Search: 455/412, 455/414, 455/417, 455/3.04, 455/3.01, 340/539, 342/457, 370/300, 370/409, 370/338, 370/428, 370/397, 370/396, 725/91, 725/92, 725/93, 725/94
• US Class Current: 455/403
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0617 in relation to availability
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0658 Controller construction arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/5601 Transfer mode dependent, e.g. ATM
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/5664 Support of Video, e.g. MPEG
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/5665 Interaction of ATM with other protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/103 using a shared central buffer; using a shared memory
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/108 using shared central buffer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/254 Centralised controller, i.e. arbitration or scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/3072 Packet splitting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/309 Header conversion, routing tables or routing tags
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2181 comprising remotely distributed storage units, e.g. when movies are replicated over a plurality of video servers distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS], H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/232 Content retrieval operation locally within server, e.g. reading video streams from disk arrays storage management G06F3/0604; details of querying and searching of video data from a database G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17336 Handling of requests in head-ends

Abstract

An information distribution system with an architecture that facilitates efficient distribution of a plurality of information asset data to a plurality of different requesting users substantially simultaneously. Fundamental components of the system include a plurality of mass storage devices that store information assets, mass storage device interface units, a switching unit, a centralized control unit and a gateway to the users. Information transfer between various components of the system is accomplished through a plurality of communication channels according to a circuit switching protocol. According to one embodiment of the invention, a plurality of communication channels are provided between the mass storage devices and the switching unit such that information asset data may be transferred, in substantially a single format and according to substantially a single protocol, from the mass storage devices directly through the switch and to the requesting user.

Claims

1. An information distribution system for distributing a plurality of information assets to a plurality of users, said system comprising:

a switching fabric, with a plurality of communication channel connection points, which is capable of establishing a virtual connection between one of said channel connection points and another of said channel connection points,

a plurality of communication channels connected between a plurality of channel connection points of said switching fabric and an information asset transmission node associated with one or more of said users,

a plurality of mass storage devices upon which is stored at least one information asset, each said mass storage device having an associated mass storage interface unit, at least one of said mass storage devices having a transmit communication channel connected to a communication channel connection point of said switching fabric and a receive communication channel connected to another communication channel connection point of said switching fabric,

a control unit comprising;

memory containing information relating to the information assets stored on said mass storage devices,

processing means for;

receiving at least one request for an information asset from at least one of said users,

determining the availability of said requested information asset and designating one of said mass storage devices as a source mass storage device upon which said information asset is stored,

supplying control signals to said switching fabric to establish a virtual connection between the connection point associated with said source mass storage device and the connection point associated with said user requesting said requested information asset.

2. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said switching fabric is a self-routing switching fabric.

3. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein where said processing means of said control unit determines a plurality of potential source mass storage devices upon which said requested information asset is stored.

4. A system as claimed in claim 3 wherein said control unit selects one of said plurality of potential source mass storage devices as a source mass storage device based upon predetermined criteria.

5. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said control unit is capable of dynamically changing the source mass storage device to another mass storage device that contains the same requested information asset.

6. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the data transmission format between said mass storage interface unit, through said switching fabric and to said information asset transmission node is the same format.

7. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said switching fabric has a data transmission format that is the asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) format.

8. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said processing means of said control unit further comprises means for generating a sequence of data retrieval commands and transmit said information asset data retrieval commands through said switching fabric to the mass storage interface unit associated with said source mass storage device.

9. A system as claimed in claim 2 wherein said sequence of data retrieval commands further includes information sufficient for said mass storage interface unit to transmit said information asset data from said source mass storage device through said switching fabric and to said information asset node.

10. A system as claimed in claim 9 wherein the data transmission format between said mass storage interface unit, through said switching fabric and to said information asset transmission node is the same format.

11. A system as claimed in claim 9 wherein the data transmission format is the asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) format.

12. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said mass storage devices are mass storage devices selected from the group comprising a hard disk drive, a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, or other random access mass storage device having a not insubstantial seek time.

13. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein at least one of said mass storage interface units is associated with a plurality of mass storage devices.

14. A system as claimed in claim 1 further comprising a status and control unit that is interfaced with said control unit and said switching fabric.

15. A system as claimed in claim 14 wherein said status and control unit is interfaced with at least one external system selected from the group comprising the Internet and a local area network.

16. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein information assets comprise data selected from the group comprising text, audio, video, image and multimedia data.

17. A method for distributing a plurality of information assets stored on a plurality of mass storage devices to at least one user requesting at least one of said information assets, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving the request for the requested information asset,

determining at least one of said mass storage devices upon which said requested information asset is stored,

establishing a virtual connection between an interface unit associated with said mass storage device and the user,

transmitting data relating to said information asset through said virtual connection to said requesting user, wherein the same data format is used for transmission throughout the virtual connection.

18. The method according to claim 17 wherein said switching fabric is a self-routing switching fabric.

19. The method according to claim 17 wherein the requested information asset is stored on a plurality of mass storage devices and said step of determining a mass storage device is performed by selecting one of said plurality of mass storage devices based upon predetermined criteria.

20. The method according to claim 19 wherein said predetermined criteria is based upon resource usage characteristics.

21. The method according to claim 19 wherein said selected mass storage device is dynamically changed during distribution of said requested information asset.

22. The method according to claim 17 wherein said step of transmitting comprises the transmission of a plurality of data packets containing data relating to said requested information asset.

23. The method according to claim 17 wherein said virtual connection is an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) virtual connection that is established through an ATM switching fabric.

24. The method according to claim 17 wherein a plurality of requests for information assets are received and processed through a control unit that contains information relating to the identification and location of information assets stored on said mass storage devices.

25. The method according to claim 24 wherein said control unit generates a plurality of data retrieval requests for one of said mass storage devices.

26. The method according to claim 25 wherein said control unit orders said plurality of data retrieval requests in correspondence with the data retrieval characteristics and the location of information asset data on said one of said mass storage devices.

27. The method according to claim 17 wherein said step of determining one of said mass storage devices includes selecting one of several mass storage devices which contain said requested information asset.

28. The method according to claim 27 wherein said the criteria upon which one of said several mass storage devices is selected is based upon predetermined usage information of said several mass storage devices.

29. The method according to claim 17 wherein said information assets include data selected from the group comprising text, audio, video, image and multimedia data.