Method and apparatus of a collaborative proxy system for distributed deployment of object rendering

• US 6,438,576 B1
• Filed: 03/29/1999
• Issued: 08/20/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Trend Micro Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Huang, Yun-Wu, Yu, Philip S.-L., Wu, Kun-Lung
• Primary Examiner(s): Lim, Krisna
• Application Number:
  US09/280,746
• Time in Patent Office: 1,240 Days
• Field of Search: 709/202, 709/201, 709/303, 707/10, 707/104
• US Class Current: 709/202
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/505 considering the load
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1008 based on parameters of servers, e.g. available memory or workload monitoring of computer activity G06F11/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/101 based on network conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1036 Load balancing of requests to servers for services different from user content provisioning, e.g. load balancing across domain name servers

Abstract

A distributed object rendering method and system for a collaborative data network is disclosed. The data network, which may include the Internet, has attached computing nodes, including object requestor nodes, object source nodes, and intermediate nodes which may be proxy servers. The method can allow each participating proxy server to adapt to the dynamic load conditions of itself as well as proxies, as well as to dynamic traffic conditions in the data network. The determination of which proxy or set of proxies is to perform object rendering and caching is based on a distributed, collaborative method that is adopted among the proxies. The criteria for such a method can include the bandwidth and current load of the network links among proxies, and/or the respective CPU usage of the proxies. If an object rendering can be staged, e.g., different resolution rendering, it can be performed by more than one of the proxies. The determination of which proxy performs which stage of the multistage rendering can also be adaptive to the dynamic load conditions, as well as network conditions.

Claims

1. A method for operating a data network, comprising steps of:

providing a plurality of computing nodes coupled to the data network, wherein at least one computing node is a requestor of an object and generates a request, at least one computing node is a source of the requested object, and at least one computing node is an intermediate computing node that is interposed between the requestor and the source for forwarding the request to the source and for returning the requested object from the source to the requestor;

including requestor-specific capability information with a generated request for an object;

including object-specific descriptor information with the requested object; and

at the at least one intermediate computing node, examining the requestor-specific capability information and the object-specific descriptor information and making a determination to process the object either entirely or partially for causing the requested object to conform either entirely or partially to the requestor-specific capability information.

2. A method as in claim 1, wherein when processing the object the method includes a step of modifying in whole or in part the object-specific descriptor information to reflect the processing performed by the at least one intermediate computing node.

3. A method as in claim 1, wherein the object is an image object, and wherein the requestor-specific capability information indicates a capability of the requestor to display the object.

4. A method as in claim 1, wherein the data network is comprised of the Internet.

5. A method as in claim 1, wherein the step of making a determination can also determine not to process the object, and wherein the step of making a determination considers at least one local condition of the intermediate computing node.

6. A method as in claim 1, wherein the intermediate computing node stores a copy of the requested object, and wherein the intermediate computing node functions as the source computing node.

7. A method as in claim 3, wherein the intermediate computing node stores a less detailed version of the requested object than the requestor-specific capability information indicates the requester is capable of displaying, and further including steps of forwarding the request to at least one other computing node, and at another computing node that has a more detailed version of the requested object, making a determination as to whether to return the more detailed version of the requested object, without local rendering, or to instead perform local rendering and return a partially rendered object, or to instead perform local rendering and return a completely rendered object.

8. A method as in claim 3, wherein the intermediate computing node stores a more detailed version of the requested object than the requestor-specific capability information indicates the requestor is capable of displaying, and further comprising a step of making a determination as to whether to return the more detailed version of the requested object, without local rendering, or to instead perform local rendering and return a partially rendered object, or to instead perform local rendering and return a completely rendered object.

9. A method as in claim 3, wherein the intermediate computing node either receives or stores a more detailed version of the requested object than the requestor-specific capability information indicates the requester is capable of displaying, and further comprising a step of rendering the object in order to reduce an amount of data network bandwidth that is required to transfer the object from the intermediate computing node.

10. A method as in claim 3, wherein the intermediate computing node one of receives or stores a more detailed version of the requested object than the requestor-specific capability information indicates the requestor is capable of displaying, and further comprising a step of rendering the object in order to reduce an amount of load unbalance for any further intermediate computing nodes located between this intermediate computing node and the requestor.

11. A method as in claim 1, wherein the step of making a determination is made at least in part by considering a rendering capability of the intermediate computing node.

12. A method as in claim 1, wherein the step of making a determination is made at least in part by considering a current processing load of the intermediate computing node.

13. A method as in claim 1, wherein the step of making a determination is made at least in part by considering an amount of network delay to the requestor.

14. A method as in claim 3, wherein the intermediate computing node one of receives or stores a more detailed version of the requested object than the requestor-specific capability information indicates the requester is capable of displaying, and wherein the step of making a determination further comprises steps of dividing an amount of image object processing into a plurality of steps, and assigning at least one of the steps to at least one other intermediate computing node located between the intermediate computing node and the requester.

15. A method as in claim 14, wherein the step of assigning generates an assignment plan that is passed to the at least one other intermediate computing node over the data network.

16. A method as in claim 15, and further comprising a step of modifying the assignment plan at the at least one other intermediate computing node in accordance with a local condition.

17. A method as in claim 1, wherein the object is an image object, and wherein the object-specific descriptor information specifies at least how a color of the image object is expressed, and also a size of the image object.

18. A method as in claim 1, wherein the object is an image object, wherein the requester computing node is comprised of a display for displaying an image object, and wherein the requestor-specific capability information specifies at least a capability of the requestor to display color, as well as a maximum size of an image object that can be displayed.

19. A method as in claim 1, wherein at least the requestor-specific capability information is expressed as meta-information.

20. A method as in claim 1, wherein at least the requestor-specific capability information is expressed using a Platform for Internet Content Selection format.

21. A method as in claim 1, wherein the step of including requestor-specific capability information with a generated request for an object is performed by the requester.

22. A method as in claim 1, wherein the step of including requestor-specific capability information with a generated request for an object is performed by an intermediate computing node.

23. A method as in claim 1, wherein the step of including object-specific descriptor information with a requested object is performed by the source of the requested object.

24. A method as in claim 1, wherein the step of including object-specific descriptor information with a requested object is performed by an intermediate computing node.

25. A data network having computing nodes coupled thereto, wherein at least one computing node is a requestor of an image object and generates a request, said requestor comprising a display for displaying a requested image object, at least one computing node is a source of the requested image object, and at least one computing node is an intermediate computing node that is interposed between the requester and the source for forwarding the request to the source and for returning the requested image object from the source to the requester, wherein one of said requestor or said intermediate computing node adds requestor-specific image display capability information to a generated request for an image object, wherein one of said source or said intermediate computing node adds image object-specific descriptor information to a returned requested image object, said image object-specific descriptor information being modifiable to reflect a change made to the associated image object, and where said at least one intermediate computing node is responsive to an examination of said requestor-specific image display capability information and said object-specific descriptor information, as well as to at least one local condition, for making a determination as to whether to render the associated returned image object either completely or partially so as cause the image object-specific descriptor information of the requested image object to conform either completely or partially to the requestor-specific image display capability information, or to not render the associated image object at all.

26. A network as in claim 25, wherein said at least one intermediate computing node, after rendering the image object, modifies the associated image object-specific descriptor information to indicate a result of the rendering operation or operations performed by said at least one intermediate computing node.

27. A network as in claim 25, wherein the data network is comprised of the Internet.

28. A network as in claim 25, wherein said at least one intermediate computing node comprises a memory for storing a copy of said image object, and wherein said intermediate computing node can function as said source computing node by returning the stored copy to the requester.

29. A network as in claim 28, wherein said at least one intermediate computing node stores a less detailed version of the requested image object than the requestor-specific image display capability information indicates the requestor is capable of displaying, and where said at least one intermediate computing node forwards the request to another intermediate computing node that stores a more detailed version of the requested image object, and where said another intermediate computing node is responsive to an examination of said requestor-specific image display capability information and said object-specific descriptor information, as well as to the at least one local condition, for making a determination as to whether to render the stored image object either completely or partially so as cause the image object-specific descriptor information of the stored image object to conform either completely or partially to the requestor-specific image display capability information, or to not render the stored image object at all.

30. A network as in claim 28, wherein said at least one intermediate computing node stores a more detailed version of the requested image object than the requestor-specific image display capability information indicates the requestor is capable of displaying, and where said at least one intermediate computing node is responsive to an examination of said requestor-specific image display capability information and said object-specific descriptor information, as well as to the at least one local condition, for making a determination as to whether to render the stored image object either completely or partially so as cause the image object-specific descriptor information of the stored image object to conform either completely or partially to the requestor-specific image display capability information, or to not render the stored image object at all.

31. A network as in claim 25, wherein said at least one intermediate computing node, when rendering a requested image object that is being returned to said requestor, renders the image object in order to reduce an amount of data network bandwidth that is required to transfer the image object.

32. A network as in claim 25, wherein said at least one intermediate computing node, when rendering a requested image object that is being returned to said requester, renders the image object in order to reduce an amount of load unbalance for any further intermediate computing nodes located between said at least one intermediate computing node and said requestor.

33. A network as in claim 25, wherein said at least one local condition is comprised of at least one of a rendering capability of said intermediate computing node, a current processing load of said intermediate computing node, and an amount of network delay to the requestor.

34. A network as in claim 25, wherein said at least one intermediate computing node further divides an amount of image object rendering into a plurality of steps, and assigns at least one of the steps to at least one other intermediate computing node located between said at least one intermediate computing node and said requestor.

35. A network as in claim 34, wherein said at least one intermediate computing node derives a rendering step assignment plan that is passed to the at least one other intermediate computing node over said data network, and where said at least one other intermediate computing node can modify said assignment plan in response to at least one local condition.

36. A network as in claim 25, wherein said image object-specific descriptor information specifies at least how a color of said image object is expressed, and also a size of said image object, and wherein said requestor-specific image display capability information specifies at least a capability of said requestor to display color, as well as a maximum size of an image object that can be displayed.

37. A network as in claim 25, wherein at least said requestor-specific image display capability information is expressed as meta-information.

38. A network as in claim 25, wherein at least said requestor-specific image display capability information is expressed using a Platform for Internet Content Selection format.

39. A computer program embodied on a computer-readable medium for providing individual ones of servers in a network of collaborative servers a capability of selectively performing object processing in accordance with capabilities of a device which is to consume the object;

said program comprising a code segment that is responsive to requestor-specific capability information included with a request for the object, as well as object-specific descriptor information included with a received object being returned to the requester, for selectively one of not processing the object, or processing the object either partially or entirely for causing the object to conform to the capabilities of the requestor to consume the object.

40. A program storage device, readable by a machine, that tangibly embodies a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps enabling individual ones of computing node machines in an interconnected hierarchical network of collaborative computing nodes to perform object processing in accordance with capabilities of a device which is to consume the object, the method is responsive to requestor-specific capability information that is included with a request for the object, and is further responsive to object-specific descriptor information included with the object as received from a source of the object or another computing node machine, for selectively one of not processing the object, or processing the object either partially or entirely for causing the object to conform to the capabilities of the requestor to consume the object.

41. A method for operating a distributed data network, comprising the steps of:

providing a plurality of computing nodes coupled to the data network, wherein at least one computing node is a requestor of an object and generates a request, at least one computing node is a source of the requested object, and a plurality of computing nodes are intermediate computing nodes that are interposed between the requester and the source for forwarding the request to the source and for returning the requested object from the source to the requestor;

including requestor-specific capability information with a generated request for providing data for distributed, dynamic processing;

including object-specific descriptor information with the requested object for providing data for distributed, dynamic processing;

wherein each of the plurality of intermediate computer nodes is capable of determining for itself if it is capable of conforming the object either entirely or partially to the requestor-specific capability information, wherein the method provides a distributed way of conforming of the object among the plurality the intermediate computer nodes of the data network, the determining of capability comprising the steps of;

examining the requestor-specific capability information and the object-specific descriptor information, and

making a determination to process the object either entirely, partially, or not at all, based on whether processing capabilities of the intermediate computer node itself correspond to at least one processing task for causing the requested object to conform either entirely or partially to the requestor-specific capability information.