Method and apparatus for providing accelerated content delivery over a network

• US 6,510,469 B1
• Filed: 08/12/1998
• Issued: 01/21/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Palo Alto Networks Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Compaq Information Technologies Group LP (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Gabler, Jeffrey R., Giap, Steven C., Kothari, Rupali M., Elwahab, Amgad M., Stewart, Christopher H., Pronev, Svilen B., Starnes, Darrell J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Burgess, Glenton B.
• Assistant Examiner(s): SALAD, ABDULLAHI ELMI
• Application Number:
  US09/133,498
• Time in Patent Office: 1,623 Days
• Field of Search: 709/247, 709/246, 709/228, 709/217, 709/219, 709/203, 709/229, 709/201, 709/218, 345/473
• US Class Current: 709/247
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 9/00 Image coding bandwidth or redundancy reduction for static pictures H04N1/41; coding or decoding of static colour picture signals H04N1/64; methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/1423 the instrument generating sequences of position coordinates corresponding to handwriting preprocessing or recognising digital ink G06V30/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/566 Grouping or aggregating service requests, e.g. for unified processing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

Improved techniques for rapid and efficient delivery of objects from a network (e.g., the Internet) to users. The improved techniques can be utilized in a variety of apparatuses, including a proxy system or an acceleration apparatus. Such a proxy system operates to produce an accelerated version of content information from the network, cache the accelerated version (and possibly original versions) for subsequent requests for the same information content, and supply the accelerated version of the information content to a requesting user.

Claims

1. A proxy system for distributing data objects, comprising:

a proxy server, said proxy server operates to receive from a network browser an object request for a requested object and to manage the forwarding of the requested object to the network browser, said proxy server being connected to a network, and the requested object is accessible by said proxy server via the network; and

an acceleration unit coupled to said proxy server, said acceleration unit being connected to the network, said acceleration unit operates to identify the requested object, pre-fetch the requested object having an original size from a content provider coupled to the network, reduce the size of the retrieved object to a reduced size, and provide the requested object with the reduced size to said proxy server; and

said acceleration unit comprises;

an observer, said observer operates to review the object request to determine whether the requested object is likely capable of being accelerated by said acceleration unit;

an object manager operatively coupled to said observer, said object manager operates to manage the retrieval of the requested object having the original size from the content provider via the network, and to examine the requested object to determine whether acceleration would be advisable;

an accelerator operatively coupled to said object manager, said accelerator operates when acceleration has been determined to be advisable to receive the requested object having the original size from said object manager and then to reduce the size of the requested object with the original size so as to produce the requested object with the reduced size; and

an object store operatively coupled to said accelerator and said object manager, said object store operates to store at least the requested object with the reduced size.

2. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein when the requested object with the reduced size is determined not to be available from said acceleration unit for more than a determined period of time, said proxy server obtains the requested object of the original size from said acceleration unit and provides the requested object having the original size to the network browser.

3. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein by pre-fetching the requested object, said acceleration unit is able to retrieve the requested object from the content server faster than said proxy server.

4. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein the requested object is an image file.

5. A system as recited in claim 4, wherein the image file with the reduced size has a JPEG format.

6. A system as recited in claim 4, wherein said accelerator comprises an image reduction processor that reduces the size of the image file from the original size to the reduced size.

7. A system as recited in claim 6,

wherein said image reduction processor comprises:

a format converter that converts the format of an image file from a first format to a second format; and

a compression unit that compresses an image file,

wherein at least one of said format converter and said compression unit operate on the image file to reduce the size of the image file.

8. A system as recited in claim 7, wherein said format converter converts the format of an image file from a GIF format to a JPEG format.

9. A system as recited in claim 8, wherein the JPEG format is a progressive JPEG format.

10. A system as recited in claim 8, wherein said format converter converts an image file from a non-progressive JPEG format to a progressive JPEG format.

11. A system as recited in claim 7, wherein said compression unit reduces the size of the image file by reducing color or resolution quality of the image file.

12. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein the network browser is an Internet browser.

13. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein said acceleration unit further comprises:

object store manager operatively coupled to said object store and said object manager, said object store manager operates to manage the retrieval of the objects from said proxy server.

14. A system as recited in claim 13, wherein said proxy server together with said object store manager determine whether the requested object with the reduced size is already available from said object store, and when available operate to deliver the requested object with the reduced size to supply the requested object with the reduced size to said proxy server while avoiding operations by said observer, said object manager and said accelerator.

15. A system as recited in claim 1,

wherein said proxy server supports multiple network browsers, and

wherein said acceleration unit comprises:

an observer, said observer operates to review the object request to determine whether the requested object is likely capable of being accelerated by said acceleration unit;

at least one object manager operatively coupled to said observer, a selected one of said object managers operates to manage the retrieval of the requested object having the original size from the content provider via the network, and to examine the requested object to determine whether acceleration would be advisable;

at least one accelerator operatively coupled to said at least one object manager, a selected one of said accelerators operates when acceleration has been determined to be advisable to receive the requested object having the original size from said object manager and then to reduce the size of the requested object with the original size so as to produce the requested object with the reduced size; and

an object store operatively coupled to said at least one accelerator and at least one object manager, said object store operates to store at least the requested object with the reduced size.

16. A system as recited in claim 15, wherein said system further comprises:

a resource manager that manages system configuration information for at least said at least one accelerator and said at least one object manager.

17. A system as recited in claim 16, wherein said system further comprises:

a first load balancer that operates to select the one of said object managers to retrieve the requested object having the original size from the content provider via the second connection to the network and to examine the requested object to determine whether acceleration would be advisable; and

a second load balancer that operates to select the one of said accelerators to reduce the size of the requested object with the original size to produce the requested object with the reduced size.

18. A system as recited in claim 15, wherein the requested object is an image file.

19. A system as recited in claim 18,

wherein said acceleration unit further comprises:

image store manager operatively coupled to said object store and said object manager, said image store manager operates to manage the storage of the image files in said object store, and

wherein said proxy server together with said image store manager determine whether the requested image file with the reduced size is already available from said object store, and when available operate to deliver the requested image file with the reduced size to said proxy server while avoiding operations by said observer, said object manager and said accelerator.

20. A proxy system for retrieval of image files over a network, said proxy system comprising:

an image cache memory for storing image files that have previously been requested over the network;

a proxy server operatively coupled to said image cache memory and the network, said proxy server operates to receive an image file request from a network browser and to manage the forwarding of the requested image file to the network browser; and

an acceleration unit coupled to said proxy server, said image cache memory and the network, said acceleration unit includes at least;

an observer, said observer operates to identify the requested image files received by said proxy server;

an image manager operatively coupled to said observer, said image manager operates to retrieve the requested image file having an original size from the content provider via the network, and to examine the requested image file to determine whether acceleration would be advisable; and

an accelerator operatively coupled to said image manager, said accelerator operates when acceleration has been determined to be advisable to receive the requested image file having the original size from said image manager and then to reduce the size of the requested image file with the original size so as to produce the requested image file with the reduced size, and thereafter causing the requested image file with the reduced size to be stored to said image cache memory.

21. A system as recited in claim 20, wherein said image cache memory operates to store the requested image with the original size and the requested image with the reduced size.

22. A system as recited in claim 21, wherein concurrently with said accelerator producing the requested image file with the reduced size, said image manager stores the requested image file having the original size to said image cache memory.

23. A system as recited in claim 20, wherein said proxy server determines whether the requested image file is already stored in said image cache memory, and when the requested image file is already stored in said image cache memory, the requested image file is forwarded to the network browser from said image cache memory and processing by said acceleration unit is bypassed.

24. An acceleration apparatus for producing accelerating versions of objects, said acceleration apparatus comprising:

an object manager, said object manager operates to retrieve a requested object having an original size from a remotely located computer over a network, and to examine the requested object to determine whether acceleration would be advisable; and

an accelerator operatively coupled to said object manager, said accelerator operates when acceleration has been determined to be advisable to receive the requested object having the original size from said object manager and then to reduce the size of the requested object with the original size so as to produce the requested object with the reduced size, and thereafter causing the requested object with the reduced size to be supplied to a requestor of the requested object.

25. An acceleration apparatus as recited in claim 24, wherein the requested object is an image file.

26. A system as recited in claim 25, wherein the image file with the reduced size has a JPEG format regardless of the format of the requested image file with the original size.

27. An acceleration apparatus as recited in claim 24, wherein said acceleration apparatus further comprises:

an object store operatively coupled to said accelerator and said object manager, said object store operates to store at least the requested object with the reduced size.

28. A system as recited in claim 27, wherein said accelerator comprises an image reduction means for reducing the size of the image file from the original size to the reduced size.