Server chaining system for usenet

• US 6,564,233 B1
• Filed: 12/17/1999
• Issued: 05/13/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Omicron Technologies, Inc. (Biomedical Research Foundation of Northwest Louisiana)
• Original Assignee: Openwave Systems Incorporated (JP Morgan Chase & Co)
• Inventors: Fleischman, Robert M.
• Primary Examiner(s): RONES, CHARLES
• Application Number:
  US09/465,616
• Time in Patent Office: 1,243 Days
• Field of Search: 707/1, 707/7, 707/511, 707/203, 345/356
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/10 File systems; File servers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99954 Version management

Abstract

A chaining system for Usenet applications allows local Usenet servers having a relatively small storage capacity to provide access to a large number of articles through network connections with large-capacity storage devices. The local servers can thereby advertise the availability of the union of its own stored content and the content stored on the large-capacity storage device. Chaining can be accomplished with and without-caching. In addition, the chaining system of the present invention allows storage devices to be staged throughout a network so that the most requested Usenet articles are available on fast, local servers, thereby freeing larger storage devices to hold greater numbers of less-popular articles. The larger devices may be shared among several local servers. The overall system performance is enhanced because the load on storage devices can be advantageously balanced, with the fastest (and typically smallest) storage devices absorbing the greatest load, while the slower (and typically larger) storage devices have reduced load and offer a larger selection of less-popular news articles. The net result for the user is a system with a large selection of articles in which most of the requests will be served quickly from local storage devices.

Claims

1. A system for storing Usenet articles, comprising:

a first server connected to a first digital storage device containing a first range of Usenet articles;

a second server connected to a second digital storage device containing a second range of Usenet articles that does not include Usenet articles that are contained in said first range of Usenet articles, wherein said second server maintains synchronization of identifiers of said first range of Usenet articles and said second range of Usenet articles;

wherein said second server is chained to said first server, and further wherein said first server advertises the availability of the union of said first range and said second range.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said first range is within a first newsgroup and said second range is within a second newsgroup.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said first range and said second range are articles within a single newsgroup.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a first plurality of newsgroups stored within said first digital storage device, and a second plurality of newsgroups stored within said second digital storage device, and wherein an intersection of newsgroups between said first plurality and said second plurality are synchronized.

5. A system for split chaining Usenet servers, comprising:

a first server connected to a first digital storage device containing a first range of Usenet articles;

a second server connected to a second digital storage device containing a second range of Usenet articles that does not include Usenet articles that are contained in said first range of Usenet articles, wherein said second server maintains synchronization of identifiers of said first range of Usenet articles and said second range of Usenet articles; and

a third server connected to a third digital storage device containing a third range of Usenet articles that does not contain Usenet articles that are contained in said first range of Usenet articles and said second range of Usenet articles,

wherein said first server is chained to said second server, and said first server is also chained to said third server, and further wherein said first server advertises the availability of the union of said first range, second range, and third range.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein said first range comprises articles within a first newsgroup and said second range comprises articles within a second newsgroup.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein said first range and said second range contain articles within a single newsgroup.

8. The system of claim 5, further comprising a first plurality of newsgroups stored within said first digital storage device, and a second plurality of newsgroups stored within said second digital storage device, and wherein an intersection of newsgroups between said first plurality and said second plurality are synchronized.

9. A method for storing Usenet articles, comprising:

connecting a first server to a first digital storage device containing a first range of Usenet articles;

connecting a second server to a second digital storage device containing a second range of Usenet articles that does not include Usenet articles that are contained in said first range of Usenet articles;

chaining said second server to said first server, wherein said chaining includes synchronizing identifiers associated with said first range of Usenet articles and said second range of Usenet articles at said second server;

, and

advertising, on said first server, the availability of the union of said first range and said second range.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said first range comprises Usenet articles within a first newsgroup and said second range comprises articles within a second newsgroup.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein said first range and said second range comprise articles within a single newsgroup.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising the step of synchronizing an intersection of newsgroups between a first plurality of newsgroups stored within said first digital storage device, and a second plurality of newsgroups stored within said second digital storage device.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising the step of split chaining by also chaining a third server to said first server, wherein said third server is connected to a third digital storage device and contains Usenet articles, and the first server further performs the step of advertising the availability of at least one article stored within said third digital storage device.