Method and apparatus for storing and delivering documents on the internet

• US 6,629,138 B1
• Filed: 08/23/1999
• Issued: 09/30/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 07/21/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Cloud Software Group
• Original Assignee: TIBCO Software Incorporated (Cloud Software Group)
• Inventors: Kemper, David J., Lambert, Mark L., van der Rijn, Daniel J. G., Verkler, Jay L.
• Primary Examiner(s): WINDER, PATRICE L
• Application Number:
  US09/379,376
• Time in Patent Office: 1,499 Days
• Field of Search: 709/213-216, 709/217-219, 709/224, 709/203, 709/223, 706/10, 705/10
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/00 Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0864 Round trip delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0876 Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/12 Applying verification of the received information cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for data integrity or data verification H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5681 Pre-fetching or pre-delivering data based on network characteristics
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5682 Policies or rules for updating, deleting or replacing the stored data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/16 Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/162 involving adaptations of sockets based mechanisms secure socket layer H04L63/168
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/163 In-band adaptation of TCP data exchange; In-band control procedures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A method for maintaining statistics on a remote server. The method includes receiving statistics from client devices that are coupled to the remote server. The statistics are associated with data on the remote server. The remote server receives statistics either when a user accesses the data on the remote server or when collected statistics associated with the data previously downloaded into a cache on each client device is uploaded to the remote server from each client device. The method also includes updating the statistics on the remote server in response to either a user access of the data on the remote server or a receipt of the collected statistics from each client device; and downloading the updated statistics to each client device.

Claims

1. A method to maintain statistics on a remote server, said method including:

receiving said statistics from each client device coupled to said remote server, said statistics being associated with data on said remote server, said receiving being performed either when a user accesses said data on said remote server or when collected statistics associated with said data previously downloaded into a cache on said each client device is uploaded to said remote server from said each client device;

updating said statistics on said remote server in response to either a user access of said data on said remote server or a receipt of said collected statistics from said each client device; and

downloading said updated statistics to said each client device.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said user accesses said data on said remote server if said data is either not found in said cache or not up-to-date in said cache.

3. The method in claim 1 wherein said collected statistics associated with said data in said cache is aggregated on said each client device automatically or manually.

4. The method in claim 1 wherein said collected statistics associated with said data previously downloaded into said cache is uploaded to said remote server with a predefined frequency.

5. A method for improving user perceived response time when a client device requests data from a server on a network, the method including:

analyzing initial data requested from the server by one or more application programs running on the client device in order to identify references to various data on the server;

assigning a weight to each said identified reference which represents a likelihood relative to the rest of said identified references that said various data identified by each said identified reference will be requested by an application program; and

downloading said data identified by each said identified reference to the client device in anticipation of an actual request for the data by an application program, said downloading being performed for each said identified reference in order of decreasing weight, wherein the likelihood that said application program will request said various data is based on a user'"'"'s past usage of said application program and statistics supplied by a content provider.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the likelihood that an application program will request said data is based on a set of default parameters, said default parameters being editable by the user.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the analyzing of the initial data and the assigning of a weight are not performed for certain types of said data.