Device-side data de-duping

• US 7,574,444 B2
• Filed: 11/15/2006
• Issued: 08/11/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Palm, Inc. (TCL Technology Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Prasad, Srikiran, Welingkar, Bharat
• Primary Examiner(s): LEWIS, CHERYL RENEA
• Application Number:
  US11/560,052
• Publication Number:
  US 20080114771A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,000 Days
• Field of Search: 707/10, 707/200, 707/201, 707/204, 709/203
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0846 based on copy from other elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/00 Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability

Abstract

A client-side device is capable of wirelessly receiving user data for the device. The device is capable of removing duplicative user data items among data wirelessly received and data already existing on the device. The duplicative data may be “de-duped” even though duplicative data items may arise as a result of synchronization operations using different synchronization engines used to synchronize different sets of data types.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a server side component operatively connected to a data store; and

a mobile client side component capable of wirelessly communicating user data to the server side component for storage in the data store, wherein the mobile client side component comprises;

a first module arranged to wirelessly receive from the server side component the user data stored in the data store, and

a data de-duping module arranged to remove duplicative data among the wirelessly received user data and user data already present on the mobile client side component,

wherein the duplicative data results from synchronization of data from a plurality of different sources, wherein at least one of the plurality of sources comprises a synchronization engine.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile client side component is any of a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant, and a portable e-mail device.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the user data comprises at least one of calendar data, contact data, task data, memo data, browser bookmark data, phone application shortcut data, speed dial number data, call log data, application settings data, and SMS message history data.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the server side component and the mobile client side component are arranged to communicate user data via at least one of an XML protocol, a SyncML protocol, and a PAPI protocol.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the data de-duping module is further arranged to remove the duplicative data under control of the server side component.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the data de-duping module is further arranged to detect a first data item as being duplicative with a second data item, and wherein the first data item and the second data item are not exactly identical.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the data de-duping module is further arranged to resolve differences among user data automatically and without query to a user of the mobile client side component.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the synchronization engine is used to synchronize a set of data types that is different than a set of data types subject to synchronization from another one of the plurality of different sources.

9. A method of managing data on a mobile client device, comprising:

wirelessly backing up user data on the mobile client device to a remote data store;

wirelessly receiving at the mobile client device the backed up user data from the remote data store; and

merging the wirelessly received user data and the user data already present on the mobile client device, wherein the merging comprises;

detecting and removing duplicative user data among the wirelessly received user data and user data already present on the mobile client device using a data de-duping module, wherein the duplicative user data results from synchronization of data from a plurality of different sources, wherein at least one of the plurality of different sources comprises a synchronization engine.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the duplicative user data results from synchronization of data using a plurality of synchronization engines.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein at least one of the plurality of synchronization engines is used to synchronize a set of data types that is different than a set of data types subject to synchronization using another one of the plurality of synchronization engines.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the mobile client device is any of a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant, and a portable e-mail device.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the user data comprises at least one of calendar data, contact data, task data, memo data, browser bookmark data, phone application shortcut data, speed dial number data, call log data, application settings data, and SMS message history data.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the merging occurs at the mobile client device.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein the user data is wirelessly communicated via at least one of an XML protocol, a SyncML protocol, and a PAPI protocol.

16. The system of claim 9, wherein the remote data store is associated with a server system, and wherein the merging occurs under control of the server system.

17. The method of claim 9, wherein the merging comprises:

automatically resolving differences among user data.

18. The method of claim 9, wherein the merging comprises:

detect a first data item as being duplicative with a second data item, and

wherein the first data item and the second data item are not exactly identical.

19. A mobile computing device, comprising:

a first module arranged to wirelessly communicate user data on the mobile computing device for storage on a remote system;

a second module arranged to wirelessly receive at least a portion of the user data from the remote system; and

a data de-duping module arranged to automatically detect and remove duplicative user data among the wirelessly received user data and user data already present on the mobile computing device, wherein the duplicative user data results from synchronization of data from a plurality of different sources, wherein at least one of the sources is a synchronization engine.

20. The mobile computing device of claim 19, wherein the duplicative user data results from synchronization of data using a plurality of synchronization engines.

21. The mobile computing device of claim 20, wherein at least one of the plurality of synchronization engines is used to synchronize a set of data types that is different than a set of data types subject to synchronization using another one of the plurality of synchronization engines.

22. The mobile computing device of claim 19, wherein the user data comprises at least one of calendar data, contact data, task data, memo data, browser bookmark data, phone application shortcut data, speed dial number data, call log data, application settings data, and SMS message history data.

23. The mobile computing device of claim 19, wherein the data de-duping module is further arranged to detect a first data item as being duplicative with a second data item even though the first data item and the second data item are not exactly identical.

24. The mobile computing device of claim 19, wherein the data de-duping module is further arranged to automatically detect and remove the duplicative data under control of the remote system.

25. The mobile computing device of claim 19, wherein the user data is wirelessly communicated via at least one of an XML protocol, a SyncML protocol, and a PAPI protocol.