Backing up a wireless computing device

• US 7,792,799 B2
• Filed: 10/10/2003
• Issued: 09/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/10/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Crystal Mountain Communications, LLC (Ascend Innovation Management, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Perlego Systems Incorporated (Blackberry Limited)
• Inventors: Craswell, Ronald J., Pratt, Jr., David S., Klassen, Paul J. H.
• Primary Examiner(s): ROBINSON, GRETA LEE
• Application Number:
  US10/538,795
• Publication Number:
  US 20060230081A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,524 Days
• Field of Search: 707/200, 707/201, 707/204, 707/202, 707/10, 707/609, 707/640, 707/641, 707/648, 707/649, 707/650, 707/652, 707/653, 707/654, 707/662, 707/663, 707/665, 707/666, 707/674, 707/679, 707/680, 707/682, 711/161, 711/162, 711/164, 705/1.1, 705/50, 705/60
• US Class Current: 707/640
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1448 Management of the data involved in backup or backup restore
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1456 Hardware arrangements for backup
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1461 Backup scheduling policy
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/83 the solution involving signatures
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass

Abstract

A method and apparatus are provided to backup and restore data (410) from/to wireless computing devices, utilizing strongly collision free deterministic identifiers.

Claims

1. A wireless communication apparatus having:

a processor; and

a memory comprising computer executable instructions which, upon execution, are operative to cause the wireless communication apparatus to;

facilitate login, by a user of the wireless communication apparatus, to a user account at a remote backup server, the user account being accessible from the wireless communication apparatus as well as from another computing device of the user;

facilitate designation, by the user, of data on the wireless communication apparatus to be backed up by the backup server;

generate a hash value for said designated data;

communicate a request to the backup server to back up the designated data, including said hash value, to enable said backup server to determine whether said data is already available to said backup server;

only after said backup server determines that said data was not already earlier made available to said backup server from the wireless communication device or other devices, receive a request from said backup server to send said data to said backup server; and

send said data to said backup server in response to said request from the backup server, wherein the backup server is configured to store the data, to associate the stored data with said user account as well as other user accounts subsequently wanting to backup the same data, and to provide, on request by the user, the data to the another computing device of the user.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus further comprises a transceiver and audio input/output components coupled to the processor and memory.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the programming instructions, upon execution, are operative to cause the wireless communication apparatus to send said data in compressed form to said backup server.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said hash value is generated using a cryptographic hashing algorithm.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein said cryptographic hashing algorithm is selected from the group of cryptographic hashing algorithms consisting of:

MD2, MD4, MD5, SHA, HAS160, HAVAL, RIPEMD (including RIPEMD-128/160/255/320), TIGER, Snefru, FFT-Hash I, FFT-Hash II, MAA, DSA, Cell hash, hash functions based on additive knapsacks, and hash functions based on multiplicative knapsacks.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said hash value is a cryptographic checksum.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said hash value is wirelessly communicated via a communication medium selected from the group consisting of:

RF signals, optical signals, audio modulated signals, and electromagnetic signals.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the programming instructions, upon execution, are operative to cause the wireless communication apparatus to facilitate a user in designating a data type not to backup from the wireless communication apparatus.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the programming instructions, upon execution, are operative to cause the wireless communication apparatus to facilitate a user in designating a data location not to backup from the wireless communication apparatus.

10. A wireless communication apparatus having a processor;

and

a memory comprising computer executable instructions which, upon execution, are operative to cause the wireless communication apparatus to;

facilitate a user of the wireless communication apparatus in logging into a user account of the user on a backup server, using the wireless communication apparatus, the user account being accessible from the wireless communication apparatus as well as from another computing device of the user;

request a list of backups associated with the user account from the backup server, wherein the backups include backups performed for the wireless communication apparatus, and wherein the backups performed for the wireless communication apparatus include backups taken from the wireless communication apparatus and backups taken from other devices;

receive from the backup server the list of backups associated with the user account;

facilitate a user of the wireless communication device in selecting a previous backup from among the list of backups associated with the user account ;

determine whether the requested previous backups are not on the wireless communication device, and whether the requested previous backups are compatible with the wireless communication apparatus;

only on determining that the selected previous backups are currently not on the wireless communication apparatus and are compatible with the wireless communication apparatus, request the selected previous backups from the backup server; and

receive said requested previous backups from said backup server.

11. A method of backing up a wireless communication device, the method comprising:

facilitating, by the wireless communication device, login by a user of the wireless communication device, to a user account of the user at a backup server, the user account being accessible from the wireless communication device and from another computing device of the user;

facilitating, by the wireless communication device, the user in designating data on the wireless communication device to be backed up by the backup server;

generating, by the wireless communication device, a hash value for said designated data;

communicating by the wireless communication device, said hash value to the backup server to enable said backup server to determine whether said data was already previously made available to said backup server from the wireless communication device or another device; and

only after said backup server indicates that said data is not already previously made available to said backup server, sending, by the wireless communication device, said data to said backup server to enable the backup server to store the data, associate the data with the user account and other user accounts wanting to have the same data backup, and provide the data, on request of the user, to the other computing device of the user.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein said generating comprises generating the hash value using a cryptographic hashing algorithm.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein facilitating comprises facilitating a user of the wireless communication device in designating a data type not to backup from the wireless communication device.

14. The method of claim 11 wherein facilitating comprises facilitating a user of the wireless communication device in designating a data location not to backup from the wireless communication device.

15. A method of restoring data to a wireless communication device, the method comprising:

facilitating a user of the wireless communication device, by the wireless communication device, in logging into a user account of the user on a backup server;

sending to the backup server, by the wireless communication device, a request for a list of backups associated with the user account, wherein the list of backups includes backups performed for the wireless communication device, wherein the backups performed include backups taken from the wireless communication device, and backups taken from other devices;

receiving from the backup server, by the wireless communication device, the list of backups associated with the user account;

enabling, by the wireless communication device, a user of the wireless communication device in selecting a previous backup from the list;

checking by the wireless communication device, whether the selected previous backup is on the wireless communication device and whether the selected previous backup is compatible with the wireless communication device;

only after the selected previous backup has been determined to be not on the wireless communication device and to be compatible with the wireless communication device, requesting from the backup server, by the wireless communication device, the selected previous backup; and

receiving by the wireless communication device said requested previous backup from said backup server.