System and method for performing granular invalidation of cached dynamically generated objects in a data communication network
First Claim
1. In a packet processing engine of a device, the packet processing engine processing a network packet comprising at least one dynamically generated object and storing the at least one dynamically generated object in a cache, a method for invalidating a cached dynamically generated object in the cache responsive to a signal of a packet processing timer, the method comprising the steps of:
- (a) receiving, by a packet processing engine of a device, a first signal from a packet processing timer directing the packet processing engine to process an incoming network packet, the first signal providing a time for expiration of a cached dynamically generated object of less than or equal to a duration of time to dynamically generate and serve the dynamically generated object from an originating server;
(b) processing, by the packet processing engine, the incoming network packet responsive to the first signal; and
(c) transmitting, by the packet processing engine responsive to the first signal, a second signal to a cache indicating a cached dynamically generated object is invalid.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention is directed towards a method and system for providing granular timed invalidation of dynamically generated objects stored in a cache. The techniques of the present invention incorporates the ability to configure the expiration time of objects stored by the cache to fine granular time intervals, such as the granularity of time intervals provided by a packet processing timer of a packet processing engine. As such, the present invention can cache objects with expiry times down to very small intervals of time. This characteristic is referred to as “invalidation granularity.” By providing this fine granularity in expiry time, the cache of the present invention can cache and serve objects that frequently change, sometimes even many times within a second. One technique is to leverage the packet processing timers used by the device of the present invention that are able operate at time increments on the order of milliseconds to permit invalidation or expiry granularity down to 10 ms or less.
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Citations
26 Claims
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1. In a packet processing engine of a device, the packet processing engine processing a network packet comprising at least one dynamically generated object and storing the at least one dynamically generated object in a cache, a method for invalidating a cached dynamically generated object in the cache responsive to a signal of a packet processing timer, the method comprising the steps of:
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(a) receiving, by a packet processing engine of a device, a first signal from a packet processing timer directing the packet processing engine to process an incoming network packet, the first signal providing a time for expiration of a cached dynamically generated object of less than or equal to a duration of time to dynamically generate and serve the dynamically generated object from an originating server; (b) processing, by the packet processing engine, the incoming network packet responsive to the first signal; and (c) transmitting, by the packet processing engine responsive to the first signal, a second signal to a cache indicating a cached dynamically generated object is invalid. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 24)
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13. A device for invalidating a cached dynamically generated object responsive to a signal of a packet processing timer, the device processing a network packet comprising at least one dynamically generated object and storing the at least one dynamically generated object in a cache, the device comprising:
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a packet processing timer generating a first signal, the first signal providing a time for expiration of a cached dynamically generated object of less than or equal to a duration of time to dynamically generate and serve the dynamically generated object from an originating server; a packet processing engine receiving the first signal and reading an incoming network packet responsive to the first signal; and transmitting, by the packet processing engine responsive to the first signal, a second signal to a cache indicating a cached dynamically generated object is invalid. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25)
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26. In a packet processing engine of a device, a method for invalidating a cached dynamically generated object in the cache responsive to a signal of a packet processing timer, the method comprising:
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receiving, by a packet processing engine, a plurality of requests from a plurality of clients for a dynamically generated object; receiving, by the packet processing engine, the dynamically generated object; storing, by the packet processing engine in a cache, the dynamically generated object; responding, by the packet processing engine, to the plurality of requests with the dynamically generated object; receiving, by the packet processing engine, an incoming network packet; receiving, by the packet processing engine, a first signal from a packet processing timer, the first signal directing the packet processing engine to process the incoming network packet, the first signal providing a time for expiration of a cached dynamically generated object of less than or equal to a duration of time to dynamically generate and serve the dynamically generated object from an originating server; and transmitting, by the packet processing engine responsive to the first signal, a second signal to the cache indicating the cached dynamically generated object is invalid.
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Specification