Server-assisted and peer-to-peer synchronization

• US 8,386,587 B2
• Filed: 04/26/2012
• Issued: 02/26/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/22/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Sagar, Akash J., Moromisato, George P., Chung, Richard Yiu-Sai, Ozzie, Raymond E., Ozzie, Jack E., Reed, David Richard, Vernal, Michael Steven, Fedorov, Vladimir Dmitri, Annamalai, Muthukaruppan
• Primary Examiner(s): Winder, Patrice
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hussain, Tauqir
• Application Number:
  US13/457,321
• Publication Number:
  US 20120210020A1
• Time in Patent Office: 306 Days
• Field of Search: 709/217
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/178 Techniques for file synchronisation in file systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1063 Discovery through centralising entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1074 for supporting data block transmission mechanisms file transfer H04L67/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes

Abstract

Systems and methods for synchronizing data between endpoints using elements of centralized and decentralized synchronization systems and communication topologies are disclosed. Such systems and methods may in some cases synchronize some subset of data with a centralized endpoint while another subset of data is synchronized in a decentralized fashion directly with other endpoints. Such systems and methods may include a variety of cooperative functionality to assist in the synchronization of data between endpoints.

Claims

1. One or more computer-readable memory devices or storage devices having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform acts, the acts comprising:

performing a local change to data on a first endpoint, the local change comprising creating the data by the first endpoint or modifying the data by the first endpoint;

modifying metadata maintained by the first endpoint to reflect the local change to the data performed by the first endpoint;

communicating the modified metadata from the first endpoint to a server endpoint via a feed using a synchronization protocol, wherein the server endpoint is configured to communicate the modified metadata to a second endpoint via another feed using the synchronization protocol;

receiving, by the first endpoint, a request from the second endpoint for the data; and

sending the data from the first endpoint to the second endpoint responsive to the request.

2. The one or more computer-readable memory devices or storage devices of claim 1, wherein the data comprises part or all of a binary large object.

3. The one or more computer-readable memory devices or storage devices of claim 2, wherein the data is all of the binary large object and the acts further comprise:

sending, by the first endpoint, all of the binary large object to the second endpoint responsive to the request.

4. The one or more computer-readable memory devices or storage devices of claim 2, wherein the data is a portion of the binary large object and the acts further comprise:

sending, by the first endpoint, the portion of the binary large object to the second endpoint responsive to the request.

5. The one or more computer-readable memory devices or storage devices of claim 1, the acts further comprising:

obtaining, by the first endpoint, additional metadata from the server endpoint identifying other data that is available from a third endpoint; and

obtaining the other data from the third endpoint.

6. The one or more computer-readable memory devices or storage devices of claim 5, the acts further comprising:

synchronizing the feed with the server endpoint by merging the additional metadata obtained from the server endpoint with the metadata maintained by the first endpoint,

the merging comprising creating a new local item corresponding to the other data.

7. The one or more computer-readable memory devices or storage devices of claim 1, the acts further comprising:

obtaining, by the first endpoint, additional metadata from the server endpoint indicating another change to the data by a third endpoint; and

updating the data on the first endpoint to incorporate the another change to the data.

8. The one or more computer-readable memory devices or storage devices of claim 7, the acts further comprising:

synchronizing the feed with the server endpoint by merging the additional metadata obtained from the server endpoint with the metadata maintained by the first endpoint to identify a winning item and a losing item,

wherein the data is updated on the first endpoint in instances when the metadata maintained by the first endpoint includes the losing item.

9. A system comprising the one or more computer-readable memory devices or storage devices of claim 1 and the computing device, wherein the computing device is the first endpoint.

10. A method comprising:

synchronizing a feed maintained by a server endpoint with a first endpoint, the synchronizing comprising, by the server endpoint;

obtaining metadata from the first endpoint, wherein the metadata obtained from the first endpoint includes an identifier of data that has been modified by the first endpoint and the data is not communicated by the first endpoint to the server endpoint with the metadata; and

updating the feed maintained by the server endpoint by merging the metadata obtained from the first endpoint with other metadata maintained by the server endpoint;

identifying a second endpoint that has subscribed or registered to be notified when the other metadata changes; and

notifying the second endpoint that has subscribed or registered that the other metadata has changed,

wherein at least the synchronizing is performed using a synchronization protocol for communicating the feed maintained by the server endpoint.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the data is part of a data object.

12. The method according to claim 11, further comprising:

identifying, to the second endpoint, another endpoint from where other data of the data object can be retrieved.

13. The method according to claim 10, further comprising:

in an instance when the data is available from the second endpoint, updating a blob lookup service to indicate that other endpoints can retrieve the data from the second endpoint.

14. One or more computer-readable memory devices or storage devices having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform acts, the acts comprising:

synchronizing a feed maintained by a server endpoint with a first endpoint, the synchronizing comprising, by the server endpoint;

obtaining metadata from the first endpoint, wherein the metadata obtained from the first endpoint includes an identifier of data that has been created or modified by the first endpoint and the data is not communicated by the first endpoint to the server endpoint with the metadata; and

updating the feed maintained by the server endpoint by merging the metadata obtained from the first endpoint with other metadata maintained by the server endpoint;

identifying a second endpoint that has subscribed or registered to be notified when the other metadata changes; and

notifying the second endpoint that has subscribed or registered that the other metadata has changed,

wherein at least the synchronizing is performed using a synchronization protocol for communicating the feed maintained by the server endpoint.

15. The one or more computer-readable memory devices or storage devices of claim 14, wherein the notifying is performed responsive to updating the feed without receiving a request from the second endpoint.

16. The one or more computer-readable memory devices or storage devices of claim 14, the acts further comprising:

communicating the other metadata to the second endpoint.

17. The one or more computer-readable memory devices or storage devices of claim 14, the acts further comprising:

responsive to a request received from the second endpoint, providing the second endpoint with multiple locators identifying multiple locations where different portions of the data can be obtained, wherein an individual locator provided to the second endpoint identifies the first endpoint.

18. The one or more computer-readable memory devices or storage devices according to claim 17, the acts further comprising:

identifying multiple other endpoints that have subscribed to the feed;

notifying the multiple other endpoints that have subscribed to the feed that the other metadata has changed; and

responsive to requests received from the at least some of the multiple other endpoints, providing the multiple other endpoints with the multiple locators identifying the multiple locations where the different portions of the data can be obtained, including the individual locator that identifies the first endpoint.

19. The one or more computer-readable memory devices or storage devices of claim 14, wherein the feed is in a markup language format and the data is in a binary format.

20. A system comprising the one or more computer-readable memory devices or storage devices of claim 14 and the computing device, wherein the computing device is the server endpoint.