Client-server interaction frequency control

• US 8,892,632 B2
• Filed: 06/04/2010
• Issued: 11/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Knight, Mark R., Antos, Christopher J., Velhankar, Manasi V.
• Primary Examiner(s): Vostal, O. C.
• Application Number:
  US12/793,705
• Publication Number:
  US 20110302237A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,628 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/205, 707/617, 707/E17.009, 370/412, 370/468
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/16 Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs coordinating program control therefor G06F9/52; in regulating and control system G05B
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063116 Schedule adjustment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/101 Collaborative creation, e.g. joint development of products or services
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/103 Workflow collaboration or project management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4015 where at least one of the additional parallel sessions is real time or time sensitive, e.g. white board sharing, collaboration or spawning of a subconference

Abstract

Client-server interaction frequency control may be provided. First, a collaborative electronic document may be loaded at a client device in a document collaboration session. The client device may then request a client-server interaction with a server hosting the collaboration session. Next, the client may receive input from the server indicating a state of the server. This input may then be used by the client device to adjust a rate at which the requested client-server interaction may occur.

Claims

1. A method for controlling client-server interaction frequency, the method comprising:

loading a collaborative electronic document in a document collaboration session;

requesting to communicate with a server hosting the document collaboration session, wherein requesting to communicate with the server hosting the document collaboration session comprises requesting to make a client-server interaction for one of;

receiving information associated with document collaboration and providing the information associated with document collaboration;

receiving input from the server comprising a state of the server;

adjusting a rate of client-server interaction based on the received input from the server, wherein adjusting the rate of the client-server interaction comprises adjusting the rate of client-server interaction at least based on a health of the server as indicated by the state of the server;

ensuring that the collaborative electronic document is in a proper collaborative state for client-editing by scheduling repeatable requests and by changing a gating period in between client-server interactions to change a frequency of the repeatable requests; and

repeating a repeatable request to interact with the server at the adjusted rate of client-server interaction after the gating period expires.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein adjusting the rate of client-server interaction based on the received input from the server comprises:

determining the gating period based on the received input from the server; and

gating the requested client-server interaction for a duration of the gating period.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein gating the requested client-server interaction comprises buffering the requested client-server interaction.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein gating the requested client-server interaction with server further comprises buffering all subsequently requested client-server interactions made during the gating period.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising performing the requested client-server interaction upon gating period expiration.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising performing, upon gating period expiration, all of the requested client-server interactions buffered during the gating period.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein adjusting the rate of client-server interaction based on the received input from the server comprises adjusting the rate of client-server interaction based on a request-type of the requested client-server interaction.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein requesting to communicate with the server further comprises requesting to communicate with the server at a scheduled frequency.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein adjusting the rate of client-server interaction based on the received input from the server comprises adjusting the scheduled frequency.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein adjusting the rate of client-server interaction based on the received input from the server further comprises adjusting the rate of client-server interaction based on the received input from the server based on at least one of the following:

an activity state of the collaborative electronic document running on a client computer, and

a state of a client computer loading the collaborative electronic document.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the processing unit configured to adjust the gating period in between client-server interactions to change a frequency of repeatable requests comprises the processing unit being configured to increase the gating period when the number of clients collaborating on the collaborative electronic document increases and to decrease the gating period when the number of clients collaborating on the collaborative electronic document decreases.

12. A computer-readable storage device having a set of instructions which when executed performs a method for controlling client-server interaction frequency, the method executed by the set of instructions comprising:

loading a collaborative electronic document on a client device;

requesting to interact with a server hosting a document collaboration session associated with the collaborative electronic document;

receiving input from the server comprising a state of the server, the state of the server indicating a health status of the server that is based on server-side calculations of health metrics of the server;

determining a gating period based on at least the received input from the server;

gating the requested server interaction for a duration of the gating period;

ensuring that the collaborative electronic document is in a proper collaborative state for client-editing by scheduling repeatable requests and by changing a gating period in between client-server interactions to change a frequency of the repeatable requests; and

repeating a repeatable request to interact with the server at the adjusted rate of client-server interaction after the gating period expires.

13. The computer-readable storage device of claim 12, wherein determining the gating period comprises determining the gating period further based on a request-type of the requested server interaction.

14. The computer-readable storage device of claim 12, wherein gating the requested server interaction comprises buffering the requested server interaction at the client device.

15. The computer-readable storage device of claim 14, further comprising performing the requested server interaction upon gating period expiration.

16. The computer-readable storage device of claim 14, further comprising gating all subsequent server interaction requests made during the gating period.

17. The computer-readable storage device of claim 16, wherein gating all subsequent server interaction requests comprises buffering the subsequent requested server interactions made during the gating period.

18. The computer-readable storage device of claim 16, further comprising performing all of the gated server interactions upon gating period expiration.

19. A system for controlling client-server interaction frequency, the system comprising:

a memory storage; and

a processing unit coupled to the memory storage, wherein the processing unit is configured to;

load a collaborative electronic document associated with a document collaboration session,

ensuring that the collaborative electronic document is in a proper collaborative state for client-editing by scheduling client-server interactions associated with updating a state of the collaborative electronic document to occur repeatedly,

analyze at least one variable employed in adjusting the scheduled frequency,

adjust the gating period in between client-server interactions to change a frequency of repeatable requests, and

repeat a repeatable request to interact with the server at the adjusted rate of client-server interaction after the gating period expires.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the at least one variable is received from the server and provides an indication of server health.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the processing unit configured to adjust the gating period in between client-server interactions to change a frequency of repeatable requests comprises the processing unit being configured to adjust the scheduled reoccurring server interaction to occur less frequently when the received indication of server health indicates poor server health.