Selective prefetch scanning

• US 8,984,048 B1
• Filed: 04/18/2011
• Issued: 03/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/18/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ViaSat Incorporated
• Original Assignee: ViaSat Incorporated
• Inventors: Maniscalco, Michael, Sebastian, William B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Phuoc
• Assistant Examiner(s): ZAND, DAVOUD AMAN
• Application Number:
  US13/089,242
• Time in Patent Office: 1,429 Days
• Field of Search: 709/201, 709/203, 709/232
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9566 URL specific, e.g. using aliases, detecting broken or misspelled links
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/18 Protocol analysers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5681 Pre-fetching or pre-delivering data based on network characteristics

Abstract

The present invention relates to systems, apparatus, and methods of enhancing prefecher functionality by scanning responses object requests. In certain embodiments, prefetching is improved by identifying references to container objects or sections of container objects at a proxy server. When URLs are identified as part of a container object, a prefetching determination or adjustment to a prefetching decision is made according to the identification of the reference for a subset of URLs identified by the reference to the container object. For example, prefetching of URLs located in cascading style sheet (CSS) files may be restricted to a subset of URLs which are identified by a CSS rule.

Claims

1. A method for selective prefetch scanning in a web client/server communications system connecting a web client and a web server via a proxy server, the method comprising:

in the web/client server communication system comprising an applied reference store configured to maintain a collection of recently applied references in the proxy server, a known reference store configured to maintain a collection of known references in the proxy server, a hypertext markup language (HTML) scanner communicatively coupled with the applied reference store, and a container object scanner communicatively coupled with the applied reference store, the known reference store, and the HTML scanner;

scanning, by the proxy server, a first response at a prefetcher;

identifying, by the proxy server in the first response, a reference to a first section of a container object, wherein the container object includes a set of uniform resource locators (URLs) and the reference to first section of the container object identifies a subset of the set of URLs;

scanning, by the container object scanner, a second response comprising the container object and the reference;

determining whether the reference substantially matches one of the collection of recently applied references stored in the applied reference store; and

when the reference substantially matches one of the stored collection of recently applied references, adjusting a first prefetch decision for the subset of the set of URLs.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

subsequent to scanning the first response at the proxy server, adding the reference to a stored collection of recently applied references in a memory of the proxy server.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the container object is a JavaScript file and the reference is a Java operator.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the container object is a cascading style sheet (CSS) file and the reference is a CSS rule.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein scanning the second response occurs prior to scanning the first response.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

subsequent to scanning the second response at the proxy server, adding the reference to the stored collection of known references.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein adjusting the first prefetch decision for the subset of the set of URLs based on the identifying of the reference comprises:

determining a priority level associated with the reference; and

communicating the subset of the set of URLs to a prefetcher, the prefetcher being configured to prefetch objects and/or push prefetched objects according at least to a prefetching threshold priority level.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein determining a priority level associated with the reference comprises:

determining whether the reference corresponds to a “

;

hover”

object pseudo-selector, and assigning a low priority level to the reference when the reference corresponds to the “

;

hover”

object pseudo-selector.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein adjusting a first prefetch decision for the subset of the set of URLs based on the identifying of the reference comprises:

determining whether the reference corresponds to a zero priority object use; and

when the reference corresponds to the zero priority object use, rejecting nomination of the subset of the set of URLs for prefetching.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein determining whether the reference corresponds to the zero priority object use comprises:

determining whether the reference corresponds to a “

display;

none”

object property.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein adjusting the first prefetch decision for the subset of the set of URLs based on the identifying of the reference comprises:

determining that an additional reference is applicable according to a user preferences model; and

applying the additional reference in adjusting the first prefetch decision for the subset of the set of URLs.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the additional reference indicates a browser configuration;

wherein the container object comprises a further subset of the URLs, the further subset corresponding to the browser configuration; and

wherein applying the additional reference comprises adjusting a third prefetch decision for the further subset of the URLs.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the proxy server comprises a prefetch model and wherein the prefetch model comprises a plurality of bins, each corresponding to a set of web object characteristics;

and

wherein adjusting the first prefetch decision for the subset of the set of URLs based on the identifying of the reference comprises altering a characteristic associated with the reference that is one of the set of web object characteristics.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the characteristic associated with the reference is a URL scanner factor.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the first prefetch decision comprises a set of statistical factors that are regularly updated to model a probability related to a user selection.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the set of statistical factors comprises URL scanner factors, user-specific URL tracker factors, and global URL tracker factors.

17. A system for selective prefetch scanning in a communications system, the system comprising:

an applied reference store configured to maintain a collection of recently applied references in a proxy server;

a known reference store configured to maintain a collection of known references in the proxy server;

a hypertext markup language (HTML) scanner, communicatively coupled with the applied reference store and the known reference store, and configured to;

scan, by the proxy server, a first response at a prefetcher; and

identify, by the proxy server in the first response, a reference to a first section of a container object,

wherein the container object includes a set of uniform resource locators (URLs) and the first portion of the container object identifies a subset of the set of URLs; and

a container object scanner, communicatively coupled with the applied reference store, the known reference store, and the HTML scanner, and configured to;

scan a second response comprising the container object and the reference;

determine whether the reference substantially matches one of the collection of recently applied references stored in the applied reference store; and

when the reference substantially matches one of the stored collection of recently applied references, adjust a prefetch decision for the subset of the set of URLs.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein:

the HTML scanner is further configured to store the reference in the applied reference store; and

the container scanner is further configured to store the reference in the known reference store.

19. The system of claim 18, further comprising:

a prefetch filter, communicatively coupled with the HTML scanner and the container scanner, and configured to;

receive the subset of URLs; and

determine whether to communicate the subset of URLs to a prefetcher based on a priority associated with the reference.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the prefetch filter is further configured to:

determine whether to adjust a priority level associated with the subset of URLs prior to communicating the subset of URLs to the prefetcher, the prefetcher being configured to prefetch the subset of URLs according at least to a threshold priority level.

21. A non-transitory machine-readable medium for selective prefetch scanning in a communications system, the communication system comprising a proxy server, an applied reference store configured to maintain a collection of recently applied references in the proxy server, a known reference store configured to maintain a collection of known references in the proxy server, a hypertext markup language (HTML) scanner communicatively coupled to the applied reference store and the known reference store, and a container object scanner communicatively coupled with the applied reference store, the known reference store, and the HTML scanner, the machine-readable medium having non-transitory instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a machine, cause the communication system to perform steps comprising:

scanning, by the proxy server, a first response at a prefetcher;

identifying, by the proxy server in the first response, a reference to a first section of a container object, wherein the container file includes a set of uniform resource locators (URLs) and the first portion of the container object identifies a subset of the set of URLs;

scanning, by the container object scanner, a second response comprising the container object and the reference;

determining whether the reference substantially matches one of the collection of recently applied references, adjusting a first prefetch decision for the subset of the set of URLs based on the identifying of the reference.

22. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 21, having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a machine, cause the communication system to perform steps further comprising:

subsequent to scanning the first response at the proxy server, adding the reference to a stored collection of recently applied references in a memory of the proxy server,

wherein the proxy server comprises the applied reference store, the known reference store, the hypertext markup language (HTML) scanner, and the container object scanner.