Data caching among interconnected devices

• US 9,678,735 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2013
• Issued: 06/13/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/02/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Razer (Asia-Pacific) Pte. Ltd. (Razer Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Razer (Asia-Pacific) Pte. Ltd. (Razer Incorporated)
• Inventors: Chan, Michael A., Moss, Tom, Bornstein, Daniel Reuben, Fleming, Michael K., Quan, Justin, Tong, Linda
• Primary Examiner(s): Katsikis, Kostas
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ng, Billy H
• Application Number:
  US14/042,452
• Publication Number:
  US 20140095646A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,352 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/125 characterised by the use of retention policies retention policies for HSM systems G06F16/185
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/174 Redundancy elimination performed by the file system management of the data involved in backup or backup restore using de-duplication of the data G06F11/14
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/20 of structured data, e.g. relational data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/273 Asynchronous replication or reconciliation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/275 Synchronous replication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/278 Data partitioning, e.g. horizontal or vertical partitioning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5038 considering the execution order of a plurality of tasks, e.g. taking priority or time dependency constraints into consideration scheduling strategies G06F9/4881 and subgroups
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/26 at least one of which is mobile
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72412 using two-way short-range wireless interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/10 including a GPS signal receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/12 including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion telephones including GPS signal receivers H04M2250/10
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

Technology is disclosed herein for optimizing data caches among multiple interconnected computing devices. According to at least one embodiment, a storage server transfers a first data set to a computing device. The storage server then identifies a neighbor computing device sharing a local area network (LAN) with the computing device. The neighbor computing device maintains a network connection with the storage server. The storage server transmits a second data set relevant to the first data set to the neighbor computing device. In response to a read request for the second data set from the computing device, the storage server sends to the computing device an instruction indicating that the neighbor computing device is storing a data cache for the computing device.

Claims

1. A method for caching data among multiple interconnected computing devices, comprising:

transferring, from a storage server, a first data set to a computing device;

identifying, at the storage server, a neighbor computing device from multiple neighboring computing devices sharing a local area network (LAN) with the computing device, the neighbor computing device being selected from the multiple neighbor computing devices based on device statuses of the multiple neighbor computing devices, the device statuses including battery levels of the multiple neighbor computing devices, wherein the multiple neighbor computing devices maintain a network connection with the storage server, wherein identifying the neighbor computing device further includes;

sending, from the storage server, a request to the neighbor computing device to store cache data for the computing device at the neighbor computing device;

determining, at the storage server, whether a confirmation to store the cache data for the computing device at the neighbor computing device is received, wherein the storage server reinitiates identification of another neighbor computing device sharing the LAN with the computing device upon failing to receive confirmation from the neighbor computing device; and

receiving, at the storage server, a confirmation from the neighbor computing device to store the cache data for the computing device at the neighbor computing device when the neighbor computing device is able to store the cache data;

identifying, at the storage server, a second data set as relevant to the transferred first data set;

transmitting, from the storage server, the identified second data set to the identified neighbor computing device; and

upon transmitting the second data set to the identified neighbor computing device, sending, from the storage server, an instruction to the computing device, the instruction indicating that the identified neighbor computing device stores a data cache for the computing device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein a bandwidth of the local area network interconnecting the computing device and the neighbor computing device is higher than a bandwidth of a network connection between the computing device and the storage server.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying, at the storage server, the second data set as relevant to the first data set is based on a data access pattern profile of at least one user of the computing device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first data set and the second data set are two sets of data blocks that belong to a file.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first data set includes a first file, and the second data set includes a second file sharing a common property with the first file.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the common property is file type, owner account, file access right, file create timestamp, file modify timestamp, or file metadata.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the device statuses further includes one or more of workloads of the neighbor computing devices, data transferring rates of network adapters of the neighbor computing devices, free storage available on the neighbor computing devices or ownerships of the neighbor computing devices.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first data set and the second data set are stored in the storage sever and belong to a user account having access to the computing device and neighbor computing device.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, from the computing device, a request for retrieving the second data set and sending it to the neighbor computing device.

10. A computing device comprising:

a networking component configured to communicate with a second computing device, wherein the computing device and the second computing device are interconnected within a local area network (LAN), the network component further configured to communicate with a storage server outside of the LAN;

a storage component;

a processor; and

a memory storing instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the computing device to perform a process including;

receiving, from the storage server, a request to store cache data for the second computing device at the computing device, wherein the computing device is selected by the storage server to store the cache data based on a battery level of the computing device;

sending, to the storage server, a refusal to store the cache data for the second computing device at the computing device when the computing device is unable to store the cache data; and

sending a confirmation to the storage server to store the cache data for the second computing device at the computing device when the computing device is able to store the cache data, wherein the storage server reinitiates identification of another computing device sharing the LAN with the second computing device upon failing to receive confirmation from the computing device;

retrieving data from the storage server via the networking component;

storing the data in the storage component as cache data for the second computing device;

receiving, from the second computing device, a cache inquiry for the cache data stored in the storage component; and

in response to the cache inquiry, transferring the cache data to the second computing device.

11. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the LAN is a high-speed local area network, and a networking component connects with the storage server via the Internet.

12. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the storage server is a cloud storage service.

13. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the computing device and the second computing device are personal electronic devices to which a user has access.

14. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the computing device can switch between a low power conservation state and a high power consumption state.

15. The computing device of claim 14, wherein the process further includes:

in response to a request from the storage server for storing data as cache data for the second computing device, switching the computing device from the low power conservation state to the high power consumption state; and

sending to the storage server a confirmation for storing data as cache data for the second computing device.

16. The computing device of claim 14, wherein the process further includes:

in response to the cache inquiry from the second computing device, switching the computing device from the low power conservation state to the high power consumption state; and

sending to the second computing device, a confirmation that the computing device is storing the cache data of the cache inquiry.

17. A storage server comprising:

a networking component configured to communicate with a first computing device;

a storage component;

a processor; and

a memory component storing instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the storage server to perform a process including;

in response to a read request for a first data set from the first computing device, transferring the first data set stored in the storage component to the first computing device;

identifying a second data set relevant to the first data set;

identifying a neighbor computing device from multiple neighbor computing devices sharing a local area network (LAN) with the first computing device, the neighbor computing device being selected from the multiple neighbor computing devices based on device statuses of the multiple neighbor computing devices, the device statuses including a battery level of the multiple neighbor computing devices, wherein the multiple neighbor computing devices maintain a network connection with the storage server, wherein identifying the neighbor computing device further includes;

sending a request to the neighbor computing device to store cache data for the first computing device at the neighbor computing device;

determining whether a confirmation to store the cache data for the first computing device at the neighbor computing device is received, wherein the storage server reinitiates identification of another neighbor computing device sharing the LAN with the first computing device upon failing to receive confirmation from the neighbor computing device; and

receiving a confirmation from the neighbor computing device to store the cache data for the computing device at the neighbor computing device when the neighbor computing device is able to store the cache data;

transferring the second data set to the neighbor computing device as cache data for the first computing device; and

in response to a read request for the second data set from the first computing device, sending an instruction to the first computing device to retrieve the second data set directly from the neighbor computing device.

18. The storage server of claim 17, wherein the neighbor computing device serves as a data cache device for the first computing device.