Apparatus, and associated method, for facilitating synchronization of databases connected by way of a radio air interface

• US 20050176453A1
• Filed: 02/10/2004
• Published: 08/11/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 02/10/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Omar, Salim Hayder, Zhu, Jie, Phillips, Catherine, Yach, David Paul, Tysowski, Piotr K., Linkert, Barry Warren, Pereira, Kathy Ann, Hecht-Enns, Albert
• Granted Patent: US 7,457,631 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/502
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/273 Asynchronous replication or reconciliation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes

Abstract

Apparatus, and an associated method, for facilitating synchronization of databases connected by way of a radio air interface. Changes to a data record embodied at the network part are detected by a detector. A mapping is performed by a mapper, and a synchronization request is generated by a synchronization request generator. The synchronization request is filtered by a filter, and converted into form to permit its efficient communication upon the radio air interface to a mobile node pursuant to a synchronization session.

Claims

1. In a radio communication system having a network part at which a network-copy database is maintained and a mobile node at which a mobile-copy database is maintained, an improvement of apparatus for facilitating synchronization of data stored at the network-copy database, said apparatus comprising:

a mapper embodied at the network part, said mapper selectably operable to form a map between fields of a data record of a network-copy database, the network-copy database having a network-copy schema and fileds of a corresponding data record of the mobile-copy database, the mobile-copy database having a mobile schema, the map indexing together the fields of the data record of the network-database with the fields of the corresponding data record of the mobile-copy database, said mapper forming the map upon detection of change to the data record of the network-copy database.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a detector embodied at the network part, coupled to the network-part database, and to said mapper, said detector for detecting the change to the data record of the network-copy database and for providing an indication of the change to said mapper.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 further comprising a synchronization request generator embodied at the network part and coupled to said mapper, said synchronization request generator for generating a network-initiated synchronization request responsive to formation of the map by said mapper.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein the synchronization request formed by said synchronization request generator comprises indicia associated with the map generated by said mapper.

5. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein the synchronization request formed by said synchronization request generator further comprises indicia associated with the data record of which change thereto is detected.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein the indicia associated with the data record and of which the synchronization request is further comprised comprises values of the data record.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein the data record is formed of a first field and at least a second field and wherein the values of the data record comprised in the synchronization request formed by said synchronization request generator comprises values populating at least one of the first and at least second fields, respectively.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the values of the data record comprised in the synchronization request comprise values populating each of the first and at least second fields.

9. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein the fields of the data record of the network-copy database and mapped by said mapper are of a first number, wherein the fields of the corresponding data record of the mobile-copy database, the first number dissimilar with the second number.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 further comprising a filter embodied at the network part and adapted to receive the synchronization request formed by said synchronization request generator, said filter for filtering from the synchronization request map portions in which a field of the data record of the network-copy database fails to have a corresponding field of the corresponding data record of the mobile-copy database, the synchronization request, once filtered, comprising normalized map values.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 further comprising a converter embodied at the network part and coupled to said filter to receive the normalized mapped values formed thereat, said converter for converting the normalized mapped values into a radio air format, for communication to the mobile node pursuant to the synchronization of the data.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the radio air format into which said converter converts the normalized mapped values comprises a tag-length format.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein the tag-length format into which said converter converts the normalized mapped values is free of null-terminated values.

14. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein said filter further filters map portions in which a field of the data record of the network copy database is absent a change.

15. In a method of communicating in a radio communication system having a network part at which a network-copy database is maintained and a mobile node at which a mobile copy database is maintained, an improvement of a method for facilitating synchronization of data stored at the network copy database with data stored at the mobile copy database, said method comprising:

detecting a change to a data record of the network copy database;

forming a map between fields of the data record of the network copy database having a network schema and fields of a corresponding data record of the mobile copy database, the mobile copy database having a mobile copy schema, the map indexing together the fields of the data record of the network copy database with the fields of the corresponding data record of the mobile copy database.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising the operation of generating a network initiated synchronization request responsive to formation of the map formed during said operation of forming.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the synchronization request generated during said operation of generating comprises indicia associated with the map formed during said operation of forming.

18. The method of claim 16 further comprising the operation of filtering, from the synchronization request, selected map portions thereof to form normalized mapped values.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising the operation of converting the normalized mapped values into a radio air format.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising the operation of sending selected normalized mapped values, once converted into the radio air format, to the mobile node pursuant to the synchronization therewith.