Data caching based on data contents

• US 20060167969A1
• Filed: 01/25/2005
• Published: 07/27/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 01/25/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: X Corp. (f/k/a Twitter, Inc.) (X Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Greenstein, Marina A., Andreev, Dmitry, Grunin, Galina, Vilshansky, Gregory
• Granted Patent: US 7,716,306 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/202
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/564 Enhancement of application control based on intercepted application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context

Abstract

A novel method and structure in which data caching is based on data contents. The method comprises the steps of (a) sending a data request from a processing circuit to a target server; (b) in response to the target server receiving the data request, sending a first response portion of a data response from the target server to the processing circuit; and {circle around (c)} in response to the processing circuit receiving the first response portion, using the processing circuit to examine the first response portion so as to determine whether the processing circuit contains a copy of the data response; and (d) in response to the processing circuit determining that the processing circuit contains a copy of the data response, sending the copy of the data response from the processing circuit to a client machine.

Claims

1. A method, comprising the steps of:

(a) sending, by a proxy server, a data request to a target server; and

(b) in response to the proxy server receiving a first response portion of a data response from the target server, examining, by the proxy server, the first response portion so as to determine whether a data storage device contains a copy of the data response.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein step (b) comprises the steps of:

examining, by the proxy server, a second response portion of the first response portion to determine whether the data response is of a compressed graphic format; and

in response to the proxy server determining that the data response is of the compressed graphic format, examining, by the proxy server, a third response portion of the first response portion to determine whether the data storage device contains a copy of the data response.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of examining the third response portion to determine whether the data storage device contains a copy of the data response comprises the steps of:

generating, by the proxy server, a signature from the third response portion, and

searching, by the proxy server, a look-up table with reference to the signature so as to determine whether the data storage device contains a copy of the data response.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the step of generating the signature from the third response portion comprises the step of applying a Hash function to the third response portion to generate the signature.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of, in response to the proxy server determining that the data storage device contains a copy of the data response, sending, by the proxy server, the copy of the data response to a client machine.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of, in response to the proxy server determining that the data storage device contains a copy of the data response, processing, by the proxy server, the copy of the data response.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of, in response to the proxy server determining that the data storage device contains a copy of the data response, sending, by the proxy server, a communication termination message to the target server.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of, in response to the proxy server determining that the data storage device does not contain a copy of the data response, receiving and storing, by the proxy server, a remainder of the data response from the target server.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of updating, by the proxy server, a look-up table to indicate that the data storage device contains a copy of the data response.

10. A computer program product, comprising a computer usable medium having a computer readable program code embodied therein, said computer readable program code comprising an algorithm adapted to implement a method for data transfer, said method comprising the steps of:

(a) sending, by a proxy server, a data request to a target server; and

(b) in response to the proxy server receiving a first response portion of a data response from the target server, examining, by the proxy server, the first response portion so as to determine whether a data storage device contains a copy of the data response.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein step (b) comprises the steps of:

examining, by the proxy server, a second response portion of the first response portion to determine whether the data response is of a compressed graphic format; and

in response to the proxy server determining that the data response is of the compressed graphic format, examining, by the proxy server, a third response portion of the first response portion to determine whether the data storage device contains a copy of the data response.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the step of examining the third response portion to determine whether the data storage device contains a copy of the data response comprises the steps of:

generating, by the proxy server, a signature from the third response portion, and

searching, by the proxy server, a look-up table with reference to the signature so as to determine whether the data storage device contains a copy of the data response.

13. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the step of generating the signature from the third response portion comprises the step of applying a Hash function to the third response portion to generate the signature.

14. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the method further comprises the step of, in response to the proxy server determining that the data storage device contains a copy of the data response, sending, by the proxy server, the copy of the data response to a client machine.

15. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the method further comprises the step of, in response to the proxy server determining that the data storage device contains a copy of the data response, processing, by the proxy server, the copy of the data response.

16. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the method further comprises the step of, in response to the proxy server determining that the data storage device contains a copy of the data response, sending, by the proxy server, a communication termination message to the target server.

17. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the method further comprises the steps of, in response to the proxy server determining that the data storage device does not contain a copy of the data response, receiving and storing, by the proxy server, a remainder of the data response from the target server.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the method further comprises the step of updating, by the proxy server, a look-up table to indicate that the data storage device contains a copy of the data response.

19. A method for deploying computing infrastructure, comprising integrating computer-readable code into a computing system, wherein the code in combination with the computing system is capable of performing the steps of:

(a) sending, by a proxy server, a data request to a target server; and

(b) in response to the proxy server receiving a first response portion of a data response from the target server, examining, by the proxy server, the first response portion so as to determine whether a data storage device contains a copy of the data response.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein step (b) comprises the steps of:

examining, by the proxy server, a second response portion of the first response portion to determine whether the data response is of a compressed graphic format; and

in response to the proxy server determining that the data response is of the compressed graphic format, examining, by the proxy server, a third response portion of the first response portion to determine whether the data storage device contains a copy of the data response.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the step of examining the third response portion to determine whether the data storage device contains a copy of the data response comprises the steps of:

generating, by the proxy server, a signature from the third response portion, and

searching, by the proxy server, a look-up table with reference to the signature so as to determine whether the data storage device contains a copy of the data response.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the step of generating the signature from the third response portion comprises the step of applying a Hash function to the third response portion to generate the signature.

23. The method of claim 19, wherein the code in combination with the computing system is further capable of performing the steps of, in response to the proxy server determining that the data storage device contains a copy of the data response, sending, by the proxy server, the copy of the data response to a client machine.

24. The method of claim 19, wherein the code in combination with the computing system is further capable of performing the steps of, in response to the proxy server determining that the data storage device contains a copy of the data response, processing, by the proxy server, the copy of the data response.

25. The method of claim 19, wherein the code in combination with the computing system is further capable of performing the steps of, in response to the proxy server determining that the data storage device contains a copy of the data response, sending, by the proxy server, a communication termination message to the target server.

26. The method of claim 19, wherein the code in combination with the computing system is further capable of performing the steps of, in response to the proxy server determining that the data storage device does not contain a copy of the data response, receiving and storing, by the proxy server, a remainder of the data response from the target server.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the code in combination with the computing system is further capable of performing the step of updating, by the proxy server, a look-up table to indicate that the data storage device contains a copy of the data response.

28. A method, comprising the steps of:

(a) sending, by a proxy server, a data request to a target server,

(b) in response to the target server receiving the data request, sending, by the target server, a data packet of a data response to the proxy server,

{circle around (c)} in response to the proxy server receiving the data packet, examining, by the proxy server, a header of the data packet so as to determine whether the data response is of a compressed graphic format;

(d) in response to the proxy server determining that the data response is of the compressed graphic format, examining, by the proxy server, the header so as to determine whether the data response comprises more than one packet; and

(e) in response to the proxy server determining that the data response comprises more than one packet, examining, by the proxy server, a data portion of the data packet so as to determine whether a data storage device contains a copy of the data response.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein step (e) comprises the steps of:

generating, by the proxy server, a signature from N bits of the data portion, wherein N is the pre-specified positive integer; and

searching, by the proxy server, a look-up table with reference to the signature so as to determine whether the data storage device contains a copy of the data response.

30. The method of claim 28, wherein the compressed graphic format is JPEG.