Method and system for delivering information with caching based on interest and significance

• US 20060173950A1
• Filed: 01/17/2006
• Published: 08/03/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 01/28/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Perrone, Antonio, Longobardi, Roberto
• Granted Patent: US 7,490,080 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/201
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5682 Policies or rules for updating, deleting or replacing the stored data
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access

Abstract

A method (200) for delivering information (for example, monitoring data) is proposed. The information is collected (235) on a central server (110) from remote sources (105), in order to be provided to multiple clients (120) in response to corresponding requests. In the method of the invention, an interest index is calculated (280) according to the number of preceding requests of the information that have been submitted in the past (so as to estimate the interest of the clients for the information); moreover, a significance index is calculated (220) according to a probability of a current value of the information that is uploaded onto the server by the corresponding source (so as to estimate its importance for the clients). A frequency for refreshing the information on the server can then be determined (245) according to both the interest index and the significance index. In this way, the refresh frequency self-adapts to the expected behavior of the clients.

Claims

1. A method (300) for delivering information in a data processing system from a server entity to at least one client entity, wherein for each of at least one information item the method includes the steps of:

collecting a current value of the information item on the server entity from a corresponding source entity according to a corresponding refresh frequency,

delivering the current value of the information item from the server entity to each of the at least one client entity in response to a corresponding request,

characterized by the steps of

determining an interest index of the information item, being indicative of an interest of the at least one client entity for the information item, according to preceding requests for the information item being submitted by the at least one client entity previously, and

updating the refresh frequency of the information item according to the corresponding interest index.

2. The method according to claim 1, further including the steps of:

determining a significance index of the information item, being indicative of a significance of the current value of the information item for the at least one client entity, according to an information content of the current value of the information item, and

updating the refresh frequency of the information item according to the corresponding significance index.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of determining the interest index of the information item includes:

storing an indication of a number of the preceding requests for the information item being submitted by the at least one client entity in a predetermined period, and

calculating the interest index according to said number.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein the step of determining the significance index of the information item includes:

classifying the current value of the information item into one of a plurality of categories, each category being associated with a predefined significance index, and assigning the predefined significance index associated with the category to the information item.

5. The method according to claim 2, wherein the step of determining the significance index of the information item includes:

estimating a probability of the current value of the information item according to a set of preceding values of the information item being collected previously, and

calculating the significance index according to said probability.

6. The method according to claim 2, wherein the method further includes the steps under the control of the corresponding source entity of:

generating the current value of the information item according to the corresponding refresh frequency,

determining the significance index of the information item, and

transmitting the current value of the information item and the corresponding significance index to the server entity,

and the steps under the control of the server entity of;

caching the current value of the information item,

updating the refresh frequency of the information item according to the corresponding interest index and significance index, and

returning the refresh frequency of the information item to the source entity.

7. The method according to claim 1, further including the step of:

modulating the refresh frequency of the information item according to a substantially random modulation value.

8. A computer program in a computer readable medium directly loadable into a working memory of a data processing system for performing the method when the program is run on the system comprising the steps of:

collecting a current value of the information item on the server entity from a corresponding source entity according to a corresponding refresh frequency,

delivering the current value of the information item from the server entity to each of the at least one client entity in response to a corresponding request, characterized by the steps of

determining an interest index of the information item, being indicative of an interest of the at least one client entity for the information item, according to preceding requests for the information item being submitted by the at least one client entity previously, and

updating the refresh frequency of the information item according to the corresponding interest index.

9. (canceled)

10. A data processing system including a server entity, at least one client entity, means for collecting a current value of each of at least one information item on the server entity from a corresponding source entity according to a corresponding refresh frequency, and means for delivering the current value of the information item from the server entity to each of the at least one client entity in response to a corresponding request, characterized in that the system further includes means for determining an interest index of the information item, being indicative of an interest of the at least one client entity for the information item, according to preceding requests for the information item being submitted by the at least one client entity previously, and means for updating the refresh frequency of the information item according to the corresponding interest index.