DISTRIBUTED VIRTUAL STORAGE OF PORTABLE MEDIA FILES

• US 20100030827A1
• Filed: 10/12/2009
• Published: 02/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/16/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Callplex Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Callplex Incorporated
• Inventors: Sarakas, Stephen T.
• Granted Patent: US 10,303,783 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: N/A
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/188 Virtual file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/30018 Bit or string instructions

Abstract

Storing a file on a virtual file system associated with a portable media drive. The virtual file system includes the portable media drive and allocated storage of a plurality of storage servers. The file is partitioned into a local portion and at least one remote portion. The local portion is stored on the portable media drive and the remote portions are transferred to a process server. The process server treats each portion as an independent file and stores it to an appropriate storage server without reference to the original file, to other portions, or to the user. For a virtually compressed file, the storage size of the file on the virtual file system is calculated as a function of the storage size of the local portion on the portable media drive.

Claims

1. A method of storing files, said method comprising a plurality of computer executable instructions stored on a tangible computer storage medium and executed by one or more processors, said computer executable instructions comprising:

determining a number of portions in which a file will be stored;

calculating a portion size for each of the determined number of portions;

partitioning the file into the determined number of portions according to the calculated portion size of each portion, each partitioned portion having a content, said partitioned portions including a terminal portion;

modifying each partitioned portion by replacing the content of each partitioned portion with results of logical operations performed between the content of each partitioned portion and the content of at least one other partitioned portion;

assigning a unique name to each modified portion other than the terminal portion, said unique name of each modified portion indicative of the content of at least one other modified portion;

storing the terminal portion on a local storage device of a user; and

storing all other modified portions to a remote storage other than the local storage device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein calculating a portion size comprises non-deterministically varying a portion size within a range for each of the determined number of portions.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying comprises selecting the at least one other partitioned portion such that the portion size of the at least one other partitioned portion is equal to or greater than the portion size of the each partitioned portion to be modified.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said logical operations comprises Exclusive OR performed between the content of each partitioned portion and the content of at least one other partitioned portion.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising transforming the copied file prior to said partitioning, wherein the partitioned portions are sequentially modified, so that for a transformed file having been partitioned into first, second, and terminal portions, said first portion being larger than a combination of the second and terminal portion, said terminal portion larger than the second portion:

the first portion is modified by replacing the content of the first portion with results of logical operations performed between the content of the first portion and the content of the second portion and the terminal portion,

the second portion is modified by replacing the content of the second portion with results of logical operations performed between the content of the second portion and the content of terminal portion, and

the terminal portion is modified by replacing the content of the terminal portion with results of logical operations performed between the content of the terminal portion and the content of modified first portion.

6. The method of claim 5, said assigning a unique name comprising assigning the first portion a unique name indicative of the content of the second and terminal portions, and assigning the second portion a unique name indicative of the content of the terminal portion.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

copying the terminal portion into memory;

iteratively retrieving first and second portions in reverse sequential order beginning with the second portion and ending with the first portion, said iteratively retrieving further comprising reading the content of a combination of all retrieved portions to determine the next portion to retrieve;

reversing the logical operations performed on each retrieved portion;

combining all reversed portions into the transformed file; and

reverse transforming the transformed file to reconstruct the copied file.

8. A method of storing files, said method comprising a plurality of computer executable instructions stored on a tangible computer storage medium and executed by one or more processors, said computer executable instructions comprising:

sequentially generating a plurality of portions of a file to be stored, said sequentially generating comprising, for each remote portion of the file to be generated;

determining a portion size for the remote portion of the file and a remainder portion of the file;

dividing the file into the remote portion having content and the remainder portion having content;

modifying the remote portion by replacing the content of first remote portion with results of logical operations performed between the content of the portion and the content of the remainder portion;

assigning a unique name to the modified remote portion as a function of the content of the remainder portion; and

storing the modified remote portion to a remote storage other than the local storage.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein determining the portion size comprises non-deterministically varying the portion size of the remote portion within a range.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the determined portion size of each remote portion is equal to or smaller than the determined portion size of the remainder portion.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein said logical operations comprises Exclusive OR performed between the content of the remote portion and the content of the remainder portion.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

generating remote portions from the remainder portion until the remainder portion is shortened to a size equal to or smaller than a terminal length;

determining a number of additional portions into which the shortened remainder portion will be partitioned;

calculating a portion size for each of the determined additional portions;

partitioning the shortened remainder portion into the determined number of additional portions according to the calculated portion size of each additional portion, each partitioned additional portion having a content, said partitioned additional portions including a terminal portion;

modifying each partitioned additional portion by replacing the content of each partitioned additional portion with results of logical operations performed between the content of each partitioned additional portion and the content of at least one other partitioned additional portion;

assigning a unique name to each modified additional portion other than the terminal portion, said unique name of each modified additional portion indicative of the content of at least one other modified additional portion;

storing the terminal portion to the local storage; and

storing all other modified additional portions to the remote storage.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein said copying comprises incrementally copying the file into a file segment until the size of the file segment is sufficient to separate a next portion.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein incrementally copying the file comprises specifying a plurality of stations of the file and further comprises randomly selecting one of the plurality of stations for said incrementally copying.

15. A system for implementing distributed file storage, said system comprising:

a client device of a user, said client device having a processor configured for;

determining a number of portions into which a file will be stored;

calculating a portion size for each of the determined number of portions;

partitioning the file into the determined number of portions according to the calculated portion size of each portion, each partitioned portion having a content, said partitioned portions including a terminal portion;

modifying each partitioned portion by replacing the content of each partitioned portion with results of logical operations performed between the content of each partitioned portion and the content of at least one other partitioned portion;

assigning a unique name to each modified portion other than the terminal portion, said unique name of each modified portion indicative of the content of at least one other modified portion; and

storing the terminal portion on a local storage device;

one or more storage servers; and

a process server in communication with the client device and with the one or more storage servers, said process server configured for;

receiving all portions other than the terminal portion from the client device for storage; and

storing the received portions to the one or more storage servers.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the process server is further configured for storing each of the received portions in any of the one or more storage servers without reference to other received portions, without reference to the copied file, and without reference to the user.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the process server is further configured for storing each of the received portions independent of operations performed on the client device.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein modifying each partitioned portion comprises selecting the at least one other partitioned portion such that the portion size of the at least one other partitioned portion is greater than the portion size of the partitioned portion to be modified.