METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR SYNCHRONIZATION OF DATA SET REPRESENTATIONS IN A BANDWIDTH-ADAPTIVE MANNER

• US 20100146124A1
• Filed: 01/27/2010
• Published: 06/10/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/15/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GOTO Group Incorporated (LogMeIn, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Inventors: Alexandrov, Albert, Christiansen, Bernd Oliver, Schauser, Klaus E., Saavedra, Rafael H., Von Eicken, Thorsten
• Granted Patent: US 8,375,087 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1822 Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/56 Packet switching systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes

Abstract

A bandwidth-adaptive method for synchronizing a consumer node representation of a dynamic data set and the source node representation of the dynamic data includes the step of receiving, from a source node, metadata information identifying a plurality of data packets that represent a state of at least a portion of a changing data set at a point in time. At least one of the identified data packets is received from the source node and at least one of the received data packets is selected responsive to the received meta-data information. The metadata information and the selected at least one data packet are transmitted to a consumer node.

Claims

1. In a system having a source node and a plurality of consumer nodes, a bandwidth-adaptive method for synchronizing a consumer node representation of a dynamic data set and the source node representation of the dynamic data set, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) receiving from a source node metadata information identifying a plurality of data packets that represent a state of at least a portion of a changing data set at a point in time;

(b) receiving from the source node at least one of the identified data packets;

(c) selecting at least one of the received data packets responsive to the received metadata information;

(d) transmitting to a consumer node the metadata information; and

(e) transmitting to the consumer node the selected at least one data packet.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of, before step (c), receiving a request from a consumer node for the current state of the changing data set.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising the step of repeating steps (a) and (b) until a request is received from a consumer node for the current state of the changing data set.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein step (c) comprises the steps of:

(c-a) selecting one of the received metadata information; and

(c-b) selecting at least one of the received data packets identified by the selected metadata information.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein step (c) comprises selecting a plurality of the received data packets responsive to the received metadata information.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein step (d) comprises transmitting to a consumer node each of the selected plurality of data packets.

7. The method of claims 1 wherein step (b) comprises receiving from the source node at least one of the identified data packets in encrypted form.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of storing the received metadata information in a memory device.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of storing the received at least one data packet in a memory device.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein step (c) comprises:

(c-a) selecting at least one of the received data packets responsive to the received metadata information; and

(c-b) selecting at least one of the stored data packets responsive to the received metadata information.

11. The method of claim 10 where step (e) comprises:

(e-a) transmitting to the consumer node the selected at least one of the received data packets; and

(e-b) transmitting to the consumer node the selected at least one of the stored data packets.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of storing, in a memory element, information identifying the at least one data packet transmitted to the consumer node.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising the step of selecting at least one of the received data packets responsive to the received metadata information and the stored information identifying the at least one data packet transmitted to the consumer node.

14. A bandwidth-adaptive system synchronizing consumer node representations and a source node representation of a changing data set, the system comprising:

a source node transmitting at least one metadata packet identifying a plurality of data packets that represent the current state of a changing data set and transmitting at least one of the identified data packets; and

a communications service in communication with the source node, the communications service selecting one of the at least one metadata packet and the at least one data packet for transmission to a first consumer node.

15-25. -25. (canceled)

26. A communications service synchronizing consumer node representations and a source node representation of a changing data set, the service comprising:

a receiving subsystem receiving at least one metadata packet identifying at least one data packet representing the current state of a changing data set and at least one data packet identified by the received at least one metadata packet;

a synchronization engine selecting one of the at least one metadata packet and the at least one data packet;

a transmission subsystem transmitting the selected one of the at least one metadata packet and the at least one data packet.

27-29. -29. (canceled)