US20050283574A1 - Pre-loading content to caches for information appliances - Google Patents

Pre-loading content to caches for information appliances Download PDF

Info

Publication number
US20050283574A1
US20050283574A1 US11/215,414 US21541405A US2005283574A1 US 20050283574 A1 US20050283574 A1 US 20050283574A1 US 21541405 A US21541405 A US 21541405A US 2005283574 A1 US2005283574 A1 US 2005283574A1
Authority
US
United States
Prior art keywords
information
user
information content
proxy
request
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Abandoned
Application number
US11/215,414
Inventor
Joseph O'Neil
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Individual
Original Assignee
Individual
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Individual filed Critical Individual
Priority to US11/215,414 priority Critical patent/US20050283574A1/en
Publication of US20050283574A1 publication Critical patent/US20050283574A1/en
Abandoned legal-status Critical Current

Links

Images

Classifications

    • GPHYSICS
    • G06COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06FELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F12/00Accessing, addressing or allocating within memory systems or architectures
    • G06F12/02Addressing or allocation; Relocation
    • G06F12/08Addressing or allocation; Relocation in hierarchically structured memory systems, e.g. virtual memory systems
    • G06F12/0802Addressing of a memory level in which the access to the desired data or data block requires associative addressing means, e.g. caches
    • G06F12/0862Addressing of a memory level in which the access to the desired data or data block requires associative addressing means, e.g. caches with prefetch
    • HELECTRICITY
    • H04ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04LTRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L67/00Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications
    • H04L67/50Network services
    • H04L67/56Provisioning of proxy services
    • H04L67/568Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
    • H04L67/5681Pre-fetching or pre-delivering data based on network characteristics
    • GPHYSICS
    • G06COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06FELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F16/00Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
    • G06F16/90Details of database functions independent of the retrieved data types
    • G06F16/95Retrieval from the web
    • G06F16/957Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
    • G06F16/9574Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation of access to content, e.g. by caching
    • HELECTRICITY
    • H04ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04LTRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L67/00Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications
    • H04L67/2866Architectures; Arrangements
    • H04L67/288Distributed intermediate devices, i.e. intermediate devices for interaction with other intermediate devices on the same level
    • HELECTRICITY
    • H04ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04LTRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L67/00Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications
    • H04L67/50Network services
    • H04L67/56Provisioning of proxy services
    • HELECTRICITY
    • H04ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04LTRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L67/00Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications
    • H04L67/50Network services
    • H04L67/56Provisioning of proxy services
    • H04L67/568Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
    • H04L67/5682Policies or rules for updating, deleting or replacing the stored data
    • HELECTRICITY
    • H04ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04LTRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L67/00Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications
    • H04L67/50Network services
    • H04L67/60Scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests, e.g. requests for application data transmissions using the analysis and optimisation of the required network resources
    • H04L67/62Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests
    • GPHYSICS
    • G06COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06FELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F2212/00Indexing scheme relating to accessing, addressing or allocation within memory systems or architectures
    • G06F2212/60Details of cache memory
    • G06F2212/6028Prefetching based on hints or prefetch instructions
    • YGENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
    • Y10TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC
    • Y10STECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
    • Y10S715/00Data processing: presentation processing of document, operator interface processing, and screen saver display processing
    • Y10S715/961Operator interface with visual structure or function dictated by intended use
    • Y10S715/963Calendar or scheduling

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to systems for providing an information appliance with information content, including multimedia from a remote, on-line content provider, and more particularly relates to systems for caching information content at intermediate locations readily accessible to the information appliance.
  • Various information appliances exist that enable customers to be provided with information content.
  • the customers may be mobile, traveling from location to location and utilizing multiple information appliances, such as in the case of a traveling salesperson.
  • Such information appliances include televisions, portable computers and automobile navigational aids, among others.
  • the information appliance connects to an access node of a network of interconnected servers that are in turn connected to multimedia servers that provide information content.
  • multimedia servers that provide information content.
  • a mobile customer is able to download multimedia information content to review news, movies, radio, books and other files containing information of various types and formats.
  • a mobile customer's review of the requested/desired information content is delayed until an entire file or a substantial portion of a file is received at the information appliance.
  • This delay may be significant, as the information appliance may need to access remotely located information content providers via a vast network of interconnected servers.
  • packet loss during transmission can result in reception of low-quality versions of real-time information content that is to be presented to the mobile customer.
  • delay and packet loss are magnified as transmission distance increases and as the number of interconnected servers that are interacted with along the transmission path increases.
  • a cache provides a place to store information more or less temporarily, saving time and reducing the burden of re-obtaining the stored information from a remote location via the network. For example, a web page that has been requested by a conventional web browser is stored in the browser's cache directory on the hard disk of the information appliance. That way, when the mobile customer returns to a recently viewed page, the browser can obtain the web page from the cache rather than the original server, thereby saving time and reducing network traffic.
  • caching can be implemented on a network by distributing information content to multiple cache servers from which most users would obtain information and by periodically refreshing the information content stored at each cache server.
  • the cache server is located relatively close to information appliances and typically within an enterprise that saves information content that server users have requested so that successive requests for previously requested information content can be satisfied by the cache server rather than requiring an extended use of the network.
  • the cache server not only serves its users by obtaining information more quickly but also reduces network traffic.
  • a cache server improves the speed and the reliability of the delivery of information content, providing a higher quality of service because information content is not transmitted via congested networks.
  • An exemplary method for pre-loading information content into a cache include viewing or accessing information content using an information appliance. Then transmitting a request to pre-load the information content to a cache associated with another information appliance. And lasting viewing or accessing the information content at the other information appliance.
  • the information content will arrive at a particular information appliance prior to the arrival of the user at that information appliance. Waiting by the user for the information content is eliminated. Furthermore, pre-loading greatly increases the allowable data transfer time for the information content. With this increased data transfer time, the information content of the present invention may arrive at a particular information appliance with a higher quality than the same information content of the current conventional systems, since the higher quality version of the information content may have a prohibitively long data transfer time in the current conventional systems.
  • the interface may be, for example, an application running on a computer, or an application running on a personal digital assistant (PDA), or any other number of interfaces.
  • PDA personal digital assistant
  • the user calendar stores a plurality of events and locations for any given day. For example, events and locations such as a flight, a hotel, and a rental car can be stored for a typical day, in the user calendar if the user were to go on a business trip. Associated with these events and locations is also the time duration for these events to take place.
  • the user can instruct the system to pre-load information content to the various locations where the user will be present.
  • the system then retrieves information on the network address for the information appliances associated with the locations and network addresses of the caches and proxy servers associated with the information appliances. Then the information content is transmitted to the locations specified by the user.
  • FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating various components of one embodiment of the present invention.
  • FIG. 2 is a flow chart depicting an exemplary sequence of actions performed by a user of the present invention.
  • FIG. 3 is a flow chart depicting another exemplary sequence of actions performed by a user of the present invention.
  • FIG. 4 is a flow chart depicting yet another exemplary sequence of actions performed by a user of the present invention.
  • FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating one aspect of the user calendar of the present invention.
  • FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating another feature of the user calendar of the present invention.
  • FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating one embodiment of a data structure of the user calendar.
  • FIG. 8 is a flow chart depicting an exemplary operation performed by the user calendar.
  • FIG. 9 is a flow chart depicting another exemplary operation performed by the user calendar.
  • FIGS. 10 A-C constitute a flow chart depicting an exemplary operation performed by a proxy server of the present invention.
  • FIG. 11 is a flow chart depicting another exemplary operation performed by the proxy server.
  • FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary proxy directory of the present invention for an airline.
  • FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary proxy directory of the present invention for a hotel.
  • FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary proxy directory of the present invention for a rental car.
  • FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary proxy directory of the present invention for a location within an university.
  • FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary proxy directory of the present invention for an internet service provider.
  • FIG. 17 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary proxy directory of the present invention for an automobile.
  • FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary communication to a billing server used in one embodiment the present invention.
  • a system pre-loads information content to caches and information appliances for mobile customers.
  • the system preferably consults a calendar for the mobile customer to determine the identity of the proxy server to pre-load with specified information content at a particular time.
  • FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating various components of one embodiment of the present invention.
  • the type of information content shown in this figure is multimedia information. It should be understood, however, that the present invention may be adapted to service other types of information content.
  • Information appliances 102 are used by the user to view the information content.
  • the information appliances available to the user preferably include a web browser, one or more media players or other applications that can properly process the information content, and a user calendar which will be discussed in detail hereinafter.
  • the media players may be an MPEG movie player, an MP3 music player or a player capable of processing other types of media.
  • the information appliances 102 may be wired or wireless and can communicate with access networks 104 , which also may be wired or wireless.
  • the access networks 104 provide communication channels between the information appliances 102 and the access nodes 106 , which contain proxy servers that have caches for pre-loading information content. Each cache or partition of a cache can be associated with one or more information appliances 102 .
  • the information content is stored in multimedia servers 112 and 114 , as streaming type and non-streaming type, respectively.
  • Proxy directories 116 are servers that associate each information appliance 102 with a network address of a proxy server 106 that includes caches. When a user requests information content to be pre-loaded to a specific information appliance 102 , information content is retrieved from proxy directory 116 so that it can be pre-loaded to the appropriate cache.
  • Billing servers 110 monitor the activities of the proxy servers in the access nodes 106 , and generate billing information for each user based on these activities.
  • a data network 108 links the various system components together, including the billing servers 110 , the proxy directory 116 , the multimedia servers 112 and 114 , and the proxy servers 106 .
  • the data network 108 which may be the Internet, an intranet or any other suitable network, enables communication between the aforementioned components.
  • FIG. 2 is a flow chart depicting an exemplary sequence of actions performed by a user of the present invention.
  • the user views the information content at a first information appliance.
  • the user may view a personal calendar to determine a scheduled event, along with the location of the event and the period of time during which the user will be at the event.
  • the event may be, for example, an airline flight.
  • the user selects the event at step 230 , and thereafter, in step 240 , the calendar will issue commands to the proxy servers to pre-load the information content to the proxy server associated with the event.
  • FIG. 3 is a flow chart depicting another exemplary sequence of actions performed by a user of the present invention.
  • the user views the information content at a first information appliance.
  • the user in step 320 , can instruct the information appliance to issue the necessary command to pre-load the information content to the cache associated with the next scheduled event in the user calendar, whether or not the user is aware of the scheduled events in the user calendar.
  • the commands issued by the information appliance may include communicating with the user calendar; comparing the time duration of the events with the current time to determine the next event; and instructing the user calendar to communicate with the proxy servers to pre-load the information content.
  • FIG. 4 is a flow chart depicting yet another exemplary sequence of actions performed by a user of the present invention.
  • the user first views the information content at a first information appliance.
  • the user decides to continue viewing the same information content later in time at a second information appliance, the user, in step 420 , views a user interface supplied by an organization associated with a second location. For example, if the user wishes to pre-load the information content into a cache associated with an information appliance on a flight that the user will be taking, then the user would view a web page provided by an airline.
  • the user will then use the interface to submit a request that the information content be pre-loaded into the cache associated with the second information appliance.
  • the organization will then issue a command to pre-load the information content to the appropriate cache.
  • the command may include communicating with the proxy server associated with the second location and instructing the proxy server to pre-load the information content into caches associated with the second location.
  • FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating one aspect of the user calendar of the present invention.
  • a user interface embodied as a monthly calendar 510 is provided to the user, with a memory partition associated with each day of the month. It should be noted that although only one month is shown in the figure, the user calendar of the present invention can store several months of calendar information.
  • the user calendar also includes a memory partition 520 , which is shown in FIG. 5 , for illustrative purposes, as being associated with the date Feb. 6 th , 2001, and which can be accessed by the user, for example, by using a mouse-pointer and double-clicking on that date on the monthly calendar.
  • Memory partition 520 contains a listing of any events 522 and 524 scheduled for the user on that day.
  • each event such as event 522 and 524 , are the time duration of the event, the type of the event and the specific location where the event will occur.
  • the user calendar also stores other data associated with each scheduled event but not made accessible to the user, such as the network address for the proxy server containing the cache associated with a scheduled event, and a unique identifier used by the present invention to identify the scheduled event. This additional data allows information content to be loaded into the appropriate cache in response to the user requests.
  • the user calendar also permits the user to perform a variety of functions.
  • the user is first allowed to scroll down the list of scheduled events and select an event from the list, as shown by the box drawn around event 522 .
  • the calendar also includes several interface “buttons” that permit the user to add a selected scheduled event 525 , change the data associated with a selected scheduled event 526 , delete a selected scheduled event 527 , and request pre-loading of content to a cache associated with a selected scheduled event 528 .
  • the operation of the user calendar when the user selects the content pre-loading button will be discussed in detail hereinafter in connection with FIG. 6 .
  • FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating another feature of the user calendar of the present invention.
  • a user chooses to pre-load information content to the selected scheduled event by, for example, clicking on the Content Pre-load button 528 shown in FIG. 5 , a new window 610 is displayed to the user.
  • the new window is associated with only one scheduled event, in this case the airline flight CO 1500.
  • the calendar Upon user selection of the Content Pre-load button, the calendar will take information content that is currently being processed by the information appliance, transmit a request for content pre-loading to a proxy server associated with the scheduled event, and display the name of the pre-loaded information content in window 610 .
  • the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark is being downloaded via browser 20 and played on media player 622 .
  • the calendar instructs the proxy server associated with the flight CO 1500 to pre-load the movie file into the proxy server's cache, and displays the content pre-loading as entry 612 in window 610 .
  • a usage indicator 618 is also provided in window 610 for displaying the percentage of the portion of the cache allocated to the user that is currently being used to store content pre-loads.
  • a delete button 619 is also provided so that the user may cancel one ore more items of selected information content.
  • the user calendar will transmit a message to the associated server so that it may delete the scheduled pre-loads or information content.
  • FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating one embodiment of a data structure of the user calendar.
  • the calendar 710 is the monthly calendar shown in FIG. 5 as item 510 .
  • Each day in the monthly calendar 710 has a memory partition associated with it where a number of scheduled events are stored. This association is accomplished by a pointer that connects a day in the monthly calendar 710 with the first scheduled event 720 .
  • the first scheduled event then in turn points to a second scheduled event 722 , and so on.
  • the scheduled events 720 and 722 correspond to the scheduled events 522 and 524 in FIG. 5
  • the remainder 724 - 728 would correspond to any additional scheduled events added by the user.
  • FIG. 8 is a flow chart depicting an exemplary operation performed by the user calendar when the user requests that information content be pre-loaded into a cache associated with a selected scheduled event.
  • the user calendar awaits a user request to pre-load information content.
  • the user calendar asks the user's information appliance for a network address of the information content to be pre-loaded.
  • the user calendar receives the network address for the information content and, in step 808 , communicates with the proxy directory, shown as item 116 in FIG. 1 , to request a proxy address for a proxy server associated with the stored scheduled event.
  • the user calendar receives the proxy server address and, in step 812 , requests the proxy server to pre-load the information content.
  • the user calendar receives an acknowledgement from the proxy server, wherein the acknowledgement includes a unique transaction-identifier associated with the request for pre-loading.
  • the user calendar then stores the proxy server address and the unique identifier, maintaining the association between the data and the scheduled event. After the data is stored, the user calendar can return to the initial step in the process and wait for instructions from the user.
  • FIG. 9 is a flow chart depicting another exemplary operation performed by the user calendar when a user submits a request to delete an information content pre-load.
  • the user calendar awaits a user to request to delete a content pre-load.
  • the user calendar reads the proxy server address and the unique transaction identifier associated with the pre-loading sought to be deleted.
  • the user calendar transmits a request to the proxy server to delete the content pre-loading identified by the transaction identifier.
  • the user calendar receives an acknowledgement from the proxy server and, in step 910 , deletes the proxy address and unique transaction identifier associated with the deleted content pre-load.
  • the user calendar may be presented in several embodiments without departing from the spirit of the present invention.
  • the user calendar may be a software program installed in a stand-alone hardware device such as a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), that is in wireless communication with the proxy servers, the information appliances and other components of the present invention.
  • PDA Personal Digital Assistant
  • the user calendar may be software components or modules installed as parts of a larger software program, such as the user interface provided by an airline mentioned in the discussion for FIG. 4 .
  • the user calendar is in wired communication with the proxy servers, the information appliances and other components of the present invention.
  • FIG. 10A is a flow chart depicting an exemplary method by which a proxy server of the present invention processes pre-loading requests.
  • the proxy server receives a request from an interface.
  • the proxy server examines the request to determine whether it is a request to create a scheduled content pre-loading or a request to delete a scheduled content pre-load. If the request is to create a content pre-load, then the proxy server operation proceeds to FIG. 10B . If, however, the request is to delete a request for content pre-load, then the proxy server operation proceeds to FIG. 10C .
  • the proxy server in step 1040 , if the request is to create a pre-load, the proxy server, in step 1040 , generates a unique transaction identifier for the request.
  • the server adds the request to a Scheduled Pre-load Table (SPT). This includes adding all the information needed for the content pre-loading to occur, including the date and time of the scheduled event during which the information content will be used, together with the network address of the information content. Rather than pre-loading the content immediately upon receipt of a request, the proxy server may store all requests in the SPT, and execute all requested pre-loads together at some time prior to the scheduled event. The details of the SPT and its operations will be discussed in detail hereinafter in connection with FIG. 1 3 .
  • the proxy server transmits the unique transaction identifier and proxy server address to the requestor, which in an advantageous embodiment is the user calendar, and returns to step 1010 to await further pre-loading requests.
  • the proxy server in step 1070 first searches the SPT to identify an entry with a unique transaction identifier that matches the one transmitted along with the deletion request.
  • the proxy server transmits an acknowledgement to the originator of the request (e.g., a user calendar) indicating that the entry has been deleted, and the proxy server returns to step 1010 to await further requests.
  • the originator of the request e.g., a user calendar
  • FIG. 11 is a flow chart depicting an exemplary method by which the proxy server of the present invention executes pre-loading.
  • the Scheduled Pre-load Table includes entries for each request for a content pre-load. Each entry includes a unique transaction identifier; the identity of the user who submitted the request; a network address of the information content sought to be pre-loaded; the point in the information content where the pre-loading will begin; the date and time of the scheduled event where the information content will be used; and the status of the pre-loading.
  • the pre-loading status can indicate either: pre-loading has not started; pre-loading is in progress; or pre-loading completed.
  • the proxy server waits T seconds, where T seconds is the time interval between executions of requests for pre-loading.
  • T seconds is the time interval between executions of requests for pre-loading.
  • a memory location is designated as a counter and an integer N is stored in the counter, where N is the total number of entries in the SPT.
  • the proxy server reads the entry corresponding to the integer N stored in the counter (i.e., the Nth entry).
  • the status of the pre-loading is read.
  • the proxy server determines if the current date and time is less than M minutes before the date and time of the scheduled event, where M is a predetermined number. If the time of the scheduled event is after the current time, pre-loading is performed in step 1112 , and the status of the request is changed in step 1114 to indicate that pre-loading is either in progress or has been completed. In step 1116 , after the pre-loading is completed, the counter is decremented by “1”.
  • step 1118 if the value of the counter is less than zero (indicating that all requests in the SPT have been executed), then the process returns to step 1102 , where the proxy server awaits T seconds before it again beings executing pre-loading requests. If the value of the counter is greater than or equal to zero (indicating that not all requests in the SPT have been executed), then the process returns to step 1106 , where the proxy server executes the next request for pre-loading.
  • the proxy server may determine that pre-loading the request should not be executed and, thus, that request is skipped and the next entry is considered. For example, in step 1108 , if the status of the pre-loading request indicates that re-loading is in progress or has been completed, then steps 1110 - 1114 are skipped, and the proxy server proceeds to step 1116 , where the counter is decremented, thereby signaling that the next request should be considered. In step 1110 , if current date and time is not more than M minutes before the date and time of the scheduled event, then steps 1112 - 1114 are skipped, and the process proceeds to step 1116 .
  • the proxy directory 116 shown in FIG. 1 stores the network addresses of all the proxy servers used in the system. As will be discussed in detail in connection with FIGS. 12-17 , the proxy directory 116 may be partitioned into different categories, with each category representing a different industry or service provider.
  • FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary proxy directory of the present invention for an airline.
  • the directory contains one or more entries, each associated with a particular aircraft.
  • Field 1210 contains the name of the airline that operates the aircraft, such as American Airlines.
  • Field 1220 stores the flight number, such as CO 1500.
  • Field 1230 contains the flight's date and time of departure.
  • field 1240 contain the proxy address associated with the aircraft assigned to the flight.
  • the proxy address is represented by an IP address.
  • an embodiment of the proxy directory can use any number of address formats to designate a proxy address.
  • the airlines would maintain the proxy directory, which would receive requests for aircraft proxy addresses.
  • a request for an aircraft proxy address may include the airline name 1210 , the flight number 1220 , and the departure date and time 1230 .
  • a search is conducted on the directory and a response is returned to the requestor (e.g., user calendar) which includes the associated aircraft proxy address 1240 .
  • the proxy directory may be configured in any number of ways. For example, the aircraft proxy directory may use one cache to store content for all of the passengers in the aircraft; in such case, only one aircraft proxy address 1240 will be associated with the flight.
  • FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary proxy directory of the present invention for a hotel.
  • Field 1310 contains the name of the hotel, such as the St. Regis hotel in New York City.
  • Field 1320 contains a unique reservation number associated with the reservation made by the user. An alphanumerical sequence of any length can be used as the reservation number, but as an example it is represented in the figure as a six digit number.
  • Field 1330 contains the proxy address of the proxy server associated with the hotel reservation. In the figure, the proxy address is represented by an IP address. However, an embodiment of the proxy directory can use any number of address formats to designate a proxy address.
  • the hotel may use one cache to store the information content associated with one reservation number 1320 .
  • the hotel would maintain the proxy directory, which would receive requests for hotel proxy addresses.
  • a request for a hotel proxy address may include the hotel name 1310 and the reservation number 1320 .
  • a search is conducted on the directory and a response is returned to the requester (e.g. user calendar), which includes the associated hotel proxy address 1330 .
  • FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary proxy directory of the present invention for a rental car agency.
  • Field 1410 contains a unique reservation number associated with a reservation made by the user for a rental car. An alphanumerical sequence of any length can be used as the reservation number, but as an example it is represented in the figure as a six digit number.
  • Field 1420 contains a proxy address associated with the reservation number. In the figure, the proxy address is represented by an IP address. However, an embodiment of the proxy directory can use any number of address formats to designate a proxy address.
  • the rental car agency would maintain the proxy directory, which would receive requests for rental car proxy addresses.
  • a request for a rental car proxy address may include the reservation number 1410 .
  • a search is conducted on the directory and a response is returned to the requestor (e.g., user calendar) which includes the associated rental car proxy address 1420 .
  • FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary proxy directory of the present invention for a location within an university.
  • a proxy directory is made for university locations since it is anticipated that college students will constitute a significant portion of the users of the present invention.
  • One reason is that universities provide students with high-bandwidth network connections that make using electronic information more convenient. Also, college students have historically been eager to use electronic information and most likely would welcome systems such as the present invention which increase electronic information's ease of use.
  • Field 1510 contains the name of the university, such as The Cooper Union.
  • Field 1520 contains the name of a building within the university, such as the name “Hewitt.”
  • Field 1530 contains the number of a room in the building, such as the room number 207 .
  • the room may be a dorm room where the user wishes to view a movie, or the room may be a classroom where the user wishes to give a multimedia presentation.
  • Field 1540 is the proxy address associated with the room specified in field 1530 .
  • the proxy address is represented by an IP address.
  • an embodiment of the proxy directory can use any number of address formats to designate a proxy address.
  • the university would maintain the proxy directory, which would receive requests for a proxy address.
  • a request for a proxy address may include the university name 1510 , building name 1520 and room number 1530 .
  • a search is conducted on the directory and a response is returned to the requester (e.g., user calendar) which includes the associated proxy address 1540 .
  • FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary proxy directory of the present invention for an internet service provider.
  • the present invention not only allows the user to pre-loading information content to a physical information appliance at a physical location, it also allows the user to pre-loading information content to a virtual, network location as well.
  • the user views information content through a network connection operated by an Internet service provider, he may choose to pre-loading the information content to the Internet service provider so that he may view the same information content when he establishes another network connection at another location through the same Internet service provider.
  • Field 1610 of the Internet service provider proxy directory contains a user identification. An alphanumerical sequence of any length can be used as the reservation number, but as an example it is represented in the figure as a six digit number.
  • Field 1620 includes an address of the proxy that serves the user. In the figure, the proxy address is represented by an IP address. However, an embodiment of the proxy directory can use any number of address formats to designate a proxy address.
  • FIG. 17 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary proxy directory of the present invention maintained by an automobile manufacturer.
  • Field 1710 contains a Vehicle Identification Number (VIN).
  • VIN Vehicle Identification Number
  • An alphanumerical sequence of any length can be used as the reservation number, but as an example it is represented in the figure as a six digit number.
  • Field 1720 includes a proxy address associated with the automobile. In the figure, the proxy address is represented by an IP address. However, an embodiment of the proxy directory can use any number of address formats to designate a proxy address.
  • the automobile manufacturer would maintain the proxy directory, which would receive requests for a proxy address.
  • a request for a proxy address may include the VIN 1710 .
  • a search is conducted on the directory and a response is returned to the requester (e.g., user calendar) which includes the associated proxy address 1720 .
  • the present invention will pre-loading the information content into a temporary proxy.
  • the Scheduled Pre-load Table (SPT) of the temporary proxy will be transferred to the proxy server associated with the information appliance, so that the information content will be transferred to a cache associated with the information appliance.
  • SPT Scheduled Pre-load Table
  • FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary message format by which a proxy server may communicate with a billing server to record charges incurred for information content pre-loads.
  • Field 1810 of the message contains a unique user identification.
  • Field 1820 contains the network address for the information content that was pre-loaded at the request of the user identified in field 2010 .
  • Field 1830 contains the date and the time the pre-loading took place.
  • Field 1830 is significant since financial charges depend greatly on the time that the pre-loading took place. For example, charges for pre-loads may be the largest at a peak traffic hour, such as during the afternoon, while during early morning hours the charges may be the smallest.

Abstract

A system and method where the user can first view information content at a first information appliance at a first location and instruct the system to pre-load the information content at a second information appliance at a second location prior to second viewing. The pre-loading is accomplished by a plurality of proxy servers associated with a plurality of information appliances at a plurality of locations, a plurality of proxy directories containing information associating the proxy servers to the information appliances, servers containing the information content, and billing servers for generating financial charges. The request to pre-load can be made from the information appliance itself or a communication means associated with a location such as a web page. The request can also be made by a user calendar interface provided by the present system. The calendar is capable of storing a plurality of scheduled events and locations where pre-loading takes place.

Description

    FIELD OF THE INVENTION
  • The present invention relates to systems for providing an information appliance with information content, including multimedia from a remote, on-line content provider, and more particularly relates to systems for caching information content at intermediate locations readily accessible to the information appliance.
  • BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
  • Various information appliances exist that enable customers to be provided with information content. The customers may be mobile, traveling from location to location and utilizing multiple information appliances, such as in the case of a traveling salesperson. Such information appliances include televisions, portable computers and automobile navigational aids, among others. In a conventional system, the information appliance connects to an access node of a network of interconnected servers that are in turn connected to multimedia servers that provide information content. Using an information appliance, a mobile customer is able to download multimedia information content to review news, movies, radio, books and other files containing information of various types and formats. Typically, however, a mobile customer's review of the requested/desired information content is delayed until an entire file or a substantial portion of a file is received at the information appliance. This delay may be significant, as the information appliance may need to access remotely located information content providers via a vast network of interconnected servers. In addition, packet loss during transmission can result in reception of low-quality versions of real-time information content that is to be presented to the mobile customer. Moreover, delay and packet loss are magnified as transmission distance increases and as the number of interconnected servers that are interacted with along the transmission path increases.
  • In order to reduce delay and packet loss during reception of information content, some information appliances and networks provide cache memories. A cache provides a place to store information more or less temporarily, saving time and reducing the burden of re-obtaining the stored information from a remote location via the network. For example, a web page that has been requested by a conventional web browser is stored in the browser's cache directory on the hard disk of the information appliance. That way, when the mobile customer returns to a recently viewed page, the browser can obtain the web page from the cache rather than the original server, thereby saving time and reducing network traffic.
  • In the same manner, caching can be implemented on a network by distributing information content to multiple cache servers from which most users would obtain information and by periodically refreshing the information content stored at each cache server. The cache server is located relatively close to information appliances and typically within an enterprise that saves information content that server users have requested so that successive requests for previously requested information content can be satisfied by the cache server rather than requiring an extended use of the network. The cache server not only serves its users by obtaining information more quickly but also reduces network traffic. Thus, a cache server improves the speed and the reliability of the delivery of information content, providing a higher quality of service because information content is not transmitted via congested networks.
  • Conventional cache systems for mobile customers, however, suffer various deficiencies similar to those described above for non-cache systems. First, content stored in an information appliance at one location may not be available in an information appliance at another location. Second, content stored in a cache at one location may not be stored in a cache at another site. As a result, the mobile customer may be required to wait for information content to download from a remote information content provider. Such an arrangement may also cause the mobile customer to receive a low-quality version of the desired information content. Worse yet, the mobile customer may not be able to access the desired information content. These deficiencies are exacerbated by the mobile customers' need for information at specific locations and times.
  • SUMMARY
  • The present invention overcomes these deficiencies of the current conventional systems by a system and method for pre-loading information content into caches corresponding to information appliances that the user may use in the near future. An exemplary method for pre-loading information content into a cache include viewing or accessing information content using an information appliance. Then transmitting a request to pre-load the information content to a cache associated with another information appliance. And lasting viewing or accessing the information content at the other information appliance.
  • In this fashion, the information content will arrive at a particular information appliance prior to the arrival of the user at that information appliance. Waiting by the user for the information content is eliminated. Furthermore, pre-loading greatly increases the allowable data transfer time for the information content. With this increased data transfer time, the information content of the present invention may arrive at a particular information appliance with a higher quality than the same information content of the current conventional systems, since the higher quality version of the information content may have a prohibitively long data transfer time in the current conventional systems.
  • Another feature of one embodiment of the present invention that facilitates the pre-loading of information content for the user is a user calendar interface. The interface may be, for example, an application running on a computer, or an application running on a personal digital assistant (PDA), or any other number of interfaces. The user calendar stores a plurality of events and locations for any given day. For example, events and locations such as a flight, a hotel, and a rental car can be stored for a typical day, in the user calendar if the user were to go on a business trip. Associated with these events and locations is also the time duration for these events to take place. For the purpose of the present invention, the user can instruct the system to pre-load information content to the various locations where the user will be present. The system then retrieves information on the network address for the information appliances associated with the locations and network addresses of the caches and proxy servers associated with the information appliances. Then the information content is transmitted to the locations specified by the user. Other and further aspects of the present invention will become apparent during the course of following description and by reference to the attached drawings.
  • BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
  • FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating various components of one embodiment of the present invention.
  • FIG. 2 is a flow chart depicting an exemplary sequence of actions performed by a user of the present invention.
  • FIG. 3 is a flow chart depicting another exemplary sequence of actions performed by a user of the present invention.
  • FIG. 4 is a flow chart depicting yet another exemplary sequence of actions performed by a user of the present invention.
  • FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating one aspect of the user calendar of the present invention.
  • FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating another feature of the user calendar of the present invention.
  • FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating one embodiment of a data structure of the user calendar.
  • FIG. 8 is a flow chart depicting an exemplary operation performed by the user calendar.
  • FIG. 9 is a flow chart depicting another exemplary operation performed by the user calendar.
  • FIGS. 10A-C constitute a flow chart depicting an exemplary operation performed by a proxy server of the present invention.
  • FIG. 11 is a flow chart depicting another exemplary operation performed by the proxy server.
  • FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary proxy directory of the present invention for an airline.
  • FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary proxy directory of the present invention for a hotel.
  • FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary proxy directory of the present invention for a rental car.
  • FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary proxy directory of the present invention for a location within an university.
  • FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary proxy directory of the present invention for an internet service provider.
  • FIG. 17 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary proxy directory of the present invention for an automobile.
  • FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary communication to a billing server used in one embodiment the present invention.
  • DETAILED DESCRIPTION
  • In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, a system is provided that pre-loads information content to caches and information appliances for mobile customers. The system preferably consults a calendar for the mobile customer to determine the identity of the proxy server to pre-load with specified information content at a particular time.
  • FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating various components of one embodiment of the present invention. For illustrative purposes, the type of information content shown in this figure is multimedia information. It should be understood, however, that the present invention may be adapted to service other types of information content. Information appliances 102 are used by the user to view the information content. The information appliances available to the user preferably include a web browser, one or more media players or other applications that can properly process the information content, and a user calendar which will be discussed in detail hereinafter. The media players may be an MPEG movie player, an MP3 music player or a player capable of processing other types of media. The information appliances 102 may be wired or wireless and can communicate with access networks 104, which also may be wired or wireless. The access networks 104 provide communication channels between the information appliances 102 and the access nodes 106, which contain proxy servers that have caches for pre-loading information content. Each cache or partition of a cache can be associated with one or more information appliances 102. The information content is stored in multimedia servers 112 and 114, as streaming type and non-streaming type, respectively. Proxy directories 116 are servers that associate each information appliance 102 with a network address of a proxy server 106 that includes caches. When a user requests information content to be pre-loaded to a specific information appliance 102, information content is retrieved from proxy directory 116 so that it can be pre-loaded to the appropriate cache. Billing servers 110 monitor the activities of the proxy servers in the access nodes 106, and generate billing information for each user based on these activities. A data network 108 links the various system components together, including the billing servers 110, the proxy directory 116, the multimedia servers 112 and 114, and the proxy servers 106. The data network 108, which may be the Internet, an intranet or any other suitable network, enables communication between the aforementioned components.
  • FIG. 2 is a flow chart depicting an exemplary sequence of actions performed by a user of the present invention. In step 210, the user views the information content at a first information appliance. When the user decides to continue viewing the same information content at a second information appliance later in time, the user, in step 220, may view a personal calendar to determine a scheduled event, along with the location of the event and the period of time during which the user will be at the event. The event may be, for example, an airline flight. The user then selects the event at step 230, and thereafter, in step 240, the calendar will issue commands to the proxy servers to pre-load the information content to the proxy server associated with the event.
  • FIG. 3 is a flow chart depicting another exemplary sequence of actions performed by a user of the present invention. In step 310, the user views the information content at a first information appliance. When the user decides to continue viewing the same information content later in time, the user, in step 320, can instruct the information appliance to issue the necessary command to pre-load the information content to the cache associated with the next scheduled event in the user calendar, whether or not the user is aware of the scheduled events in the user calendar. The commands issued by the information appliance may include communicating with the user calendar; comparing the time duration of the events with the current time to determine the next event; and instructing the user calendar to communicate with the proxy servers to pre-load the information content.
  • FIG. 4 is a flow chart depicting yet another exemplary sequence of actions performed by a user of the present invention. In step 410 the user first views the information content at a first information appliance. When the user decides to continue viewing the same information content later in time at a second information appliance, the user, in step 420, views a user interface supplied by an organization associated with a second location. For example, if the user wishes to pre-load the information content into a cache associated with an information appliance on a flight that the user will be taking, then the user would view a web page provided by an airline. In step 430, the user will then use the interface to submit a request that the information content be pre-loaded into the cache associated with the second information appliance. The organization will then issue a command to pre-load the information content to the appropriate cache. The command may include communicating with the proxy server associated with the second location and instructing the proxy server to pre-load the information content into caches associated with the second location.
  • FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating one aspect of the user calendar of the present invention. A user interface embodied as a monthly calendar 510 is provided to the user, with a memory partition associated with each day of the month. It should be noted that although only one month is shown in the figure, the user calendar of the present invention can store several months of calendar information. The user calendar also includes a memory partition 520, which is shown in FIG. 5, for illustrative purposes, as being associated with the date Feb. 6th, 2001, and which can be accessed by the user, for example, by using a mouse-pointer and double-clicking on that date on the monthly calendar. Memory partition 520 contains a listing of any events 522 and 524 scheduled for the user on that day. Note that associated with each event, such as event 522 and 524, are the time duration of the event, the type of the event and the specific location where the event will occur. The user calendar also stores other data associated with each scheduled event but not made accessible to the user, such as the network address for the proxy server containing the cache associated with a scheduled event, and a unique identifier used by the present invention to identify the scheduled event. This additional data allows information content to be loaded into the appropriate cache in response to the user requests.
  • The user calendar also permits the user to perform a variety of functions. The user is first allowed to scroll down the list of scheduled events and select an event from the list, as shown by the box drawn around event 522. The calendar also includes several interface “buttons” that permit the user to add a selected scheduled event 525, change the data associated with a selected scheduled event 526, delete a selected scheduled event 527, and request pre-loading of content to a cache associated with a selected scheduled event 528. The operation of the user calendar when the user selects the content pre-loading button will be discussed in detail hereinafter in connection with FIG. 6.
  • FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating another feature of the user calendar of the present invention. When a user chooses to pre-load information content to the selected scheduled event by, for example, clicking on the Content Pre-load button 528 shown in FIG. 5, a new window 610 is displayed to the user. The new window is associated with only one scheduled event, in this case the airline flight CO 1500. Upon user selection of the Content Pre-load button, the calendar will take information content that is currently being processed by the information appliance, transmit a request for content pre-loading to a proxy server associated with the scheduled event, and display the name of the pre-loaded information content in window 610.
  • For example in FIG. 6, the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark is being downloaded via browser 20 and played on media player 622. When the user chooses to pre-load the movie for use aboard his flight CO 1500, the calendar instructs the proxy server associated with the flight CO 1500 to pre-load the movie file into the proxy server's cache, and displays the content pre-loading as entry 612 in window 610. Note that more than one item of information content can be pre-loaded into the same cache, as shown by entries 614 and 616 in window 610. A usage indicator 618 is also provided in window 610 for displaying the percentage of the portion of the cache allocated to the user that is currently being used to store content pre-loads. A delete button 619 is also provided so that the user may cancel one ore more items of selected information content. In the case that a user cancels an item of content or an event is cancelled or rescheduled, the user calendar will transmit a message to the associated server so that it may delete the scheduled pre-loads or information content.
  • FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating one embodiment of a data structure of the user calendar. The calendar 710 is the monthly calendar shown in FIG. 5 as item 510. Each day in the monthly calendar 710 has a memory partition associated with it where a number of scheduled events are stored. This association is accomplished by a pointer that connects a day in the monthly calendar 710 with the first scheduled event 720. The first scheduled event then in turn points to a second scheduled event 722, and so on. The scheduled events 720 and 722 correspond to the scheduled events 522 and 524 in FIG. 5, and the remainder 724-728 would correspond to any additional scheduled events added by the user.
  • FIG. 8 is a flow chart depicting an exemplary operation performed by the user calendar when the user requests that information content be pre-loaded into a cache associated with a selected scheduled event. In step 802, the user calendar awaits a user request to pre-load information content. After receiving the request, in step 804, the user calendar asks the user's information appliance for a network address of the information content to be pre-loaded. In step 806, the user calendar receives the network address for the information content and, in step 808, communicates with the proxy directory, shown as item 116 in FIG. 1, to request a proxy address for a proxy server associated with the stored scheduled event. In step 810, the user calendar receives the proxy server address and, in step 812, requests the proxy server to pre-load the information content. In step 814, the user calendar receives an acknowledgement from the proxy server, wherein the acknowledgement includes a unique transaction-identifier associated with the request for pre-loading. In step 816, the user calendar then stores the proxy server address and the unique identifier, maintaining the association between the data and the scheduled event. After the data is stored, the user calendar can return to the initial step in the process and wait for instructions from the user.
  • FIG. 9 is a flow chart depicting another exemplary operation performed by the user calendar when a user submits a request to delete an information content pre-load. In step 902, the user calendar awaits a user to request to delete a content pre-load. After receiving the request, in step 904, the user calendar reads the proxy server address and the unique transaction identifier associated with the pre-loading sought to be deleted. In step 906, the user calendar then transmits a request to the proxy server to delete the content pre-loading identified by the transaction identifier. The user calendar, in step 908, receives an acknowledgement from the proxy server and, in step 910, deletes the proxy address and unique transaction identifier associated with the deleted content pre-load.
  • It should be noted that the user calendar may be presented in several embodiments without departing from the spirit of the present invention. In one embodiment, the user calendar may be a software program installed in a stand-alone hardware device such as a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), that is in wireless communication with the proxy servers, the information appliances and other components of the present invention. In another embodiment, the user calendar may be software components or modules installed as parts of a larger software program, such as the user interface provided by an airline mentioned in the discussion for FIG. 4. In such an embodiment, the user calendar is in wired communication with the proxy servers, the information appliances and other components of the present invention.
  • FIG. 10A is a flow chart depicting an exemplary method by which a proxy server of the present invention processes pre-loading requests. In step 1010, the proxy server receives a request from an interface. In steps 1020 and 1030, the proxy server examines the request to determine whether it is a request to create a scheduled content pre-loading or a request to delete a scheduled content pre-load. If the request is to create a content pre-load, then the proxy server operation proceeds to FIG. 10B. If, however, the request is to delete a request for content pre-load, then the proxy server operation proceeds to FIG. 10C.
  • As shown in FIG. 10B, if the request is to create a pre-load, the proxy server, in step 1040, generates a unique transaction identifier for the request. In step 1050, the server adds the request to a Scheduled Pre-load Table (SPT). This includes adding all the information needed for the content pre-loading to occur, including the date and time of the scheduled event during which the information content will be used, together with the network address of the information content. Rather than pre-loading the content immediately upon receipt of a request, the proxy server may store all requests in the SPT, and execute all requested pre-loads together at some time prior to the scheduled event. The details of the SPT and its operations will be discussed in detail hereinafter in connection with FIG. 1 3. In step 1 060, after loading the request into the SPT, the proxy server transmits the unique transaction identifier and proxy server address to the requestor, which in an advantageous embodiment is the user calendar, and returns to step 1010 to await further pre-loading requests.
  • As shown in FIG. 10C, if the request received by the proxy server is to delete a prior content pre-loading request the proxy server in step 1070 first searches the SPT to identify an entry with a unique transaction identifier that matches the one transmitted along with the deletion request. In step 1080, once the matching entry is found, it is deleted from the SPT. In step 1090, the proxy server transmits an acknowledgement to the originator of the request (e.g., a user calendar) indicating that the entry has been deleted, and the proxy server returns to step 1010 to await further requests.
  • FIG. 11 is a flow chart depicting an exemplary method by which the proxy server of the present invention executes pre-loading. As discussed above in connection with FIG. 10, the Scheduled Pre-load Table (SPT) includes entries for each request for a content pre-load. Each entry includes a unique transaction identifier; the identity of the user who submitted the request; a network address of the information content sought to be pre-loaded; the point in the information content where the pre-loading will begin; the date and time of the scheduled event where the information content will be used; and the status of the pre-loading. The pre-loading status can indicate either: pre-loading has not started; pre-loading is in progress; or pre-loading completed.
  • Referring to FIG. 11, in step 1102, the proxy server waits T seconds, where T seconds is the time interval between executions of requests for pre-loading. In step 1104, after T seconds have elapsed, a memory location is designated as a counter and an integer N is stored in the counter, where N is the total number of entries in the SPT. In step 1106, the proxy server reads the entry corresponding to the integer N stored in the counter (i.e., the Nth entry). In step 1108, the status of the pre-loading is read. If the status indicates that pre-loading has not begun, then, in step 1110, the proxy server determines if the current date and time is less than M minutes before the date and time of the scheduled event, where M is a predetermined number. If the time of the scheduled event is after the current time, pre-loading is performed in step 1112, and the status of the request is changed in step 1114 to indicate that pre-loading is either in progress or has been completed. In step 1116, after the pre-loading is completed, the counter is decremented by “1”. In step 1118, if the value of the counter is less than zero (indicating that all requests in the SPT have been executed), then the process returns to step 1102, where the proxy server awaits T seconds before it again beings executing pre-loading requests. If the value of the counter is greater than or equal to zero (indicating that not all requests in the SPT have been executed), then the process returns to step 1106, where the proxy server executes the next request for pre-loading.
  • There are a couple of points in the flowchart of FIG. 11 where the proxy server may determine that pre-loading the request should not be executed and, thus, that request is skipped and the next entry is considered. For example, in step 1108, if the status of the pre-loading request indicates that re-loading is in progress or has been completed, then steps 1110-1114 are skipped, and the proxy server proceeds to step 1116, where the counter is decremented, thereby signaling that the next request should be considered. In step 1110, if current date and time is not more than M minutes before the date and time of the scheduled event, then steps 1112-1114 are skipped, and the process proceeds to step 1116.
  • As discussed above in connection with FIG. 1, the proxy directory 116 shown in FIG. 1 stores the network addresses of all the proxy servers used in the system. As will be discussed in detail in connection with FIGS. 12-17, the proxy directory 116 may be partitioned into different categories, with each category representing a different industry or service provider.
  • FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary proxy directory of the present invention for an airline. The directory contains one or more entries, each associated with a particular aircraft. Field 1210 contains the name of the airline that operates the aircraft, such as American Airlines. Field 1220 stores the flight number, such as CO 1500. Field 1230 contains the flight's date and time of departure. Lastly, field 1240 contain the proxy address associated with the aircraft assigned to the flight. In the figure, the proxy address is represented by an IP address. However, an embodiment of the proxy directory can use any number of address formats to designate a proxy address. Preferably, the airlines would maintain the proxy directory, which would receive requests for aircraft proxy addresses. A request for an aircraft proxy address may include the airline name 1210, the flight number 1220, and the departure date and time 1230. A search is conducted on the directory and a response is returned to the requestor (e.g., user calendar) which includes the associated aircraft proxy address 1240. The proxy directory may be configured in any number of ways. For example, the aircraft proxy directory may use one cache to store content for all of the passengers in the aircraft; in such case, only one aircraft proxy address 1240 will be associated with the flight.
  • FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary proxy directory of the present invention for a hotel. Field 1310 contains the name of the hotel, such as the St. Regis hotel in New York City. Field 1320 contains a unique reservation number associated with the reservation made by the user. An alphanumerical sequence of any length can be used as the reservation number, but as an example it is represented in the figure as a six digit number. Field 1330 contains the proxy address of the proxy server associated with the hotel reservation. In the figure, the proxy address is represented by an IP address. However, an embodiment of the proxy directory can use any number of address formats to designate a proxy address. The hotel may use one cache to store the information content associated with one reservation number 1320. Preferably, the hotel would maintain the proxy directory, which would receive requests for hotel proxy addresses. A request for a hotel proxy address may include the hotel name 1310 and the reservation number 1320. A search is conducted on the directory and a response is returned to the requester (e.g. user calendar), which includes the associated hotel proxy address 1330.
  • FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary proxy directory of the present invention for a rental car agency. Field 1410 contains a unique reservation number associated with a reservation made by the user for a rental car. An alphanumerical sequence of any length can be used as the reservation number, but as an example it is represented in the figure as a six digit number. Field 1420 contains a proxy address associated with the reservation number. In the figure, the proxy address is represented by an IP address. However, an embodiment of the proxy directory can use any number of address formats to designate a proxy address. Preferably, the rental car agency would maintain the proxy directory, which would receive requests for rental car proxy addresses. A request for a rental car proxy address may include the reservation number 1410. A search is conducted on the directory and a response is returned to the requestor (e.g., user calendar) which includes the associated rental car proxy address 1420.
  • FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary proxy directory of the present invention for a location within an university. A proxy directory is made for university locations since it is anticipated that college students will constitute a significant portion of the users of the present invention. One reason is that universities provide students with high-bandwidth network connections that make using electronic information more convenient. Also, college students have historically been eager to use electronic information and most likely would welcome systems such as the present invention which increase electronic information's ease of use. Field 1510 contains the name of the university, such as The Cooper Union. Field 1520 contains the name of a building within the university, such as the name “Hewitt.” Field 1530 contains the number of a room in the building, such as the room number 207. The room may be a dorm room where the user wishes to view a movie, or the room may be a classroom where the user wishes to give a multimedia presentation. Field 1540 is the proxy address associated with the room specified in field 1530. In the figure, the proxy address is represented by an IP address. However, an embodiment of the proxy directory can use any number of address formats to designate a proxy address. Preferably, the university would maintain the proxy directory, which would receive requests for a proxy address. A request for a proxy address may include the university name 1510, building name 1520 and room number 1530. A search is conducted on the directory and a response is returned to the requester (e.g., user calendar) which includes the associated proxy address 1540.
  • FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary proxy directory of the present invention for an internet service provider. The present invention not only allows the user to pre-loading information content to a physical information appliance at a physical location, it also allows the user to pre-loading information content to a virtual, network location as well. When the user views information content through a network connection operated by an Internet service provider, he may choose to pre-loading the information content to the Internet service provider so that he may view the same information content when he establishes another network connection at another location through the same Internet service provider. Field 1610 of the Internet service provider proxy directory contains a user identification. An alphanumerical sequence of any length can be used as the reservation number, but as an example it is represented in the figure as a six digit number. Field 1620 includes an address of the proxy that serves the user. In the figure, the proxy address is represented by an IP address. However, an embodiment of the proxy directory can use any number of address formats to designate a proxy address.
  • FIG. 17 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary proxy directory of the present invention maintained by an automobile manufacturer. Field 1710 contains a Vehicle Identification Number (VIN). An alphanumerical sequence of any length can be used as the reservation number, but as an example it is represented in the figure as a six digit number. Field 1720 includes a proxy address associated with the automobile. In the figure, the proxy address is represented by an IP address. However, an embodiment of the proxy directory can use any number of address formats to designate a proxy address. Preferably, the automobile manufacturer would maintain the proxy directory, which would receive requests for a proxy address. A request for a proxy address may include the VIN 1710. A search is conducted on the directory and a response is returned to the requester (e.g., user calendar) which includes the associated proxy address 1720.
  • It is important to note that at times the actual physical location of the information appliance where the pre-loading takes place may not have been determined at the time a request for pre-loading is made. For example, in the case of a flight, the user may request pre-loading to a specific flight number of a specific airline, but at the time of the request, the airline may have not yet assigned an aircraft to the flight. Similar situations are conceivable for rental cars, hotel rooms, and other locations. In such instances, the present invention will pre-loading the information content into a temporary proxy. When information on the physical location of the information appliance for pre-loading is made available, the Scheduled Pre-load Table (SPT) of the temporary proxy will be transferred to the proxy server associated with the information appliance, so that the information content will be transferred to a cache associated with the information appliance.
  • FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary message format by which a proxy server may communicate with a billing server to record charges incurred for information content pre-loads. Field 1810 of the message contains a unique user identification. Field 1820 contains the network address for the information content that was pre-loaded at the request of the user identified in field 2010. Field 1830 contains the date and the time the pre-loading took place. Field 1830 is significant since financial charges depend greatly on the time that the pre-loading took place. For example, charges for pre-loads may be the largest at a peak traffic hour, such as during the afternoon, while during early morning hours the charges may be the smallest.
  • Although illustrative embodiments of the present invention and various modifications thereof have been described in detail herein with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to these precise embodiments and the described modifications, and that various changes and further modifications may be effected therein by one skilled in the art without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

Claims (14)

1. A method for pre-loading information content to caches for information appliances, comprising:
accessing information content with a first appliance at a first location;
transmitting a request to pre-load the information content into a cache for use by a second information appliance at a second location, the second location associated with an a scheduled event in the future.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
viewing a schedule of at least one future event stored in a user calendar program.
3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
transmitting a request to delete a previous request to pre-load the information content into a cache for use by the second information appliance at the second location associated with the scheduled event.
4. The method of claim 3, wherein the transmitting step is accomplished using at least one of the following:
the user calendar program;
the first information appliance; and
a user interface maintained by an organization associated with the scheduled future event.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein the scheduled future event is an airline flight.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitting step is accomplished using at least one of the following:
the user calendar program;
the first information appliance;
a user interface maintained by an organization associated with the scheduled future event.
7-29. (canceled)
30. A system for pre-loading information content to caches for information appliances, comprising:
a plurality of information appliances;
a user interface capable of receiving and requesting information content pre-loading for use at a specified information appliance at a later time;
a network access node containing a plurality of proxy servers with a plurality of caches, wherein the plurality of proxy servers are capable of processing requests to pre-load information content into the plurality of caches, said request received from the user interface;
a storage means for storing information content to be used by the plurality of information appliances;
a storage means for storing a plurality of network addresses associated with the plurality of proxy servers, each network address also associated with a location of an information appliance; and
a billing means capable of monitoring the proxy server and generating billing to a user upon use of the pre-loaded information at the specified information appliance at the later time.
31. A method for pre-loading information content to caches for information appliances, comprising
accessing information content with a first information appliance;
viewing a scheduled of at least one event stored in a user calendar program;
transmitting a request to pre-load the information into a cache for use by a second information appliance associated with an a scheduled event in the future: and accessing the information content at the second information appliance.
32. The method of claim 31, further comprising:
transmitting a request to delete a previous request to pre-load the information content into a cache for use by the second information appliance associated with the scheduled event.
33. The method of claim 32, wherein the transmitting step is accomplished using at least one of the following:
the user calendar program;
the first information appliance; and
a user interface maintained by an organization associated with the scheduled event.
34. The method of claim 31, wherein the scheduled event is an airline flight.
35. The method of claim 31, wherein the transmitting step is accomplished using at least one of the following:
the user calendar program;
the first information appliance; and
a user interface maintained by an organization associated with the scheduled event.
36-54. (canceled)
US11/215,414 2002-02-27 2005-08-30 Pre-loading content to caches for information appliances Abandoned US20050283574A1 (en)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US11/215,414 US20050283574A1 (en) 2002-02-27 2005-08-30 Pre-loading content to caches for information appliances

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US10/083,819 US7010762B2 (en) 2002-02-27 2002-02-27 Pre-loading content to caches for information appliances
US11/215,414 US20050283574A1 (en) 2002-02-27 2005-08-30 Pre-loading content to caches for information appliances

Related Parent Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
US10/083,819 Continuation US7010762B2 (en) 2002-02-27 2002-02-27 Pre-loading content to caches for information appliances

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
US20050283574A1 true US20050283574A1 (en) 2005-12-22

Family

ID=27753358

Family Applications (2)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
US10/083,819 Expired - Fee Related US7010762B2 (en) 2002-02-27 2002-02-27 Pre-loading content to caches for information appliances
US11/215,414 Abandoned US20050283574A1 (en) 2002-02-27 2005-08-30 Pre-loading content to caches for information appliances

Family Applications Before (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
US10/083,819 Expired - Fee Related US7010762B2 (en) 2002-02-27 2002-02-27 Pre-loading content to caches for information appliances

Country Status (4)

Country Link
US (2) US7010762B2 (en)
EP (1) EP1359518A3 (en)
JP (1) JP2004005447A (en)
CA (1) CA2419366A1 (en)

Cited By (6)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US20030188123A1 (en) * 2002-04-01 2003-10-02 Royer Robert J. Method and apparatus to generate cache data
US20060253444A1 (en) * 2005-05-05 2006-11-09 Cisco Technology, Inc. Method and system for dynamically pre-positioning content in a network based detecting or predicting user presence
US20080235360A1 (en) * 2004-03-12 2008-09-25 Joseph J. Laks, Patent Operations System and Method for Scheduling Downloading in a Cached Network Environment
US20120203797A1 (en) * 2007-08-13 2012-08-09 Oracle International Corporation Enhanced control to users to populate a cache in a database system
US20130326474A1 (en) * 2009-05-13 2013-12-05 Adobe Systems Incorporated Location-Based Application Development for Runtime Environments
WO2015105518A1 (en) * 2014-01-13 2015-07-16 Facebook, Inc. Systems and methods for priority-based digital content downloading

Families Citing this family (66)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US20030154485A1 (en) * 2002-02-12 2003-08-14 Johnson Carolynn Rae Allocation of recording space per user and application
GB2392518B (en) * 2002-09-02 2004-09-22 3Com Corp Computer network and method of operating same to preload content of selected web pages
US8364815B2 (en) 2005-03-18 2013-01-29 Riverbed Technology, Inc. Reliability and availability of distributed servers
US7650416B2 (en) * 2003-08-12 2010-01-19 Riverbed Technology Content delivery for client-server protocols with user affinities using connection end-point proxies
US8938553B2 (en) * 2003-08-12 2015-01-20 Riverbed Technology, Inc. Cooperative proxy auto-discovery and connection interception through network address translation
CN1879081B (en) * 2003-11-04 2011-07-13 汤姆森许可贸易公司 Cache server at hotspots for downloading services
US20050273497A1 (en) * 2004-05-21 2005-12-08 Bea Systems, Inc. Service oriented architecture with electronic mail transport protocol
US20050267892A1 (en) * 2004-05-21 2005-12-01 Patrick Paul B Service proxy definition
US20060069791A1 (en) * 2004-05-21 2006-03-30 Bea Systems, Inc. Service oriented architecture with interchangeable transport protocols
US20060031930A1 (en) * 2004-05-21 2006-02-09 Bea Systems, Inc. Dynamically configurable service oriented architecture
US20060031481A1 (en) * 2004-05-21 2006-02-09 Bea Systems, Inc. Service oriented architecture with monitoring
US7653008B2 (en) * 2004-05-21 2010-01-26 Bea Systems, Inc. Dynamically configurable service oriented architecture
US20050270970A1 (en) * 2004-05-21 2005-12-08 Bea Systems, Inc. Failsafe service oriented architecture
US20060031354A1 (en) * 2004-05-21 2006-02-09 Bea Systems, Inc. Service oriented architecture
US7310684B2 (en) * 2004-05-21 2007-12-18 Bea Systems, Inc. Message processing in a service oriented architecture
US20060031433A1 (en) * 2004-05-21 2006-02-09 Bea Systems, Inc. Batch updating for a service oriented architecture
US7774485B2 (en) * 2004-05-21 2010-08-10 Bea Systems, Inc. Dynamic service composition and orchestration
US20050264581A1 (en) * 2004-05-21 2005-12-01 Bea Systems, Inc. Dynamic program modification
US20050273521A1 (en) * 2004-05-21 2005-12-08 Bea Systems, Inc. Dynamically configurable service oriented architecture
US20060031432A1 (en) * 2004-05-21 2006-02-09 Bea Systens, Inc. Service oriented architecture with message processing pipelines
US20060031355A1 (en) * 2004-05-21 2006-02-09 Bea Systems, Inc. Programmable service oriented architecture
US20060007918A1 (en) * 2004-05-21 2006-01-12 Bea Systems, Inc. Scaleable service oriented architecture
US20050273520A1 (en) * 2004-05-21 2005-12-08 Bea Systems, Inc. Service oriented architecture with file transport protocol
US20050278335A1 (en) * 2004-05-21 2005-12-15 Bea Systems, Inc. Service oriented architecture with alerts
US20060080419A1 (en) * 2004-05-21 2006-04-13 Bea Systems, Inc. Reliable updating for a service oriented architecture
US20060031353A1 (en) * 2004-05-21 2006-02-09 Bea Systems, Inc. Dynamic publishing in a service oriented architecture
US20050267947A1 (en) * 2004-05-21 2005-12-01 Bea Systems, Inc. Service oriented architecture with message processing pipelines
US20050278374A1 (en) * 2004-05-21 2005-12-15 Bea Systems, Inc. Dynamic program modification
US8023966B2 (en) * 2004-12-21 2011-09-20 Nokia Corporation Systems, devices, methods and computer program products for downloading content to mobile devices in a roaming environment
US20090025046A1 (en) * 2005-03-09 2009-01-22 Wond, Llc Hybrid architecture for media services
US7191215B2 (en) * 2005-03-09 2007-03-13 Marquee, Inc. Method and system for providing instantaneous media-on-demand services by transmitting contents in pieces from client machines
US20080022343A1 (en) 2006-07-24 2008-01-24 Vvond, Inc. Multiple audio streams
US7937379B2 (en) * 2005-03-09 2011-05-03 Vudu, Inc. Fragmentation of a file for instant access
US7698451B2 (en) 2005-03-09 2010-04-13 Vudu, Inc. Method and apparatus for instant playback of a movie title
US8904463B2 (en) 2005-03-09 2014-12-02 Vudu, Inc. Live video broadcasting on distributed networks
US8219635B2 (en) 2005-03-09 2012-07-10 Vudu, Inc. Continuous data feeding in a distributed environment
US9176955B2 (en) 2005-03-09 2015-11-03 Vvond, Inc. Method and apparatus for sharing media files among network nodes
US20060248194A1 (en) 2005-03-18 2006-11-02 Riverbed Technology, Inc. Connection forwarding
US8099511B1 (en) 2005-06-11 2012-01-17 Vudu, Inc. Instantaneous media-on-demand
DE102006011829B4 (en) * 2006-03-13 2015-10-22 Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft Method for data communication
WO2008005629A2 (en) * 2006-05-26 2008-01-10 Riverbed Technology, Inc. Throttling of predictive acks in an accelerated network communication system
US7769834B2 (en) 2006-05-30 2010-08-03 Riverbed Technology, Inc. System for selecting a proxy pair based on configurations of autodiscovered proxies on a network
JP4860365B2 (en) * 2006-06-19 2012-01-25 ソニー・エリクソン・モバイルコミュニケーションズ株式会社 Information processing device, information processing method, information processing program, and portable terminal device
US7873620B2 (en) * 2006-06-29 2011-01-18 Microsoft Corporation Desktop search from mobile device
US8296812B1 (en) 2006-09-01 2012-10-23 Vudu, Inc. Streaming video using erasure encoding
US8429702B2 (en) * 2006-09-11 2013-04-23 At&T Intellectual Property I, L.P. Methods and apparatus for selecting and pushing customized electronic media content
US8533310B2 (en) * 2007-03-09 2013-09-10 Riverbed Technology, Inc. Method and apparatus for acceleration by prefetching associated objects
US8996394B2 (en) * 2007-05-18 2015-03-31 Oracle International Corporation System and method for enabling decision activities in a process management and design environment
US8185916B2 (en) 2007-06-28 2012-05-22 Oracle International Corporation System and method for integrating a business process management system with an enterprise service bus
EP2274911A1 (en) * 2008-05-05 2011-01-19 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. Communications prior to a scheduled event
FR2933213A1 (en) 2008-06-30 2010-01-01 Thomson Licensing METHOD FOR DISPLAYING USER INTERFACE AND CORRESPONDING TRANSMISSION METHOD
US20100091687A1 (en) * 2008-10-15 2010-04-15 Ted Beers Status of events
US8332528B2 (en) * 2008-11-18 2012-12-11 Agere Systems Llc Personal broadcast and content delivery engine
US20130179476A1 (en) * 2012-01-09 2013-07-11 Microsoft Corporation Scalable billing usage data storage
US10261938B1 (en) 2012-08-31 2019-04-16 Amazon Technologies, Inc. Content preloading using predictive models
US9374626B2 (en) 2013-07-17 2016-06-21 Intel Corporation Use of digital TV bandwidth for web cache pre-loading
US9787619B2 (en) 2013-11-08 2017-10-10 Gogo Llc Data caching in a hybrid communications system
CA2969210C (en) * 2014-12-01 2024-02-20 Informatica Llc Method, apparatus, and comuter-readable medium for processing a message by a message broker system
US10223160B2 (en) * 2015-08-31 2019-03-05 Ayla Networks, Inc. Compact schedules for resource-constrained devices
US11526521B2 (en) * 2016-07-15 2022-12-13 Microsoft Technology Licensing, Llc Prefetching using dynamic user model to reduce latency
US20180115627A1 (en) * 2016-10-24 2018-04-26 Honeywell International Inc. Internet cache server system
US10361997B2 (en) 2016-12-29 2019-07-23 Riverbed Technology, Inc. Auto discovery between proxies in an IPv6 network
CN106909690A (en) * 2017-03-07 2017-06-30 四川驹马企业管理有限公司 Network data caching method
CN107070991A (en) * 2017-03-08 2017-08-18 四川驹马企业管理有限公司 Network data buffer storage and system
US10798437B2 (en) * 2017-12-29 2020-10-06 Sling Media LLC Systems and methods for predictive media file transfer to user-carried storage components
CN113779461A (en) * 2021-09-02 2021-12-10 北京有竹居网络技术有限公司 Data loading method and device and electronic equipment

Citations (10)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US5603058A (en) * 1994-09-08 1997-02-11 International Business Machines Corporation Video optimized media streamer having communication nodes received digital data from storage node and transmitted said data to adapters for generating isochronous digital data streams
US5712976A (en) * 1994-09-08 1998-01-27 International Business Machines Corporation Video data streamer for simultaneously conveying same one or different ones of data blocks stored in storage node to each of plurality of communication nodes
US5978841A (en) * 1996-03-08 1999-11-02 Berger; Louis Look ahead caching process for improved information retrieval response time by caching bodies of information before they are requested by the user
US6016520A (en) * 1995-07-14 2000-01-18 Microsoft Corporation Method of viewing at a client viewing station a multiple media title stored at a server and containing a plurality of topics utilizing anticipatory caching
US6065043A (en) * 1996-03-14 2000-05-16 Domenikos; Steven D. Systems and methods for executing application programs from a memory device linked to a server
US6098096A (en) * 1996-12-09 2000-08-01 Sun Microsystems, Inc. Method and apparatus for dynamic cache preloading across a network
US6119203A (en) * 1998-08-03 2000-09-12 Motorola, Inc. Mechanism for sharing data cache resources between data prefetch operations and normal load/store operations in a data processing system
US20020016162A1 (en) * 2000-08-03 2002-02-07 Kddi Corporation Method for provision of contents
US6369840B1 (en) * 1999-03-10 2002-04-09 America Online, Inc. Multi-layered online calendaring and purchasing
US20020161476A1 (en) * 2001-04-05 2002-10-31 David Panofsky System for vending and dispensing digital files

Family Cites Families (10)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US4843542A (en) * 1986-11-12 1989-06-27 Xerox Corporation Virtual memory cache for use in multi-processing systems
US5265235A (en) * 1990-11-30 1993-11-23 Xerox Corporation Consistency protocols for shared memory multiprocessors
US5581704A (en) * 1993-12-06 1996-12-03 Panasonic Technologies, Inc. System for maintaining data coherency in cache memory by periodically broadcasting invalidation reports from server to client
US6052700A (en) * 1998-09-17 2000-04-18 Bull Hn Information Systems Inc. Calendar clock caching in a multiprocessor data processing system
US7130616B2 (en) 2000-04-25 2006-10-31 Simple Devices System and method for providing content, management, and interactivity for client devices
EP1049028A3 (en) * 1999-04-26 2001-01-31 Sarnoff Corporation Efficient distribution of information to the end-user
US6912503B1 (en) 2000-01-14 2005-06-28 Gilbarco Inc. Multistage data purchase with mobile information ordering and docking station receipt
US7747782B2 (en) * 2000-04-26 2010-06-29 Novarra, Inc. System and method for providing and displaying information content
US7689521B2 (en) * 2001-06-28 2010-03-30 Microsoft Corporation Continuous time bayesian network models for predicting users' presence, activities, and component usage
US7343365B2 (en) * 2002-02-20 2008-03-11 Microsoft Corporation Computer system architecture for automatic context associations

Patent Citations (11)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US5603058A (en) * 1994-09-08 1997-02-11 International Business Machines Corporation Video optimized media streamer having communication nodes received digital data from storage node and transmitted said data to adapters for generating isochronous digital data streams
US5712976A (en) * 1994-09-08 1998-01-27 International Business Machines Corporation Video data streamer for simultaneously conveying same one or different ones of data blocks stored in storage node to each of plurality of communication nodes
US6016520A (en) * 1995-07-14 2000-01-18 Microsoft Corporation Method of viewing at a client viewing station a multiple media title stored at a server and containing a plurality of topics utilizing anticipatory caching
US5978841A (en) * 1996-03-08 1999-11-02 Berger; Louis Look ahead caching process for improved information retrieval response time by caching bodies of information before they are requested by the user
US6065043A (en) * 1996-03-14 2000-05-16 Domenikos; Steven D. Systems and methods for executing application programs from a memory device linked to a server
US6115741A (en) * 1996-03-14 2000-09-05 Domenikos; Steven D. Systems and methods for executing application programs from a memory device linked to a server
US6098096A (en) * 1996-12-09 2000-08-01 Sun Microsystems, Inc. Method and apparatus for dynamic cache preloading across a network
US6119203A (en) * 1998-08-03 2000-09-12 Motorola, Inc. Mechanism for sharing data cache resources between data prefetch operations and normal load/store operations in a data processing system
US6369840B1 (en) * 1999-03-10 2002-04-09 America Online, Inc. Multi-layered online calendaring and purchasing
US20020016162A1 (en) * 2000-08-03 2002-02-07 Kddi Corporation Method for provision of contents
US20020161476A1 (en) * 2001-04-05 2002-10-31 David Panofsky System for vending and dispensing digital files

Cited By (10)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US20030188123A1 (en) * 2002-04-01 2003-10-02 Royer Robert J. Method and apparatus to generate cache data
US7103724B2 (en) * 2002-04-01 2006-09-05 Intel Corporation Method and apparatus to generate cache data
US20080235360A1 (en) * 2004-03-12 2008-09-25 Joseph J. Laks, Patent Operations System and Method for Scheduling Downloading in a Cached Network Environment
US20060253444A1 (en) * 2005-05-05 2006-11-09 Cisco Technology, Inc. Method and system for dynamically pre-positioning content in a network based detecting or predicting user presence
US7610280B2 (en) * 2005-05-05 2009-10-27 Cisco Technology, Inc. Method and system for dynamically pre-positioning content in a network based detecting or predicting user presence
US20120203797A1 (en) * 2007-08-13 2012-08-09 Oracle International Corporation Enhanced control to users to populate a cache in a database system
US8868595B2 (en) * 2007-08-13 2014-10-21 Oracle International Corporation Enhanced control to users to populate a cache in a database system
US20130326474A1 (en) * 2009-05-13 2013-12-05 Adobe Systems Incorporated Location-Based Application Development for Runtime Environments
US9417851B2 (en) * 2009-05-13 2016-08-16 Adobe Systems Incorporated Location-based application development for runtime environments
WO2015105518A1 (en) * 2014-01-13 2015-07-16 Facebook, Inc. Systems and methods for priority-based digital content downloading

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
US7010762B2 (en) 2006-03-07
JP2004005447A (en) 2004-01-08
EP1359518A2 (en) 2003-11-05
US20030163646A1 (en) 2003-08-28
CA2419366A1 (en) 2003-08-27
EP1359518A3 (en) 2003-11-19

Similar Documents

Publication Publication Date Title
US7010762B2 (en) Pre-loading content to caches for information appliances
US7424520B2 (en) Method and apparatus for restructuring of personalized data for transmission from a data network to connected and portable network appliances
US9836445B2 (en) Dynamic page generator
US7571167B1 (en) Peer-to-peer network content object information caching
US6801906B1 (en) Method and apparatus for finding information on the internet
US6370580B2 (en) Web serving system that coordinates multiple servers to optimize file transfers
US20040078464A1 (en) Method and apparatus for enabling real time monitoring and notification of data updates for WEB-based data synchronization services
US7342928B2 (en) Method and system for accessing a peer-to-peer network
US6282543B1 (en) Database search and display method and database search system
JPH1188419A (en) System for distributing animation information and its method
JP2927259B2 (en) Download device
JP2001521334A (en) Communication network node
US20080319946A1 (en) Method and system for searching availability of an entity for purchase or reservation
US6707470B1 (en) Apparatus for and method of gathering information, which can automatically obtain HTML file of URL even if user does not specify URL
US20020078162A1 (en) Program generation system, network system and agent system
JPH10198590A (en) Contents management system
JP2002082988A (en) Retrieving device, distributing device, and contents data distributing system
JP2000112972A (en) Information supply system/method
JP2001075850A (en) Method for processing data cache, and cache device
JP3441028B2 (en) Multimedia terminal
JP2002149688A (en) System and method for information distribution
JP2001027960A (en) Document managing system and document managing method
JP2003242017A (en) Method and system for information disclosure
KR20010036839A (en) Method for allocating internet address to internet access number and method for accessing internet using its
JPH10260970A (en) Information prosecution system and device

Legal Events

Date Code Title Description
STCB Information on status: application discontinuation

Free format text: ABANDONED -- FAILURE TO RESPOND TO AN OFFICE ACTION