US 2001/0020248 A1Published application

Method for transferring and displaying data pages on a data network

AssigneeAT&T Corp.

InventorsGaurav Banga, Frederick Douglis, Hosagrahar Visvesvaraya Jagadish, Michael Rabinovich

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

The apparent speed of a connection between a browser at a user station and a proxy or gateway on a network such as the Internet is increased by providing a local proxy at the user station which interacts with a remote proxy. While the remote proxy is retrieving a newly requested World Wide Web page, for example, from the appropriate content provider, it may also be sending to the local proxy a stale cached version of that page. When the new version of the page is finally retrieved, the remote proxy determines the differences between the new version and the stale version, and, assuming the differences do not exceed the new page in size, sends the differences to the local proxy which then reconstructs the new page from the differences and the stale version. The local proxy delivers the new page to the browser, which need not even be aware that a local proxy exists; it is aware only that it received the page it requested. Because computational speed and power are frequently higher and cheaper than transmission speed, the apparent speed of the connection between the user station and the network has been increased at modest cost.

Claims31

Dependent claims

A method for transferring and displaying data pages on a data network, said network being of a type on which data can be retrieved as pages, said network having at least one server on which said data pages are stored, a gateway connected to said at least one server, and a user station connected to said gateway by a data connection having a finite speed, said user station requesting one of said pages from said at least one server, said method comprising the steps of:

sending a request from said user station to said gateway for retrieval of said data page from one of said at least one server;
recalling a base version of said data page;
initiating, in response to a determination that said base version is not current, a retrieval of said data page from said one of said at least one server to said gateway for transfer to said user station;
determining, after receipt at said gateway of a response to said request, a difference between said requested data page and said base version of said page;
transmitting said difference to said user station;
calculating at said user station said data page as a function of said base version and said difference;
determining a measure of efficiency of said difference determining and difference transmitting step;
when said measure of efficiency indicates that sending said requested data page in its entirety from said gateway to said user station is efficient, sending said requested data page in its entirety from said gateway to said user station, and displaying said requested data page at said user station;
and
when said measure of efficiency indicates that sending said requested data page in its entirety from said gateway to said user is inefficient,
displaying said calculated page at said user station;
comparing size of said difference to a minimum threshold, wherein said minimum threshold is represented by the equations:
Tsmall<D and Dtot<F (S,C,Tlarge) where D represents a total number of unsent bytes of said difference data, including said difference data that has been generated but not sent;
Dtot represents a total number of bytes of difference data that has been generated;
C represents a number of byte of said requested data page that has already been processed;
S represents the size of the base version of said data page;
Tsmall represents a minimum threshold;
Tlarge represent a maximum threshold;
and F is a function of S,C, and Tlarge;
and
if said size of said difference exceeds said minimum threshold:
aborting said recalling and transmitting steps and said step of displaying said calculated page,
sending said requested data page in its entirety from said gateway to said user station, and
displaying said requested data page at said user station.

21 more elements

sending a request from said user station to said gateway for retrieval of said data page from one of said at least one server;
recalling a base version of said data page;
initiating, in response to a determination that said base version is not current, a retrieval of said data page from said one of said at least one server to said gateway for transfer to said user station;
determining, after receipt at said gateway of a response to said request, a difference between said requested data page and said base version of said page, wherein said determining step further includes the steps of:
awaiting completion of retrieval of a predetermined portion of said data page from said one of said at least one server;
comparing said retrieved predetermined portion of said data page to said base version of said data page;
generating a partial difference between said data page and said base version of said data page, wherein said generating step includes the steps of:
comparing transmission size of said partial difference to a minimum threshold wherein said comparing step is represented by the equations:
Tsmall<D and Dtot<F (S,C,Tlarge) where D represents a total number of unsent bytes of said difference data, including said difference data that has been generated by not sent;
Dtot represents a total number of bytes of difference data that has been generated;
C represents a number of byte of said requested data page that has already been processed;
S represents the size of the base version of said data page;
Tsmall represents a minimum threshold;
Tlarge represent a maximum threshold;
and F is a function of S,C, and Tlarge;
transmitting said partial difference to said user station when said transmission size of said partial difference exceeds said minimum threshold;
and
when said transmission size of said partial difference is less than said minimum threshold:
comparing at least one additional retrieved predetermined portion of said data page to a base version of said data page to generate at least one additional partial difference between said data page and said base version of said data page;
adding transmission size of said at least one additional partial difference to transmission size of said held partial difference until a sum of said transmission sizes exceeds said minimum threshold;
and
transmitting said held partial difference and said at least one additional partial difference to said user station;
and
repeating said awaiting and comparing step for additional predetermined portions of said data page;
transmitting said difference to said user station;
calculating at said user station said data page as a function of said base version and said difference;
and
displaying said calculated page at said user station.

25 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 09/852,750Filed 11 May 2001
Priority: 2 Aug 1999
Published: 6 Sep 2001
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification7 codes

H04L 67/2876
Architectures; Arrangements: pairs of inter-processing entities at each side of the network, e.g. split proxies
G06F 16/957
Retrieval from the web: browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
G06F 16/9574
Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation: of access to content, e.g. by caching
H04L 67/568
Provisioning of proxy services: storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching

Family

Application09/366,345Continuation · filed 2 Aug 1999
Application09/852,750Continuation · filed 11 May 2001
US 6,240,447 B1Related patent
US 6,910,073 B2Related patent
US 2001/0020248 A1This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.