Method, system, and computer program product for prefetching sync data and for edge caching sync data on a cellular device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9049212-B2
Application number	US-95483204-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 30, 2004
Priority date	Sep 30, 2004
Publication date	Jun 2, 2015
Grant date	Jun 2, 2015

Abstract

The present invention provides a method, system, and computer program product for prefetching sync data and for edge caching on a cellular device (e.g., a cell phone). The method for prefetching sync data comprises: providing unprocessed sync data at a first location; downloading the unprocessed sync data from the first location to a second location over a first network; processing the unprocessed sync data at the second location to provide preprocessed sync data; storing the preprocessed sync data in a cache; receiving a sync request from a mobile device; and immediately providing at least a portion of the preprocessed sync data stored in the cache to the mobile device.

First claim

I claim:

1. A method for prefetching sync data, comprising:
downloading, to a cellular phone periodically querying a back-end server for unprocessed sync data, the unprocessed sync data destined for a plurality of mobile devices from the back-end server over a cellular network having a first data transfer rate;
processing the unprocessed sync data at the cellular phone to provide preprocessed sync data;
storing the preprocessed sync data in a cache in the cellular phone, wherein the cache stores the preprocessed sync data for the plurality of mobile devices;
receiving a sync request from a requesting mobile device of the plurality of mobile devices;
providing, in response to the received sync request, at least a portion of the preprocessed sync data stored in the cache to the requesting mobile device over a personal area network having a second data transfer rate higher than the first data transfer rate of the cellular network, wherein only a single sync request and a single corresponding response is required to provide the preprocessed sync data stored in the cache to the requesting mobile device; and
erasing the preprocessed sync data from the cache only after all of the plurality of mobile devices have accessed the cache and downloaded at least a portion of the preprocessed sync data.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
querying the back-end server for unprocessed sync data prior to a next scheduled sync request from the requesting mobile device.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
providing at least a portion of the preprocessed sync data stored in the cache to the requesting mobile device in response to the next scheduled sync request.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
querying the back-end server for additional unprocessed sync data available after the storage of the preprocessed sync data in the cache but before the next scheduled sync request from the requesting mobile device.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:
downloading the additional unprocessed sync data, if available, over the cellular network from the back-end server to the cellular phone;
processing the additional unprocessed sync data at the cellular phone to provide supplemental preprocessed sync data; and
transferring the supplemental preprocessed sync data to the requesting mobile device.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising:
transferring the supplemental preprocessed sync data to the requesting mobile device in parallel with, or after receipt of, the preprocessed sync data.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
filtering the preprocessed sync data according to at least one filtering criterion; and
providing the filtered preprocessed sync data to the requesting mobile device.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
examining the preprocessed sync data according to an alert criterion; and
alerting a user of the cellular phone that the alert criterion has been satisfied.

9. A system for prefetching sync data, the system comprising:
a back-end server;
a cellular phone; and
a plurality of mobile devices;
wherein the cellular phone is configured to:
periodically query the back-end server for unprocessed sync data, the unprocessed sync data destined for the plurality of mobile devices;
download the unprocessed sync data from the back-end server over a cellular network having a first data transfer rate;
process the unprocessed sync data at the cellular phone to provide preprocessed sync data;
store the preprocessed sync data in a cache in the cellular phone, wherein the cache stores the preprocessed sync data for the plurality of mobile devices;
receive a sync request from a requesting mobile device of the plurality of mobile devices;
provide, in response to the received sync request, at least a portion of the preprocessed sync data stored in the cache to the requesting mobile device over a personal area network having a second data transfer rate higher than the first data transfer rate of the cellular network, wherein only a single sync request and a single corresponding response is required to provide the preprocessed sync data stored in the cache to the requesting mobile device; and
erase the preprocessed sync data from the cache only after all of the plurality of mobile devices have accessed the cache and downloaded at least a portion of the preprocessed sync data.

10. The system of claim 9 , the system further comprising:
the cellular phone configured to:
query the back-end server for unprocessed sync data prior to a next scheduled sync request from the requesting mobile device.

11. The system of claim 10 , the system further comprising:
the cellular phone configured to:
provide at least a portion of the preprocessed sync data stored in the cache to the requesting mobile device in response to the next scheduled sync request.

12. The system of claim 11 , the system further comprising:
the cellular phone configured to:
query the back-end server for additional unprocessed sync data available after the storage of the preprocessed sync data in the cache but before the next scheduled sync request from the requesting mobile device.

13. The system of claim 12 , the system further comprising:
the cellular phone configured to:
download the additional unprocessed sync data, if available, over the cellular network from the back-end server;
process the additional unprocessed sync data to provide supplemental preprocessed sync data; and
transfer the supplemental preprocessed sync data to the requesting mobile device.

14. The system of claim 13 , the system further comprising:
the cellular phone configured to:
transfer the supplemental preprocessed sync data to the requesting mobile device in parallel with, or after receipt of, the preprocessed sync data.

15. The system of claim 9 , the system further comprising:
the cellular phone configured to:
filter the preprocessed sync data according to at least one filtering criterion; and
provide the filtered preprocessed sync data to the requesting mobile device.

16. The system of claim 9 , further comprising:
the cellular phone configured to:
examine the preprocessed sync data according to an alert criterion; and
alert a user of the cellular phone that the alert criterion has been satisfied.

17. A program product stored on a non-transitory computer recordable medium, which when executed by a computer prefetches sync data, the program product comprising program code for:
downloading, to a cellular phone periodically querying a back-end server for unprocessed sync data, the unprocessed sync data destined for a plurality of mobile devices from the back-end server over a cellular network having a first data transfer rate;
processing the unprocessed sync data at the cellular phone to provide preprocessed sync data;
storing the preprocessed sync data in a cache in the cellular phone, wherein the cache stores the preprocessed sync data for the plurality of mobile devices;
receiving a sync request from a requesting mobile device of the plurality of mobile devices;
providing, in response to the received sync request, at least a portion of the preprocessed sync data stored in the cache to the requesting mobile device over a personal area network having a second data transfer rate higher than the first data transfer rate of the cellular network, wherein only a single sync request and a single corresponding response is required to provide the preprocessed sync data stored in the cache to the requesting mobile device; and
erasing the pr

Assignees

• Segre Marc
• IBM

Inventors

• Segre Marc

Classifications

• H04L67/1095 Primary

  Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes · CPC title

• H04L67/28

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L67/2847

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L67/04

  specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability · CPC title

• H04L67/5681

  Pre-fetching or pre-delivering data based on network characteristics · CPC title