Method and System for Managing Data in a Communication Network
Contents
1. 0008 FIG 1 illustrates the architecture of a data manage ment system where various embodiments of the disclosure can be practiced 0009 FIG 2 illustrates a hierarchical representation of the data management system in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure 0010 FIG 3 illustrates the architecture ofa computational device ofthe data management system in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure 0011 FIGS 4A 4G illustrates various embodiments of a first representation and a second representation of a file in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure 0012 FIG 5 is a flowchart illustrating a method for man aging a plurality of files in a communication network in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure 0013 FIG 6 is a flowchart illustrating a method for man aging a server in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure and 0014 FIG 7 is a flowchart illustrating a method for accessing a secured file in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure DETAILED DESCRIPTION 0015 Before describing in detail the embodiments in accordance with the disclosure it should be observed that these embodiments reside primarily inthemethod and system used for managing data ina communication network Accord ingly the method steps and system components have been represented to show only those specific details that are perti nent for an understanding ofthe embodiments and not details that2. 1 A method for managing a plurality of files in a commu nication network the communication network comprising a plurality of clients and at least one file of the plurality of files comprising one or more data segments the method compris ing a receiving metadata associated with a file by a server wherein the file is stored in a virtual data drive of a first client of the plurality of clients b receiving by the server data segments associated with the file from the virtual data drive of the first client c storing the metadata and data segments associated with the file at the server Oct 31 2013 d generating by the server a first representation of the file based on the received metadata and data segments asso ciated with the file e sending by the server the first representation of the file to the plurality of clients and f sending by the server at least one data segment of the file to a second client of the plurality of clients based on a request received at the server from the second client for the at least one data segment of the file 2 The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising receiving by the server inputs to define a plurality of access rights to at least one user of a plurality of users corresponding to the plurality of clients for accessing the file 3 The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising receiving by the server a change to the at least one data segment of the file
3. 106 by saving the file in a virtual drive in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure data segments associated with the file can automatically be trans ferred to remote storage 106 to free memory in local storage 114 for new files For example a user uploads a video movie file to the virtual data drive which already has a number of song files stored in it Once the song files stored in the virtual data drive have been transferred to remote storage 106 they can be removed from local storage 114 to free space for the video movie file 0038 FIG 2 illustrates the hierarchical representation of data management system 100 in accordance with an embodi ment Data management system 100 is implemented over server 104 connected to computational device 112 via com munication network 102 Computational device 112 includes client 108 connected to local storage 114 Server 104 is con nected to remote storage 106 0039 Before auser of client 108 can access or upload files to server 104 the user has to sign up with server 104 By signing up with server 104 a user account is created for the user with a username and password along with additional US 2013 0291124 Al personal information Each user account is provided with access rights by a rights manager 208 Access rights provided by rights manager 208 may include a combination ofthe right to upload files to the server the right to read or modify files the right to delete files and the
4. 118 of second client 110 those data segments are not requested by second client 110 while sending the request to server 104 and only remaining data segments are requested For example ifsome ofthe data segments ofa song are already saved or cached in local storage 118 only the remaining data segments of the song are requested by second client 110 0031 On receiving the data segments according to one example second client 110 adds the received data segments to the first representation of the file to create a second repre sentation of the file In one embodiment second client 110 receives all data segments associated with the file and replaces the first representation of the file with the second representation of the file in local storage 118 In this case the second representation of the file is a complete file i e all the data segments associated with the file are stored in local storage 118 0032 In accordance with another embodiment client 110 is configured to send a request to server 104 for a random access of a file For example the virtual data drive enables second client 110 to randomly access a particular data seg ment associated with the file without downloading all the data segments associated with the file starting from the beginning For example when a user of client 110 wants to play a music file in a media player he she may jump to the middle of the song In this case second client 110 requests for data seg
5. a server wherein the file is a secured file stored in a virtual data drive of a first client of the plurality of clients b receiving by the server data segments associated with the file from the virtual data drive of the first client c storing the metadata and data segments associated with the file at the server d generating by the server a first representation of the file based on the received metadata and data segments asso ciated with the file e sending by the server the first representation of the file to the plurality of clients f receiving by the server a request from a second client of the plurality of clients for at least one data segment of the file g authenticating by the server the request based on a plurality of access rights of a user of the second client and US 2013 0291124 Al Oct 31 2013 h sending by the server the at least one data segment of the file to the second client when the request is authen ticated
6. displayed in the picture viewer To improve the resolution ofthe displayed image client 110 may send a request to server 104 for streaming the remaining data segments from remote storage 106 to local storage 118 0069 At step 510 receiver 202 of server 104 receives a request for access to one or more data segments of the file from client 110 0070 At step 512 sender 206 of server 104 sends the requested one or more data segments ofthe file to client 110 On receiving the stream of the requested data segments ofthe file from sender 206 the first representation of the file is transformed into a second representation of the file and pro vided to the user In the example the image file is received and displayed in the picture viewer In another implementation onreceiving the remaining data segments client 110 appends the received data segments with the first representation ofthe file Consider the example of the music file where the first representation of the music file includes metadata associated with the music file the first data segment ofthe music file and the last data segment of the music file stored in local storage 118 When the user launches a music player to play the music file the first data segment stored in local storage 118 is accessed by client 110 and played by the music player Mean while client 110 sends a request to server 104 for streaming the remaining data segments associated with the music file As the remai
7. even when second client 110 is not connected to communication network 100 0035 In accordance with an embodiment each user should have the access rights to clients 108 and 110 to be able to access or upload files to and from server 104 Server 104 is configured to create accounts for each user and define access rights to users of clients 108 and 110 Based on the account server 104 is further configured to authenticate users of cli ents 108 and 110 An account is created for a user by server 104 when the user signs up with server 104 The user account is created by supplying a username and a password along with additional personal information such as name date of birth sex and country Access rights include a combination of the right to upload files to the server the right to read or modify files the right to delete files and the like 0036 In accordance with an embodiment of the disclo sure a file uploaded by a user of first client 108 into the virtual data drive of first client 108 is not removed from local storage 114 unless there is need to free up space in local storage 114 In this case the file is kept in local storage 114 of first client 108 and uploaded to server 104 as well Further in this case the first representation of the file generated by server 104 is also received by first client 108 although it already has the uploaded file 0037 Although the above description relates to uploading a file in remote storage
8. file from a client Authenticate the user based on access rights of a user of the client Did the authentication of user succeed ream data segments to the FIG 7 US 2013 0291124 Al METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR MANAGING DATA IN A COMMUNICATION NETWORK REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 0001 The present application is a divisional of non pro visional application Ser No 12 657 931 filed Jan 29 2010 which claims priority from provisional application No 61 206 588 filed Feb 2 2009 Both related applications are hereby incorporated in their entirety by this reference FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE 0002 The present disclosure relates to managing data in a communication network More specifically the present dis closure relates to providing access to data stored in a remote storage using a virtual data drive BACKGROUND 0003 Typically data in the form of files such as docu ments image files and audio video multimedia files is stored as a sequence of data bytes in a computer s local storage for example the hard drive of the computer Storing data in a local storage has a few limitations One of such limitations is that only a restricted volume of data can be stored because of the limited capacity of the storage For example most of the personal computers available in market have a local storage of 40 Gigabytes GB to 320 GB Another limitation is that the local storage is neither secure nor reliable becau
9. from the second client 4 The method as recited in claim 3 further comprising updating by the server the first representation of the file based on the received change to the at least one data segment of the file 5 The method as recited in claim 4 further comprising sending by the server the updated first representation of the file to the plurality of clients 6 The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising authenticating by the server the request based on a plural ity ofaccess rights ofa user of the second client when the file is a secured file 7 The method as recited in claim 6 wherein the at least one data segment of the file sent to the second client is not cached by the second client when the file is a secured file 8 The method as recited in claim 1 wherein one or more data segments of the sent at least one data segments of the file are cached by the second client when the file is not a secured file 9 The method as recited in claim 8 wherein the number of the one or more data segments of the sent at least one data segments cached by the second client is based on one or more parameters of the communication network 10 A method for managing a plurality of files in a com munication network the communication network comprising aplurality of clients and at least one file of the plurality of files comprising one or more data segments the method compris ing a receiving metadata associated with a file by
10. is stored in remote storage 106 of server 104 Streamer 214 of the client receives the stream of data segments of the song file from sender 206 of server 104 and cache manager 212 of client 108 begins to catch the stream of data segments of the song file for playback by computational device 112 0045 In another example the user of computational device 112 can modify one or more data segments of the file In this case client 108 sends a request to server 104 for modifying one or more data segments of the file stored in Oct 31 2013 remote storage 106 Receiver 202 of server 104 receives the request Processor 204 of server 104 processes the request and instructs sender 206 of server 104 to send the requested data segments of the file to client 108 The user can then modify the one or more data segments The modified data segments are sent back to server 104 by a sync manager 210 Receiver 202 of server 104 receives the modified data seg ments and processor 204 updates the first representation of the file based on the modified data segments Syne manager 210 of client 108 then synchronizes and updates the first representation of the file stored in local storage 114 with the first representation of the file stored at remote storage 106 of server 104 The updated first representation of the file is then sent by sender 206 to all clients connected to server 104 For example a user may modify an image stored in remote stor age 106 ofserver 10
11. ments located in the middle of the sequence of data segments ofthe song Thus data segments from the middle ofthe song are streamed from remote storage 106 to second client 110 In other words if the user decides to play the initial portions of the music file then second client 110 requests only the nec essary data segments and creates a chunk file that only takes Oct 31 2013 up as much storage as the size ofthe music file even though its data segments may be organized differently based on the nature in which the file was read 0033 Server 104 is further configured to generate the first representation of a file when the file is modified in remote storage 106 For example if second client 110 modifies a file stored at remote storage 106 server 104 determines an updated first representation of the file and sends it to first client 108 and second client 110 0034 In accordance with another example server 104 is configured to allow offline access to a file such that second client 110 can request which files it will require for offline access In this case server 104 would send the requested files to second client 110 For example a user of second client 110 may wish to access a music file for later use when second client 110 will not be connected in the future to communi cation network 100 In this case server 104 provides the entire music file to local storage 118 of second client 110 so that the user can play the music file
12. of the confidential or sensitive information may include credit card numbers bank account numbers and social security numbers None of the data segments associated with a secured file are stored in local storage 114 of client 108 Client 108 of computational device 112 generates a request to access one ore more data segments of a secured file stored in remote storage 106 of server 104 The request is generated based on the first representation of the secured file stored in local storage 114 The first repre sentation of the secured file includes basic metadata related to the secured file Examples of the basic metadata may include a file name and timestamp of creation 0077 At step 702 server 104 receives the request for accessing one or more data segments of the secured file from client 108 Oct 31 2013 0078 At step 704 processor 204 of server 104 authenti cates the user of client 108 based on the access rights of the user of client 108 to check whether the user is authorized to access the one or more data segments of the secured file The user can be authenticated by using various tools that imple ment methods for authentication An example of a method that can be used for user authentication involves asking for a username and a password from the user As already described before the user can access or upload files on remote storage 106 of server 104 the user has to sign up with server 104 By signing up with server 104 a u
13. on the message received from server 104 The first representation of the file is either stored automatically or on a request by the user Moreover Cache manager 322 is configured to receive data segments associated with the file from remote storage 106 On receiving the data segments cache manager 322 transforms the first representation of the file to the second representation of the file In one embodiment of the disclo Oct 31 2013 sure cache manager 322 receives all data segments associ ated with the file and replaces the first representation of the file with all data segments of the file Further data streamers 324 are configured to download data segments from remote storage 106 In one example data streamers 324 download data segments as multiple streams of data 0056 Similarly client 110 includes a File system layer 326 a Shell API module 328 a Sync Manager 330 a Cache Manager 332 and data streamers 334 The functionalities of these elements are the same as those explained for client 108 and hence are not described again for the sake of simplicity 0057 FIGS 4A 4G illustrate various embodiments of a first representation and a second representation of a file in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure As already discussed when client 108 uploads a file on remote storage 106 client 108 transfers metadata and data segments associ ated with the file from local storage 114 to remote storage 106 Thereafter se
14. secured file the song is cached at local storage 118 of second client 110 when second client 110 gets access to the song However if the user of first client 108 classifies the song as a secured file the song is not cached at local storage 118 of second client 110 In this case second client 110 only stores basic metadata such as file name and file creation timestamp in local storage 118 0026 However ifthe file movie song is available in local storage 118 of second client 110 the request to server 104 is not sent and the file already stored in local storage 118 is provided to second client 110 In other words second client 110 only requests for files which are not saved or cached in its local storage 118 0027 In accordance with an embodiment of the disclo sure the number of data segments cached at local storage 118 of second client 110 is based on one or more parameters of the communication network The one or more parameters include but are not limited to bandwidth of the communica US 2013 0291124 Al tion network and connection speed For example when sec ond client 110 is connected to server 104 through a cellular network the number of data segments being transferred by server 104 and subsequently cached in local storage 118 of second client 110 is less than the number of data segments transferred by server 104 and subsequently cached in local storage 118 when second client 110 is connected to server 104 throu
15. the first representation of the file to clients 108 and 110 connected to server 104 Based on the received first representation client 110 stores the first representation of the file in its local storage 118 and client 108 stores it in its local storage 114 After receiving the first representation of the file client 110 can generate a request to access the data segments of the file based on the first representation of the file Client 110 checks whether the requested data segments associated with the file are present in local storage 118 either saved or cached if the file was earlier accessed by client 110 Consider the example ofa music file When the music player is launched client 110 checks whether the requested portions of the music file are already stored or cached in local storage 118 Client 110 accesses the requested data segments of the file when the requested data segments are stored or cached in local storage 118 The music player gets the access to the requested por tions of the music file when they are stored or cached in local storage 118 If the requested data segments are not stored in local storage client 110 generates a request based on the first representation of the file and sends the request to server 104 For example when a user desires to view the image file using an application such as a Picture viewer the compressed version of the file i e a copy of the image file with lower resolution is immediately
16. the virtual data drive of client 108 For example a song file uploaded into the virtual data drive by the user is received by remote storage 106 An application running on computational device 116 is used by the user to make changes to the file 0073 At step 606 receiver 202 of server 104 receives the changes made to one or more data segments of the file In our example the user can make changes to the song file The changed song file is received by server 104 0074 At step 608 processor 204 of server 1 04 updates the first representation ofthe file based on the changes made to one or more data segments of the file by the user In the example processor 204 updates the first representation ofthe song file based on the changes made to the song file 0075 At step 610 the updated first representation of the file is sent to clients 108 and 110 In an example implemen tation the updated first representation of the file is synchro nized with the sync managers of all the clients connected to the communication network For example the updated first representation of the music file is synchronized with all the music players in the network so that all music players can play the updated first representation of the music file 0076 FIG 7 is a flowchart illustrating a method for accessing a secured file in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure A file containing confidential or sensitive information is a secured file Examples
17. upload one or more files to server 104 For example if first client 108 runs on the Microsoft Windows operating system the virtual data drive is displayed with other data drives such as a C drive or a D drive When the user of first client 108 places a file in the virtual data drive of first client 108 the data segments and metadata associated with the file are transferred from local storage 114 to remote storage 106 Based on the received metadata and data segments server 104 generates a first rep resentation ofthe file and sends a message describing the first representation ofthe file to clients 108 and 110 On receiving the message from server 104 second client 110 stores the first representation of the file in local storage 118 and first client 108 stores it in local storage 114 0021 In accordance with another embodiment first client 108 can also generate a default first representation of the file uploaded to remote storage 106 In this case the first repre sentation ofthe file is not sent to first client 108 by server 104 and only sent to second client 110 0022 The first representation ofthe file has a smaller size as compared with the size of the file Typically the first representation of the file includes metadata associated with the file The metadata associated with the file includes data related to the hierarchy of directories associated with the file In one implementation of the disclosure the first representa t
18. with client 108 of computational device 112 0043 After receiving the first representation and viewing it the user of client 108 may want to view the entire file or some part of it In this case the user of client 108 requests access to one or more data segments of the file Client 108 checks if the requested data segments of the file are available in local storage 114 If the requested data segments are avail able in local storage 114 client 108 provides the requested data segments of the file to the user If the requested data segments are not available in local storage 114 client 108 sends a request to server 104 to access the one or more data segments of the file stored in remote storage 106 In the previous example the user may wish to play the song file Client 108 checks if the song file is available for playback in local storage 114 If it is not available client 108 sends a request to server 104 for playing the song file 0044 Receiver 202 of server 104 receives this request Processor 204 of server 104 processes the request and instructs sender 206 of server 104 to establish a streaming connection with a streamer 214 of client 108 and begin streaming the requested data segments of the file A cache manager 212 associated with client 108 receives the streamed data segments of the file from sender 206 of server 104 to enable access by the user of computational device 112 In the example the user wants to play the song file which
19. 0 a Cache Manager 322 and data streamers 324 The requests directed to client 108 by Windows file system API module 302 are handled by File system layer 316 File system layer 316 also enables computational device 112 to perform vari ous operations on the files stored in remote storage 106 Examples of the various operations include opening a file reading a file seeking a file creating a file and modifying a file 0053 Extension calls generated by windows explorer extension module 301 for providing the additional control elements to the user of client 108 are handled by Shell API module 318 0054 Sync Manager 320 facilitates the synchronization of client 108 with server 104 During the synchronization Syne Manager 320 detects and uploads newly created files to remote storage 106 Further Sync manager 320 uploads the metadata associated with the files that are placed in the virtual data drive of client 108 Modifications made to these files are uploaded by Sync Manager 320 Sync Manager 320 is further configured to send periodic requests to server 104 for down loading modifications made by other clients on the files that are stored in local storage 114 Sync Manager 320 can thus download the updated first representation of the modified files and can also download the entire modified file to provide offline access to the file 0055 Cache Manager 322 is configured to store the first representation of a file in local storage 114 based
20. 4 Sender 206 provides the image to client 108 of computational device 112 to enable editing by the user The edited image is updated in remote storage 106 of server 104 Processor 204 of server 104 updates the first represen tation of the image and sync manager 210 of client 108 synchronizes the first representation of the image stored in local storage 114 of client 108 with the updated first repre sentation of the image provided by server 104 0046 In accordance with yet another example the user of client 108 requests to enable access to one or more data segments of a secured file Client 108 sends a request to server 104 to enable access to the one or more data segments of a secured file stored in remote storage 106 For example the user of computational device 112 may wish secure access to a financial document In this case client 108 sends a request to server 104 for secure access to the financial document and this request is received by receiver 202 0047 The received request is processed by processor 204 of server 104 and processor 204 in turn sends a request to rights manager 208 for authenticating the user of client 108 based on the access rights of the user If rights manager 208 authenticates the user sender 206 is authorized to send the requested data segments of the secured file to client 108 In an embodiment the requested data segments are directly streamed to streamer 214 of client 108 without being cached by cache mana
21. I vjep se Zurureursy Suipuq Suruuidog Jr DIA jepejour juouigos sjuoulgos gyep yuowdes vjepejoul Surpuq vjep jse Surureulow VIP ISHA guruulgog Patent Application Publication Oct 31 2013 Sheet 6 of 8 US 2013 0291124 Al Receive metadata associated wi a file the file being stored in a virtual data drive of a first client Receive data segments associated 504 with the file from the virtual data drive of the first client Generate a first representation of 506 the file based on the received metadata and data segments associated with the file 508 Send a first representation of the file to the plurality of clients Receive a request from a second gt 10 client for the one or more data segment of the file 512 Send the requested one or more segment of the file to the second client FIG 5 Patent Application Publication Oct 31 2013 Sheet 7 of 8 US 2013 0291124 A1 Define access rights for users of a all clients Store metadata and data segments YA associated with a file Receive a change to the data 096 segments of the file 608 Update a first representation of the file based on the received change to the data segments Send the updated first 610 representation of the file to all clients FIG 6 Patent Application Publication Oct 31 2013 Sheet 8 of 8 US 2013 0291124 A1 Receive a request for data segments associated with a secure
22. US 20130291124A1 as United States a2 Patent Application Publication 10 Pub No US 2013 0291124 A1 Zhao et al 43 Pub Date Oct 31 2013 54 METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR MANAGING 52 U S CI DATA IN A COMMUNICATION NETWORK CPC onnies G06F 21 60 2013 01 H04L 67 02 2013 01 71 Applicant Motorola Mobility LLC Libertyville USPG aa ar 0102218 IL US 57 ABSTRACT 72 Inventors David Long Zhao Bothell WA US Kevin John West Kirkland WA US A method for managing a plurality of files in a communica Vijay Krishnan Mani Kenmore WA tion network having a plurality of clients includes a server US receiving 502 metadata associated with a secured file stored in a virtual data drive of a first client The server also receives 21 Appl No 13 929 650 504 data segments associated with the file from the virtual data drive ofthe first client The server stores the metadata and 22 Filed Jun 27 2013 data segments associated with the file at the server The server generates 506 a first representation of the file based on the Related U S Application Data received metadata and data segments associated with the file 62 Division of application No 12 657 931 filed on Jan and sends 508 the first representation of the file to the 29 2010 now Pat No 8 510 848 plurality of clients Next the server receives 510 a request from a second client for at least one data segment of the file Publication Classification The server
23. While the first data segment is being played the remaining data segments associated with the music file are continuously streamed from remote storage 106 and played as soon as playing of the first data segment is over As the rate of streaming data segments is higher than the rate at which the music file is played the music file is continuously played without any latency As a result the user feels as if the music file is stored locally in local storage 118 0065 FIG 4G illustrates yet another form of the second representation of the file In this case the second representa tion includes the first data segment of the file the last data segment of the file and the remaining data segments As depicted the data segments of the file are not sequentially stored in local storage 118 For example the remaining data segments are stored before the first data segment in the case shown in FIG 4G When the user accesses the file the virtual data drive enables the user to access the data segments in the correct sequence irrespective of the sequence in which they are stored 0066 FIG 5 is a flowchart illustrating a method for man aging a plurality of files in a communication network in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure At step 502 metadata associated with a file uploaded or saved by a user for storage in the virtual data drive of client 108 is received by receiver 202 of server 104 The metadata associ ated with the file
24. al device 112 having a first local storage 114 and a second computation device 116 having a second local stor age 118 Examples of computational devices include but are not limited to a computer a laptop a personnel data assistant PDA and a mobile phone Examples of local storage include but are not limited to a hard disk and a solid state drive In accordance with another embodiment local storage may comprise a metadata store and a data store such that metadata associated with a file is stored in the metadata store ofthe local storage and data segments associated with the file are stored in the data store of the local storage 0019 As mentioned first client 108 and second client 110 are applications running on first computational device 112 and second computation device 116 respectively In one example client 108 is a web browser In another example client 108 is a standalone client application based on JAVA Further operating systems such as Windows Linux and Macintosh Mac are installed on computational devices 112 and 116 0020 First client 108 enables computational device 112 to communicate with server 104 and receive data stored in remote storage 106 Further client 108 enables its user to upload a file on remote storage 106 by placing the file in a virtual data drive of first client 108 In accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure the virtual data drive is a shortcut in the form of an icon that can be used to
25. authenticates the request based on a plurality of access rights ofa user ofthe second client and sends 512 the 51 Int CI at least one data segment ofthe file to the second client when G06F 21 60 2006 01 the request is authenticated 118 HH ULL TL ECHELLE Patent Application Publication Oct 31 2013 Sheet 1 of 8 US 2013 0291124 Al FIG 1 US 2013 0291124 A1 Oct 31 2013 Sheet 2 of 8 Patent Application Publication adeloys e007 JSLIOJS HOW loumeng logeue A IWI z z vic loSSoo0ld IAY US 2013 0291124 A1 Oct 31 2013 Sheet 3 of 8 Patent Application Publication Old JogeueJA ouo 1ogeue A ou amp g IdV TYS IdV uiojs S JJ SO WW SUOISUSIXZ Jopuly Ve OTE cOE sioum ns JISLUBW JISLULW JUS eye IdV HYS lo e waists AIA EX Oda UOISUsIXF Ielo dxq SMOPUI AK IdV waisks aft SMOPUM US 2013 0291124 A1 Oct 31 2013 Sheet 4 of 8 Patent Application Publication dt DIA ejepejou Zumumwag sjuauigas vjepejour eyep pned Sutpuq Ar DIH tjepejoul gurpug sjuouiSos ewp V vJepejoul Suruuidog Jt DA juouidos juswdas ejepejoul epep Byep Ise eyep ISIA Surpuq ar Old Sjuouidog eyed Suruuidog Vi DI ELM US 2013 0291124 A1 Oct 31 2013 Sheet 5 of 8 Patent Application Publication Dr Old juouidos juouigos sjuouigos vep vjepejoul vjepejoul Wp 1SIL
26. ch may include a Random Access Memory RAM and a Read Only Memory ROM Further the computer system comprises a storage device which can be a hard disk drive or US 2013 0291124 Al a removable storage drive such as a floppy disk drive and an optical disk drive The storage device can be other similar means for loading computer programs or other instructions into the computer system 0083 The computer system executes a set of instructions that are stored in one or more storage elements to process input data These storage elements can also hold data or other information as desired and may be in the form of an infor mation source or a physical memory element present in the processing machine Exemplary storage elements include a hard disk aDRAM an SRAM and an EPROM The storage element may be external to the computer system and con nected to or inserted into the computer to be downloaded at or prior to the time of use Examples of such external computer program products are computer readable storage mediums such as CD ROMS Flash chips and floppy disks 0084 The set of instructions may include various com mands that instruct the processing machine to perform spe cific tasks such as the steps that constitute the method of the disclosure The set of instructions may be in the form of a software program The software may be in various forms such as system software or application software Further the soft ware may be in the for
27. des the metadata related to the file The data segments associated with the file are stored at remote storage 106 For example if the file being uploaded is a document metadata such as file name time stamp of creation timestamp of modification and reference to the document is stored in local storage 114 0059 FIG 4B illustrates a second representation of the file In this representation all data segments associated with the file are received from remote storage 106 and stored in local storage 114 In another embodiment a subset ofthe data segments associated with the file is stored in local storage 114 0060 FIG 4C illustrates another form of the first repre sentation of the file stored in local storage 114 This repre sentation includes the first data segment of the file the last data segment of the file and metadata related to the file The remaining data segments of the file are stored in remote storage 106 For example ifthe file being uploaded is a music file the first data segment of the music file the last data segment of the music file and the metadata related to the music file are stored as the first representation in local storage 118 US 2013 0291124 Al 0061 Inaccordance with another implementation a com pressed version of the file is stored with metadata as the first representation in local storage 114 For example if the file is an image a copy of the image having a lower resolution is stored in local s
28. eated as a valid system file object by applications installed on computational devices 112 and 116 i e applications can use the first repre sentation of the file as a valid form ofthe file For example if the first representation ofan image file is a thumbnail then the thumbnail can be accessed by a Picture Viewer application in the same way as Picture Viewer accesses the image file 0025 Once the first representation is received by first cli ent 108 and second client 110 either of the clients can send a request to server 104 to access the uploaded file if it is not available in corresponding local storage For example if the uploaded file is a song and after viewing the first representa tion of the song the user of second client 110 wants to view the entire song he she can send a request to server 104 to listen to the song Thereafter server 104 receives this request from second client 110 and grants the user access to the song if he she has access rights to view the song In this case server 104 streams data segments associated with the song from remote storage 106 to second client 110 According to an embodiment one or more data segments associated with the file are streamed from remote storage 106 and stored at local storage 118 of second client 110 if the request is not for a secured file For example if while uploading the song to remote storage 106 the user of first client 108 does not classify the song as a
29. ger 212 or stored by local storage 114 of client 108 In the example if the user has access rights to the financial document then server 104 provides secure access to the financial document and does not cache the financial docu ment in local storage 114 In other words the financial docu ment bypasses local storage 114 and is directly streamed to client 108 0048 In accordance with another embodiment of the dis closure the user of client 108 can also modify one or more data segments of a secured file by similar means and the updated first representation is then sent to all the clients of communication network 102 0049 FIG 3 illustrates the architecture of computational devices 112 and 116 of data management system 100 in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure Typically computational devices 112 and 1 16 are computers that run a Windows operating system or a Macintosh operating sys tem In FIG 3 computational device 112 is depicted running on Windows operating system and computational device 116 running on Macintosh operating system As clients 108 and 110 are applications implemented using JAVA they can be installed on both computational devices 112 and 116 and US 2013 0291124 Al can enable computational devices 112 and 116 to establish a communication link with server 104 and access the files stored in remote storage 106 0050 As depicted computational device 112 includes cli ent 108 a windows expl
30. gh a high speed cable connection 0028 In accordance with another embodiment one or more data segments associated with the file are synchro nously accessed from remote storage 106 for the user using first client 108 For example a user of first client 108 can request access to a document which is being edited by a user of second client 110 The changes being made to the docu ment by the user of second client 110 are received by server 104 that further updates the document correspondingly Server 104 also sends the updated document for access to the user of first client 108 Thus the user of first client 108 can synchronously access the document being changed by the user of second client 110 0029 In accordance with an embodiment of the disclo sure ifthe file requested by second client 110 is a media file only the data segments which are not included in the first representation of the file are sent to second client 110 For example ifthe first representation which is already stored in local storage 118 of second client 110 has the first and last data segments ofthe song only the remaining data segments are sent to second client 110 On the contrary if the file is a document the first representation of the document includes metadata associated with the document and all the data seg ments are sent to second client 110 in this case 0030 Inaccordance with another embodiment if few data segments are already present in local storage
31. having an access to the remote storage sites manually upload and download data to and from the remote storage sites In this scenario only the downloaded data is stored in the local storage of the com puter Also in this case if the user intends to make modifi cation to an already uploaded file he she has to manually download the file on the local storage and then make changes to it Therefore he she has to upload the modified file on the remote storage site again Also in the case of remote storage sites users have to continuously keep track of the free space available in the local storage of their computers as they need Oct 31 2013 to delete files from the local storage to vacate space for files they intend to download Thus at every step user s manual intervention is required making this process entirely non seamless 0006 In light of the foregoing it is desirable to have a system that enables users to seamlessly store data at a remote storage without maintaining a copy of the data at the local storage Also the system should not require the user to manu ally download a file on his her local storage every time he she wants to make changes to the file already on the remote storage BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 0007 Embodiments of the disclosure are described in con junction with the appended drawings to illustrate and not to limit the disclosure Like designations denote like elements and in which
32. includes but is not limited to metadata related to the hierarchy of directories associated with the file file name file creation timestamp file modification times tamp size of the file and content type of the file 0067 At step 504 data segments associated with the file saved in the virtual drive of client 108 are received by receiver 202 of server 104 At step 506 processor 204 of server 104 generates a first representation of the file based on the received metadata and data segments associated with the file Oct 31 2013 The first representation of the file is also generated based on a set of attributes related to the file and a set of predefined rules The set of attributes may include size of the file content of the file timestamps of creation and timestamp of modifi cation Processor 204 also allows the user of client 108 who uploads the file to customize a set of predefined rules for generating the first representation of the file The predefined rules include but are not limited to a combination of one or more attributes related to the file such as type of file As an example a first representation of an image file is a com pressed image smaller than the actual image and information about the author of the image The user can customize this first representation of the file such that the first representation of the image file contains a thumbnail of the image file 0068 At step 508 sender 206 of server 104 sends
33. ionalso includes some data segments associated with the file For example if the file is a music file the first representation Oct 31 2013 of the music file may include metadata associated with the music file and the first and last data segments of the music file Examples of the metadata include size of the music file artist name song name album name composer name offset ofthe music file in the remote storage and date of creation of the music file In accordance with another implementation the first representation of the file does not include any meta data or data segment associated with the file In this case the first representation can be for example only the name of the music file and the like 0023 In accordance with an embodiment of the disclo sure the first representation ofthe file is determined by server 104 based ona set of attributes related to the file For example the set of attributes may include name size of the file content or content overview of the file timestamp of creation and timestamp of modification Also the first representation of the file determines the format in which first client 108 and second client 110 store the file in their corresponding local storages For example if the file contains an image the first representation of the file can be a copy ofthe image having a lower resolution 0024 In accordance with an embodiment of the disclo sure the first representation of the file is tr
34. like 0040 In accordance with an embodiment to upload a file in remote storage 106 a user of client 108 uploads a file into a virtual data drive of computational device 112 Metadata and data segments associated with the file uploaded into the virtual data drive are received by a receiver 202 of server 104 The metadata associated with the file includes but is not limited to data related to the hierarchy of directories associ ated with the file and file attributes For example if a user uploads a song file using the virtual data drive of computation device 112 the metadata of the song can include the size of the file artist name track name etc 0041 After receiving the metadata and data segments associated with the file a processor 204 of server 104 gener ates a first representation of the file based on the metadata and data segments received by receiver 202 The first representa tion of the file is smaller in size as compared with that of the file Inthe example the first representation of the song file can be the artist name track name and the starting and ending segments of the song 0042 A sender 206 of server 104 sends the first represen tation of the file to all clients not shown in FIG 2 present in the communication network In the embodiment shown in FIG 2 sender 206 sends the first representation of the file to client 108 When the 10 first representation is received it is stored in local storage 114 associated
35. load a file on a remote storage by placing the file in a virtual data drive On uploading the file most of the data segments associated with the file are moved to the remote storage The file can either be accessed manu ally by the user or can be automatically downloaded when ever required by an application running on the computational device based on the metadata related to the file stored in the local storage Further the user can randomly access the file stored in the remote storage from any site connected to the communication network through a virtual data drive Further the disclosure enables the user to directly access the 5 file stored in the remote storage In this case the data segments associated with the file are not cached in the local storage of the user 0081 The method and system for managing data in a communication network as described in the disclosure may be embodied in the form of a computer system Typical examples of a computer system include a general purpose computer a programmed microprocessor a micro controller a peripheral integrated circuit element and other devices or arrangements of devices that are capable of implementing the steps that constitute the method of the disclosure 0082 The computer system typically comprises a com puter an input device and a display unit The computer typically comprises a microprocessor which is connected to a communication bus The computer also includes a memory whi
36. m of a collection of separate programs a program module with a large program or a portion of a program module The software may also include modular programming in the form of object oriented programming The software program that contains the set of instructions can be embedded in a computer program product for use with a computer the computer program product comprising a com puter usable medium with a computer readable program code embodied therein Processing of input data by the pro cessing machine maybe in response to users commands results of previous processing or a request made by another processing machine 0085 The modules described herein may include proces sors and program instructions that are used to implement the functions of the modules described herein Some or all the functions can be implemented by a state machine that has no stored program instructions or in one or more Application specific Integrated Circuits ASICs in which each function or some combinations of some of the functions are imple mented as custom logic 0086 While the various embodiments of the disclosure have been illustrated and described it will be clear that the invention is not limited only to these embodiments example or implementations Numerous modifications changes variations substitutions and equivalents will be apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention We claim
37. ning data segments are streamed from remote US 2013 0291124 Al storage 106 to local storage 118 the remaining data segments are continuously played by the music player Client 110 accesses the second representation of the music file which includes the requested data segments associated with the music file Subsequently client 110 delivers the requested data segments in the right sequence to the music player 0071 FIG 6 is a flowchart illustrating a method for man aging server 104 in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure Each user should have the access rights to clients 108 and 110 to be able to access or upload files to and from server 104 At step 602 server 104 defines access rights to users of clients 108 and 110 by creating and configuring accounts for each user Based on the created accounts server 104 is further configured to authenticate users of Clients 108 and 110 An account is created for the user by server 104 when auser signs up with server 104 The user account is created by entering a username and a password along with additional personal information such as name date of birth sex and country Access rights include a combination of the right to upload files to the server the right to read or modify files the right to delete files and the like 0072 At step 604 remote storage 106 of server 104 stores the received metadata and data segments associated with the file when the user uploads the file into
38. orer extension module 301 a Win dows file system API module 302 and a Remote procedure call RPC module 304 Windows explorer extension module 301 provides additional functionalities to the user of client 108 by providing additional control elements Examples of the control elements include buttons menu items and icon overlays Windows file system application programming interface API module 302 facilitates the interception of the requests generated for accessing files The requests are gen erated by the applications running on computational device 112 Further Windows file system API module 302 facilitates direction of these requests to client 108 0051 Similarly computational device 116 includes client 110 a Mac Finder extensions module 308 a Mac file system API module 310 and a Remote procedure call RPC module 312 The Mac Finder extensions module 308 provides addi tional functionalities to the user of client 110 by providing new control elements Examples of the new control elements include new buttons menu items and icon overlays The Mac file system API module 310 facilitates the interception of the requests generated to access files The requests are generated by the applications running on computational device 112 Further Mac file system API module 310 facilitates direction of these requests to client 110 0052 In one embodiment client 108 includes a File sys tem layer 316 a Shell API module 318 a Sync Manager 32
39. rver 104 generates a first representation of the file based on the received metadata and data segments associated with the file and sends the representation to the clients 108 and 110 Clients 108 and 110 then store the first representation of the file in their respective local storages Subsequently to access the file stored in remote storage 106 client 110 can generate a request for one or more data seg ments of the file based on the first representation of the file The request received by server 104 is processed by processor 204 of server 104 and the requested one or more data seg ments of the file are sent to client 110 Client 110 receives the requested one or more data segments of the file and generates a second representation of the file by adding the received one or more data segments of the file to the first representation of the file For example if a user uploads an image file to server 104 via client 108 such as an image viewer application software for example IrfanView the server creates a thumbnail of the image file as the first representation of the image file and sends the thumbnail of the image file to clients 108 and 110 When the user clicks on the thumbnail a request is sent to the server to receive the image file The image file is received by the image viewer and displayed to the user 0058 FIG 4A illustrates a first representation ofthe file as stored in local storage 114 The first representation inclu
40. se data can not be retrieved when the computer malfunctions or gets damaged Also if the computer is lost or stolen data can be accessed by unauthorized users and can be misused For example confidential data such as personnel details stored in a laptop can be accessed by unauthorized users for criminal activities 0004 To overcome these limitations associated with the local storage service providers enable users to store data at remote storage sites connected through networks Mostly these remote storage sites are utilized as seamless backups or synchronization devices to maintain copies of data present in the local storage of the computer When a file is created by a user in the local storage a copy of the file is automatically created at the remote storage site Similarly when the user modifies a file stored in the local storage the same modifica tion is automatically made to the copy of the file at the remote storage site In this scenario if a user intends to store a 400 GB data in the remote storage he requires a local storage of 400 GB connected to his computer Therefore in this case the user may be required to connect an external hard drive to his her computer or may be required to upgrade the local storage of his her computer This requires additional expen diture and hence is not an efficient way to store a large amount of data 0005 Another manner in which the remote storage sites are utilized is non seamless Users
41. ser account is created by rights manager 208 for the user with a username and password along with additional personal information Each user account is provided with access rights to server 104 by rights manager 208 As a result a list of authentic usernames and passwords are maintained at the server for authentication 0079 At step 706 processor 204 of server 104 checks if the authentication of the user is successful If the authentica tion of the user is unsuccessful the steps of the flowchart terminate If the authentication of user succeeds then at step 708 sender 206 of the server 104 streams the requested data segments of the file to client 108 On receiving the stream of the requested data segments of the file from the sender 206 the first representation of the file is transformed into a second representation of the file and provided to the user In another embodiment on receiving the remaining data segments cli ent 108 appends the received data segments with the first representation of the file The data segments are directly accessed by client 108 without being stored in the local stor age 114 or cached by the cache manager 212 0080 Various embodiments of the disclosure provide method and system for managing data in a communication network such as a Local Area Network LAN a Wide Area Network WAN acommunication network and the Internet A user working on a computational device installed with a client is enabled to up
42. torage 114 0062 FIG 4D illustrates another form of the second rep resentation of the file This representation includes a begin ning metadata all the data segments of the file and the ending metadata of the file For example if the file is a music file the beginning metadata related to the music file all of the data segments of the music file and the ending metadata related to the music file are stored as the first representation in local storage 118 0063 FIG 4E illustrates yet another form of the first rep resentation of the file This representation includes a begin ning metadata partial data segments of the file and the end ing metadata of the file For example if the file is a music file the beginning metadata related to the music file partial data segments of the music file and the ending metadata related to the music file are stored as the first representation in local storage 118 0064 FIG 4F illustrates yet another form of the second representation of the file The second representation includes the first data segment of the file the last data segment of the file and remaining data segments of the file that are received from remote storage 106 Consider the example of the music file again When computational device 116 launches a music player for playing the music file stored in remote storage 106 the player plays the first data segment of the music file as the first data segment is stored in local storage 118
43. will be apparent to those with ordinary skill in the art 0016 FIG 1 illustrates the architecture of a data manage ment system 100 where various embodiments of the disclo sure can be practiced Data management system 100 is imple mented over a communication network 102 Examples of communication network 102 include a Local Area Network LAN a Wide Area Network WAN cellular network cloud computing network high speed cable network and the Internet Communication network 102 includes a server 104 connected to a remote storage 106 In accordance with one implementation server 104 is a stand alone server connected to remote storage 106 In accordance with another implemen tation server 104 is a cluster of servers connected to remote storage 106 Examples of server 104 include but not limited US 2013 0291124 Al to a MySQL Amazon EC2 and Ruby on Rails amp Example of remote storage includes but is not limited to Amazon S3 0017 Data management system 100 includes one or more clients connected to communication network 102 These cli ents are shown as a first client 108 and a second client 110 in FIG 1 0018 In the description of the present patent application the term clients refers to computer program applications installed to access data stored at remote storage 106 As depicted first client 108 and second client 110 are installed on acomputational device having a local storage shown as a first computation
Download Pdf Manuals
Related Search