Method of proxy-assisted predictive pre-fetching

Abstract

Briefly, in accordance one embodiment of the invention, a method of suspending a network connection used for low priority transmissions between a client platform and a server platform includes: determining a characteristic of a transmission between the client platform and the server platform, said characteristic consisting essentially of a high priority transmission and a low priority transmission; and suspending the connection if the characteristic of the transmission comprises a high priority transmission. Briefly, in accordance with another embodiment, a method of using a network connection between a client platform and a server platform includes producing on one of the platforms a list of Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) from a requested network page, said list comprising links in said requested network page; and pre-fetching via said connection at least one of said URLs to said remote proxy server.

1 . A method of suspending a network connection used for low priority transmissions between a client platform and a server platform comprising: 
 determining a characteristic of a transmission between the client platform and the server platform, said characteristic consisting essentially of a high priority transmission and a low priority transmission; and    suspending the connection if the characteristic of the transmission comprises a high priority transmission.    
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the low priority transmission comprises a pre-fetching request.  
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the high priority transmission comprises a user request.  
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein suspending the connection includes closing the connection.  
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , and further comprising: 
 resuming at least one low priority transmission via the connection after the high priority transmission is complete.    
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , and further comprising: 
 maintaining the connection if the characteristic of the transmission comprises a low priority transmission.    
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the client platform comprises one of a personal computer (PC), a router, a switch, a bridge and a hub.  
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the server platform comprises one of a personal computer (PC), a router, a switch, a bridge and a hub.  
     
     
         9 . A method of using a network connection between a client platform and a server platform comprising: 
 producing on one of the platforms a list of Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) from a requested network page, said list comprising links in said requested network page; and    pre-fetching via said connection at least one of said URLs to said remote proxy server.    
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , pre-fetching at least one of said URLs includes transcoding the fetched object corresponding to the at feast one of said URLS.  
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , transcoding the fetched object includes transcoding it in accordance with a user determined preference.  
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein producing a list of URLs from a requested network page includes parsing the requested network page.  
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the list of URLs is produced on the client.  
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the list of URLs is produced on the server.  
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein pre-fetching said URLs comprises pre-fetching in attendance with a substantially predetermined pre-fetching policy.  
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the client platform comprises one of a personal computer (PC), a router, a switch, a bridge and a hub.  
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the server platform comprises one of a personal computer (PC), a router, a switch, a bridge and a hub.  
     
     
         18 . An article comprising: 
 a machine readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions capable of being executed by a data processing platform, said instructions being adapted to parse a list of URLs from a received network data object and to pre-fetch via a network connection said URLs to a remote platform in accordance with a pre-determined pre-fetching policy.    
     
     
         19 . The article of  claim 18 , wherein either of said platforms comprises any one of a client, a server, a router, a hub, a bridge and a switch.  
     
     
         20 . The article of  claim 18 , wherein said instructions are included in any one of a browser, a network card driver, a protocol stack, and a proxy.  
     
     
         21 . The article of  claim 18 , wherein said pre-fetching policy comprises pre-fetching embedded URLs.  
     
     
         22 . A network comprising: 
 a first platform and a second platform;    said platforms being capable of communicating via a network connection;    the first platform being adapted to parse a list of URLs from a requested network data object and to pre-fetch via said network connection said URLs to the second platform.    
     
     
         23 . The network of  claim 22 , wherein at least one of said platforms comprises one of a personal computer (PC), a server, a client, a router, a hub, a bridge and a switch.  
     
     
         24 . An article comprising: 
 a machine readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions capable of being executed by a data processing platform, said instructions being adapted to parse a list of URLs from a received network data object and to pre-fetch via a network connection said URLs to a remote platform in accordance with a pre-determined pre-fetching policy.    
     
     
         25 . The article of  claim 22 , wherein either of said platforms comprises any one of a client, a server, a router, a hub, a bridge and a switch.  
     
     
         26 . The article of  claim 24 , wherein said instructions are included in any one of a browser, a network card driver, a protocol stack, and a proxy.  
     
     
         27 . A network comprising; 
 a first platform and a second platform;    said platforms being capable of communicating via a low priority transmission network connection;    the platforms being adapted to suspend the low priority transmission connection if a high priority transmission request occurs on at least one of the platforms.    
     
     
         28 . The network of  claim 27 , wherein at least one of said platforms comprises one of a personal computer (PC), a server, a client, a router, a hub, a bridge and a switch.