Data compression systems and methods

Abstract

Data compression using a combination of content independent data compression and content dependent data compression. In one aspect, a system for compressing data comprises: a processor, and a plurality of data compression encoders wherein at least one data encoder utilizes asymmetric data compression. The processor is configured to determine one or more parameters, attributes, or values of the data within at least a portion of a data block containing either video or audio data, to select one or more data compression encoders from the plurality of data compression encoders based upon the determined one or more parameters, attributes, or values of the data and a throughput of a communications channel, and to perform data compression with the selected one or more data compression encoders on at least the portion of the data block.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A system comprising:
 a memory; and   one or more processors configured to:
 receive one or more data blocks; 
 identify one or more attributes of the one or more data blocks; 
 search for recognition information stored on the memory corresponding to the one or more attributes; 
 compress the one or more data blocks according to the corresponding recognition information obtained from the memory to produce one or more encoded data blocks corresponding to the one or more data blocks when recognition information corresponding to the one or more attributes is found in the search of the memory; 
 compress the one or more data blocks with a default lossless compression encoder to produce one or more compressed data blocks when the one or more attributes of the data are not found in the search of the memory; and 
 store the one or more compressed data blocks and information regarding the one or more attributes of the one or more data blocks in the memory when the one or more attributes of the data are not found in the search of the memory. 
   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to store the one or more encoded data blocks in the memory. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to store a data token in memory, wherein the data token corresponds to the data encoding technique used to process the one or more data blocks when the one or more attributes of the data are found in the search of the memory. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to store a data token in memory, wherein the data token corresponds to the default lossless compression encoder used to compress the one or more data blocks. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the default lossless compression encoder is configured to:
 receive one or more data blocks;   compress the one or more data blocks with one or more compression techniques to produce a set of compressed one or more data blocks;   calculate a figure of merit for each of the set of compressed one or more data blocks to produce a set of figures of merit corresponding to the set of compressed one or more data blocks;   compare each of the figures of merit of the set of figures of merit to an a priori threshold;   select for output of the default lossless compression encoder the received one or more data blocks and appending a null data type compression descriptor to the received one or more data blocks when each of the figures of merit are less than the a priori threshold; and   select for output of the default lossless compression encoder the one of the set of compressed one or more data blocks having the highest figure of merit and appending a corresponding data type compression descriptor to the one of the set of compressed one or more data blocks when at least one of the figures of merit exceed the a priori threshold.   
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein one or more data blocks comprise one or more complete files. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the identifying one or more attributes includes identifying one or more data structures of the one or more data blocks. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the identifying one or more attributes includes identifying one or more file substructures of the one or more data blocks. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the default lossless compression encoder comprises one or more lossless encoders. 
     
     
         10 . A method comprising:
 receiving one or more data blocks;   identifying one or more attributes of the one or more data blocks;   searching memory for recognition information corresponding to the one or more attributes;   compressing the one or more data blocks according to the corresponding recognition information obtained from the memory to produce one or more encoded data blocks corresponding to the one or more data blocks when the one or more attributes of the data are found in the search of the memory;   compressing the one or more data blocks with a default lossless compression encoder to produce one or more compressed data blocks when the one or more attributes of the data are not found in the search of the memory; and   storing the one or more compressed data blocks and information regarding the one or more attributes of the one or more data blocks in memory when the one or more attributes of the data are not found in the search of the memory.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , further comprising storing the one or more encoded data blocks in memory. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 10 , further comprising storing a data token in memory, wherein the data token corresponds to the data encoding technique used to process the one or more data blocks when the one or more attributes of the data are found in the search of the memory. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 10 , further comprising storing a data token in memory, wherein the data token corresponds to the default lossless compression encoder used to compress the one or more data blocks. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the compressing the one or more data blocks with a default lossless compression encoder further comprises:
 receiving one or more data blocks at the default lossless compression encoder;   compressing the one or more data blocks with one or more compression techniques to produce a set of compressed one or more data blocks;   calculating a figure of merit for each of the set of compressed one or more data blocks to produce a set of figures of merit corresponding to the set of compressed one or more data blocks;   comparing each of the figures of merit of the set of figures of merit to an a priori threshold;   selecting for output of the default lossless compression encoder the received one or more data blocks and appending a null data type compression descriptor to the received one or more data blocks when each of the figures of merit are less than the a priori threshold; and   selecting for output of the default lossless compression encoder the one of the set of compressed one or more data blocks having the highest figure of merit and appending a corresponding data type compression descriptor to the one of the set of compressed one or more data blocks when at least one of the figures of merit exceed the a priori threshold.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein one or more data blocks comprise one or more complete files. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the identifying one or more attributes includes identifying one or more data structures of the one or more data blocks. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the identifying one or more attributes includes identifying one or more file substructures of the one or more data blocks. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the default lossless compression encoder comprises one or more lossless encoders. 
     
     
         19 . A non-transitory tangible machine-readable storage medium containing instructions configured to cause one or more processors to execute a process comprising:
 identifying one or more attributes corresponding to one or more data blocks received by the one or more processors;   searching memory for recognition information corresponding to the one or more attributes;   compressing the one or more data blocks according to the corresponding recognition information obtained from the memory to produce one or more encoded data blocks corresponding to the one or more data blocks when the one or more attributes of the data are found in the search of the memory;   compressing the one or more data blocks with a default lossless compression encoder to produce one or more compressed data blocks when the one or more attributes of the data are not found in the search of the memory; and   storing the one or more compressed data blocks and information regarding the one or more attributes of the one or more data blocks in memory when the one or more attributes of the data are not found in the search of the memory.   
     
     
         20 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of  claim 19 , further comprising instructions for storing the one or more encoded data blocks in memory. 
     
     
         21 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of  claim 19 , further comprising instructions for storing a data token in memory, wherein the data token corresponds to the data encoding technique used to process the one or more data blocks when the one or more attributes of the data are found in the search of the memory. 
     
     
         22 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of  claim 19 , further comprising instructions for storing a data token in memory, wherein the data token corresponds to the default lossless compression encoder used to compress the one or more data blocks. 
     
     
         23 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of  claim 19 , wherein the compressing the one or more data blocks with a default lossless compression encoder further comprises:
 receiving one or more data blocks at the default lossless compression encoder;   compressing the one or more data blocks with one or more compression techniques to produce a set of compressed one or more data blocks;   calculating a figure of merit for each of the set of compressed one or more data blocks to produce a set of figures of merit corresponding to the set of compressed one or more data blocks;   comparing each of the figures of merit of the set of figures of merit to an a priori threshold;   selecting for output of the default lossless compression encoder the received one or more data blocks and appending a null data type compression descriptor to the received one or more data blocks when each of the figures of merit are less than the a priori threshold; and   selecting for output of the default lossless compression encoder the one of the set of compressed one or more data blocks having the highest figure of merit and appending a corresponding data type compression descriptor to the one of the set of compressed one or more data blocks when at least one of the figures of merit exceed the a priori threshold.   
     
     
         24 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of  claim 19 , wherein one or more data blocks comprise one or more complete files. 
     
     
         25 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of  claim 19 , wherein the identifying one or more attributes includes identifying one or more data structures of the one or more data blocks. 
     
     
         26 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of  claim 19 , wherein the identifying one or more attributes includes identifying one or more file substructures of the one or more data blocks. 
     
     
         27 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of  claim 19 , wherein the default lossless compression encoder comprises one or more lossless encoders.