JPH1185635A - Information provider device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To report the transmission time of other data provided by an information provider device to a user in advance by adding transmission time information required for acquiring the other data to data containing the information of link to the other data. SOLUTION: Concerning the other data containing the link information in the provided data, a transmission time information generating part 90 prepares the transmission time information required for acquiring these data from a communication history preserved in a communication history data base 60 or the result of a throughput measuring part 95. This generated transmission time information is added to the data to be provided by a transmission time information adding part 80, and outputted by an output part 70.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a WWW (World Wi-Fi).
de Web), a system that acquires and displays data that includes link information to other data in the data, displays the time required to acquire the other data, thereby improving the user's feeling of use And an information providing device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An outline of a conventional information providing apparatus will be described with reference to FIG. In the figure, reference numeral 10 denotes a server that owns data and provides data in response to a request from a client, 20 denotes a client having an interface with a user and a data acquisition function, 30 denotes an input unit for the user to input a data acquisition request, and 40 denotes a server. A data acquisition unit for acquiring data from a communication history storage unit for storing communication history; a communication history database for storing communication history;
Denotes an output unit that outputs data to a user.

The client 20 includes an input unit 30, a data acquisition unit 40, a communication history storage unit 50, a communication history database 60, and an output unit 70. In response to a data acquisition request from the input unit 30, the data acquisition unit 40 acquires data from the server 10 and sends the data to the output unit 70. The communication history is stored in the communication history database 60 by the function of the communication history storage unit 50. The communication history stored in the communication history database 60 includes information on a server name, a file name, a data amount, a transmission start time, and a transmission end time. Output unit 7
0 outputs the data sent from the data acquisition unit 40.

The data displayed at this time includes WWW
And so on, the link information to other data is included, and the user can acquire the other data based on the link information to the other data.

Although the data provided by such a conventional information providing apparatus includes link destination information of other data, transmission time information for acquiring the data is not described. Only by accessing other data could the transmission time be known.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to add transmission time information necessary for acquiring the other data to data including link information to other data provided by the information providing apparatus. By notifying the user of the data transmission time in advance, an information providing device that can reduce the user's labor of "it is understood that data transmission takes time after access, so the user must cancel the transmission halfway". To provide.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, an information providing apparatus according to the present invention is required for acquiring other data whose provided data includes link destination information. Transmission time information creation means for creating the transmission time information from the communication history storing the transmission time information in the communication history database or the result of the throughput measurement tool;
A transmission time information adding unit for adding the created transmission time information to data to be provided;

[0008]

FIG. 1 is an overall block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, in which reference numerals 10, 30, 40, 5
0, 60, and 70 are the same as those described in the conventional technique (FIG. 6). Reference numeral 21 denotes a client having an interface with a user and data acquisition, conversion, and history storage functions;
Reference numeral 0 denotes a transmission time information addition unit that adds transmission time information to data, 90 denotes a transmission time information creation unit that creates transmission time information, and 95 denotes a throughput measurement unit that measures throughput. The client 21 includes an input unit 30, a data acquisition unit 40, a communication history storage unit 50, a communication history database 60, an output unit 70, a transmission time information addition unit 80, a transmission time information creation unit 90, and a throughput measurement unit 95.

FIG. 2 is a processing flowchart of the client 21. The user inputs a data acquisition request from the input unit 30 (Step S1 in FIG. 2). Data acquisition unit 4
0, in response to the data acquisition request input from the input unit 30, acquires data from the server 10 and sends it to the transmission time information adding unit 80 (S2). In the transmission time information adding unit 80,
It instructs the transmission time information creation unit 90 to create transmission time information of link information to other data included in the acquired data.

The transmission time information creation unit 90 checks whether the communication history between the server and the client owning the other data exists in the communication history database 60 (S3, S3).
4)).

If it exists, transmission time information is created from the communication history between the server and the client having the other data (S5). FIG. 3A shows an example of the communication history. From the communication history, the transmission time information is obtained by multiplying the throughput (average value, maximum value, minimum value, etc.) calculated for each server and for each time by the data size of other data. The data size of the other data is obtained, for example, from additional data or communication history of data having link information. The data size may be queried.

FIG. 3B shows an example of throughput and transmission time information calculated for each server from the communication history shown in FIG.
Shown in The throughput is a value obtained by dividing the amount of data for each file of the server received in the past by the time from the start to the end of the transmission. As an example of the display of the transmission time information, as shown in FIG. 4, an average value, a maximum value, and a minimum value are displayed for each time.

If there is no communication history, a tool for measuring the throughput between the server and the client is executed by the throughput measuring unit 95, and the value obtained by multiplying the throughput value by the data size of other data is used as transmission time information. (S6). As a throughput measurement tool,
For example, a tool that sends an appropriate measurement packet to the corresponding server and samples the time when a response is returned can be used.

The created transmission time information is sent to the transmission time information adding unit 80, which associates the transmission time information with the link information and outputs the data to the output unit 70.
(S7). As a method of association, for example, there is a method of adding and displaying after the link information when displayed on the output unit 70, and a method of popping up when the mouse pointer is moved to the link information.

The output unit 70 outputs data (S
8). FIG. 5 shows an example of data owned by the server 10 and an example of display of the data on the output unit 70. In the apparatus without the throughput measuring unit 95 shown in FIG. 1, the transmission time information is added only when the communication history necessary for creating the transmission time information exists. It is also possible to omit the creation and addition of the transmission time information. Even if the transmission time information cannot be obtained by the first access to other data, if the other data is actually accessed even once, the communication history is accumulated thereafter, so that the transmission time information can be created and added. .

In the above embodiment, an example in which the transmission time information addition function and the transmission time information creation function are provided in the client 21 has been described. The present invention can also be implemented by providing a similar transmission time information addition function and transmission time information creation function in a gateway server (proxy server). Further, the transmission time information adding function and the transmission time information creating function can be applied to the server 10 and realized. In this case, it is necessary to acquire information from which the throughput and the like can be calculated in advance.

[0017]

As described above, according to the present invention, the time required for acquiring other data (transmission time information) is added to the data including the link information to other data. It is possible to determine in advance whether there is enough time, and the user "after accessing,
Since it has been found that data transmission takes time, the data transmission is canceled halfway. "

Further, the present invention can be applied to WWW and a network distributed file system. In particular, when the present invention is applied to a WWW proxy server, the communication history of another user can be used. It is possible, and the number of executions of the throughput measurement tool can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a processing flowchart of a client according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a communication history stored in a communication history database.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a display example of transmission time information.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of data owned by a server and a display example of the same data on an output unit.

FIG. 6 is an overall block diagram of a conventional system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 10 server 21 client 30 input unit 40 data acquisition unit 50 communication history storage unit 60 communication history database 70 output unit 80 transmission time information adding unit 90 transmission time information creation unit 95 throughput measurement unit

Claims (1)

[Claims] An information providing apparatus for providing data including link information to other data on the same server or another server in a system for transmitting and receiving data between the server and the client. Means for creating transmission time information required for obtaining other data calculated based on a communication history or a throughput measurement result between a server and a client; and means for adding transmission time information to the data. Information providing device.