KR20100000783A - Grid system using private grid device and operating method of the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A grid system using a designated grid device and an operating method thereof are provided to pay suitable compensation according to connection time of a designated device, thereby improving a participation rate of a grid member. CONSTITUTION: A grid member is collected(300). A designated grid device is given to the grid member(310). The connection of the designated grid device is recognized(320). A service is provided to a client requesting a service to the grid member(330). The connection time of the designated grid device is collected(340). It is checked whether the connection time of the designated grid device exceeds reference time during a preset period(350). Compensation is paid based on the connection time to the grid member(360).

Description

GRID SYSTEM USING THE DEVICE DEVICE AND APPARATUS METHOD OF GRID SYSTEM USING PRIVATE GRID DEVICE AND OPERATING METHOD OF THE SAME

The present invention relates to a grid system capable of distributed processing, and more particularly to an operation method for activating a grid system capable of distributed processing.

In general, a computer (hereinafter referred to as a client) requesting predetermined information in order to receive electronicized information through an arbitrary network, a computer (hereinafter referred to as a server) providing the requested information from the client, and an information transmission path between them The network constituting the network must exist. Among them, the server and the network are not resources that are serviced by only one client. Therefore, a heavy load is applied when responding to requests from a plurality of different clients. As a result, the number of clients that can connect to the server at the same time should be limited, and clients requesting information can only use a portion of the bandwidth allocated to them.

To solve these problems, content providers who sell information through the Internet purchase a large number of high-priced computers that can act as servers to increase the number of users / customers and improve the quality of service. For example, a huge investment in network bandwidth is required. Content providers should estimate the maximum number of clients and prepare resources to provide stable information providing service. If the information demand for the maximum number of clients does not occur, resource providers will be wasted. If there are more clients requesting information than the maximum number of clients, the problem of providing a normal service still remains.

In order to solve the bottlenecks that occur in servers and networks, a content deliver network (CDN) has been proposed. The CDN is a client and server that generates connection requests when a plurality of cache servers with the same data are distributed at the bottom of multiple internet data centers (IDCs) or Internet service providers (ISPs). This technology further improves the speed of web access by having a cache server in close proximity respond and transmit the corresponding data.

In general, the content is delivered from the content provider's server to the client through the network and the subscriber network. In this process, the slowdown of the Internet occurs in the "middle-mile", ie from the content provider's server through the ISP's network to the client. The CDN solves the slowdown in this "middle-mile". It is for. CDN allows you to achieve speed and stability as if you are connecting from the same network, regardless of which Internet service you use. In particular, such CDN technology is indispensably used in sites such as large portals, shopping malls, game sites, etc., in which a large number of large files such as images and videos are uploaded.

However, the use of such a CDN also requires the cost of providing a large number of computers comparable to servers, and even if the server functions are replaced by multiple computers, the number of servers that perform CDN functions is limited. The number of clients that can be limited must be limited, and there is a limit to solving the problem that a client requesting information can only use a part of the bandwidth allocated to them.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a network system and a method of operating the same, which are capable of distributed processing that can improve information transmission speed on a network and reduce loads generated in servers and networks.

According to a feature of the present invention for achieving the above object, a method of operating a grid server, the step of recruiting grid members, recognizing that the grid dedicated device provided to the grid member is connected, Controlling the service to be provided to a client requesting a service by a grid member, collecting a connection time of the grid dedicated device, and providing a reward to the grid member based on the connection time.

In the present embodiment, the grid member recruiting step may include: requesting, by a user device to access the homepage of the grid server, to join the grid member, approving the subscription request, and using the grid member as the grid dedicated device. Controlling to be paid.

In this embodiment, controlling the service to be provided to the client includes distributing a file to the grid member.

In this embodiment, controlling the service to be provided to the client includes receiving a service request from the client, and providing the client with grid member information capable of providing the requested service from the client. .

In this embodiment, the client communicates with the grid member in a peer to pear (P2P) manner in accordance with the serviceable grid member information.

In this embodiment, the reward payment step includes controlling the reward to be paid to the grid member when the access time of the grid member exceeds a reference time.

In this embodiment, the reward paid to the grid member is any one or combination of cash, points that can be used in internet commerce, coins, reserves, content use rights, and internet communication fee reductions.

In this embodiment, the rewarding step further comprises controlling the grid member not to be rewarded when the access time of the grid member has not reached a reference time.

In this embodiment, the rewarding step further includes controlling the grid dedicated device to be recovered according to a cumulative number of times that the connection time of the grid member does not reach a reference time.

According to another feature of the invention, a grid system comprises: a grid server, a client requesting a service to the grid server, and a grid member having a grid dedicated device to provide the service requested by the client. The grid server transmits grid member information capable of providing a service to the client, and the client requests a service from the grid member in response to grid member information provided from the grid server.

In this embodiment, the grid dedicated device includes a processor, a memory for storing a program for providing grid services, a storage medium for storing service files provided from the grid server and provided to the client, and It includes an input / output interface for communicating with a grid server.

In this embodiment, the storage medium is either a hard disk drive or a nonvolatile memory.

In this embodiment, the grid member further comprises a personal computer and an internet router for connecting the personal computer and the grid dedicated device to an Internet line.

According to the present invention as described above it is possible to reduce the load generated in the server and the network by distributing the service resource requested from the client to provide the grid member connected to the network instead of the server. Moreover, by providing a storage device having a communication function to each of the grid members, it is possible to further increase the efficiency of distributed processing without affecting the operation of the grid member's personal computer. In addition, the participation rate of the grid member can be improved by paying an appropriate compensation to the grid member connected to the grid dedicated device. By operating grid systems such as this, cultivating grid delivery can reduce the use of a user's computer resources without the permission of a personal computer user.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a view showing a grid transmission system of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, a grid delivery system includes a content provider 100, a contents delivery network 110, and user devices 120-150. In this embodiment user device 120 is a client requesting service and user devices 130-150 are grid members. CDN 110 and user devices 120-150 are connected via an Internet line 115.

The content provider 100 is an individual or a business that provides a large amount of data such as game software, video data, and sound source data. Since the data provided by the content provider 100 is large, the data provided by the content provider 100 in order to quickly respond to a request of the user devices 120-150 may be an internet service provider (ISP) or an internet data center (IDC). It is stored in the cache server of the CDN (110) located at the network base of the. In the present specification, the cache server in the CDN 110 is referred to as a grid server 112 because it controls grid delivery.

In the following description, a user device 120 requesting a service is referred to as a client. The client 120 requesting a service requests a predetermined service from the content provider 100 through the Internet line 115. The service requested by the client 120 to the content provider 100 includes downloading of a large amount of data such as game software, video data, and sound source data.

The service requested by the client 120 is provided by the CDN 110 distributed at the bottom of the IDC or ISP. The circuit between the service request client 120 and the CDN 110 is a finite resource, and in order to increase the capacity of the circuit, the CDN 110 operator must pay more circuit usage costs to the IDC or ISP operator. Therefore, the CDN 110 operator should make an effort to efficiently provide the service request client 120 with a limited line.

The grid server 112 included in the CDN 110 according to an embodiment of the present invention provides the requested service directly to the client 120 or user devices 130-which are grid members to be described later. 150 controls to provide the service to the client 120 requesting the service.

 The service requested by the client 120 to the grid server 112 may request resources held by the user devices 130-150, for example, CPU, disk space, memory, and network. In this embodiment, the service requested by the client 120 to the grid server 112 is assumed to be a data file as an example.

According to the present invention, the CDN 110 may provide the client 120 with more services than the line capacity between the client 120 and the CDN 110. In order to smoothly provide the service required by the client 120 while minimizing the line capacity between the client 120 and the CDN 110, a large number of grid members must be secured, and the grid members provide the service to the client 120. The number of services and the amount of service provision should be increased. The grid server 110 according to an embodiment of the present invention recruits grid members from the homepage to increase and maintain the number of grid members, and provides a grid private device dedicated to providing a service to the recruited grid members. to provide. Although described as recruiting grid members from the homepage of grid server 112 in this embodiment, grid members may be recruited through various Internet portal sites (not shown).

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a user device 130 that is a grid member shown in FIG. 1.

Referring to FIG. 2, the user device 130 includes an internet router 131, a grid dedicated device 132, and a personal computer 133. The grid dedicated device 132 and the personal computer 133 are connected to the Internet line 115 through the Internet router 131. Other user devices 140 and 150 that are grid members shown in FIG. 1 are also configured in the same way as user device 130 shown in FIG.

The personal computer 133 is a personally owned device already held by the user. The CDN provider may not only pay the Internet router 131 and the grid dedicated device 132 to users who subscribe as grid members, but may also support physical installation. When the grid dedicated device 132 is connected to the Internet line 115 through the Internet router 131, the grid server 112 downloads data files to be provided to users in advance to the grid dedicated device 132. When the grid dedicated device 132 receives a request for access to a data file stored therein, the grid dedicated device 132 provides the requesting client.

In this embodiment, although the router 131 and the grid dedicated device 132 are illustrated and described as being separate devices, the router 131 and the grid dedicated device 132 may be configured as a single device. In addition, if the grid dedicated device 132 can be directly connected to the Internet line 115 without the Internet router 131, the Internet router 131 can be removed from the user device 130.

A user who joins as a grid member does not have to provide any portion of the resources of the personal computer 133, such as CPU, disk space, memory, network, etc., to the grid server 112 or other service request clients 120 that are personally owned. do.

3 is a view showing the configuration of the grid dedicated device 132 shown in FIG.

Referring to FIG. 3, the grid dedicated device 132 includes a processor 210, an input / output interface 220, a memory 230, and a hard disk drive 240. The memory 230 stores firmware required for the operation of the processor 210. Data files downloaded from the grid server 112 are stored in the hard disk drive 240. The hard disk drive 240 may be replaced with a nonvolatile memory such as flash memory, PRAM, MRAM, etc. in order to store the data files.

The grid dedicated device 132 remains connected to the grid server 112 through the Internet unique device 131 and the Internet line 115 in the power-on state. That is, the grid dedicated device 132 in the power-on state may respond to the access request of the grid server 112 and / or the client 120 at any time.

4 is a flowchart showing an operating method according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention of the grid transmission system shown in FIG.

1 to 4, the grid server 110 recruits grid members through the homepage (300). Recruitment of grid members is not limited to the homepage of the grid server 110, but is also possible through various portal sites or Internet service companies. When the user applies for grid member subscription, the grid server 110 approves the subscription application, and supports the grid dedicated device 132 and installation thereof (310).

Installation of the grid-only device 132 may be provided by the installation engineer visited directly to the service providing place (home, school, office, etc.) of the user subscribed to the grid member. When the grid dedicated device 132 is installed in a specific individual's home, the grid dedicated device 132 may be referred to as a name such as home storage. If the Internet router 131 is needed to connect the grid dedicated device 132 with the Internet line 115, the CDN provider 110 provides the grid member to the Internet router 131.

When the grid dedicated device 132 is powered on and connected to the grid server 112 through the Internet line 115, the grid dedicated device 132 transmits a connection information signal to the grid server 112.

When the connection information signal is received from the grid dedicated device 132 (320), the grid server 112 controls the grid dedicated device 132 to correspond to the service request of the service request client 120. The grid server 112 downloads a large amount of data such as game software, video data, and sound source data that can be provided to the client 120 by the content provider 100 in advance to the grid dedicated device 132. The large-capacity data may be divided into a plurality and distributed and stored in the grid-only devices 132 in the plurality of user devices 130 to 150. The grid server 112 collects and stores data file information stored in the user devices 130-150, which are grid members, in real time or periodically, and selects grid member (s) suitable for the request of the client 120. .

The client 120 requests a service from the grid server 112. The grid server 112 selects the grid member (s) suitable for providing the service requested by the client 120 and provides the client 120 with information of the selected grid member (s) (330). The information that grid server 112 provides to client 120 includes the grid member (s), i.e., the IP addresses of user devices 130-150, and the like.

The client 120 requests a service from the user device 130 to which the service is provided according to the grid member information provided from the grid server 112. The user device 130 provides a service in response to the service request of the client 120. The processor 210 in the grid-only device 132 of the user device 130 controls the data file stored in the hard disk drive 240 to be provided to the client 120 through the input / output interface 220. By such a series of operations, the service requested by the client 120 is provided from the user device 130 to the client 120. Services between the client 120 and the user devices 130-150 are provided in a peer to peer (P2P) manner.

In the above description, only the user device 130 provides a service in response to the service request of the client 120, but the service requested by the client 120, that is, the data file, is provided to the plurality of user devices 130-150. When distributed and stored, a service may be provided from the plurality of user devices 130-150 to the client 120 under the control of the grid server 112.

The grid server 112 collects time information of the grid dedicated device 340 connected to the grid server 112. For example, the grid server 112 may directly count the access time of the grid dedicated devices 340 in the user devices 130-150. Alternatively, the grid dedicated devices 340 in the user devices 130-140 accumulate access time to the memory 230 or the hard disk drive 240, and then periodically to the grid server 112. There is a way to provide it.

The grid server 112 checks whether the access time of the grid dedicated devices 340 in the user devices 130-150 exceeds the reference time for a preset period (350). The lead server 112 provides an appropriate reward to a user having a grid dedicated device whose access time exceeds the reference time among the grid dedicated devices 340 in the user devices 130-150.

The reward paid by the grid server 112 to the user may be any one or combination of various methods, such as cash payments, points that can be used in internet commerce, coins, reserves, content usage rights, and internet communication fee reductions.

The grid server 112 does not pay or rewards a user who has a grid dedicated device among the grid dedicated devices 340 in the user devices 130-150 whose access time does not reach the reference time or has a previously promised reward. Rewards are paid according to the payment guidelines. The grid server 112 is the grid dedicated device 132 when the number of times when there is no connection at all or the connection time does not reach the reference time among the grid dedicated devices 340 in the user devices (130-150) is accumulated. May be recovered.

As the number of grid members increases, a large number of grid members can provide resources in response to a client's service request, which speeds up the response (for example, the file download speed). Moreover, the CDN 110 can provide services to many users at the same time without increasing the number of lines to provide to the user, thereby achieving cost savings on line usage.

Recently, the volume of multimedia content such as movies, games, music files, and User Created Contents (UCC) videos is increasing. In order to improve the transfer or download speed of a large file, some content providers frequently distribute data to multiple user computers without the user's consent and provide the same to other users. The user is not only able to confirm that his computer is being shared / occupied by other users, but also suffers from the inconvenience of slowing down computer processing while transferring files from his computer to another computer.

As in the present invention, the content provider or CDN operator recruits a plurality of grid members that provide resources, achieves distributed processing through the grid members by providing grid dedicated devices to the grid members, and gives the grid members predetermined values. By paying for this, we can improve the efficiency of our circuit use in a legitimate way. Furthermore, the present invention can prevent degradation of service quality due to resource use of grid members by using a dedicated storage device for providing grid services without using resources owned by grid members (such as a personal computer). Eliminate the burden of sharing resources. In general, when a grid member's personal computer communicates via an Internet line, the share of the Internet line has a higher download rate than uploads. Therefore, even if the grid dedicated device 132 and the personal computer 133 are simultaneously connected to the Internet line through the Internet router 131, the communication speed of the personal computer 133 is minimal. According to the present invention as described above, cheating that the grid server uses the user's resources without the user's consent for distributed processing can be reduced.

1 is a view showing a grid transmission system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a user device that is a grid member shown in FIG. 1.

3 is a view showing the configuration of the grid-only device shown in FIG.

4 is a flowchart showing an operating method according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention of the grid transmission system shown in FIG.

Claims (13)

Recruiting grid members; Recognizing that the grid dedicated device provided to the grid member is connected; Controlling a service to be provided to a client requesting a service by the grid member; Collecting access time of the grid dedicated device; And And providing a reward to the grid member based on the access time. The method of claim 1, The grid member recruitment step, Requesting, by a user device, to join a grid member by accessing a homepage of the grid server; Approving the subscription request; And And controlling the grid dedicated device to be provided to the grid member. The method of claim 2, Controlling the service provided to the client, And distributing the file to the grid members. The method of claim 3, wherein Controlling the service provided to the client, Receiving a service request from the client; And And providing the client with grid member information capable of providing a service requested from the client. The method of claim 4, wherein And the client communicates with the grid member in a pear to pear (P2P) manner according to the service provisionable grid member information. The method of claim 1, The compensation payment step, And controlling a compensation to be paid to the grid member when the access time of the grid member exceeds a reference time. The method of claim 6, Rewards paid to the grid member, The method of operating a grid server, characterized in that any one or a combination of cash, points, coins, reserves, content use rights and Internet communication fee reductions that can be used in Internet commerce. The method of claim 1, The compensation payment step, And controlling the grid member not to be rewarded when the access time of the grid member does not reach a reference time. The method of claim 8, The compensation payment step, And controlling the grid dedicated device to be recovered according to a cumulative number of times that the access time of the grid member does not reach a reference time. In a grid system: A grid server; A client requesting a service to the grid server; A grid member having a grid dedicated device to provide the service requested by the client; The grid server transmits grid member information capable of providing a service to the client; The client requests a service from the grid member in response to grid member information provided from the grid server. The method of claim 10, The grid dedicated device, A processor; A memory for storing a program for providing a grid service; A storage medium provided from the grid server and storing service files to be provided to the client; And And an input / output interface for communicating with the grid server. The method of claim 11, The storage medium is a grid system, characterized in that any one of a hard disk drive and a nonvolatile memory. The method of claim 11, The grid member, Personal computer, and And a router for connecting the personal computer and the grid dedicated device to an internet line.

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