Viasat, Inc.

Peter Lepeska

William B Sebastian

Devin Toth

David Lerner

Douglas C Larrick

Demetrios James Tsillas

Eric E Prouty

Robert LaMarre

Douglas Larrick

Matthew Ian Hepburn

Leigh Lambert

Michael J Schexnaydre

Eric Prouty

Michael Schexnaydre

The present invention relates to systems, apparatus, and methods of using usage data to determine the dependency structures of a web application, including dependency structures between follow-on objects of an initial object in a web transaction. In one embodiment, an input URL and associated dynamic response data are analyzed for such nested or dependent relationships. In further embodiments, analysis of these relationships are used to improve prefetching operations to lower overall page load times.

Progressive prefetching

Embodiments seek to protect privacy of potentially sensitive client resources in web transactions using crowd-disambiguation. Crowd-disambiguation machines can aggregate information about resources from multiple clients as resource fingerprints, and can use the fingerprints to provide crowd-sourced services in a privacy-protected manner. For example, embodiments can communicate a resource fingerprint as a fully ambiguated resource instance (FARI) and a partially disambiguated resource instance (PDRI). When one (or few) clients communicates the resource fingerprint, the identity of the resource remains obfuscated from the crowd-disambiguation machine. As more clients communicate fingerprints for the same resource (e.g., identified by the matching FARIs), respective, differently generated PDRIs of those fingerprints enable the crowd-disambiguation machine to resolve further portions of the resource, ultimately permitting the resource to be revealed and considered non-private (e.g., for use in hint generation or other crowd-sourced services).

Machine-driven crowd-disambiguation of data resources

A method of loading a web page that includes: receiving, by a client computing device over a communications network, hint information that identifies a first plurality of child objects associated with a web page; prefetching, by the client computing device over the communications network, one or more of the first plurality of child objects identified in the hint information; and receiving, by the client computing device over the communications network, the web page, wherein the web page identifies a second plurality of child objects. The method further includes: loading, by the client computing device, the web page, the loading including: loading one or more of the second plurality of child objects that are prefetched child objects of the first plurality of child objects. The metho further includes fetching, over the communications network, and loading one or more of the second plurality of child objects that are non-prefetched child objects.

Browser based feedback for optimized web browsing

Embodiments seek to improve prefetch hinting using time-dependent, machine-generated hints. Some embodiments operate in context of client machines in communication hinting machines that can develop information about whether and how resources are used in network transactions over time by collecting 'resource samples.' Each resource sample can identify rendering status information of a resource at a sample time. The time-based samples can be used to compute time-based probabilities for the resources, indicating, for example, the likelihood of a resource being used to render a web page at some subsequent time. Time-dependent hints can be generated as a function of the time-based probabilities, and the time-dependent hints can be used to improve prefetching by optimizing the hinting information with respect to a particular request time (e.g., the prefetching hints for rendering a web page can be generated in a manner that accounts for when the web page is being rendered).

Time-dependent machine-generated hinting

Once resolved, a random-value universal resource locator (RV-URL) identifies a resource on a host server and constitutes an instruction to a local device executing a network transaction to fetch the resource. Embodiments of the invention resolve and pre-fetch an RV-URL from a remote host server and then pre-position, on a client-side of a communications link to the remote server, both resolution information indicating how the RV-URL was resolved and the pre-fetched resource. Later, when the client device is executing a network transaction and encounters an RV-URL, the client device determines whether resolution information for the RV-URL is locally stored. If so, the client device uses the resolution information to resolve the RV-URL to the same value that was used during pre-fetch. The client device then sends a request for the resolved RV-URL. The request is intercepted on the client-side of the communications link, where it is determined whether a locally cached pre-fetched resource corresponds to the intercepted request. If so, the locally cached pre-fetched resource is provided to the local device as a complete response to the request, which can then be discarded.

Pre-fetching random-value resource locators

Accelerating hint information in web page transactions is described. A root request is observed as part of a web page transaction and hint information is retrieved responsive to observing the root request. The hint information includes child object identifiers associated with the root object for the client system to prefetch prior to loading the root object. Prior to observing a response to the root request, the hint information is provided to the client system.

Accelerating hint information in web page transactions

The present invention relates to systems, apparatus, and methods of accelerating web transactions. One embodiment includes observing, with a web browser plug-in operating on a computer, at least a portion of a first web page transaction in a web browser operating on the computer. A web browser module may be used to identify transaction information from the observing of the at least a portion of the first web page transaction. The browser may communicate transaction information to a prefetching system in a communication separate from the first web page transaction; and the transaction information may be used to perform a prefetch operation.

Methods, apparatuses, and systems are provided for improving utilization of the satellite communications system through various 'deltacasting' techniques for handling content sets (e.g., feeds or websites). Embodiments operate in a client-server context, including a server optimizer, a client optimizer, and, in some embodiments, a pre-positioning client. Within this client-server context, content sets are multicast (e.g., anticipatorily pre-positioned in a local dictionary) to end users of the communications system and are handled at the content set level, according to set-level metadata and/or user preferences. In some embodiments, when locally stored information from the content sets is requested by a user, deltacasting techniques are used to generate fingerprints for use in identifying and exploit multicasting and/or other opportunities for increased utilization of links of the communications system.

Content set based deltacasting

In anticipation of a client device establishing a connection over a network with a remote host service, a pre-connect module generates a connection request (referred to herein as a 'pre-connect request') on behalf of the client device and sends the pre-connect request to the remote host server. The remote server responds with a connection response (referred to herein as a “pre-connect response”), which is pre-positioned on the client-side of the network along with information for generating a later connection request that is in material respects the same as the pre-connect request. Then, when the client device later seeks to establish a connection with the remote host server, the client device determines whether it has in local storage generation information for generating a connection request to the remote host server. If so, the client device uses the generation information to generate a connection request that is in material respects the same as the pre-connect request. An interceptor on the client-side of the network intercepts connection requests and determines whether a corresponding pre-connect response is locally stored. If so, the interceptor sends the locally stored pre-connect response as a complete response to the intercepted request, which can be discarded.

Accelerating connections to a host server

Systems, computer-readable media, methods, and apparatuses for interactive tools for dynamic evaluation of online content are described. One example method includes receiving, by a client device, a selection of first content from a first content provider, the first content obtained using a first uniform resource identifier ('URI'); in response to receiving, by the client device, a request to access evaluation information associated with the first URI, transmitting a request to access the evaluation information to a second content provider using a second URI; receiving, by the client device from the second content provider, second content associated with the first URI, the second content having the evaluation information; generating, by the client device, annotations for the first content using the evaluation information; and displaying the first content and the annotations, the annotations displayed within the first content.

Systems and methods for interactive tools for dynamic evaluation of online content

Embodiments seek to improve web page loading time using server-machine-driven hint generation for based on client-machine-driven feedback. For example, client computers having page renderers are in communication with content servers and hinting processors. The hinting processors can use hinting feedback from multiple page rendering instances to automatically generate hints for optimizing loading and/or rendering of those pages. In some implementations, in response to page requests from the page renderers, content servers can request hints from hinting processors and send those hints to the requesting page renderers for use in improving the page loading experience. In other implementations, in response to page requests from the page renderers, content servers can instruct the requesting page renderers to contact an appropriate hinting processor and to retrieve appropriate hints therefrom for use in improving the page loading experience.

Growing community of inventors

Boston, MA, United States of America

Peter Lepeska