The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 11, 2000
Filed:
Oct. 30, 1996
Balan S Raman, Redmond, WA (US);
Arnold S Miller, Bellevue, WA (US);
Dave D Straube, Redmond, WA (US);
Shioupyn Shen, Milpitas, CA (US);
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA (US);
Abstract
A system and method of efficiently replicating data structures in a distributed system of replicas. Each replica in the distributed system maintains a cursor indicative of the extent to which other replicas in the system are consistent with one another. By examining the information in its cursor, a destination replica requesting replication from a source replica is able to determine the extent to which it has been made consistent with that source replica via indirect paths, thus potentially improving the starting point of replication. The source replica similarly examines its cursor to potentially improve the starting point of replication with respect to the starting point requested by the destination replica. In this manner, redundant information transmitted from a source replica when replicating a destination replica is reduced. The reduction in the amount of transmitted replication data is particularly appreciable when the replication topology of the system is changed such as by adding a new connection between existing replicas or by adding a new replica to the system.