Patent ID: 9361321
Filing Date: 2016-06-07
CPC Classification: G06F,G06Q

Claim Text:
1. A method for calculating an amount of storage capacity required for a set of data, the method comprising: identifying a space that includes pointers that each point to a respective piece of data in the set of data; selecting a first pointer using a sub sample ratio; checking the first pointer to determine if the first pointer points to data previously observed in an associated backup stream; if the first pointer points to data not previously observed in the associated backup stream, recording a number of data pieces to which the first pointer points, and if the first pointer points to data previously observed in the associated backup stream, selecting a second pointer using the sub sample ratio; repeating the selecting, checking and recording processes until the entire space has been sampled; and calculating the required storage capacity using the sub sample ratio and a sum of the recorded number of data pieces.