Patent ID: 6085226
Filing Date: 2000-07-04
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
In a client computer system, having a processor and a memory, that, in response to user interaction with the system, requests items of information, as desired by a user, from a server, wherein the client computer or a connection between the client computer exhibits a first period of high utilization followed by a second period of low utilization, a method of obtaining the items of information comprising:(A) accessing, in response to a request from the user, a first item of information from the server and rendering the first item so accessed to the user; and(B) while the first item is being so rendered:(B1) determining, in response to both a predefined aspect of the first item and a predefined user model, a set of items of information which the user is likely to request next from corresponding servers, wherein the determining step comprises:(B1a) generating a corresponding transition probability estimate for each one of a plurality of items in said set;(B1b) ascertaining a corresponding flux value, representing a rate of refinement in utility to the user with increased time, for each one of the items in said set; and(B1c) producing, in response said corresponding probability estimate and said corresponding flux value, a value for a flux-product for said each one of the items in said set so as to form a plurality of flux-product values;(B2) prefetching ones of the items in said set from the corresponding servers and in descending order of their corresponding flux-product values, wherein the order reflects decreasing expected utility to the user of said ones of the items in the set; and(B3) storing, in the memory, each of said ones of the items, so prefetched, for subsequent access in the event the user were to request any of said ones of the items.