Abstract:
The present invention relates to systems, apparatus, and methods for implementing dynamic routing. The method includes receiving a request for data located at a content server from a client system and determining latency between the client system and the content server. Based on the latency between the client system and the content server being greater than a first threshold value, the method determines latency between the client system and each of a plurality of acceleration servers. The method selects the acceleration server with the lowest latency, and determines latency between the selected acceleration server and the content server. Furthermore, based on the latency between the selected acceleration server and the content server being less than a second threshold, the method establishes an acceleration tunnel between the client system and the content server through the selected acceleration server and transfers the requested data to the client system using the acceleration tunnel.

Description:
PRIORITY CLAIM 
       [0001]    This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/024,812, filed Jan. 30, 2008, entitled “METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR THE USE OF EFFECTIVE LATENCY TO MAKE DYNAMIC ROUTING DECISIONS FOR OPTIMIZING NETWORK APPLICATIONS,” Attorney Docket No. 026841-001500US, which is hereby incorporated be reference herein in its entirety for any purpose. 
     
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    The present invention relates, in general, to network acceleration and, more particularly, to dynamic routing using effective latency. 
       BACKGROUND 
       [0003]    A typical network is set up in a hub-and-spoke configuration, with a headquarters server at the hub and branch offices, traveling users, telecommuters, and the like as the spokes. When attempting to accelerate such a network configuration, latency between the headquarters server and, for example, the telecommuter is not fully taken into consideration, and often the attempt to accelerate, due to latency, can actually slow the telecommuter&#39;s connection down. Thus, improvements in the art are needed. 
       BRIEF SUMMARY 
       [0004]    Embodiments of the present invention are directed to a method of using effective latency to make dynamic routing decisions in distributed internet protocol (IP) network applications. The method includes receiving a request for data located at a content server from a client system and determining latency between the client system and the content server. Then, based on the latency between the client system and the content server being greater than a first threshold value, the method determines latency between the client system and each of a plurality of acceleration servers. The method further selects the acceleration server with the lowest latency, and determines latency between the selected acceleration server and the content server. Furthermore, based on the latency between the selected acceleration server and the content server being less than a second threshold, the method establishes an acceleration tunnel between the client system and the content server through the selected acceleration server and transfers the requested data to the client system using the acceleration tunnel. 
         [0005]    In an alternative embodiment, a machine-readable medium is described. The machine-readable medium includes instructions for using effective latency to make dynamic routing decisions in distributed internet protocol (IP) network applications. The machine-readable medium includes instructions for receiving a request for data located at a content server from a client system and determining latency between the client system and the content server. Then, based on the latency between the client system and the content server being greater than a first threshold value, the machine-readable medium includes instructions to determine latency between the client system and each of a plurality of acceleration servers. The machine-readable medium further includes instructions to select the acceleration server with the lowest latency, and determine latency between the selected acceleration server and the content server. Furthermore, based on the latency between the selected acceleration server and the content server being less than a second threshold, the machine-readable medium includes instructions to establish an acceleration tunnel between the client system and the content server through the selected acceleration server and transfer the requested data to the client system using the acceleration tunnel. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0006]    A further understanding of the nature and advantages of the present invention may be realized by reference to the remaining portions of the specification and the drawings wherein like reference numerals are used throughout the several drawings to refer to similar components. In some instances, a sub-label is associated with a reference numeral to denote one of multiple similar components. When reference is made to a reference numeral without specification to an existing sub-label, it is intended to refer to all such multiple similar components. 
           [0007]      FIG. 1  is a flow diagram illustrating a method of dynamic routing, according to embodiments of the present invention. 
           [0008]      FIG. 2  is a block diagram illustrating a system for dynamic routing, according to one embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0009]      FIG. 3  is a block diagram illustrating a system for dynamic routing, according to another embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0010]      FIG. 4  is a generalized schematic diagram illustrating a computer system, in accordance with various embodiments of the invention. 
           [0011]      FIG. 5  is a block diagram illustrating a networked system of computers, which can be used in accordance with various embodiments of the invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0012]    Aspects of the disclosure relate to the use of “effective latency” to make dynamic routing decisions in distributed IP network applications. Aspects of this disclosure further relate to latency-based bypass of acceleration servers in conjunction with latency-based routing. For example, a mobile client in San Francisco may be attempting to access a file on a content server in London with acceleration servers located in Berlin and Seattle. Based on latency data between the mobile device, the content server, and the acceleration servers, a decision whether to bypass the acceleration servers is made and, if it is determined not to bypass, a routing decision is made based on latency data. 
         [0013]    In one embodiment, latency for the purposes of the present invention may be defined as “effective latency.” In other words, a routing decision may be made based on more than simply the RTT of a connection. For example, even though the RTT of the connection between a client and a server A is lower than the RTT between the client to a server B, server B may nonetheless still have a low “effective latency.” Some reasons that server B may have a lower “effective latency” than server A are that server B has a cached version of the file that the client is requesting, server A may be overly congested at the time the client is requesting the file, the route from the client to server A may have connection failures, etc. Additional factors that can affect the “effective latency” are compression (e.g., compression size of packets and time required to perform compression), the bandwidth between various nodes, the amount of packet loss between various nodes, congestion (e.g., over-capacity at any node or at any group of nodes), etc. 
         [0014]    In addition, the chattiness of the application used to transfer data can affect the “effective latency.” For example, if downloading a single file over HTTP, there will be only one round trip so there may not be a significant benefit to going through an acceleration server. However, if downloading is done over CIFS/SMB (i.e., a file share protocol), which is very chatty (i.e., requires a significant amount of communication between a client and a server), there will typically be a greater benefit of using an accelerating proxy which is close to the content server. Hence, basing routing on “effective latency” will route the client to the server which will transmit the file to the client in the least amount of time. 
         [0015]    Turning now to  FIG. 1 , which illustrates a method  100  for performing latency-based bypass and routing, according to aspects of the present invention. At process block  105 , a request for data stored at a content server is made by a client system. In one embodiment, the content server is a file server, a web server, and FTP server, etc., and the client system is a mobile device (e.g., a cellular device, a laptop computer, a notebook computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a Smartphone, etc.), a personal computer, a desktop computer, etc. In one embodiment, the data requested may be a document (e.g., a text document, a word document, etc.), an image, web content, database content, etc. 
         [0016]    At process block  110 , the latency between the client system and the content server may be determined. This determination may be based in part on a round trip time (RTT) calculation between the client system and the content server. However, other latency calculation techniques may be used to determine the latency between the client system and the content server. 
         [0017]    At decision block  115 , the determined latency between the client system and the content server may be compared to a latency threshold (e.g., 30 milliseconds) to determine if the latency is greater than the threshold. In one embodiment, the threshold may be determined by analyzing historic latency data. In another embodiment, the threshold may be based on the network type, the network topology, the connection types, etc. If the latency between the client system and the content server is not greater than the threshold value, it is determined that responding to the data request from the client system by the content server would not benefit from acceleration through an acceleration server. In other words, because the latency is low enough between the client system and the content server, the additional overhead and/or distance required to utilize an acceleration server would not outweigh its benefit in this particular situation. Accordingly, the acceleration server is bypassed and the requested data is retrieved by the client system directly from the content server (process block  120 ). 
         [0018]    However, if it is determined that the latency between the content server and the client system is greater than the threshold value, then a determination of the latency determination between the client system and each acceleration server may be determined (process block  125 ). In an alternative embodiment, in addition to making a latency determination, congestion of the acceleration server may also be a factor. 
         [0019]    At process block  130 , based on the latency determinations made with respect to each of the acceleration servers and the client system, the acceleration server with the lowest latency may be selected. A number of factors may contribute to variations in latency from one acceleration server to another. For example, the physical distance between the client system and the acceleration server may be a factor, as well as the congestion of the acceleration server (i.e., how many other clients are attempting to utilize the acceleration server), the hardware and/or software of the acceleration server, bandwidth constraints, etc. Nonetheless, the acceleration server with the lowest latency with respect to the client system is selected. 
         [0020]    At process block  135 , the latency between the selected acceleration server and the content server may be determined. This determination can be made using the same or similar techniques as those used to determine latencies above. One technique used to determine latency may be to issue a TCP connect request to the server (i.e., the content server, acceleration server, etc.). Once the server responds to the TCP connect request, the RTT can be determined based on the amount of time the server takes to respond. In addition, this technique may indicate whether the server is accepting connections. At decision block  140 , a determination may be made whether the latency between the selected acceleration server and the content server is greater than a threshold value. In one embodiment, the threshold value is the same as the threshold value used above; however, other threshold values may be used. 
         [0021]    If it is determined that the latency between the selected acceleration server and the content server is greater than the threshold value, then the acceleration server will nonetheless be bypassed (process block  120 ). In other words, even though initially the acceleration server was not going to be bypassed (based on the initial latency determination between the client system and the acceleration server at process block  110 ), because the latency between the selected acceleration server and the content server is determined to be to high, the benefits of acceleration would nonetheless be outweighed by the high latency between the selected acceleration server and the content server. 
         [0022]    On the other hand, if it is determined that the latency between the selected acceleration server and the content server is not greater than the threshold value, then the acceleration server is not bypassed. Instead, at process block  145 , an acceleration tunnel may be established between the client system and the content server by way of the acceleration server. In one embodiment, the acceleration tunnel (or acceleration link) may be established using the techniques found in U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/980,101, entitled CACHE MODEL IN PREFETCHING SYSTEM, filed on Oct. 15, 2007, which is incorporated by reference in its entirety for any and all purposes. 
         [0023]    In one embodiment, after the acceleration link has been established between the client system and the content server, the requested data may then be transmitted to the client system. Hence, the determination whether to bypass the acceleration server as well as the acceleration routing determination is based on latency (i.e., latency-based bypass and routing). 
         [0024]    Referring now to  FIG. 2 , which illustrates one embodiment of a system  200  for performing latency-based bypass and routing, according to aspects of the present invention. In one embodiment, system  200  may include a client system  205  at a location  210 . Location  210  may be, for example, Denver, Colo. in which client system  205  is situated. In one embodiment, client system  205  may be a mobile client, a telecommuter, a system in a branch office, etc. 
         [0025]    In a further embodiment, system  200  may include a content server  215  at a location  220 . In one embodiment, content server  215  is a file server which is storing a file requested by client system  205 . In a further embodiment, location  220  may be Tokyo, Japan. Furthermore, system  200  may include multiple acceleration servers (e.g., acceleration servers  225  and  235 ). Merely for the purpose of explanation and ease of understanding,  FIG. 2  includes only two acceleration servers, more than two acceleration servers may be included. In one embodiment, acceleration servers  225  and  235  are located at locations  230  and  240 , respectively. In one embodiment, location  230  may be Seattle, Wash., and location  240  may be Beijing, China. 
         [0026]    In one embodiment, client system  205  may connect to either acceleration servers  225  and  235  to reach content server  215 , or client system  205  may connect directly to content server  215 . In one embodiment, each of client system  205 , content server  215 , and acceleration servers  225  and  235  are located within local area networks (LANs), and together create a wide area network (WAN). Alternatively, content server  215  and acceleration server  225  and  235  may be arranged in a hub-and-spoke network configuration. Furthermore, client system  205 , content server  215 , and acceleration server  225  and  235  may be connected over the Internet. 
         [0027]    One example that may be illustrated by system  200  is client system  205  located in Denver, Colo. (location  210 ) needs to access a document located on content server  215  located in Tokyo, Japan (location  220 ). Client system  205  could access the document from content server  215  directly or client system  205  may want to accelerate its connection to content server  215  using acceleration server  225  or  235 . In order to determine the optimal route and whether to accelerate the connection or to bypass acceleration servers  225  or  235 , latency determinations should be made. 
         [0028]    In one embodiment, the latency between content server  215  and client system  205  is determined and checked against a latency threshold. Alternatively, the latency between client system  205  and acceleration servers  225  and  235  may also be determined in order to check which of the three have the lowest latency. If the latency between client system  205  and content server  215  is less than the threshold value or less than both of the latencies between client system  205  and acceleration servers  225  and  235 , then acceleration servers  225  and  235  are bypassed and the document is directly accessed from content server  215 . 
         [0029]    Alternatively, if the latency between client system  205  and content server  215  is greater than the threshold, then the connection between client system  205  and either of acceleration servers  225  and  235  with the lower latency is selected. Specifically, it is determined which of acceleration servers  225  and  235  to use to accelerate the connection between client system  205  and content server  215 . 
         [0030]    Initially, it may seem that, since acceleration server  225  is located in Seattle, Wash. (location  230 ) which is closer to client system  205  than acceleration server  235  located in Beijing, China (location  240 ), it would be faster to use acceleration server  225 . However, this may not be the case. For example, the initial connection from client system  205  to acceleration server  225  may be faster (i.e., Denver to Seattle) than the connection between client system  205  and acceleration server  235  (i.e., Denver to Beijing); however, it should be taken into consideration that the connection from acceleration server  225  to content server  215  (i.e., Seattle to Tokyo) is further than the connection between acceleration server  235  and content server  215  (Beijing to Tokyo). 
         [0031]    Accordingly, the latency for each leg of the connection from client system  205  to contact server  215  is calculated in order for the total latency to be determined. Based on the latency calculations, it may be determined, for example, that the latency between client system  205  and content server  215  through acceleration server  235  is lower than the latency between client system  205  and content server  215  through acceleration server  225 . Based on this determination, acceleration server  235  may be selected to accelerate the connection between content server  215  and client system  205 . 
         [0032]    Alternatively, is may be determined that even when accelerated through acceleration server  235 , the direct connection between client system  205  and content server  215  still has a lower latency. Hence, acceleration server  235  may still be bypassed and client system  205  may access the document directly from content server  215 . Ultimately, by basing bypass and routing on latency between the various connections, an optimal routing decision can be made. 
         [0033]    Turning now to  FIG. 3 , which illustrates a system  300  for performing hieratical latency-based bypass and routing, according to aspects of the present invention. In one embodiment, a client system  305  may request a file from a headquarters server  325 . Client system  305  may be able to directly access headquarters server  325 , or client system  305  may be able to access headquarters server  325  through branch office server  315 . Each of client system  305 , branch office server  315 , and headquarters server  325  may be located at different locations (i.e., locations  310 ,  320 , and  330 , respectively). 
         [0034]    In one embodiment, latency values for the connections between client system  305  and branch office server  305 , between branch office server  315  and headquarters server  325 , and between client system  315  and headquarters server  325  may be determined. Based on these latency determinations it may be determined that, even though the connection between client system  305  and headquarters server  325  is a direct connection, the latency of that connection is greater than going through branch office server  315 . Accordingly, the file request and file would be routed through branch office server  315 . Alternatively, the requested file may be retrieved from branch office server  315  because the requested file includes a cached version of the request file. 
         [0035]    Accordingly, as shown in the above example simply basing routing decisions on RTT would not transmit the file to client system  305  in the least amount of time. In other words, the RTT between client system  305  and headquarters server  325  may be less than the RTT between branch office server  315  and client system  305 , but because the routing is based on “effective latency” instead of latency, the cached file on branch office server  315  is taken into consideration, and client  305  receives the file in less time. Hence, routing decisions based on “effective latency” provides for additional acceleration of file and other data transfers. 
         [0036]      FIG. 4  provides a schematic illustration of one embodiment of a computer system  400  that can perform the methods of the invention, as described herein, and/or can function, for example, as any part of acceleration server  225 , content server  215 , etc. of  FIG. 2 . It should be noted that  FIG. 4  is meant only to provide a generalized illustration of various components, any or all of which may be utilized as appropriate.  FIG. 4 , therefore, broadly illustrates how individual system elements may be implemented in a relatively separated or relatively more integrated manner. 
         [0037]    The computer system  400  is shown comprising hardware elements that can be electrically coupled via a bus  405  (or may otherwise be in communication, as appropriate). The hardware elements can include one or more processors  410 , including without limitation one or more general-purpose processors and/or one or more special-purpose processors (such as digital signal processing chips, graphics acceleration chips, and/or the like); one or more input devices  415 , which can include without limitation a mouse, a keyboard and/or the like; and one or more output devices  420 , which can include without limitation a display device, a printer and/or the like. 
         [0038]    The computer system  400  may further include (and/or be in communication with) one or more storage devices  425 , which can comprise, without limitation, local and/or network accessible storage and/or can include, without limitation, a disk drive, a drive array, an optical storage device, solid-state storage device such as a random access memory (“RAM”) and/or a read-only memory (“ROM”), which can be programmable, flash-updateable and/or the like. The computer system  400  might also include a communications subsystem  430 , which can include without limitation a modem, a network card (wireless or wired), an infra-red communication device, a wireless communication device and/or chipset (such as a Bluetooth™ device, an 802.11 device, a WiFi device, a WiMax device, cellular communication facilities, etc.), and/or the like. The communications subsystem  430  may permit data to be exchanged with a network (such as the network described below, to name one example), and/or any other devices described herein. In many embodiments, the computer system  400  will further comprise a working memory  435 , which can include a RAM or ROM device, as described above. 
         [0039]    The computer system  400  also can comprise software elements, shown as being currently located within the working memory  435 , including an operating system  440  and/or other code, such as one or more application programs  445 , which may comprise computer programs of the invention, and/or may be designed to implement methods of the invention and/or configure systems of the invention, as described herein. Merely by way of example, one or more procedures described with respect to the method(s) discussed above might be implemented as code and/or instructions executable by a computer (and/or a processor within a computer). A set of these instructions and/or code might be stored on a computer-readable storage medium, such as the storage device(s)  425  described above. In some cases, the storage medium might be incorporated within a computer system, such as the system  400 . In other embodiments, the storage medium might be separate from a computer system (i.e., a removable medium, such as a compact disc, etc.), and or provided in an installation package, such that the storage medium can be used to program a general purpose computer with the instructions/code stored thereon. These instructions might take the form of executable code, which is executable by the computer system  400  and/or might take the form of source and/or installable code, which, upon compilation and/or installation on the computer system  400  (e.g., using any of a variety of generally available compilers, installation programs, compression/decompression utilities, etc.), then takes the form of executable code. 
         [0040]    It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that substantial variations may be made in accordance with specific requirements. For example, customized hardware might also be used, and/or particular elements might be implemented in hardware, software (including portable software, such as applets, etc.), or both. Further, connection to other computing devices such as network input/output devices may be employed. 
         [0041]    In one aspect, the invention employs a computer system (such as the computer system  400 ) to perform methods of the invention. According to a set of embodiments, some or all of the procedures of such methods are performed by the computer system  400  in response to processor  410  executing one or more sequences of one or more instructions (which might be incorporated into the operating system  440  and/or other code, such as an application program  445 ) contained in the working memory  435 . Such instructions may be read into the working memory  435  from another machine-readable medium, such as one or more of the storage device(s)  425 . Merely by way of example, execution of the sequences of instructions contained in the working memory  435  might cause the processor(s)  410  to perform one or more procedures of the methods described herein. 
         [0042]    The terms “machine-readable medium” and “computer-readable medium,” as used herein, refer to any medium that participates in providing data that causes a machine to operate in a specific fashion. In an embodiment implemented using the computer system  400 , various machine-readable media might be involved in providing instructions/code to processor(s)  410  for execution and/or might be used to store and/or carry such instructions/code (e.g., as signals). In many implementations, a computer-readable medium is a physical and/or tangible storage medium. Such a medium may take many forms, including but not limited to, non-volatile media, volatile media, and transmission media. Non-volatile media includes, for example, optical or magnetic disks, such as the storage device(s)  425 . Volatile media includes, without limitation dynamic memory, such as the working memory  435 . Transmission media includes coaxial cables, copper wire and fiber optics, including the wires that comprise the bus  405 , as well as the various components of the communication subsystem  430  (and/or the media by which the communications subsystem  430  provides communication with other devices). Hence, transmission media can also take the form of waves (including without limitation, radio, acoustic and/or light waves, such as those generated during radio-wave and infra-red data communications). 
         [0043]    Common forms of physical and/or tangible computer readable media include, for example, a floppy disk, a flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, or any other magnetic medium, a CD-ROM, any other optical medium, punchcards, papertape, any other physical medium with patterns of holes, a RAM, a PROM, an EPROM, a FLASH-EPROM, any other memory chip or cartridge, a carrier wave as described hereinafter, or any other medium from which a computer can read instructions and/or code. 
         [0044]    Various forms of machine-readable media may be involved in carrying one or more sequences of one or more instructions to the processor(s)  410  for execution. Merely by way of example, the instructions may initially be carried on a magnetic disk and/or optical disc of a remote computer. A remote computer might load the instructions into its dynamic memory and send the instructions as signals over a transmission medium to be received and/or executed by the computer system  400 . These signals, which might be in the form of electromagnetic signals, acoustic signals, optical signals and/or the like, are all examples of carrier waves on which instructions can be encoded, in accordance with various embodiments of the invention. 
         [0045]    The communications subsystem  430  (and/or components thereof) generally will receive the signals, and the bus  405  then might carry the signals (and/or the data, instructions, etc., carried by the signals) to the working memory  435 , from which the processor(s)  405  retrieves and executes the instructions. The instructions received by the working memory  435  may optionally be stored on a storage device  425  either before or after execution by the processor(s)  410 . 
         [0046]    A set of embodiments comprises systems for dynamic routing. In one embodiment, acceleration server  225 , content server  215 , etc. of  FIG. 2 , may be implemented as computer system  400  in  FIG. 4 . Merely by way of example,  FIG. 5  illustrates a schematic diagram of a system  500  that can be used in accordance with one set of embodiments. The system  500  can include one or more user computers  505 . The user computers  505  can be general purpose personal computers (including, merely by way of example, personal computers and/or laptop computers running any appropriate flavor of Microsoft Corp.&#39;s Windows™ and/or Apple Corp.&#39;s Macintosh™ operating systems) and/or workstation computers running any of a variety of commercially available UNIX™ or UNIX-like operating systems. These user computers  505  can also have any of a variety of applications, including one or more applications configured to perform methods of the invention, as well as one or more office applications, database client and/or server applications, and web browser applications. Alternatively, the user computers  505  can be any other electronic device, such as a thin-client computer, Internet-enabled mobile telephone, and/or personal digital assistant (PDA), capable of communicating via a network (e.g., the network  510  described below) and/or displaying and navigating web pages or other types of electronic documents. Although the exemplary system  500  is shown with three user computers  505 , any number of user computers can be supported. 
         [0047]    Certain embodiments of the invention operate in a networked environment, which can include a network  5   10 . The network  510  can be any type of network familiar to those skilled in the art that can support data communications using any of a variety of commercially available protocols, including without limitation TCP/IP, SNA, IPX, AppleTalk, and the like. Merely by way of example, the network  510  can be a local area network (“LAN”), including without limitation an Ethernet network, a Token-Ring network and/or the like; a wide-area network (WAN); a virtual network, including without limitation a virtual private network (“VPN”); the Internet; an intranet; an extranet; a public switched telephone network (“PSTN”); an infra-red network; a wireless network, including without limitation a network operating under any of the IEEE 802.11 suite of protocols, the Bluetooth™ protocol known in the art, and/or any other wireless protocol; and/or any combination of these and/or other networks. 
         [0048]    Embodiments of the invention can include one or more server computers  515 . Each of the server computers  515  may be configured with an operating system, including without limitation any of those discussed above, as well as any commercially (or freely) available server operating systems. Each of the servers  515  may also be running one or more applications, which can be configured to provide services to one or more clients  505  and/or other servers  515 . 
         [0049]    Merely by way of example, one of the servers  515  may be a web server, which can be used, merely by way of example, to process requests for web pages or other electronic documents from user computers  505 . The web server can also run a variety of server applications, including HTTP servers, FTP servers, CGI servers, database servers, Java™ servers, and the like. In some embodiments of the invention, the web server may be configured to serve web pages that can be operated within a web browser on one or more of the user computers  505  to perform methods of the invention. 
         [0050]    The server computers  515 , in some embodiments, might include one or more application servers, which can include one or more applications accessible by a client running on one or more of the client computers  505  and/or other servers  515 . Merely by way of example, the server(s)  515  can be one or more general purpose computers capable of executing programs or scripts in response to the user computers  505  and/or other servers  515 , including without limitation web applications (which might, in some cases, be configured to perform methods of the invention). Merely by way of example, a web application can be implemented as one or more scripts or programs written in any suitable programming language, such as Java™, C, C#™ or C++, and/or any scripting language, such as Perl, Python, or TCL, as well as combinations of any programming/scripting languages. The application server(s) can also include database servers, including without limitation those commercially available from Oracle™, Microsoft™, Sybase™, IBM™ and the like, which can process requests from clients (including, depending on the configurator, database clients, API clients, web browsers, etc.) running on a user computer  505  and/or another server  515 . In some embodiments, an application server can create web pages dynamically for displaying the information in accordance with embodiments of the invention. Data provided by an application server may be formatted as web pages (comprising HTML, Javascript, etc., for example) and/or may be forwarded to a user computer  505  via a web server (as described above, for example). Similarly, a web server might receive web page requests and/or input data from a user computer  505  and/or forward the web page requests and/or input data to an application server. In some cases a web server may be integrated with an application server. 
         [0051]    In accordance with further embodiments, one or more servers  515  can function as a file server and/or can include one or more of the files (e.g., application code, data files, etc.) necessary to implement methods of the invention incorporated by an application running on a user computer  505  and/or another server  515 . Alternatively, as those skilled in the art will appreciate, a file server can include all necessary files, allowing such an application to be invoked remotely by a user computer  505  and/or server  515 . It should be noted that the functions described with respect to various servers herein (e.g., application server, database server, web server, file server, etc.) can be performed by a single server and/or a plurality of specialized servers, depending on implementation-specific needs and parameters. 
         [0052]    In certain embodiments, the system can include one or more databases  520 . The location of the database(s)  520  is discretionary: merely by way of example, a database  520   a  might reside on a storage medium local to (and/or resident in) a server  515   a  (and/or a user computer  505 ). Alternatively, a database  520   b  can be remote from any or all of the computers  505 ,  515 , so long as the database can be in communication (e.g., via the network  510 ) with one or more of these. In a particular set of embodiments, a database  520  can reside in a storage-area network (“SAN”) familiar to those skilled in the art. (Likewise, any necessary files for performing the functions attributed to the computers  505 ,  515  can be stored locally on the respective computer and/or remotely, as appropriate.) In one set of embodiments, the database  520  can be a relational database, such as an Oracle™ database, that is adapted to store, update, and retrieve data in response to SQL-formatted commands. The database might be controlled and/or maintained by a database server, as described above, for example. 
         [0053]    While the invention has been described with respect to exemplary embodiments, one skilled in the art will recognize that numerous modifications are possible. For example, the methods and processes described herein may be implemented using hardware components, software components, and/or any combination thereof. Further, while various methods and processes described herein may be described with respect to particular structural and/or functional components for ease of description, methods of the invention are not limited to any particular structural and/or functional architecture but instead can be implemented on any suitable hardware, firmware and/or software configurator. Similarly, while various functionalities are ascribed to certain system components, unless the context dictates otherwise, this functionality can be distributed among various other system components in accordance with different embodiments of the invention. 
         [0054]    Moreover, while the procedures comprised in the methods and processes described herein are described in a particular order for ease of description, unless the context dictates otherwise, various procedures may be reordered, added, and/or omitted in accordance with various embodiments of the invention. Moreover, the procedures described with respect to one method or process may be incorporated within other described methods or processes; likewise, system components described according to a particular structural architecture and/or with respect to one system may be organized in alternative structural architectures and/or incorporated within other described systems. Hence, while various embodiments are described with—or without—certain features for ease of description and to illustrate exemplary features, the various components and/or features described herein with respect to a particular embodiment can be substituted, added and/or subtracted from among other described embodiments, unless the context dictates otherwise. Consequently, although the invention has been described with respect to exemplary embodiments, it will be appreciated that the invention is intended to cover all modifications and equivalents within the scope of the following claims.