Patent ID: 12191890

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The inventor has conceived, and reduced to practice, a system and method for encrypted data compaction that includes extended functionality such as asymmetric encoding/decoding and distributed computing policy enforcement.

In one embodiment, the system and method comprise a form of asymmetric encoding/decoding wherein original data is encoded by an encoder according to a codebook and sent to a decoder, but instead of just decoding the data according to the codebook to reconstruct the original data, data manipulation rules such as mapping, transformation, encryption, are applied at the decoding stage to transform the decoded data into a different data set from the original data. This provides a form of double security, in that the intended final data set is never transferred and can't be obtained even if the codebook is known. It can only be obtained if the codebook and the series of data manipulations after decoding are known.

In another embodiment, encoding and decoding can be performed on a distributed computing network by incorporating a behavior appendix into the codebook, such that the encoder and/or decoder at each node of the network comply with network behavioral rules, limits, and policies. This embodiment is useful because it allows for independent, self-contained enforcement of network rules, limits, and policies at each node of the network within the encoding/decoding system itself, and not through the use of an enforcement mechanism external to the encoding/decoding system. This provides a higher level of security because the enforcement occurs before the data is encoded or decoded. For example, if rule appended to the codebook states that certain sourceblocks are associated with malware and are not to be encoded or decoded, the data cannot be encoded to be transmitted within the network or decoded to be utilized within the network, regardless of external enforcement mechanisms (e.g., anti-virus software, network software that enforces network policies, etc.).

In some embodiments, the data compaction system may be configured to encode and decode genomic data. There are many applications in biology and genomics in which large amounts of DNA or RNA sequencing data must to be searched to identify the presence of a pattern of nucleic acid sequences, or oligonucleotides. These applications include, but are not limited to, searching for genetic disorders or abnormalities, drug design, vaccine design, and primer design for Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests or sequencing reactions.

These applications are relevant across all species, humans, animals, bacteria, and viruses. All of these applications operate within large datasets; the human genome for example, is very large (3.2 billion base pairs). These studies are typically done across many samples, such that proper confidence can be achieved on the results of these studies. So, the problem is both wide and deep, and requires modern technologies beyond the capabilities of traditional or standard compression techniques. Current methods of compressing data are useful for storage, but the compressed data cannot be searched until it is decompressed, which poses a big challenge for any research with respect to time and resources.

The compaction algorithms described herein not only compress data as well as, or better than, standard compression technologies, but more importantly, have major advantages that are key to much more efficient applications in genomics. First, some configurations of the systems and method described herein allow random access to compacted data without unpacking them first. The ability to access and search within compacted datasets is a major benefit and allows for utilization of data for searching and identifying sequence patterns without the time, expense, and computing resources required to unpack the data. Additionally, for some applications certain regions of the genomic data must be searched, and certain configurations of the systems and methods allow the search to be narrowed down even within compacted data. This provides an enormous opportunity for genomic researchers and makes mining genomics datasets much more practical and efficient.

In some embodiments, data compaction may be combined with data serialization to maximize compaction and data transfer with extremely low latency and no loss. For example, a wrapper or connector may be constructed using certain serialization protocols (e.g., BeBop, Google Protocol Buffers, MessagePack). The idea is to use known, deterministic file structure (schemes, grammars, etc.) to reduce data size first via token abbreviation and serialization, and then to use the data compaction methods described herein to take advantage of stochastic/statistical structure by training it on the output of serialization. The encoding process can be summarized as: serialization-encode→compact-encode, and the decoding process would be the reverse: compact-decode→serialization-decode. The deterministic file structure could be automatically discovered or encoded by the user manually as a scheme/grammar. Another benefit of serialization in addition to those listed above is deeper obfuscation of data, further hardening the cryptographic benefits of encoding using codebooks.

In some embodiments, the data compaction systems and methods described herein may be used as a form of encryption. As a codebook created on a particular data set is unique (or effectively unique) to that data set, compaction of data using a particular codebook acts as a form of encryption as that particular codebook is required to unpack the data into the original data. As described previously, the compacted data contains none of the original data, just codeword references to the codebook with which it was compacted. This inherent encryption avoids entirely the multiple stages of encryption and decryption that occur in current computing systems, for example, data is encrypted using a first encryption algorithm (say, AES-256) when stored to disk at a source, decrypted using AES-256 when read from disk at the source, encrypted using TLS prior to transmission over a network, decrypted using TLS upon receipt at the destination, and re-encrypted using a possibly different algorithm (say, TwoFish) when stored to disk at the destination.

In some embodiments, an encoding/decoding system as described herein may be incorporated into computer monitors, televisions, and other displays, such that the information appearing on the display is encoded right up until the moment it is displayed on the screen. One application of this configuration is encoding/decoding of video data for computer gaming and other applications where low-latency video is required. This configuration would take advantage of the typically limited information used to describe scenery/imagery in low-latency video software applications, such an in gaming, AR/VR, avatar-based chat, etc. The encoding would benefit from there being a particularly small number of textures, emojis, AR/VR objects, orientations, etc., which can occur in the user interface (UI) —at any point along the rendering pipeline where this could be helpful.

In some embodiments, the data compaction systems and methods described herein may be used to manage high volumes of data produced in robotics and industrial automation. Many AI based industrial automation and robotics applications collect a large amount of data from each machine, particularly from cameras or other sensors. Based upon the data collected, decisions are made as to whether the process is under control or the parts that have been manufactured are in spec. The process is very high speed, so the decisions are usually made locally at the machine based on an AI inference engine that has been previously trained. The collected data is sent back to a data center to be archived and for the AI model to be refined.

In many of these applications, the amount of data that is being created is extremely large. The high production rate of these machines means that most factory networks cannot transmit this data back to the data center in anything approaching real time. In fact, if these machines are operating close to 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, then the factory networks can never catch up and the entirety of the data cannot be sent. Companies either do data selection or use some type of compression requiring expensive processing power at each machine to reduce the amount of data that needs to be sent. However, this either loads down the processors of the machine, or requires the loss of certain data in order to reduce the required throughput.

The data encoding/decoding systems and methods described herein can be used in some configurations to solve this problem, as they represent a lightweight, low-latency, and lossless solution that significantly reduces the amount of data to be transmitted. Certain configurations of the system could be placed on each machine and at the server/data center, taking up minimal memory and processing power and allowing for all data to be transmitted back to the data center. This would enable audits whenever deeper analysis needs to be performed as, for example, when there is a quality problem. It also ensures that the data centers, where the AI models are trained and retrained, have access to all of the up-to-date data from all the machines.

One or more different aspects may be described in the present application. Further, for one or more of the aspects described herein, numerous alternative arrangements may be described; it should be appreciated that these are presented for illustrative purposes only and are not limiting of the aspects contained herein or the claims presented herein in any way. One or more of the arrangements may be widely applicable to numerous aspects, as may be readily apparent from the disclosure. In general, arrangements are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice one or more of the aspects, and it should be appreciated that other arrangements may be utilized and that structural, logical, software, electrical and other changes may be made without departing from the scope of the particular aspects. Particular features of one or more of the aspects described herein may be described with reference to one or more particular aspects or figures that form a part of the present disclosure, and in which are shown, by way of illustration, specific arrangements of one or more of the aspects. It should be appreciated, however, that such features are not limited to usage in the one or more particular aspects or figures with reference to which they are described. The present disclosure is neither a literal description of all arrangements of one or more of the aspects nor a listing of features of one or more of the aspects that must be present in all arrangements.

Headings of sections provided in this patent application and the title of this patent application are for convenience only, and are not to be taken as limiting the disclosure in any way.

Devices that are in communication with each other need not be in continuous communication with each other, unless expressly specified otherwise. In addition, devices that are in communication with each other may communicate directly or indirectly through one or more communication means or intermediaries, logical or physical.

A description of an aspect with several components in communication with each other does not imply that all such components are required. To the contrary, a variety of optional components may be described to illustrate a wide variety of possible aspects and in order to more fully illustrate one or more aspects. Similarly, although process steps, method steps, algorithms or the like may be described in a sequential order, such processes, methods and algorithms may generally be configured to work in alternate orders, unless specifically stated to the contrary. In other words, any sequence or order of steps that may be described in this patent application does not, in and of itself, indicate a requirement that the steps be performed in that order. The steps of described processes may be performed in any order practical. Further, some steps may be performed simultaneously despite being described or implied as occurring non-simultaneously (e.g., because one step is described after the other step). Moreover, the illustration of a process by its depiction in a drawing does not imply that the illustrated process is exclusive of other variations and modifications thereto, does not imply that the illustrated process or any of its steps are necessary to one or more of the aspects, and does not imply that the illustrated process is preferred. Also, steps are generally described once per aspect, but this does not mean they must occur once, or that they may only occur once each time a process, method, or algorithm is carried out or executed. Some steps may be omitted in some aspects or some occurrences, or some steps may be executed more than once in a given aspect or occurrence.

When a single device or article is described herein, it will be readily apparent that more than one device or article may be used in place of a single device or article. Similarly, where more than one device or article is described herein, it will be readily apparent that a single device or article may be used in place of the more than one device or article.

The functionality or the features of a device may be alternatively embodied by one or more other devices that are not explicitly described as having such functionality or features. Thus, other aspects need not include the device itself.

Techniques and mechanisms described or referenced herein will sometimes be described in singular form for clarity. However, it should be appreciated that particular aspects may include multiple iterations of a technique or multiple instantiations of a mechanism unless noted otherwise. Process descriptions or blocks in figures should be understood as representing modules, segments, or portions of code which include one or more executable instructions for implementing specific logical functions or steps in the process. Alternate implementations are included within the scope of various aspects in which, for example, functions may be executed out of order from that shown or discussed, including substantially concurrently or in reverse order, depending on the functionality involved, as would be understood by those having ordinary skill in the art.

Definitions

The term “bit” refers to the smallest unit of information that can be stored or transmitted. It is in the form of a binary digit (either 0 or 1). In terms of hardware, the bit is represented as an electrical signal that is either off (representing 0) or on (representing 1).

The term “byte” refers to a series of bits exactly eight bits in length.

The term “codebook” refers to a database containing sourceblocks each with a pattern of bits and reference code unique within that library. The terms “library” and “encoding/decoding library” are synonymous with the term codebook.

The terms “compression” and “deflation” as used herein mean the representation of data in a more compact form than the original dataset. Compression and/or deflation may be either “lossless”, in which the data can be reconstructed in its original form without any loss of the original data, or “lossy” in which the data can be reconstructed in its original form, but with some loss of the original data.

The terms “compression factor” and “deflation factor” as used herein mean the net reduction in size of the compressed data relative to the original data (e.g., if the new data is 70% of the size of the original, then the deflation/compression factor is 30% or 0.3.)

The terms “compression ratio” and “deflation ratio”, and as used herein all mean the size of the original data relative to the size of the compressed data (e.g., if the new data is 70% of the size of the original, then the deflation/compression ratio is 70% or 0.7.)

The term “data” means information in any computer-readable form.

The term “data set” refers to a grouping of data for a particular purpose. One example of a data set might be a word processing file containing text and formatting information.

The term “effective compression” or “effective compression ratio” refers to the additional amount data that can be stored using the method herein described versus conventional data storage methods. Although the method herein described is not data compression, per se, expressing the additional capacity in terms of compression is a useful comparison.

The term “sourcepacket” as used herein means a packet of data received for encoding or decoding. A sourcepacket may be a portion of a data set.

The term “sourceblock” as used herein means a defined number of bits or bytes used as the block size for encoding or decoding. A sourcepacket may be divisible into a number of sourceblocks. As one non-limiting example, a 1 megabyte sourcepacket of data may be encoded using 512 byte sourceblocks. The number of bits in a sourceblock may be dynamically optimized by the system during operation. In one aspect, a sourceblock may be of the same length as the block size used by a particular file system, typically 512 bytes or 4,096 bytes.

The term “codeword” refers to the reference code form in which data is stored or transmitted in an aspect of the system. A codeword consists of a reference code to a sourceblock in the library plus an indication of that sourceblock's location in a particular data set.

Conceptual Architecture

FIG.47is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system architecture4700for combining data compression with encryption using split-stream processing. According to the embodiment, an incoming data stream can be compressed and encrypted simultaneously through the use of split-stream processing, wherein the data stream is broken into blocks that are compared against the stream as a whole to determine their frequency (i.e., their probability distribution within the data stream). Huffman coding works provably ideally when the elements being encoded have dyadic probabilities, that is probabilities that are all of the form 1/(2x); in actual practice, not all data blocks will have a dyadic probability, and thus the efficiency of Huffman coding decreases. To improve efficiency while also providing encryption of the data stream, those blocks that have non-dyadic probability may be identified and replaced with other blocks, effectively shuffling the data blocks until all blocks present in the output stream have dyadic probability by using some blocks more frequently and others less frequently to “adjust” their probability within the output stream. For purposes of reconstruction, a second error stream is produced that contains the modifications made, so that the recipient need only compare the error stream against the received data stream to reverse the process and restore the data.

A stream analyzer4701receives an input data stream and analyzes it to determine the frequency of each unique data block within the stream. A bypass threshold may be used to determine whether the data stream deviates sufficiently from an idealized value (for example, in a hypothetical data stream with all-dyadic data block probabilities), and if this threshold is met the data stream may be sent directly to a data deconstruction engine201for deconstruction into codewords as described below in greater detail (with reference toFIG.2). If the bypass threshold is not met, the data stream is instead sent to a stream conditioner4702for conditioning.

Stream conditioner4702receives a data stream from stream analyzer4701when the bypass threshold is not met, and handles the encryption process of swapping data blocks to arrive at a more-ideal data stream with a higher occurrence of dyadic probabilities; this facilitates both encryption of the data and greater compression efficiency by improving the performance of the Huffman coding employed by data deconstruction engine201. To achieve this, each data block in the data stream is checked against a conditioning threshold using the algorithm |(P1−P2)|>TC, where P1is the actual probability of the data block, P2is the ideal probability of the block (generally, the nearest dyadic probability), and TCis the conditioning threshold value. If the threshold value is exceeded (that is, the data block's real probability is “too far” from the nearest ideal probability), a conditioning rule is applied to the data block. After conditioning, a logical XOR operation may be applied to the conditioned data block against the original data block, and the result (that is, the difference between the original and conditioned data) is appended to an error stream. The conditioned data stream (containing both conditioned and unconditioned blocks that did not meet the threshold) and the error stream are then sent to the data deconstruction engine201to be compressed, as described below inFIG.2.

To condition a data block, a variety of approaches may be used according to a particular setup or desired encryption goal. One such exemplary technique may be to selectively replace or “shuffle” data blocks based on their real probability as compared to an idealized probability: if the block occurs less-frequently than desired or anticipated, it may be added to a list of “swap blocks” and left in place in the data stream; if a data block occurs more frequently than desired, it is replaced with a random block from the swap block list. This increases the frequency of blocks that were originally “too low”, and decreases it for those that were originally “too high”, bringing the data stream closer in line with the idealized probability and thereby improving compression efficiency while simultaneously obfuscating the data. Another approach may be to simply replace too-frequent data blocks with any random data block from the original data stream, eliminating the need for a separate list of swap blocks, and leaving any too-low data blocks unmodified. This approach does not necessarily increase the probability of blocks that were originally too-low (apart from any that may be randomly selected to replace a block that was too-high), but it may improve system performance due to the elimination of the swap block list and associated operations.

It should be appreciated that both the bypass and conditioning thresholds used may vary, for example, one or both may be a manually-configured value set by a system operator, a stored value retrieved from a database as part of an initial configuration, or a value that may be adjusted on-the-fly as the system adjusts to operating conditions and live data.

FIG.48is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system architecture4800for decompressing and decrypting incoming data that was processed using split-stream processing. To decompress and decrypt received data, a data reconstruction engine301may first be used to reverse the compression on a data stream as described below inFIG.3, passing the decompressed (but still encrypted) data to a stream splitter4801. The corresponding error stream may be separated from the data stream (for example, the two streams may have been combined during compression but during decompression they are separated) or it may be received independently as a second data stream. Stream splitter4801applies XOR logical operations to each data block according to the error stream, reversing the original block conditioning process and restoring the original data on a block-by-block basis.

FIG.49is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method4900for compressing and encrypting data using split-stream processing. In an initial step4910, a data stream is received for compression and encryption. Each block in the data stream may be compared against a bypass threshold4920to determine whether the stream should be conditioned, and if so the stream is then passed4930to a stream conditioner4702. The stream conditioner4702then compares each block4940against a conditioning threshold based on the block's actual vs. ideal frequency, and those blocks that exceed the threshold have a conditioning rule applied4950. Each block may then be processed using an XOR logical operation4960, and the output appended to an error stream that correspond to the difference between the original data and the conditioned data. The conditioned data and the error stream are then sent as output4970for compression as described in further detail below, with reference to at leastFIG.10.

FIG.50is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method5000for decrypting and decompressing split-stream data. In an initial step5010, a data stream is received at a data decompression engine301. The data stream is decompressed5020by reversing the encoding as described below with reference toFIG.11, and the decompressed (but still encrypted) data and error stream are passed5030to a stream splitter4801. The stream splitter performs logical XOR operations on each data block5040using the error stream, reversing any conditioning done to each data block, producing the original data as output5050.

FIG.1is a diagram showing an embodiment100of the system in which all components of the system are operated locally. As incoming data101is received by data deconstruction engine102. Data deconstruction engine102breaks the incoming data into sourceblocks, which are then sent to library manager103. Using the information contained in sourceblock library lookup table104and sourceblock library storage105, library manager103returns reference codes to data deconstruction engine102for processing into codewords, which are stored in codeword storage106. When a data retrieval request107is received, data reconstruction engine108obtains the codewords associated with the data from codeword storage106, and sends them to library manager103. Library manager103returns the appropriate sourceblocks to data reconstruction engine108, which assembles them into the proper order and sends out the data in its original form109.

FIG.2is a diagram showing an embodiment of one aspect200of the system, specifically data deconstruction engine201. Incoming data202is received by data analyzer203, which optimally analyzes the data based on machine learning algorithms and input204from a sourceblock size optimizer, which is disclosed below. Data analyzer may optionally have access to a sourceblock cache205of recently-processed sourceblocks, which can increase the speed of the system by avoiding processing in library manager103. Based on information from data analyzer203, the data is broken into sourceblocks by sourceblock creator206, which sends sourceblocks207to library manager203for additional processing. Data deconstruction engine201receives reference codes208from library manager103, corresponding to the sourceblocks in the library that match the sourceblocks sent by sourceblock creator206, and codeword creator209processes the reference codes into codewords comprising a reference code to a sourceblock and a location of that sourceblock within the data set. The original data may be discarded, and the codewords representing the data are sent out to storage210.

FIG.3is a diagram showing an embodiment of another aspect of system300, specifically data reconstruction engine301. When a data retrieval request302is received by data request receiver303(in the form of a plurality of codewords corresponding to a desired final data set), it passes the information to data retriever304, which obtains the requested data305from storage. Data retriever304sends, for each codeword received, a reference codes from the codeword306to library manager103for retrieval of the specific sourceblock associated with the reference code. Data assembler308receives the sourceblock307from library manager103and, after receiving a plurality of sourceblocks corresponding to a plurality of codewords, assembles them into the proper order based on the location information contained in each codeword (recall each codeword comprises a sourceblock reference code and a location identifier that specifies where in the resulting data set the specific sourceblock should be restored to. The requested data is then sent to user309in its original form.

FIG.4is a diagram showing an embodiment of another aspect of the system400, specifically library manager401. One function of library manager401is to generate reference codes from sourceblocks received from data deconstruction engine301. As sourceblocks are received402from data deconstruction engine301, sourceblock lookup engine403checks sourceblock library lookup table404to determine whether those sourceblocks already exist in sourceblock library storage105. If a particular sourceblock exists in sourceblock library storage105, reference code return engine405sends the appropriate reference code406to data deconstruction engine301. If the sourceblock does not exist in sourceblock library storage105, optimized reference code generator407generates a new, optimized reference code based on machine learning algorithms. Optimized reference code generator407then saves the reference code408to sourceblock library lookup table104; saves the associated sourceblock409to sourceblock library storage105; and passes the reference code to reference code return engine405for sending406to data deconstruction engine301. Another function of library manager401is to optimize the size of sourceblocks in the system. Based on information411contained in sourceblock library lookup table104, sourceblock size optimizer410dynamically adjusts the size of sourceblocks in the system based on machine learning algorithms and outputs that information412to data analyzer203. Another function of library manager401is to return sourceblocks associated with reference codes received from data reconstruction engine301. As reference codes are received414from data reconstruction engine301, reference code lookup engine413checks sourceblock library lookup table415to identify the associated sourceblocks; passes that information to sourceblock retriever416, which obtains the sourceblocks417from sourceblock library storage105; and passes them418to data reconstruction engine301.

FIG.5is a diagram showing another embodiment of system500, in which data is transferred between remote locations. As incoming data501is received by data deconstruction engine502at Location 1, data deconstruction engine301breaks the incoming data into sourceblocks, which are then sent to library manager503at Location 1. Using the information contained in sourceblock library lookup table504at Location 1 and sourceblock library storage505at Location 1, library manager503returns reference codes to data deconstruction engine301for processing into codewords, which are transmitted506to data reconstruction engine507at Location 2. In the case where the reference codes contained in a particular codeword have been newly generated by library manager503at Location 1, the codeword is transmitted along with a copy of the associated sourceblock. As data reconstruction engine507at Location 2 receives the codewords, it passes them to library manager module508at Location 2, which looks up the sourceblock in sourceblock library lookup table509at Location 2, and retrieves the associated from sourceblock library storage510. Where a sourceblock has been transmitted along with a codeword, the sourceblock is stored in sourceblock library storage510and sourceblock library lookup table504is updated. Library manager503returns the appropriate sourceblocks to data reconstruction engine507, which assembles them into the proper order and sends the data in its original form511.

FIG.6is a diagram showing an embodiment600in which a standardized version of a sourceblock library603and associated algorithms604would be encoded as firmware602on a dedicated processing chip601included as part of the hardware of a plurality of devices600. Contained on dedicated chip601would be a firmware area602, on which would be stored a copy of a standardized sourceblock library603and deconstruction/reconstruction algorithms604for processing the data. Processor605would have both inputs606and outputs607to other hardware on the device600. Processor605would store incoming data for processing on on-chip memory608, process the data using standardized sourceblock library603and deconstruction/reconstruction algorithms604, and send the processed data to other hardware on device600. Using this embodiment, the encoding and decoding of data would be handled by dedicated chip601, keeping the burden of data processing off device's600primary processors. Any device equipped with this embodiment would be able to store and transmit data in a highly optimized, bandwidth-efficient format with any other device equipped with this embodiment.

FIG.12is a diagram showing an exemplary system architecture1200, according to a preferred embodiment of the invention. Incoming training data sets may be received at a customized library generator1300that processes training data to produce a customized word library1201comprising key-value pairs of data words (each comprising a string of bits) and their corresponding calculated binary Huffman codewords. The resultant word library1201may then be processed by a library optimizer1400to reduce size and improve efficiency, for example by pruning low-occurrence data entries or calculating approximate codewords that may be used to match more than one data word. A transmission encoder/decoder1500may be used to receive incoming data intended for storage or transmission, process the data using a word library1201to retrieve codewords for the words in the incoming data, and then append the codewords (rather than the original data) to an outbound data stream. Each of these components is described in greater detail below, illustrating the particulars of their respective processing and other functions, referring toFIGS.2-4.

System1200provides near-instantaneous source coding that is dictionary-based and learned in advance from sample training data, so that encoding and decoding may happen concurrently with data transmission. This results in computational latency that is near zero but the data size reduction is comparable to classical compression. For example, if N bits are to be transmitted from sender to receiver, the compression ratio of classical compression is C, the ratio between the deflation factor of system1200and that of multi-pass source coding is p, the classical compression encoding rate is RCbit/s and the decoding rate is RDbit/s, and the transmission speed is S bit/s, the compress-send-decompress time will be

To⁢l⁢d=NRC+NC⁢S+NC⁢RD
while the transmit-while-coding time for system1200will be (assuming that encoding and decoding happen at least as quickly as network latency):

Tn⁢e⁢w=NpCS
so that the total data transit time improvement factor is

To⁢l⁢dTn⁢e⁢w=CSRC+1+SRDp
which presents a savings whenever

CSRC+SRD>p-1.
This is a reasonable scenario given that typical values in real-world practice are C=0.32, RC=1.1·1012, RD=4.2·1012, S=1011, giving

CSRC+SRD=0.053.…,
such that system1200will outperform the total transit time of the best compression technology available as long as its deflation factor is no more than 5% worse than compression. Such customized dictionary-based encoding will also sometimes exceed the deflation ratio of classical compression, particularly when network speeds increase beyond 100 Gb/s.

The delay between data creation and its readiness for use at a receiving end will be equal to only the source word length t (typically 5-15 bytes), divided by the deflation factor C/p and the network speed S, i.e.

delayinvention=tpCS
since encoding and decoding occur concurrently with data transmission. On the other hand, the latency associated with classical compression is

delaypriorart=NRC+NC⁢S+NC⁢RD
where N is the packet/file size. Even with the generous values chosen above as well as N=512K, t=10, and p=1.05, this results in delayinvention≈3.3·10−10while delaypriorart≈1.3·10−7, a more than 400-fold reduction in latency.

A key factor in the efficiency of Huffman coding used by system1200is that key-value pairs be chosen carefully to minimize expected coding length, so that the average deflation/compression ratio is minimized. It is possible to achieve the best possible expected code length among all instantaneous codes using Huffman codes if one has access to the exact probability distribution of source words of a given desired length from the random variable generating them. In practice this is impossible, as data is received in a wide variety of formats and the random processes underlying the source data are a mixture of human input, unpredictable (though in principle, deterministic) physical events, and noise. System1200addresses this by restriction of data types and density estimation; training data is provided that is representative of the type of data anticipated in “real-world” use of system1200, which is then used to model the distribution of binary strings in the data in order to build a Huffman code word library1200.

FIG.13is a diagram showing a more detailed architecture for a customized library generator1300. When an incoming training data set1301is received, it may be analyzed using a frequency creator1302to analyze for word frequency (that is, the frequency with which a given word occurs in the training data set). Word frequency may be analyzed by scanning all substrings of bits and directly calculating the frequency of each substring by iterating over the data set to produce an occurrence frequency, which may then be used to estimate the rate of word occurrence in non-training data. A first Huffman binary tree is created based on the frequency of occurrences of each word in the first dataset, and a Huffman codeword is assigned to each observed word in the first dataset according to the first Huffman binary tree. Machine learning may be utilized to improve results by processing a number of training data sets and using the results of each training set to refine the frequency estimations for non-training data, so that the estimation yield better results when used with real-world data (rather than, for example, being only based on a single training data set that may not be very similar to a received non-training data set). A second Huffman tree creator1303may be utilized to identify words that do not match any existing entries in a word library1201and pass them to a hybrid encoder/decoder1304, that then calculates a binary Huffman codeword for the mismatched word and adds the codeword and original data to the word library1201as a new key-value pair. In this manner, customized library generator1300may be used both to establish an initial word library1201from a first training set, as well as expand the word library1201using additional training data to improve operation.

FIG.14is a diagram showing a more detailed architecture for a library optimizer1400. A pruner1401may be used to load a word library1201and reduce its size for efficient operation, for example by sorting the word library1201based on the known occurrence probability of each key-value pair and removing low-probability key-value pairs based on a loaded threshold parameter. This prunes low-value data from the word library to trim the size, eliminating large quantities of very-low-frequency key-value pairs such as single-occurrence words that are unlikely to be encountered again in a data set. Pruning eliminates the least-probable entries from word library1201up to a given threshold, which will have a negligible impact on the deflation factor since the removed entries are only the least-common ones, while the impact on word library size will be larger because samples drawn from asymptotically normal distributions (such as the log-probabilities of words generated by a probabilistic finite state machine, a model well-suited to a wide variety of real-world data) which occur in tails of the distribution are disproportionately large in counting measure. A delta encoder1402may be utilized to apply delta encoding to a plurality of words to store an approximate codeword as a value in the word library, for which each of the plurality of source words is a valid corresponding key. This may be used to reduce library size by replacing numerous key-value pairs with a single entry for the approximate codeword and then represent actual codewords using the approximate codeword plus a delta value representing the difference between the approximate codeword and the actual codeword. Approximate coding is optimized for low-weight sources such as Golomb coding, run-length coding, and similar techniques. The approximate source words may be chosen by locality-sensitive hashing, so as to approximate Hamming distance without incurring the intractability of nearest-neighbor-search in Hamming space. A parametric optimizer1403may load configuration parameters for operation to optimize the use of the word library1201during operation. Best-practice parameter/hyperparameter optimization strategies such as stochastic gradient descent, quasi-random grid search, and evolutionary search may be used to make optimal choices for all interdependent settings playing a role in the functionality of system1200. In cases where lossless compression is not required, the delta value may be discarded at the expense of introducing some limited errors into any decoded (reconstructed) data.

FIG.15is a diagram showing a more detailed architecture for a transmission encoder/decoder1500. According to various arrangements, transmission encoder/decoder1500may be used to deconstruct data for storage or transmission, or to reconstruct data that has been received, using a word library1201. A library comparator1501may be used to receive data comprising words or codewords, and compare against a word library1201by dividing the incoming stream into substrings of length t and using a fast hash to check word library1201for each substring. If a substring is found in word library1201, the corresponding key/value (that is, the corresponding source word or codeword, according to whether the substring used in comparison was itself a word or codeword) is returned and appended to an output stream. If a given substring is not found in word library1201, a mismatch handler1502and hybrid encoder/decoder1503may be used to handle the mismatch similarly to operation during the construction or expansion of word library1201. A mismatch handler1502may be utilized to identify words that do not match any existing entries in a word library1201and pass them to a hybrid encoder/decoder1503, that then calculates a binary Huffman codeword for the mismatched word and adds the codeword and original data to the word library1201as a new key-value pair. The newly-produced codeword may then be appended to the output stream. In arrangements where a mismatch indicator is included in a received data stream, this may be used to preemptively identify a substring that is not in word library1201(for example, if it was identified as a mismatch on the transmission end), and handled accordingly without the need for a library lookup.

FIG.19is an exemplary system architecture of a data encoding system used for cyber security purposes. Much like inFIG.1, incoming data101to be deconstructed is sent to a data deconstruction engine102, which may attempt to deconstruct the data and turn it into a collection of codewords using a library manager103. Codeword storage106serves to store unique codewords from this process, and may be queried by a data reconstruction engine108which may reconstruct the original data from the codewords, using a library manager103. However, a cybersecurity gateway1900is present, communicating in-between a library manager103and a deconstruction engine102, and containing an anomaly detector1910and distributed denial of service (DDoS) detector1920. The anomaly detector examines incoming data to determine whether there is a disproportionate number of incoming reference codes that do not match reference codes in the existing library. A disproportionate number of non-matching reference codes may indicate that data is being received from an unknown source, of an unknown type, or contains unexpected (possibly malicious) data. If the disproportionate number of non-matching reference codes exceeds an established threshold or persists for a certain length of time, the anomaly detector1910raises a warning to a system administrator. Likewise, the DDoS detector1920examines incoming data to determine whether there is a disproportionate amount of repetitive data. A disproportionate amount of repetitive data may indicate that a DDoS attack is in progress. If the disproportionate amount of repetitive data exceeds an established threshold or persists for a certain length of time, the DDoS detector1910raises a warning to a system administrator. In this way, a data encoding system may detect and warn users of, or help mitigate, common cyber-attacks that result from a flow of unexpected and potentially harmful data, or attacks that result from a flow of too much irrelevant data meant to slow down a network or system, as in the case of a DDoS attack.

FIG.22is an exemplary system architecture of a data encoding system used for data mining and analysis purposes. Much like inFIG.1, incoming data101to be deconstructed is sent to a data deconstruction engine102, which may attempt to deconstruct the data and turn it into a collection of codewords using a library manager103. Codeword storage106serves to store unique codewords from this process, and may be queried by a data reconstruction engine108which may reconstruct the original data from the codewords, using a library manager103. A data analysis engine2210, typically operating while the system is otherwise idle, sends requests for data to the data reconstruction engine108, which retrieves the codewords representing the requested data from codeword storage106, reconstructs them into the data represented by the codewords, and send the reconstructed data to the data analysis engine2210for analysis and extraction of useful data (i.e., data mining). Because the speed of reconstruction is significantly faster than decompression using traditional compression technologies (i.e., significantly less decompression latency), this approach makes data mining feasible. Very often, data stored using traditional compression is not mined precisely because decompression lag makes it unfeasible, especially during shorter periods of system idleness. Increasing the speed of data reconstruction broadens the circumstances under which data mining of stored data is feasible.

FIG.24is an exemplary system architecture of a data encoding system used for remote software and firmware updates. Software and firmware updates typically require smaller, but more frequent, file transfers. A server which hosts a software or firmware update2410may host an encoding-decoding system2420, allowing for data to be encoded into, and decoded from, sourceblocks or codewords, as disclosed in previous figures. Such a server may possess a software update, operating system update, firmware update, device driver update, or any other form of software update, which in some cases may be minor changes to a file, but nevertheless necessitate sending the new, completed file to the recipient. Such a server is connected over a network2430, which is further connected to a recipient computer2440, which may be connected to a server2410for receiving such an update to its system. In this instance, the recipient device2440also hosts the encoding and decoding system2450, along with a codebook or library of reference codes that the hosting server2410also shares. The updates are retrieved from storage at the hosting server2410in the form of codewords, transferred over the network2430in the form of codewords, and reconstructed on the receiving computer2440. In this way, a far smaller file size, and smaller total update size, may be sent over a network. The receiving computer2440may then install the updates on any number of target computing devices2460a-n, using a local network or other high-bandwidth connection.

FIG.26is an exemplary system architecture of a data encoding system used for large-scale software installation such as operating systems. Large-scale software installations typically require very large, but infrequent, file transfers. A server which hosts an installable software2610may host an encoding-decoding system2620, allowing for data to be encoded into, and decoded from, sourceblocks or codewords, as disclosed in previous figures. The files for the large scale software installation are hosted on the server2610, which is connected over a network2630to a recipient computer2640. In this instance, the encoding and decoding system2650a-nis stored on or connected to one or more target devices2660a-n, along with a codebook or library of reference codes that the hosting server2610shares. The software is retrieved from storage at the hosting server2610in the form of codewords, and transferred over the network2630in the form of codewords to the receiving computer2640. However, instead of being reconstructed at the receiving computer2640, the codewords are transmitted to one or more target computing devices, and reconstructed and installed directly on the target devices2660a-n. In this way, a far smaller file size, and smaller total update size, may be sent over a network or transferred between computing devices, even where the network2630between the receiving computer2640and target devices2660a-nis low bandwidth, or where there are many target devices2660a-n.

FIG.28is a block diagram of an exemplary system architecture2800of a codebook training system for a data encoding system, according to an embodiment. According to this embodiment, two separate machines may be used for encoding2810and decoding2820. Much like inFIG.1, incoming data101to be deconstructed is sent to a data deconstruction engine102residing on encoding machine2810, which may attempt to deconstruct the data and turn it into a collection of codewords using a library manager103. Codewords may be transmitted2840to a data reconstruction engine108residing on decoding machine2820, which may reconstruct the original data from the codewords, using a library manager103. However, according to this embodiment, a codebook training module2830is present on the decoding machine2810, communicating in-between a library manager103and a deconstruction engine102. According to other embodiments, codebook training module2830may reside instead on decoding machine2820if the machine has enough computing resources available; which machine the module2830is located on may depend on the system user's architecture and network structure. Codebook training module2830may send requests for data to the data reconstruction engine2810, which routes incoming data101to codebook training module2830. Codebook training module2830may perform analyses on the requested data in order to gather information about the distribution of incoming data101as well as monitor the encoding/decoding model performance. Additionally, codebook training module2830may also request and receive device data2860to supervise network connected devices and their processes and, according to some embodiments, to allocate training resources when requested by devices running the encoding system. Devices may include, but are not limited to, encoding and decoding machines, training machines, sensors, mobile computing devices, and Internet-of-things (“IoT”) devices. Based on the results of the analyses, the codebook training module2830may create a new training dataset from a subset of the requested data in order to counteract the effects of data drift on the encoding/decoding models, and then publish updated2850codebooks to both the encoding machine2810and decoding machine2820.

FIG.29is a block diagram of an exemplary architecture for a codebook training module2900, according to an embodiment. According to the embodiment, a data collector2910is present which may send requests for incoming data2905to a data deconstruction engine102which may receive the request and route incoming data to codebook training module2900where it may be received by data collector2910. Data collector2910may be configured to request data periodically such as at schedule time intervals, or for example, it may be configured to request data after a certain amount of data has been processed through the encoding machine2810or decoding machine2820. The received data may be a plurality of sourceblocks, which are a series of binary digits, originating from a source packet otherwise referred to as a datagram. The received data may compiled into a test dataset and temporarily stored in a cache2970. Once stored, the test dataset may be forwarded to a statistical analysis engine2920which may utilize one or more algorithms to determine the probability distribution of the test dataset. Best-practice probability distribution algorithms such as Kullback-Leibler divergence, adaptive windowing, and Jensen-Shannon divergence may be used to compute the probability distribution of training and test datasets. A monitoring database2930may be used to store a variety of statistical data related to training datasets and model performance metrics in one place to facilitate quick and accurate system monitoring capabilities as well as assist in system debugging functions. For example, the original or current training dataset and the calculated probability distribution of this training dataset used to develop the current encoding and decoding algorithms may be stored in monitor database2930.

Since data drifts involve statistical change in the data, the best approach to detect drift is by monitoring the incoming data's statistical properties, the model's predictions, and their correlation with other factors. After statistical analysis engine2920calculates the probability distribution of the test dataset it may retrieve from monitor database2930the calculated and stored probability distribution of the current training dataset. It may then compare the two probability distributions of the two different datasets in order to verify if the difference in calculated distributions exceeds a predetermined difference threshold. If the difference in distributions does not exceed the difference threshold, that indicates the test dataset, and therefore the incoming data, has not experienced enough data drift to cause the encoding/decoding system performance to degrade significantly, which indicates that no updates are necessary to the existing codebooks. However, if the difference threshold has been surpassed, then the data drift is significant enough to cause the encoding/decoding system performance to degrade to the point where the existing models and accompanying codebooks need to be updated. According to an embodiment, an alert may be generated by statistical analysis engine2920if the difference threshold is surpassed or if otherwise unexpected behavior arises.

In the event that an update is required, the test dataset stored in the cache2970and its associated calculated probability distribution may be sent to monitor database2930for long term storage. This test dataset may be used as a new training dataset to retrain the encoding and decoding algorithms2940used to create new sourceblocks based upon the changed probability distribution. The new sourceblocks may be sent out to a library manager2915where the sourceblocks can be assigned new codewords. Each new sourceblock and its associated codeword may then be added to a new codebook and stored in a storage device. The new and updated codebook may then be sent back2925to codebook training module2900and received by a codebook update engine2950. Codebook update engine2950may temporarily store the received updated codebook in the cache2970until other network devices and machines are ready, at which point codebook update engine2950will publish the updated codebooks2945to the necessary network devices.

A network device manager2960may also be present which may request and receive network device data2935from a plurality of network connected devices and machines. When the disclosed encoding system and codebook training system2800are deployed in a production environment, upstream process changes may lead to data drift, or other unexpected behavior. For example, a sensor being replaced that changes the units of measurement from inches to centimeters, data quality issues such as a broken sensor always reading 0, and covariate shift which occurs when there is a change in the distribution of input variables from the training set. These sorts of behavior and issues may be determined from the received device data2935in order to identify potential causes of system error that is not related to data drift and therefore does not require an updated codebook. This can save network resources from being unnecessarily used on training new algorithms as well as alert system users to malfunctions and unexpected behavior devices connected to their networks. Network device manager2960may also utilize device data2935to determine available network resources and device downtime or periods of time when device usage is at its lowest. Codebook update engine2950may request network and device availability data from network device manager2960in order to determine the most optimal time to transmit updated codebooks (i.e., trained libraries) to encoder and decoder devices and machines.

FIG.30is a block diagram of another embodiment of the codebook training system using a distributed architecture and a modified training module. According to an embodiment, there may be a server which maintains a master supervisory process over remote training devices hosting a master training module3010which communicates via a network3020to a plurality of connected network devices3030a-n. The server may be located at the remote training end such as, but not limited to, cloud-based resources, a user-owned data center, etc. The master training module located on the server operates similarly to the codebook training module disclosed inFIG.29above, however, the server3010utilizes the master training module via the network device manager2960to farm out training resources to network devices3030a-n. The server3010may allocate resources in a variety of ways, for example, round-robin, priority-based, or other manner, depending on the user needs, costs, and number of devices running the encoding/decoding system. Server3010may identify elastic resources which can be employed if available to scale up training when the load becomes too burdensome. On the network devices3030a-nmay be present a lightweight version of the training module3040that trades a little suboptimality in the codebook for training on limited machinery and/or makes training happen in low-priority threads to take advantage of idle time. In this way the training of new encoding/decoding algorithms may take place in a distributed manner which allows data gathering or generating devices to process and train on data gathered locally, which may improve system latency and optimize available network resources.

FIG.32is an exemplary system architecture for an encoding system with multiple codebooks. A data set to be encoded3201is sent to a sourcepacket buffer3202. The sourcepacket buffer is an array which stores the data which is to be encoded and may contain a plurality of sourcepackets. Each sourcepacket is routed to a codebook selector3300, which retrieves a list of codebooks from a codebook database3203. The sourcepacket is encoded using the first codebook on the list via an encoder3204, and the output is stored in an encoded sourcepacket buffer3205. The process is repeated with the same sourcepacket using each subsequent codebook on the list until the list of codebooks is exhausted3206, at which point the most compact encoded version of the sourcepacket is selected from the encoded sourcepacket buffer3205and sent to an encoded data set buffer3208along with the ID of the codebook used to produce it. The sourcepacket buffer3202is determined to be exhausted3207, a notification is sent to a combiner3400, which retrieves all of the encoded sourcepackets and codebook IDs from the encoded data set buffer3208, and combines them into a single file for output.

According to an embodiment, the list of codebooks used in encoding the data set may be consolidated to a single codebook which is provided to the combiner3400for output along with the encoded sourcepackets and codebook IDs. In this case, the single codebook will contain the data from, and codebook IDs of, each of the codebooks used to encode the data set. This may provide a reduction in data transfer time, although it is not required since each sourcepacket (or sourceblock) will contain a reference to a specific codebook ID which references a codebook that can be pulled from a database or be sent alongside the encoded data to a receiving device for the decoding process.

In some embodiments, each sourcepacket of a data set3201arriving at the encoder3204is encoded using a different sourceblock length. Changing the sourceblock length changes the encoding output of a given codebook. Two sourcepackets encoded with the same codebook but using different sourceblock lengths would produce different encoded outputs. Therefore, changing the sourceblock length of some or all sourcepackets in a data set3201provides additional security. Even if the codebook was known, the sourceblock length would have to be known or derived for each sourceblock in order to decode the data set3201. Changing the sourceblock length may be used in conjunction with the use of multiple codebooks.

FIG.33is a flow diagram describing an exemplary algorithm for encoding of data using multiple codebooks. A data set is received for encoding3301, the data set comprising a plurality of sourcepackets. The sourcepackets are stored in a sourcepacket buffer3302. A list of codebooks to be used for multiple codebook encoding is retrieved from a codebook database (which may contain more codebooks than are contained in the list) and the codebook IDs for each codebook on the list are stored as an array3303. The next sourcepacket in the sourcepacket buffer is retrieved from the sourcepacket buffer for encoding3304. The sourcepacket is encoded using the codebook in the array indicated by a current array pointer3305. The encoded sourcepacket and length of the encoded sourcepacket is stored in an encoded sourcepacket buffer3306. If the length of the most recently stored sourcepacket is the shortest in the buffer3307, an index in the buffer is updated to indicate that the codebook indicated by the current array pointer is the most efficient codebook in the buffer for that sourcepacket. If the length of the most recently stored sourcepacket is not the shortest in the buffer3307, the index in the buffer is not updated3308because a previous codebook used to encode that sourcepacket was more efficient3309. The current array pointer is iterated to select the next codebook in the list3310. If the list of codebooks has not been exhausted3311, the process is repeated for the next codebook in the list, starting at step3305. If the list of codebooks has been exhausted3311, the encoded sourcepacket in the encoded sourcepacket buffer (the most compact version) and the codebook ID for the codebook that encoded it are added to an encoded data set buffer3312for later combination with other encoded sourcepackets from the same data set. At that point, the sourcepacket buffer is checked to see if any sourcepackets remain to be encoded3313. If the sourcepacket buffer is not exhausted, the next sourcepacket is retrieved3304and the process is repeated starting at step3304. If the sourcepacket buffer is exhausted3313, the encoding process ends3314. In some embodiments, rather than storing the encoded sourcepacket itself in the encoded sourcepacket buffer, a universal unique identification (UUID) is assigned to each encoded sourcepacket, and the UUID is stored in the encoded sourcepacket buffer instead of the entire encoded sourcepacket.

FIG.34is a diagram showing an exemplary control byte used to combine sourcepackets encoded with multiple codebooks. In this embodiment, a control byte3401(i.e., a series of 8 bits) is inserted at the before (or after, depending on the configuration) the encoded sourcepacket with which it is associated, and provides information about the codebook that was used to encode the sourcepacket. In this way, sourcepackets of a data set encoded using multiple codebooks can be combined into a data structure comprising the encoded sourcepackets, each with a control byte that tells the system how the sourcepacket can be decoded. The data structure may be of numerous forms, but in an embodiment, the data structure comprises a continuous series of control bytes followed by the sourcepacket associated with the control byte. In some embodiments, the data structure will comprise a continuous series of control bytes followed by the UUID of the sourcepacket associated with the control byte (and not the encoded sourcepacket, itself). In some embodiments, the data structure may further comprise a UUID inserted to identify the codebook used to encode the sourcepacket, rather than identifying the codebook in the control byte. Note that, while a very short control code (one byte) is used in this example, the control code may be of any length, and may be considerably longer than one byte in cases where the sourceblocks size is large or in cases where a large number of codebooks have been used to encode the sourcepacket or data set.

In this embodiment, for each bit location3402of the control byte3401, a data bit or combinations of data bits3403provide information necessary for decoding of the sourcepacket associated with the control byte. Reading in reverse order of bit locations, the first bit N (location 7) indicates whether the entire control byte is used or not. If a single codebook is used to encode all sourcepackets in the data set, N is set to 0, and bits 3 to 0 of the control byte3401are ignored. However, where multiple codebooks are used, N is set to 1 and all 8 bits of the control byte3401are used. The next three bits RRR (locations 6 to 4) are a residual count of the number of bits that were not used in the last byte of the sourcepacket. Unused bits in the last byte of a sourcepacket can occur depending on the sourceblock size used to encode the sourcepacket. The next bit I (location 3) is used to identify the codebook used to encode the sourcepacket. If bit I is 0, the next three bits CCC (locations 2 to 0) provide the codebook ID used to encode the sourcepacket. The codebook ID may take the form of a codebook cache index, where the codebooks are stored in an enumerated cache. If bit I is 1, then the codebook is identified using a four-byte UUID that follows the control byte.

FIG.35is a diagram showing an exemplary codebook shuffling method. In this embodiment, rather than selecting codebooks for encoding based on their compaction efficiency, codebooks are selected either based on a rotating list or based on a shuffling algorithm. The methodology of this embodiment provides additional security to compacted data, as the data cannot be decoded without knowing the precise sequence of codebooks used to encode any given sourcepacket or data set.

Here, a list of six codebooks is selected for shuffling, each identified by a number from 1 to 63501a. The list of codebooks is sent to a rotation or shuffling algorithm3502, and reorganized according to the algorithm3501b. The first six of a series of sourcepackets, each identified by a letter from A to E,3503is each encoded by one of the algorithms, in this case A is encoded by codebook 1, B is encoded by codebook 6, C is encoded by codebook 2, D is encoded by codebook 4, E is encoded by codebook 13 A is encoded by codebook 5. The encoded sourcepackets3503and their associated codebook identifiers3501bare combined into a data structure3504in which each encoded sourcepacket is followed by the identifier of the codebook used to encode that particular sourcepacket.

According to an embodiment, the codebook rotation or shuffling algorithm3502may produce a random or pseudo-random selection of codebooks based on a function. Some non-limiting functions that may be used for shuffling include:1. given a function ƒ(n) which returns a codebook according to an input parameter n in the range 1 to N are, and given t the number of the current sourcepacket or sourceblock: f(t*M modulo p), where M is an arbitrary multiplying factor (1<=M<=p−1) which acts as a key, and p is a large prime number less than or equal to N;2. f(A{circumflex over ( )}t modulo p), where A is a base relatively prime to p−1 which acts as a key, and p is a large prime number less than or equal to N;3. f(floor(t*x) modulo N), and x is an irrational number chosen randomly to act as a key;4. f(t XOR K) where the XOR is performed bit-wise on the binary representations of t and a key K with same number of bits in its representation of N. The function ƒ(n) may return the nth codebook simply by referencing the nth element in a list of codebooks, or it could return the nth codebook given by a formula chosen by a user.

In one embodiment, prior to transmission, the endpoints (users or devices) of a transmission agree in advance about the rotation list or shuffling function to be used, along with any necessary input parameters such as a list order, function code, cryptographic key, or other indicator, depending on the requirements of the type of list or function being used. Once the rotation list or shuffling function is agreed, the endpoints can encode and decode transmissions from one another using the encodings set forth in the current codebook in the rotation or shuffle plus any necessary input parameters.

In some embodiments, the shuffling function may be restricted to permutations within a set of codewords of a given length.

Note that the rotation or shuffling algorithm is not limited to cycling through codebooks in a defined order. In some embodiments, the order may change in each round of encoding. In some embodiments, there may be no restrictions on repetition of the use of codebooks.

In some embodiments, codebooks may be chosen based on some combination of compaction performance and rotation or shuffling. For example, codebook shuffling may be repeatedly applied to each sourcepacket until a codebook is found that meets a minimum level of compaction for that sourcepacket. Thus, codebooks are chosen randomly or pseudo-randomly for each sourcepacket, but only those that produce encodings of the sourcepacket better than a threshold will be used.

FIG.36shows an encoding/decoding configuration as previously described in an embodiment. In certain previously-described embodiments, training data3610is fed to a codebook generator3620, which generates a codebook based on the training data. The codebook3630is sent to both an encoder3640and a decoder3650which may be on the same computer or on different computers, depending on the configuration. The encoder3640receives unencoded data, encodes it into codewords using the codebook3630, and sends encoded data in the form of codewords to the decoder3650. The decoder3650receives the encoded data in the form of codewords, decodes it using the same codebook3630(which may be a different copy of the codebook in some configurations), and outputs decoded data which is identical to the unencoded data received by the encoder3640.

FIG.37shows an encoding/decoding configuration with extended functionality suitable to derive a different data set at the decoder from the data arriving at the encoder. In this configuration, mapping rules3711and data transformation rules3712are combined with the training data3710fed into the codebook generator. The codebook generator3720creates a codebook3730from the training data. The codebook3730is sent to the encoder3740which receives unencoded data, encodes it into codewords using the codebook3730, and sends encoded data in the form of codewords to the decoder3750. In this configuration, however, the codebook generator3720also creates a mapping and transformation appendix3731which it appends to the copy of the codebook3730sent to the decoder. The appendix3731may be a separate file or document, or may be integrated into the codebook3730, such as in the form of bit extensions appended to each sourceblock in the codebook3730or an additional dimensional array to the codebook3730which provides instructions as to mapping and transformations.

The decoder3750receives the encoded data in the form of codewords, decodes it using the same codebook3730(which may be a different copy of the codebook in some configurations), but instead of outputting decoded data which is identical to the unencoded data received by the encoder3740, the decoder maps and/or transforms the decoded data according to the mapping and transformation appendix, converting the decoded data into a transformed data output. As a simple example of the operation of this configuration, the unencoded data received by the encoder3740might be a list of geographical location names, and the decoded and transformed data output by the decoder based on the mapping and transformation appendix3731might be a list of GPS coordinates for those geographical location names.

In some embodiments, artificial intelligence or machine learning algorithms might be used to develop or generate the mapping and transformation rules. For example, the training data might be processed through a machine learning algorithm trained (on a different set of training data) to identify certain characteristics within the training data such as unusual numbers of repetitions of certain bit patterns, unusual amounts of gaps in the data (e.g., large numbers of zeros), or even unusual amounts of randomness, each of which might indicate a problem with the data such as missing or corrupted data, possible malware, possible encryption, etc. As the training data is processed, the mapping and transform appendix3731is generated by the machine learning algorithm based on the identified characteristics. In this example, the output of the decoder might be indications of the locations of possible malware in the decoded data or portions of the decoded data that are encrypted. In some embodiments, direct encryption (e.g., SSL) might be used to further protect the encoded data during transmission.

FIG.38shows an encoding/decoding configuration with extended functionality suitable for using in a distributed computing environment comprising a plurality of distributed network nodes3860. In this configuration, network rules and limits3811and network policies3812are combined with the training data3810fed into the codebook generator. The codebook generator3820creates a codebook3830from the training data. The codebook generator3820also creates a behavior appendix3831which it appends to the copies of the codebook3830sent to both the encoder3840and decoder3850. The appendix3831may be a separate file or document, or may be integrated into the codebook3830, such as in the form of bit extensions appended to each sourceblock in the codebook3830which provide instructions as to mapping and transformations. In some embodiments, the behavior appendix3831may be sent only to the encoder3840or decoder3850, depending on network configuration and other parameters.

The encoder3840receives unencoded data, implements any behaviors required by the behavior appendix3831such as limit checking, network policies, data prioritization, permissions, etc., as encodes it into codewords using the codebook3830. For example, as data is encoded, the encoder may check the behavior appendix for each sourceblock within the data to determine whether that sourceblock (or a combination of sourceblocks) violates any network rules. As a couple of non-limiting examples, certain sourceblocks may be identified, for example, as fingerprints for malware or viruses, and may be blocked from further encoding or transmission, or certain sourceblocks or combinations of sourceblocks may be restricted to encoding on some nodes of the network, but not others. The decoder works in a similar manner. The decoder3850receives encoded data, implements any behaviors required by the behavior appendix3831such as limit checking, network policies, data prioritization, permissions, etc., as decodes it into decoded data using the codebook3830resulting in data identical to the unencoded data received by the encoder3840. For example, as data is decoded, the decoder may check the behavior appendix for each sourceblock within the data to determine whether that sourceblock (or a combination of sourceblocks) violates any network rules. As a couple of non-limiting examples, certain sourceblocks may be identified, for example, as fingerprints for malware or viruses, and may be blocked from further decoding or transmission, or certain sourceblocks or combinations of sourceblocks may be restricted to decoding on some nodes of the network, but not others.

In some embodiments, artificial intelligence or machine learning algorithms might be used to develop or generate the behavioral appendix3831. For example, the training data might be processed through a machine learning algorithm trained (on a different set of training data) to identify certain characteristics within the training data such as unusual numbers of repetitions of certain bit patterns, unusual amounts of gaps in the data (e.g., large numbers of zeros), or even unusual amounts of randomness, each of which might indicate a problem with the data such as missing or corrupted data, possible malware, possible encryption, etc. As the training data is processed, the mapping and transform appendix3831is generated by the machine learning algorithm based on the identified characteristics. As a couple of non-limiting examples, the machine learning algorithm might generate a behavior appendix3831in which certain sourceblocks are identified, for example, as fingerprints for malware or viruses, and are blocked from further decoding or transmission, or in which certain sourceblocks or combinations of sourceblocks are restricted to decoding on some nodes of the network, but not others.

FIG.39shows an encoding/decoding configuration with extended functionality suitable for generating protocol formatted data at the decoder derived from data arriving at the encoder. In this configuration, protocol formatting policies3911are combined with the training data3910fed into the codebook generator. The codebook generator3920creates a codebook3930from the training data. The codebook3930is sent to the encoder3940which receives unencoded data, encodes it into codewords using the codebook3930, and sends encoded data in the form of codewords to the decoder3950. In this configuration, however, the codebook generator3920also creates a protocol appendix3931which it appends to the copy of the codebook3930sent to the decoder. The appendix3931may be a separate file or document, or may be integrated into the codebook3930, such as in the form of bit extensions appended to each sourceblock in the codebook3930or an additional dimensional array to the codebook3930which provides instructions as to protocol formatting.

The decoder3950receives the encoded data in the form of codewords, decodes it using the same codebook3930(which may be a different copy of the codebook in some configurations), and but instead of outputting decoded data which is identical to the unencoded data received by the encoder3940, the decoder converts the decoded data according to the protocol appendix, converting the decoded data into a protocol formatted data output. As a simple example of the operation of this configuration, the unencoded data received by the encoder3940might be a data to be transferred over a TCP/IP connection, and the decoded and transformed data output by the decoder based on the protocol appendix3931might be the data formatted according to the TCP/IP protocol.

In some embodiments, artificial intelligence or machine learning algorithms might be used to develop or generate the protocol policies. For example, the training data might be processed through a machine learning algorithm trained (on a different set of training data) to identify certain characteristics within the training data such as types of files or portions of data that are typically sent to a particular port on a particular node of a network, etc. As the training data is processed, the protocol appendix3931is generated by the machine learning algorithm based on the identified characteristics. In this example, the output of the decoder might be the unencoded data formatted according to the TCP/IP protocol in which the TCP/IP destination is changed based on the contents of the data or portions of the data (e.g., portions of data of one type are sent to one port on a node and portions of data of a different type are sent to a different port on the same node). In some embodiments, direct encryption (e.g., SSL) might be used to further protect the encoded data during transmission.

FIG.40shows an exemplary encoding/decoding configuration with extended functionality suitable for file-based encoding/decoding. In this configuration, training data in the form of a set of files4010is fed to a codebook generator4020, which generates a codebook based on the files4010. The codebook may comprise a single codebook4030generated from all of the files, or a set of smaller codebooks called codepackets4031, each codepacket4031being generated from one of the files, or a combination of both. The codebook4030and/or codepackets4031are sent to both an encoder4040and a decoder4050which may be on the same computer or on different computers, depending on the configuration. The encoder4040receives a file, encodes it into codewords using the codebook4030or one of the codepackets4031, and sends encoded file in the form of codewords to the decoder4050. The decoder4050receives the encoded file in the form of codewords, decodes it using the same codebook4030(which may be a different copy of the codebook in some configurations), and outputs a decoded file which is identical to the unencoded data received by the encoder4040. Any codebook miss (a codeword that can't be found either in the codebook4030or the relevant codepacket4031) that occurs during decoding indicates that the file4011has been changed between encoding and decoding, thus providing the file-based encoding/decoding with inherent protection against changes.

FIG.41shows an exemplary encoding/decoding configuration with extended functionality suitable for file-based encoding/decoding or operating system files. File-based encoding/decoding of operating system files is a variant of the file-based encoding/decoding configuration described above. In file-based encoding/decoding of operating systems, one or more operating system files4010a-nare used to create a codebook4030or a set of smaller files called codepackets4031, each codepacket4031being created from a particular operating system file. Encoding and decoding of those same operating system files4110a-nwould be performed using the codebook4130or codepackets4131created from the operating system files4110a-n. Consequently, encoding and decoding would be expected to produce no encoding misses (i.e., all possible sourceblocks of a operating system file to be encoded would be as sourceblocks in the codebook4130or the codepacket4131corresponding to the operating system file). A miss during encoding would indicate that the operating system file is either not one of those used to generate the codebook4130or has been changed. A miss during decoding (assuming that the operating system file encoded without a miss) will be flagged as an indication the operating system file has been changed between encoding and decoding. Access to operating system files would be required to pass through the encoding/decoding process, thus protecting operating system files from tampering.

In this configuration, training data in the form of a set of operating system files4110is fed to a codebook generator4120, which generates a codebook based on the operating system files4110. The codebook may comprise a single codebook4130generated from all of the operating system files, or a set of smaller codebooks called codepackets4131, each codepacket4131being generated from one of the operating system files, or a combination of both. The codebook4130and/or codepackets4131are sent to both an encoder4141and a decoder4150which may be on the same computer or on different computers, depending on the configuration. The encoder4141receives a operating system file4110bfrom the set of operating system files4110a-nused to generate the codebook4130, encodes it into codewords using the codebook4130or one of the codepackets4131, and sends encoded operating system file4110bin the form of codewords to the decoder4150. The decoder4150receives the encoded operating system file4110bin the form of codewords, decodes it using the same codebook4130(which may be a different copy of the codebook in some configurations), and outputs a decoded operating system file4110bwhich is identical to the unencoded operating system file4110breceived by the encoder4141. Any codebook miss (a codeword that can't be found either in the codebook4130or the relevant codepacket4131) that occurs during decoding indicates that the operating system file4110bhas been changed between encoding and decoding, thus providing the operating system file-based encoding/decoding with inherent protection against changes.

FIG.42shows an exemplary encoding/decoding configuration with data serialization and deserialization. In this embodiment, training data4210is fed to a codebook generator4220, which generates a codebook based on the training data. The codebook4230is sent to both an encoder4240and a decoder4250which may be on the same computer or on different computers, depending on the configuration. Unencoded data is sent to a data serializer4270, which serializes the data according to a serialization protocol (e.g., BeBop, Google Protocol Buffers, MessagePack) to create a wrapper or connector for the unencoded data. The encoder4240receives unencoded, serialized data, encodes it into codewords using the codebook4230, and sends the encoded, serialized data to a destination, at which destination the data is received by a data deserializer4271which deserializes the data using the same serialization protocol as was used to serialize the data, and the encoded, deserialized data is then to a decoder4250, which receives the encoded, unserialized data in the form of codewords, decodes it using the same codebook4230(which may be a different copy of the codebook in some configurations), and outputs decoded data which is identical to the unencoded data received by the encoder4240.

The combination of data compaction with data serialization can be used to maximize compaction and data transfer with extremely low latency and no loss. For example, a wrapper or connector may be constructed using certain serialization protocols (e.g., BeBop, Google Protocol Buffers, MessagePack). The idea is to use known, deterministic file structure (schemes, grammars, etc.) to reduce data size first via token abbreviation and serialization, and then to use the data compaction methods described herein to take advantage of stochastic/statistical structure by training it on the output of serialization. The encoding process can be summarized as: serialization-encode→compact-encode, and the decoding process would be the reverse: compact-decode→serialization-decode. The deterministic file structure could be automatically discovered or encoded by the user manually as a scheme/grammar. Another benefit of serialization in addition to those listed above is deeper obfuscation of data, further hardening the cryptographic benefits of encoding using codebooks.

Description of Method Aspects

Since the library consists of re-usable building sourceblocks, and the actual data is represented by reference codes to the library, the total storage space of a single set of data would be much smaller than conventional methods, wherein the data is stored in its entirety. The more data sets that are stored, the larger the library becomes, and the more data can be stored in reference code form.

As an analogy, imagine each data set as a collection of printed books that are only occasionally accessed. The amount of physical shelf space required to store many collections would be quite large, and is analogous to conventional methods of storing every single bit of data in every data set. Consider, however, storing all common elements within and across books in a single library, and storing the books as references codes to those common elements in that library. As a single book is added to the library, it will contain many repetitions of words and phrases. Instead of storing the whole words and phrases, they are added to a library, and given a reference code, and stored as reference codes. At this scale, some space savings may be achieved, but the reference codes will be on the order of the same size as the words themselves. As more books are added to the library, larger phrases, quotations, and other words patterns will become common among the books. The larger the word patterns, the smaller the reference codes will be in relation to them as not all possible word patterns will be used. As entire collections of books are added to the library, sentences, paragraphs, pages, or even whole books will become repetitive. There may be many duplicates of books within a collection and across multiple collections, many references and quotations from one book to another, and much common phraseology within books on particular subjects. If each unique page of a book is stored only once in a common library and given a reference code, then a book of 1,000 pages or more could be stored on a few printed pages as a string of codes referencing the proper full-sized pages in the common library. The physical space taken up by the books would be dramatically reduced. The more collections that are added, the greater the likelihood that phrases, paragraphs, pages, or entire books will already be in the library, and the more information in each collection of books can be stored in reference form. Accessing entire collections of books is then limited not by physical shelf space, but by the ability to reprint and recycle the books as needed for use.

The projected increase in storage capacity using the method herein described is primarily dependent on two factors: 1) the ratio of the number of bits in a block to the number of bits in the reference code, and 2) the amount of repetition in data being stored by the system.

With respect to the first factor, the number of bits used in the reference codes to the sourceblocks must be smaller than the number of bits in the sourceblocks themselves in order for any additional data storage capacity to be obtained. As a simple example, 16-bit sourceblocks would require 216, or 65536, unique reference codes to represent all possible patterns of bits. If all possible 65536 blocks patterns are utilized, then the reference code itself would also need to contain sixteen bits in order to refer to all possible 65,536 blocks patterns. In such case, there would be no storage savings. However, if only 16 of those block patterns are utilized, the reference code can be reduced to 4 bits in size, representing an effective compression of 4 times (16 bits/4 bits=4) versus conventional storage. Using a typical block size of 512 bytes, or 4,096 bits, the number of possible block patterns is 24,096, which for all practical purposes is unlimited. A typical hard drive contains one terabyte (TB) of physical storage capacity, which represents 1,953,125,000, or roughly 231, 512 byte blocks. Assuming that 1 TB of unique 512-byte sourceblocks were contained in the library, and that the reference code would thus need to be 31 bits long, the effective compression ratio for stored data would be on the order of 132 times (4,096/31≈132) that of conventional storage.

With respect to the second factor, in most cases it could be assumed that there would be sufficient repetition within a data set such that, when the data set is broken down into sourceblocks, its size within the library would be smaller than the original data. However, it is conceivable that the initial copy of a data set could require somewhat more storage space than the data stored in a conventional manner, if all or nearly all sourceblocks in that set were unique. For example, assuming that the reference codes are 1/10ththe size of a full-sized copy, the first copy stored as sourceblocks in the library would need to be 1.1 megabytes (MB), (1 MB for the complete set of full-sized sourceblocks in the library and 0.1 MB for the reference codes). However, since the sourceblocks stored in the library are universal, the more duplicate copies of something you save, the greater efficiency versus conventional storage methods. Conventionally, storing 10 copies of the same data requires 10 times the storage space of a single copy. For example, ten copies of a 1 MB file would take up 10 MB of storage space. However, using the method described herein, only a single full-sized copy is stored, and subsequent copies are stored as reference codes. Each additional copy takes up only a fraction of the space of the full-sized copy. For example, again assuming that the reference codes are 1/10ththe size of the full-size copy, ten copies of a 1 MB file would take up only 2 MB of space (1 MB for the full-sized copy, and 0.1 MB each for ten sets of reference codes). The larger the library, the more likely that part or all of incoming data will duplicate sourceblocks already existing in the library.

The size of the library could be reduced in a manner similar to storage of data. Where sourceblocks differ from each other only by a certain number of bits, instead of storing a new sourceblock that is very similar to one already existing in the library, the new sourceblock could be represented as a reference code to the existing sourceblock, plus information about which bits in the new block differ from the existing block. For example, in the case where 512 byte sourceblocks are being used, if the system receives a new sourceblock that differs by only one bit from a sourceblock already existing in the library, instead of storing a new 512 byte sourceblock, the new sourceblock could be stored as a reference code to the existing sourceblock, plus a reference to the bit that differs. Storing the new sourceblock as a reference code plus changes would require only a few bytes of physical storage space versus the 512 bytes that a full sourceblock would require. The algorithm could be optimized to store new sourceblocks in this reference code plus changes form unless the changes portion is large enough that it is more efficient to store a new, full sourceblock.

It will be understood by one skilled in the art that transfer and synchronization of data would be increased to the same extent as for storage. By transferring or synchronizing reference codes instead of full-sized data, the bandwidth requirements for both types of operations are dramatically reduced.

In addition, the method described herein is inherently a form of encryption. When the data is converted from its full form to reference codes, none of the original data is contained in the reference codes. Without access to the library of sourceblocks, it would be impossible to re-construct any portion of the data from the reference codes. This inherent property of the method described herein could obviate the need for traditional encryption algorithms, thereby offsetting most or all of the computational cost of conversion of data back and forth to reference codes. In theory, the method described herein should not utilize any additional computing power beyond traditional storage using encryption algorithms. Alternatively, the method described herein could be in addition to other encryption algorithms to increase data security even further.

In other embodiments, additional security features could be added, such as: creating a proprietary library of sourceblocks for proprietary networks, physical separation of the reference codes from the library of sourceblocks, storage of the library of sourceblocks on a removable device to enable easy physical separation of the library and reference codes from any network, and incorporation of proprietary sequences of how sourceblocks are read and the data reassembled.

FIG.7is a diagram showing an example of how data might be converted into reference codes using an aspect of an embodiment700. As data is received701, it is read by the processor in sourceblocks of a size dynamically determined by the previously disclosed sourceblock size optimizer410. In this example, each sourceblock is 16 bits in length, and the library702initially contains three sourceblocks with reference codes 00, 01, and 10. The entry for reference code 11 is initially empty. As each 16 bit sourceblock is received, it is compared with the library. If that sourceblock is already contained in the library, it is assigned the corresponding reference code. So, for example, as the first line of data (0000 0011 0000 0000) is received, it is assigned the reference code (01) associated with that sourceblock in the library. If that sourceblock is not already contained in the library, as is the case with the third line of data (0000 1111 0000 0000) received in the example, that sourceblock is added to the library and assigned a reference code, in this case 11. The data is thus converted703to a series of reference codes to sourceblocks in the library. The data is stored as a collection of codewords, each of which contains the reference code to a sourceblock and information about the location of the sourceblocks in the data set. Reconstructing the data is performed by reversing the process. Each stored reference code in a data collection is compared with the reference codes in the library, the corresponding sourceblock is read from the library, and the data is reconstructed into its original form.

FIG.8is a method diagram showing the steps involved in using an embodiment800to store data. As data is received801, it would be deconstructed into sourceblocks802, and passed803to the library management module for processing. Reference codes would be received back804from the library management module, and could be combined with location information to create codewords805, which would then be stored806as representations of the original data.

FIG.9is a method diagram showing the steps involved in using an embodiment900to retrieve data. When a request for data is received901, the associated codewords would be retrieved902from the library. The codewords would be passed903to the library management module, and the associated sourceblocks would be received back904. Upon receipt, the sourceblocks would be assembled905into the original data using the location data contained in the codewords, and the reconstructed data would be sent out906to the requestor.

FIG.10is a method diagram showing the steps involved in using an embodiment1000to encode data. As sourceblocks are received1001from the deconstruction engine, they would be compared1002with the sourceblocks already contained in the library. If that sourceblock already exists in the library, the associated reference code would be returned1005to the deconstruction engine. If the sourceblock does not already exist in the library, a new reference code would be created1003for the sourceblock. The new reference code and its associated sourceblock would be stored1004in the library, and the reference code would be returned to the deconstruction engine.

FIG.11is a method diagram showing the steps involved in using an embodiment1100to decode data. As reference codes are received1101from the reconstruction engine, the associated sourceblocks are retrieved1102from the library, and returned1103to the reconstruction engine.

FIG.16is a method diagram illustrating key system functionality utilizing an encoder and decoder pair, according to a preferred embodiment. In a first step1601, at least one incoming data set may be received at a customized library generator1300that then1602processes data to produce a customized word library1201comprising key-value pairs of data words (each comprising a string of bits) and their corresponding calculated binary Huffman codewords. A subsequent dataset may be received, and compared to the word library1603to determine the proper codewords to use in order to encode the dataset. Words in the dataset are checked against the word library and appropriate encodings are appended to a data stream1604. If a word is mismatched within the word library and the dataset, meaning that it is present in the dataset but not the word library, then a mismatched code is appended, followed by the unencoded original word. If a word has a match within the word library, then the appropriate codeword in the word library is appended to the data stream. Such a data stream may then be stored or transmitted1605to a destination as desired. For the purposes of decoding, an already-encoded data stream may be received and compared1606, and un-encoded words may be appended to a new data stream1607depending on word matches found between the encoded data stream and the word library that is present. A matching codeword that is found in a word library is replaced with the matching word and appended to a data stream, and a mismatch code found in a data stream is deleted and the following unencoded word is re-appended to a new data stream, the inverse of the process of encoding described earlier. Such a data stream may then be stored or transmitted1608as desired.

FIG.17is a method diagram illustrating possible use of a hybrid encoder/decoder to improve the compression ratio, according to a preferred aspect. A second Huffman binary tree may be created1701, having a shorter maximum length of codewords than a first Huffman binary tree1602, allowing a word library to be filled with every combination of codeword possible in this shorter Huffman binary tree1702. A word library may be filled with these Huffman codewords and words from a dataset1702, such that a hybrid encoder/decoder1304,1503may receive any mismatched words from a dataset for which encoding has been attempted with a first Huffman binary tree1703,1604and parse previously mismatched words into new partial codewords (that is, codewords that are each a substring of an original mismatched codeword) using the second Huffman binary tree1704. In this way, an incomplete word library may be supplemented by a second word library. New codewords attained in this way may then be returned to a transmission encoder1705,1500. In the event that an encoded dataset is received for decoding, and there is a mismatch code indicating that additional coding is needed, a mismatch code may be removed and the unencoded word used to generate a new codeword as before1706, so that a transmission encoder1500may have the word and newly generated codeword added to its word library1707, to prevent further mismatching and errors in encoding and decoding.

It will be recognized by a person skilled in the art that the methods described herein can be applied to data in any form. For example, the method described herein could be used to store genetic data, which has four data units: C, G, A, and T. Those four data units can be represented as 2 bit sequences: 00, 01, 10, and 11, which can be processed and stored using the method described herein.

It will be recognized by a person skilled in the art that certain embodiments of the methods described herein may have uses other than data storage. For example, because the data is stored in reference code form, it cannot be reconstructed without the availability of the library of sourceblocks. This is effectively a form of encryption, which could be used for cyber security purposes. As another example, an embodiment of the method described herein could be used to store backup copies of data, provide for redundancy in the event of server failure, or provide additional security against cyberattacks by distributing multiple partial copies of the library among computers are various locations, ensuring that at least two copies of each sourceblock exist in different locations within the network.

FIG.18is a flow diagram illustrating the use of a data encoding system used to recursively encode data to further reduce data size. Data may be input1805into a data deconstruction engine102to be deconstructed into code references, using a library of code references based on the input1810. Such example data is shown in a converted, encoded format1815, highly compressed, reducing the example data from 96 bits of data, to 12 bits of data, before sending this newly encoded data through the process again1820, to be encoded by a second library1825, reducing it even further. The newly converted data1830is shown as only 6 bits in this example, thus a size of 6.25% of the original data packet. With recursive encoding, then, it is possible and implemented in the system to achieve increasing compression ratios, using multi-layered encoding, through recursively encoding data. Both initial encoding libraries1810and subsequent libraries1825may be achieved through machine learning techniques to find optimal encoding patterns to reduce size, with the libraries being distributed to recipients prior to transfer of the actual encoded data, such that only the compressed data1830must be transferred or stored, allowing for smaller data footprints and bandwidth requirements. This process can be reversed to reconstruct the data. While this example shows only two levels of encoding, recursive encoding may be repeated any number of times. The number of levels of recursive encoding will depend on many factors, a non-exhaustive list of which includes the type of data being encoded, the size of the original data, the intended usage of the data, the number of instances of data being stored, and available storage space for codebooks and libraries. Additionally, recursive encoding can be applied not only to data to be stored or transmitted, but also to the codebooks and/or libraries, themselves. For example, many installations of different libraries could take up a substantial amount of storage space. Recursively encoding those different libraries to a single, universal library would dramatically reduce the amount of storage space required, and each different library could be reconstructed as necessary to reconstruct incoming streams of data.

FIG.20is a flow diagram of an exemplary method used to detect anomalies in received encoded data and producing a warning. A system may have trained encoding libraries2010, before data is received from some source such as a network connected device or a locally connected device including USB connected devices, to be decoded2020. Decoding in this context refers to the process of using the encoding libraries to take the received data and attempt to use encoded references to decode the data into its original source2030, potentially more than once if recursive encoding was used, but not necessarily more than once. An anomaly detector1910may be configured to detect a large amount of un-encoded data2040in the midst of encoded data, by locating data or references that do not appear in the encoding libraries, indicating at least an anomaly, and potentially data tampering or faulty encoding libraries. A flag or warning is set by the system2050, allowing a user to be warned at least of the presence of the anomaly and the characteristics of the anomaly. However, if a large amount of invalid references or unencoded data are not present in the encoded data that is attempting to be decoded, the data may be decoded and output as normal2060, indicating no anomaly has been detected.

FIG.21is a flow diagram of a method used for Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack denial. A system may have trained encoding libraries2110, before data is received from some source such as a network connected device or a locally connected device including USB connected devices, to be decoded2120. Decoding in this context refers to the process of using the encoding libraries to take the received data and attempt to use encoded references to decode the data into its original source2130, potentially more than once if recursive encoding was used, but not necessarily more than once. A DDoS detector1920may be configured to detect a large amount of repeating data2140in the encoded data, by locating data or references that repeat many times over (the number of which can be configured by a user or administrator as need be), indicating a possible DDoS attack. A flag or warning is set by the system2150, allowing a user to be warned at least of the presence of a possible DDoS attack, including characteristics about the data and source that initiated the flag, allowing a user to then block incoming data from that source. However, if a large amount of repeat data in a short span of time is not detected, the data may be decoded and output as normal2160, indicating no DDoS attack has been detected.

FIG.23is a flow diagram of an exemplary method used to enable high-speed data mining of repetitive data. A system may have trained encoding libraries2310, before data is received from some source such as a network connected device or a locally connected device including USB connected devices, to be analyzed2320and decoded2330. When determining data for analysis, users may select specific data to designate for decoding2330, before running any data mining or analytics functions or software on the decoded data2340. Rather than having traditional decryption and decompression operate over distributed drives, data can be regenerated immediately using the encoding libraries disclosed herein, as it is being searched. Using methods described inFIG.9andFIG.11, data can be stored, retrieved, and decoded swiftly for searching, even across multiple devices, because the encoding library may be on each device. For example, if a group of servers host codewords relevant for data mining purposes, a single computer can request these codewords, and the codewords can be sent to the recipient swiftly over the bandwidth of their connection, allowing the recipient to locally decode the data for immediate evaluation and searching, rather than running slow, traditional decompression algorithms on data stored across multiple devices or transfer larger sums of data across limited bandwidth.

FIG.25is a flow diagram of an exemplary method used to encode and transfer software and firmware updates to a device for installation, for the purposes of reduced bandwidth consumption. A first system may have trained code libraries or “codebooks” present2510, allowing for a software update of some manner to be encoded2520. Such a software update may be a firmware update, operating system update, security patch, application patch or upgrade, or any other type of software update, patch, modification, or upgrade, affecting any computer system. A codebook for the patch must be distributed to a recipient2530, which may be done beforehand and either over a network or through a local or physical connection, but must be accomplished at some point in the process before the update may be installed on the recipient device2560. An update may then be distributed to a recipient device2540, allowing a recipient with a codebook distributed to them2530to decode the update2550before installation2560. In this way, an encoded and thus heavily compressed update may be sent to a recipient far quicker and with less bandwidth usage than traditional lossless compression methods for data, or when sending data in uncompressed formats. This especially may benefit large distributions of software and software updates, as with enterprises updating large numbers of devices at once.

FIG.27is a flow diagram of an exemplary method used to encode new software and operating system installations for reduced bandwidth required for transference. A first system may have trained code libraries or “codebooks” present2710, allowing for a software installation of some manner to be encoded2720. Such a software installation may be a software update, operating system, security system, application, or any other type of software installation, execution, or acquisition, affecting a computer system. An encoding library or “codebook” for the installation must be distributed to a recipient2730, which may be done beforehand and either over a network or through a local or physical connection, but must be accomplished at some point in the process before the installation can begin on the recipient device2760. An installation may then be distributed to a recipient device2740, allowing a recipient with a codebook distributed to them2730to decode the installation2750before executing the installation2760. In this way, an encoded and thus heavily compressed software installation may be sent to a recipient far quicker and with less bandwidth usage than traditional lossless compression methods for data, or when sending data in uncompressed formats. This especially may benefit large distributions of software and software updates, as with enterprises updating large numbers of devices at once.

FIG.31is a method diagram illustrating the steps3100involved in using an embodiment of the codebook training system to update a codebook. The process begins when requested data is received3101by a codebook training module. The requested data may comprise a plurality of sourceblocks. Next, the received data may be stored in a cache and formatted into a test dataset3102. The next step is to retrieve the previously computed probability distribution associated with the previous (most recent) training dataset from a storage device3103. Using one or more algorithms, measure and record the probability distribution of the test dataset3104. The step after that is to compare the measured probability distributions of the test dataset and the previous training dataset to compute the difference in distribution statistics between the two datasets3105. If the test dataset probability distribution exceeds a pre-determined difference threshold, then the test dataset will be used to retrain the encoding/decoding algorithms3106to reflect the new distribution of the incoming data to the encoder/decoder system. The retrained algorithms may then be used to create new data sourceblocks3107that better capture the nature of the data being received. These newly created data sourceblocks may then be used to create new codewords and update a codebook3108with each new data sourceblock and its associated new codeword. Last, the updated codebooks may be sent to encoding and decoding machines3109in order to ensure the encoding/decoding system function properly.

Hardware Architecture

Generally, the techniques disclosed herein may be implemented on hardware or a combination of software and hardware. For example, they may be implemented in an operating system kernel, in a separate user process, in a library package bound into network applications, on a specially constructed machine, on an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or on a network interface card.

Software/hardware hybrid implementations of at least some of the aspects disclosed herein may be implemented on a programmable network-resident machine (which should be understood to include intermittently connected network-aware machines) selectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored in memory. Such network devices may have multiple network interfaces that may be configured or designed to utilize different types of network communication protocols. A general architecture for some of these machines may be described herein in order to illustrate one or more exemplary means by which a given unit of functionality may be implemented. According to specific aspects, at least some of the features or functionalities of the various aspects disclosed herein may be implemented on one or more general-purpose computers associated with one or more networks, such as for example an end-user computer system, a client computer, a network server or other server system, a mobile computing device (e.g., tablet computing device, mobile phone, smartphone, laptop, or other appropriate computing device), a consumer electronic device, a music player, or any other suitable electronic device, router, switch, or other suitable device, or any combination thereof. In at least some aspects, at least some of the features or functionalities of the various aspects disclosed herein may be implemented in one or more virtualized computing environments (e.g., network computing clouds, virtual machines hosted on one or more physical computing machines, or other appropriate virtual environments).

Referring now toFIG.43, there is shown a block diagram depicting an exemplary computing device10suitable for implementing at least a portion of the features or functionalities disclosed herein. Computing device10may be, for example, any one of the computing machines listed in the previous paragraph, or indeed any other electronic device capable of executing software- or hardware-based instructions according to one or more programs stored in memory. Computing device10may be configured to communicate with a plurality of other computing devices, such as clients or servers, over communications networks such as a wide area network a metropolitan area network, a local area network, a wireless network, the Internet, or any other network, using known protocols for such communication, whether wireless or wired.

In one aspect, computing device10includes one or more central processing units (CPU)12, one or more interfaces15, and one or more busses14(such as a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus). When acting under the control of appropriate software or firmware, CPU12may be responsible for implementing specific functions associated with the functions of a specifically configured computing device or machine. For example, in at least one aspect, a computing device10may be configured or designed to function as a server system utilizing CPU12, local memory11and/or remote memory16, and interface(s)15. In at least one aspect, CPU12may be caused to perform one or more of the different types of functions and/or operations under the control of software modules or components, which for example, may include an operating system and any appropriate applications software, drivers, and the like.

CPU12may include one or more processors13such as, for example, a processor from one of the Intel, ARM, Qualcomm, and AMD families of microprocessors. In some aspects, processors13may include specially designed hardware such as application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), electrically erasable programmable read-only memories (EEPROMs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and so forth, for controlling operations of computing device10. In a particular aspect, a local memory11(such as non-volatile random access memory (RAM) and/or read-only memory (ROM), including for example one or more levels of cached memory) may also form part of CPU12. However, there are many different ways in which memory may be coupled to system10. Memory11may be used for a variety of purposes such as, for example, caching and/or storing data, programming instructions, and the like. It should be further appreciated that CPU12may be one of a variety of system-on-a-chip (SOC) type hardware that may include additional hardware such as memory or graphics processing chips, such as a QUALCOMM SNAPDRAGON™ or SAMSUNG EXYNOS™ CPU as are becoming increasingly common in the art, such as for use in mobile devices or integrated devices.

As used herein, the term “processor” is not limited merely to those integrated circuits referred to in the art as a processor, a mobile processor, or a microprocessor, but broadly refers to a microcontroller, a microcomputer, a programmable logic controller, an application-specific integrated circuit, and any other programmable circuit.

In one aspect, interfaces15are provided as network interface cards (NICs). Generally, NICs control the sending and receiving of data packets over a computer network; other types of interfaces15may for example support other peripherals used with computing device10. Among the interfaces that may be provided are Ethernet interfaces, frame relay interfaces, cable interfaces, DSL interfaces, token ring interfaces, graphics interfaces, and the like. In addition, various types of interfaces may be provided such as, for example, universal serial bus (USB), Serial, Ethernet, FIREWIRE™, THUNDERBOLT™, PCI, parallel, radio frequency (RF), BLUETOOTH™, near-field communications (e.g., using near-field magnetics), 802.11 (WiFi), frame relay, TCP/IP, ISDN, fast Ethernet interfaces, Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, Serial ATA (SATA) or external SATA (ESATA) interfaces, high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI), digital visual interface (DVI), analog or digital audio interfaces, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) interfaces, high-speed serial interface (HSSI) interfaces, Point of Sale (POS) interfaces, fiber data distributed interfaces (FDDIs), and the like. Generally, such interfaces15may include physical ports appropriate for communication with appropriate media. In some cases, they may also include an independent processor (such as a dedicated audio or video processor, as is common in the art for high-fidelity A/V hardware interfaces) and, in some instances, volatile and/or non-volatile memory (e.g., RAM).

Although the system shown inFIG.43illustrates one specific architecture for a computing device10for implementing one or more of the aspects described herein, it is by no means the only device architecture on which at least a portion of the features and techniques described herein may be implemented. For example, architectures having one or any number of processors13may be used, and such processors13may be present in a single device or distributed among any number of devices. In one aspect, a single processor13handles communications as well as routing computations, while in other aspects a separate dedicated communications processor may be provided. In various aspects, different types of features or functionalities may be implemented in a system according to the aspect that includes a client device (such as a tablet device or smartphone running client software) and server systems (such as a server system described in more detail below).

Regardless of network device configuration, the system of an aspect may employ one or more memories or memory modules (such as, for example, remote memory block16and local memory11) configured to store data, program instructions for the general-purpose network operations, or other information relating to the functionality of the aspects described herein (or any combinations of the above). Program instructions may control execution of or comprise an operating system and/or one or more applications, for example. Memory16or memories11,16may also be configured to store data structures, configuration data, encryption data, historical system operations information, or any other specific or generic non-program information described herein.

Because such information and program instructions may be employed to implement one or more systems or methods described herein, at least some network device aspects may include nontransitory machine-readable storage media, which, for example, may be configured or designed to store program instructions, state information, and the like for performing various operations described herein. Examples of such nontransitory machine-readable storage media include, but are not limited to, magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tape; optical media such as CD-ROM disks; magneto-optical media such as optical disks, and hardware devices that are specially configured to store and perform program instructions, such as read-only memory devices (ROM), flash memory (as is common in mobile devices and integrated systems), solid state drives (SSD) and “hybrid SSD” storage drives that may combine physical components of solid state and hard disk drives in a single hardware device (as are becoming increasingly common in the art with regard to personal computers), memristor memory, random access memory (RAM), and the like. It should be appreciated that such storage means may be integral and non-removable (such as RAM hardware modules that may be soldered onto a motherboard or otherwise integrated into an electronic device), or they may be removable such as swappable flash memory modules (such as “thumb drives” or other removable media designed for rapidly exchanging physical storage devices), “hot-swappable” hard disk drives or solid state drives, removable optical storage discs, or other such removable media, and that such integral and removable storage media may be utilized interchangeably. Examples of program instructions include both object code, such as may be produced by a compiler, machine code, such as may be produced by an assembler or a linker, byte code, such as may be generated by for example a JAVA™ compiler and may be executed using a Java virtual machine or equivalent, or files containing higher level code that may be executed by the computer using an interpreter (for example, scripts written in Python, Perl, Ruby, Groovy, or any other scripting language).

In some aspects, systems may be implemented on a standalone computing system. Referring now toFIG.44, there is shown a block diagram depicting a typical exemplary architecture of one or more aspects or components thereof on a standalone computing system. Computing device20includes processors21that may run software that carry out one or more functions or applications of aspects, such as for example a client application24. Processors21may carry out computing instructions under control of an operating system22such as, for example, a version of MICROSOFT WINDOWS™ operating system, APPLE macOS™ or iOS™ operating systems, some variety of the Linux operating system, ANDROID™ operating system, or the like. In many cases, one or more shared services23may be operable in system20, and may be useful for providing common services to client applications24. Services23may for example be WINDOWS™ services, user-space common services in a Linux environment, or any other type of common service architecture used with operating system21. Input devices28may be of any type suitable for receiving user input, including for example a keyboard, touchscreen, microphone (for example, for voice input), mouse, touchpad, trackball, or any combination thereof. Output devices27may be of any type suitable for providing output to one or more users, whether remote or local to system20, and may include for example one or more screens for visual output, speakers, printers, or any combination thereof. Memory25may be random-access memory having any structure and architecture known in the art, for use by processors21, for example to run software. Storage devices26may be any magnetic, optical, mechanical, memristor, or electrical storage device for storage of data in digital form (such as those described above, referring toFIG.43). Examples of storage devices26include flash memory, magnetic hard drive, CD-ROM, and/or the like.

In some aspects, systems may be implemented on a distributed computing network, such as one having any number of clients and/or servers. Referring now toFIG.45, there is shown a block diagram depicting an exemplary architecture30for implementing at least a portion of a system according to one aspect on a distributed computing network. According to the aspect, any number of clients33may be provided. Each client33may run software for implementing client-side portions of a system; clients may comprise a system20such as that illustrated inFIG.44. In addition, any number of servers32may be provided for handling requests received from one or more clients33. Clients33and servers32may communicate with one another via one or more electronic networks31, which may be in various aspects any of the Internet, a wide area network, a mobile telephony network (such as CDMA or GSM cellular networks), a wireless network (such as WiFi, WiMAX, LTE, and so forth), or a local area network (or indeed any network topology known in the art; the aspect does not prefer any one network topology over any other). Networks31may be implemented using any known network protocols, including for example wired and/or wireless protocols.

In addition, in some aspects, servers32may call external services37when needed to obtain additional information, or to refer to additional data concerning a particular call. Communications with external services37may take place, for example, via one or more networks31. In various aspects, external services37may comprise web-enabled services or functionality related to or installed on the hardware device itself. For example, in one aspect where client applications24are implemented on a smartphone or other electronic device, client applications24may obtain information stored in a server system32in the cloud or on an external service37deployed on one or more of a particular enterprise's or user's premises. In addition to local storage on servers32, remote storage38may be accessible through the network(s)31.

In some aspects, clients33or servers32(or both) may make use of one or more specialized services or appliances that may be deployed locally or remotely across one or more networks31. For example, one or more databases34in either local or remote storage38may be used or referred to by one or more aspects. It should be understood by one having ordinary skill in the art that databases in storage34may be arranged in a wide variety of architectures and using a wide variety of data access and manipulation means. For example, in various aspects one or more databases in storage34may comprise a relational database system using a structured query language (SQL), while others may comprise an alternative data storage technology such as those referred to in the art as “NoSQL” (for example, HADOOP CASSANDRA™, GOOGLE BIGTABLE™, and so forth). In some aspects, variant database architectures such as column-oriented databases, in-memory databases, clustered databases, distributed databases, or even flat file data repositories may be used according to the aspect. It will be appreciated by one having ordinary skill in the art that any combination of known or future database technologies may be used as appropriate, unless a specific database technology or a specific arrangement of components is specified for a particular aspect described herein. Moreover, it should be appreciated that the term “database” as used herein may refer to a physical database machine, a cluster of machines acting as a single database system, or a logical database within an overall database management system. Unless a specific meaning is specified for a given use of the term “database”, it should be construed to mean any of these senses of the word, all of which are understood as a plain meaning of the term “database” by those having ordinary skill in the art.

Similarly, some aspects may make use of one or more security systems36and configuration systems35. Security and configuration management are common information technology (IT) and web functions, and some amount of each are generally associated with any IT or web systems. It should be understood by one having ordinary skill in the art that any configuration or security subsystems known in the art now or in the future may be used in conjunction with aspects without limitation, unless a specific security36or configuration system35or approach is specifically required by the description of any specific aspect.

FIG.46shows an exemplary overview of a computer system40as may be used in any of the various locations throughout the system. It is exemplary of any computer that may execute code to process data. Various modifications and changes may be made to computer system40without departing from the broader scope of the system and method disclosed herein. Central processor unit (CPU)41is connected to bus42, to which bus is also connected memory43, nonvolatile memory44, display47, input/output (I/O) unit48, and network interface card (NIC)53. I/O unit48may, typically, be connected to peripherals such as a keyboard49, pointing device50, hard disk52, real-time clock51, a camera57, and other peripheral devices. NIC53connects to network54, which may be the Internet or a local network, which local network may or may not have connections to the Internet. The system may be connected to other computing devices through the network via a router55, wireless local area network56, or any other network connection. Also shown as part of system40is power supply unit45connected, in this example, to a main alternating current (AC) supply46. Not shown are batteries that could be present, and many other devices and modifications that are well known but are not applicable to the specific novel functions of the current system and method disclosed herein. It should be appreciated that some or all components illustrated may be combined, such as in various integrated applications, for example Qualcomm or Samsung system-on-a-chip (SOC) devices, or whenever it may be appropriate to combine multiple capabilities or functions into a single hardware device (for instance, in mobile devices such as smartphones, video game consoles, in-vehicle computer systems such as navigation or multimedia systems in automobiles, or other integrated hardware devices).

In various aspects, functionality for implementing systems or methods of various aspects may be distributed among any number of client and/or server components. For example, various software modules may be implemented for performing various functions in connection with the system of any particular aspect, and such modules may be variously implemented to run on server and/or client components.

The skilled person will be aware of a range of possible modifications of the various aspects described above. Accordingly, the present invention is defined by the claims and their equivalents.