Data replication from one-to-one or one-to-many heterogeneous devices
View Patent ↗Embodiments of the system described herein can be implemented in a software application that runs on a host device or is embedded in a logic or memory device such as a gate array, EEPROM, a control, or dynamical system. The system embodiment allows a set of similar or dissimilar intelligent devices or sensors, which may be interconnected with any type of network or bus, to replicate data between themselves for the purpose of remote backup, redundancy, content distribution, or measurements. The attributes of the data, which may be changed or created on one device or passed through the device, are tracked and journaled in volatile or non-volatile storage in a first phase. This occurs in real-time as the data changes or passes through the device. In a second phase, the attributes that match patterns pre-specified in a configuration are used to decide what changes or the content to replicate to one or more devices. In a third phase, the data is replicated. In practice, the techniques described herein are independent of hardware, operating systems, and applications. The example embodiment is designed to be transparent for system redundancy and error recovery processes such as error correction, retransmission on links, and raid reconfiguration.
1. A system for content distribution and replication, the system comprising:
a source device having a source data storage element, the source device being configured to process first content corresponding to a source client device and to send second content that is based upon the first content;
a destination device coupled to the source device, the destination device having a destination data storage element, and the destination device being configured to receive the second content and to replicate the second content in the destination data storage element;
a plurality of parallel replication streams between the source device and the destination device; and
wherein the plurality of parallel replication streams propagate more than one change at a time between the source device and the destination device.
2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the source device and the destination device are of dissimilar type and architecture.
3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the destination device is configured to replicate the second content in real-time.
4. The system to of claim 1 , wherein the destination device is configured to replicate the second content in near-real-time.
5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the source device is configured to receive the first content from the source client device, and to forward the first content to the destination device as the second content.
6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the source device is configured to alter the first content to form the second content.
7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the destination device is configured to forward the second content to a destination client device.
8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the destination device is configured to process the second content and to send third content that is based upon the second content to a receiving device.
9. The system of claim 1 , further comprising an additional destination device coupled to the source device, the additional destination device having an additional destination data storage element, and the additional destination device being configured to receive the second content and to replicate the second content in the additional destination data storage element.
10. The system of claim 1 , further comprising an additional source device coupled to the destination device, the additional source device being configured to process third content and to send fourth content that is based upon the third content; wherein
the destination device is configured to receive the third content and to replicate the third content in the destination data storage element.
11. The system of claim 10 , wherein:
the additional source device is a redundant version of the source device; the third content is a redundant version of the first content; and the fourth content is a redundant version of the second content.
12. The system of claim 1 , wherein the source device comprises a sensor device that captures data corresponding to the first content.
13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the source device is a camera.
14. system for sensor data distribution and replication, the system comprising:
a source sensor device configured to capture sensor data, the source sensor device being configured to process the sensor data using configuration filters to decide which portion of the sensor data to distribute, resulting in distributed sensor data;
a destination device coupled to the source sensor device, the destination device having a destination data storage element, and the destination device being configured to receive the distributed sensor data and to replicate the distributed sensor data in the destination data storage element as the sensor data is captured by the source sensor device;
a plurality of parallel replication streams between the source sensor device and the destination device; and
wherein the plurality of parallel replication streams propagate more than one change at a time between the source sensor device and the destination device.
15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the source sensor device distributes all of the sensor data to the destination device.
16. The system of claim 14 , wherein the source sensor device distributes only some of the sensor data to the destination device.
17. The system of claim 14 , wherein the source sensor device is a camera.
18. The system of claim 14 , wherein the source sensor device comprises a device selected from the group consisting of: a cellular telephone; a point-of-sale device; and a security camera.
19. A system for content distribution and replication, the system comprising:
a source device;
a destination/source device coupled to, and in data communication with, the source device; and
a destination device coupled to, and in data communication with, the destination/source device, the destination device having a destination data storage element;
wherein the source device is configured to process source data, and to initiate real-time replication of the source data by passing first replication data to the destination/source device;
wherein the destination/source device is configured to process the first replication data, and to initiate real-time replication of the source data by passing second replication data to the destination device; and
wherein the destination device is configured to receive the second replication data and, in response to the second replication data, replicate the source data in the destination data storage element.
20. The system of claim 19 , comprising:
a plurality of parallel replication streams between the source device, destination/source device, and the destination device; and
wherein the plurality of parallel replication streams propagate more than one change at a time between the source device, the destination/source device, and the destination device.