Method and system for pacing, acking, timing, and handicapping (PATH) for simultaneous receipt of documents
A method for facilitating substantially simultaneous receipt of content included in at least one document by a plurality of intended recipients is disclosed. At least one portion of impactful content is delimited in the at least one document to define at least one impactful block (IBlock). A remaining portion of content is delimited to define at least one non-impactful block (NIBlock). The least one IBlock is transmitted to be received substantially simultaneously by the plurality of intended recipients.
1. A computer implemented method for facilitating substantially simultaneous receipt of electronic content by a plurality of intended recipients, comprising:
transmitting at least one packet to each of the plurality of intended recipients;
receiving an acknowledgement packet from each of the plurality of intended recipients within a predetermined timeout period, wherein at least one of the intended recipients is a Web server;
calculating a handicap time for transmitting a notification to each of the plurality of intended recipients based on a time associated with the acknowledgement packet last received, wherein the handicap time for transmitting a notification to each of the intended recipients is further based on a ping time of an intended recipient, wherein a handicap time is set to a difference between a sum of a longest transmission plus ping time for transmitting a notification and the sum of an individual transmission time plus ping time for transmitting another notification, wherein the notification generated for the Web server is operable to trigger the Web server to display a source document on a Web page, and wherein the notification generated for each of the other of the remaining plurality of intended recipients includes a hyperlink linking to the source document; and
transmitting the notifications to the plurality of intended recipients using a delay based on the handicap time, wherein a notification having a smaller handicap time is transmitted prior to a notification having a larger handicap time.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the notification sent to the Web server has the same content as the notifications sent to the remaining plurality of intended recipients.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the notification sent to the Web server differs from the notification sent to the remaining plurality of intended recipients.
4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the notification sent to the Web server includes the source document to be copied or moved by the Web server to a directory made available to the remaining plurality of intended recipients via the hyperlink.
5. The method of claim 3 , wherein the notification sent to the Web server comprises directions for the Web server.
6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the instructions comprise a date and time to release the source document.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the notification is a trigger operable to cause the Web server to unlock or release the stored source document for access from a Web browser by the remaining plurality of intended recipients via the hyperlink.
8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
dividing each notification into at least one impactful block unit and
dividing a remaining portion each notification into at least one non-impactful block unit.
9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the at least one impactful block unit includes at least one impactful data element.
10. The method of claim 9 , wherein an impactful data element includes at least one of a key word, a character, a marker, a name, and a symbol.
11. The method of claim 1 , wherein a notification sent to at least two intended recipients have different formats.
12. The method of claim 1 , wherein if an acknowledgement packet is not received from a laggard recipient within the predetermined timeout period, the laggard recipient is dropped from receiving further transmission of a notification in a simultaneous disclosure group.
13. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
transmitting the at least one non-impactful block unit and
receiving an acknowledgement packet associated with the transmitted at least one non-impactful block unit from each of the plurality of intended recipients within a second predetermined timeout period.
14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the length of the predetermined timeout period differs from the length of the second predetermined timeout period.
15. The method of claim 13 , wherein the handicap time is averaged or exponentially smoothed between transmission of subsequent impactful block units.
16. The method of claim 8 , further comprising pacing the transmission of the at least one impactful block unit.
17. The method of claim 16 , wherein pacing further comprises transmitting the at least one impactful block unit in a pacing time period.
18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the pacing time period is equal to a reciprocal of a longest total transmission time taken for each intended recipient to receive all of impactful block units divided by each recipient's number of impactful block units.
19. The method of claim 8 , further comprising the step of synchronizing connections for each of the intended recipients.
20. The method of claim 19 , wherein the step of synchronizing connections further comprises the step of waiting until all acknowledgement packets corresponding to a last transmitted non-impactful block unit has been received before transmitting a first impactful block unit.
21. A computer system to perform a method for facilitating substantially simultaneous receipt of electronic content by a plurality of intended recipients, comprising:
a memory;
a processing device coupled to the memory, the processing device to:
transmit at least one packet to each of the plurality of intended recipients;
receive an acknowledgement packet from each of the plurality of intended recipients within a predetermined timeout period, wherein at least one of the intended recipients is a Web server;
calculate a handicap time for transmitting a notification to each of the plurality of intended recipients based on a time associated with the acknowledgement packet last received, wherein the handicap time for transmitting a notification to each of the intended recipients is further based on a ping time of an intended recipient, wherein a handicap time is set to a difference between a sum of a longest transmission plus ping time for transmitting a notification and the sum of an individual transmission time plus ping time for transmitting another notification, wherein the notification generated for the Web server is operable to trigger the Web server to display a source document on a Web page, and wherein the notification generated for each of the other of the remaining plurality of intended recipients includes a hyperlink linking to the source document; and
transmit the notifications to the plurality of intended recipients using a delay based on the handicap time, wherein a notification having a smaller handicap time is transmitted prior to a notification having a larger handicap time.
22. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium including instructions that, when executed by a processing system, cause the processing system to perform operation for facilitating substantially simultaneous receipt of electronic content by a plurality of intended recipients, comprising:
transmitting at least one packet to each of the plurality of intended recipients;
receiving an acknowledgement packet from each of the plurality of intended recipients within a predetermined timeout period, wherein at least one of the intended recipients is a Web server;
calculating a handicap time for transmitting a notification to each of the plurality of intended recipients based on a time associated with the acknowledgement packet last received, wherein the handicap time for transmitting a notification to each of the intended recipients is further based on a ping time of an intended recipient, wherein a handicap time is set to a difference between a sum of a longest transmission plus ping time for transmitting a notification and the sum of an individual transmission time plus ping time for transmitting another notification, wherein the notification generated for the Web server is operable to trigger the Web server to display a source document on a Web page, and wherein the notification generated for each of the other of the remaining plurality of intended recipients includes a hyperlink linking to the source document; and
transmitting the notifications to the plurality of intended recipients using a delay based on the handicap time, wherein a notification having a smaller handicap time is transmitted prior to a notification having a larger handicap time.