Abstract: Load-balancing an asymmetrical distributed erasure-coded system including fractional-storage CDN servers, storing, at a high storage gain, erasure-coded fragments encoded with a redundancy factor greater than one from segments, and a plurality of assembling devices, each obtaining fragments from a subgroup of the servers. The subgroups are selected from the servers still capable of increasing their fragment delivery throughput. Wherein not all of the servers have the same fragment delivery bandwidth capability, and the storage gain of each segment on each server is usually not strictly proportional to the bandwidth capability of the server, and the aggregated throughput used by the servers to deliver fragments may approach the aggregated bandwidth capabilities of the servers.

Abstract: Methods and systems capable of switching from pull mode to push mode. The system includes fractional-storage servers using a push protocol to push erasure-coded fragments associated with segments of streaming contents to assembling devices. The servers also provide fragments associated with segments of the same contents in response to fragment pull protocol requests from the assembling devices, wherein enough fragments to enable reconstruction of the segments are transmitted by the servers to the assembling devices using both protocols.

Abstract: A distributed storage system including fractional-storage servers storing erasure-coded fragments associated with approximately sequential segments of streaming content, and an assembling device issuing aggregated fragment requests, each approximately per short portion of content, approximately according to the order of processing of the content, by using a data structure describing multiple fragment requests; wherein the number of aggregated fragment requests is significantly smaller than the number of the fragments received form the servers in response to the requests.

Abstract: Latency based selection of fractional-storage servers, including the steps of identifying a first group of fractional-storage servers estimated to have low response latencies in relation to an assembling device. Retrieving, by the assembling device from a second group of fractional-storage servers, enough erasure-coded fragments for reconstructing approximately sequential segments of streaming content. While retrieving the fragments, identifying at least one server from the second group having latency higher than a certain threshold in response to a fragment pull protocol request. And using the fragment pull protocol to replace the identified server with at least one server selected from the first group.

Abstract: Combining push and pull protocols, including the steps of pushing approximately a minimal decodable set of erasure-coded fragments to an assembling device, determining the fragment loss at the assembling device, and pulling additional erasure-coded fragments, using a fragment pull protocol, to compensate for the fragment loss. Optionally, the system includes a CDN streaming server and a fractional-storage CDN server, both storing unique erasure-coded fragments associated with segments of streaming content. The CDN streaming server pushes streams of fragments to a plurality of assembling devices, and the fractional-storage CDN server provides fragments associated with recently pushed segments in response to fragment pull protocol requests by the assembling devices.

Abstract: A large scale distributed streaming system including at least several hundreds of fractional-storage CDN servers located close to or on the Internet backbone, storing erasure-coded fragments encoded with a redundancy factor greater than one and associated with approximately sequential segments of streaming contents. The system further includes at least 100,000 assembling devices configured to concurrently obtain fragments from the CDN servers. Wherein the system achieves efficient load balancing and fault tolerance between the various CDN servers by determining for each of the assembling devices from which servers to obtain the fragments.

Abstract: Adaptation of data centers' bandwidth contribution to distributed streaming operations, including data centers comprising fractional-storage CDN servers storing erasure-coded fragments encoded with a redundancy factor R greater than one, assembling devices obtaining the fragments from subsets of the servers, and measuring fragment delivery parameters, and at least one decision component that occasionally changes at least some of the servers of the subsets to generally improve the measured parameters. Wherein the smaller the number of subsets in which the servers of a data center participate, the lower the center's fragment delivery throughput, the higher the center's cost of delivering a fragment, and the higher the likelihood of reducing the amount of bandwidth acquired from that data center by the operator of the system.

Abstract: Termination of fragment delivery services from data centers participating in distributed streaming operations, including the steps of monitoring a large-scale streaming system including a plurality of data centers comprising together a large quantity of fractional-storage CDN servers storing erasure-coded fragments encoded with a redundancy factor R greater than one and associated with approximately sequential segments of streaming contents. Identifying a data center that is still capable of delivering a substantial fragment throughput but is underperforming compared to the other centers, wherein the servers of the center store less than (1?1/R) of the fragments associated with each segment to be reconstructed. And terminating the fragment delivery service of the identified data center while maintaining continuous streaming of the contents by diverting traffic from the terminated center to the remaining centers.

Abstract: Methods and systems for streaming from a distributed storage system. One method comprising the steps of receiving a content to be streamed or progressively downloaded; striping the content into small content fragments; distributing the content fragments to storage-and-computing elements according to a fragment distribution information prior to retrieving the content fragments from the storage-and-computing elements; obtaining the fragment distribution information by a retrieving storage-and-computing element; utilizing the fragment distribution information for determining from which of the storage-and-computing elements to retrieve, and retrieving the content fragments from the determined storage-and-computing elements so as to enable approximately instantaneous playing of the streaming content.

Abstract: Methods and systems for retrieving content fragments stored in a distributed storage and retrieval system comprising a plurality of storage-and-computing elements. One method comprising, for each content fragment: determining the storage element type that stores the content fragment; determining a first storage-and-computing element physical address from which to retrieve the content fragment; and retrieving the content fragment from the storage-and-computing element located at the first physical address. Then repeating the retrieving of the content fragments, utilizing approximately the maximum available downlink bandwidth, until a minimal streaming buffer required for enabling the playing of a streaming or progressive download content is filled.

Abstract: Methods and systems for distributed storage and retrieval systems comprising a plurality of storage-and-computing elements, each storage-and-computing element storing a plurality of pushed content fragments and able to simultaneously retrieve pushed content fragments from a plurality of storage-and-computing elements. Wherein many storage-and-computing elements, within a short duration of receiving a request, can retrieve and play streaming content.

Abstract: Methods and systems for distributed push-to-storage with redundancy. One method includes the steps of setting at least two storage groups according to a required storage redundancy; registering a plurality of peer-to-peer devices; associating the peer-to-peer devices with at least one of the storage groups; receiving a first content having a large size to be stored in the at least two storage groups; fragmenting the first content into a plurality of first content fragments having a small size; and distributing the first content fragments approximately homogenously between the peer-to-peer devices associated with each storage group according to a first distribution function associated with each storage group.

Abstract: Methods for high bandwidth utilization by a distributed storage system. One method comprising accessing a plurality of storage-and-computing elements distributively storing a plurality of content fragments belonging to ‘N’ contents, wherein at least most of the ‘N’ contents are associated with different retrieving functions and the retrieving functions have low correlations; retrieving the content fragments by assembling storage-and-computing elements, wherein at least most of the assembling storage-and-computing elements assemble different contents; and adding assembling storage-and-computing elements up to a point where the aggregated consumption rate of the contents consumed by the assembling storage-and-computing elements approaches the aggregated uplink throughput of all participating storage-and-computing elements.

Abstract: Methods and systems for pushing content fragments into a distributed storage system, comprising registering a plurality of storage-and-computing elements that are accessed using Internet protocol; associating the plurality of storage-and-computing elements with a plurality of storage element types; and distributing content fragments to the storage-and-computing elements utilizing a predefined distribution function that maps content fragments to storage element types.

Abstract: A distributed storage system comprising a plurality of storage-and-computing elements, each storing a plurality of small content fragments associated with a plurality of contents, wherein a content retrieval load is shared between the storage-and-computing elements such that approximately the total uplink bandwidth of the distributed storage system can be utilized, on a continuous basis, by virtually any combination of multiple storage-and-computing elements simultaneously retrieving many contents or retrieving the same content with different time shifts.

Abstract: Methods and systems for fragments retrieval from a type based push to storage system. One method includes the steps of receiving fragment-to-type association information and type-to-physical-address association information of a content comprising a plurality of content fragments distributed among a plurality of storage-and-computing elements; and providing at least one storage-and-computing element physical address for each of the content fragments to be retrieved.

Abstract: Methods for receiving emotional state indications and identifying a business process problematic part or providing statistical data in correlation with corresponding business process parts or comparing interchangeable business process parts.