Facebook Assigned Four Patents

Reducing data storage requirements
Facebook, Inc., Menlo Park, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,545,934) developed by Jia, Hongzhong, Cupertino, CA, Krishnamurthy, Rajiv, Sunnyvale, CA, Qiao, Lin, San Jose, CA, and Metzler, Joshua David, Redwood Shores, CA, for “reducing data storage requirements.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A dataset management system, (system) reduces the amount of data to be stored for future analyses. The system determines a sampling rate of the data based on a required level of accuracy, and samples the data at the determined sampling rate. Initially, all data transactions, (full dataset) and the sampled data, (sampled dataset) are logged and stored. Based upon a trigger condition, e.g., after a specified period, the full dataset and the sampled dataset are analyzed separately and the analysis results are compared. If the comparison is sufficiently similar, (i.e., the sampling produces a sufficiently accurate set of data or a variance between the analysis results of the datasets is within a specified threshold), the system discontinues full data logging and stores only the sampled dataset. Further, the full dataset is deleted. The sampling thus reduces the required data volume significantly, thereby minimizing consumption of the storage space.”

The patent application was filed on June 30, 2017 (15/638,588).

Placement policy
Facebook, Inc., Menlo Park, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,521,396) developed by Muthukkaruppan, Kannan, Union City, CA, Ranganathan, Karthik, and Tang, Liyin, Fremont, CA, for a “placement policy.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A region-based placement policy that can be used to achieve a better distribution of data in a clustered storage system is disclosed herein. The clustered storage system includes a master module to implement the region-based placement policy for storing one or more copies of a received data across many data nodes of the clustered storage system. When implementing the region-based placement policy, the master module splits the received data into one or more regions, where each region includes a contiguous portion of the received data. Further, for each of the plurality of regions, the master module stores complete copies of the region in a subset of the data nodes.”

The patent application was filed on January 15, 2016 (14/996,627).

Mobile hardware fob with device ecosystem for modular I/O extension devices
Facebook, Inc., Menlo Park, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,521,384) developed by Chan, Stephen Tsun-Wang, San Jose, CA, for a “mobile hardware fob with device ecosystem for modular I/O extension devices.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A fob device includes a portable housing below a size needed to accommodate an input/output component for providing access to a functionality of the fob device that would not otherwise be accessible. The fob device also includes a mobile processor, a wireless interface, a volatile memory, a rechargeable battery, a charging interface, and storage medium having instructions that when executed causes the fob to receive a pairing request from a modular extension device that can provide access to the full functionality of the fob device that would not otherwise be accessible, pair with the modular extension device, and provide interfaces to the modular extension device that are customized based on a form factor of the modular extension device.”

The patent application was filed on January 30, 2018 (15/884,207).

Storage cartridge
Facebook, Inc., Menlo Park, CA, has been assigned a patent (10,520,994) developed by Murillo, Arlene Gabriana, Union City, CA, Zhang, Wei, San Jose, CA, Petersen, Christian Markus, Golden, CO, Shao, Yanbing, Redwood City, CA, and Ehlen, Jon Brian, Newark, CA, for a “storage cartridge.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A storage cartridge is provided comprising a system connector configured to be hot-pluggable with an external receiving system. The storage cartridge includes a plurality of storage receiving connectors, each of which can be configured to receive either a hot-pluggable storage drive or a storage drive that has not designed to be natively hot-pluggable. In some embodiments, each of the plurality of storage receiving connectors is configured to receive a storage drive that has not been designed to be natively hot-pluggable. In addition, electrical connections are provided between the system connector and the plurality of storage receiving connectors that enable a plurality of the not natively hot-pluggable storage drives engaged with the storage cartridge to communicate with the external receiving system via the system connector configured to be hot-pluggable.”

The patent application was filed on January 31, 2018 (15/885,312).