Ancillary Object Cache for Flight Service Response Optimization
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current systems for providing travel-related products and services face inefficiencies in data exchange between entities, as they often employ different mechanisms despite standardized formats like XML-based NDC, leading to increased bandwidth and server load when requesting ancillary services.
Innovation Solution
A server system that includes a communication interface and a controller to receive flight objects, search an ancillary object cache for similar previous flights, and provide corresponding ancillary objects, reducing the need to request ancillary services directly from provider systems, thereby optimizing response time and reducing server load.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If systems request ancillary services directly from provider systems, then service availability is ensured, but bandwidth consumption and server load increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by caching ancillary service objects from provider systems in advance. When a flight object is received, the system checks the cache for associated ancillary objects before making live requests to provider systems. This preliminary caching reduces the need for real-time data retrieval, thereby reducing bandwidth consumption while maintaining service availability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a caching system as an intermediary layer between the flight search system and provider systems. This intermediary cache stores frequently accessed ancillary service objects, allowing the system to serve requests without directly contacting provider systems every time, thus reducing bandwidth usage while ensuring service availability through the cached data.
2Reliability
If systems request ancillary services directly from provider systems, then data freshness is maintained, but response time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system caches ancillary service objects in advance during off-peak times or when data is readily available. When processing flight requests, the system retrieves pre-cached ancillary objects immediately without waiting for provider system responses, significantly reducing response time while maintaining acceptable data freshness through periodic cache updates.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses partial action by caching only the most frequently requested ancillary service objects rather than all possible services. This selective caching approach maintains data freshness for critical services while achieving substantial response time improvements for common queries, balancing between complete data accuracy and performance optimization.
3Measurement precision
If provider systems are queried for each ancillary service request, then service accuracy is ensured, but server load increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates and stores copies of ancillary service objects in a local cache after initial retrieval from provider systems. These cached copies can be served repeatedly without requiring additional queries to provider systems, thereby maintaining service accuracy through verified data while dramatically reducing the server load on provider systems and improving overall system productivity.
4Adaptability or versatility
If standardized formats like XML-based NDC are used, then data exchange compatibility is improved, but processing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary parsing and validation of standardized XML-based NDC formats when data is first received from provider systems. By preprocessing and normalizing the data structure in advance, the system converts complex standardized formats into simpler internal representations that are easier to process during flight search operations, thereby maintaining data exchange compatibility while reducing processing complexity during critical search operations.
Data Source
AI summary
A device, system and method for providing ancillary objects from a cache and/or for providing categorized provider objects is provided. One or more servers receive a flight object representing a flight and search an ancillary object cache for predetermined ancillary objects associated with previous flights similar to the flight. When one or more of the predetermined ancillary objects, associated with at least one previous flight similar to the flight, are found at the ancillary object cache, a requesting device is provided with a response corresponding to the flight object and the one or more of the predetermined ancillary objects associated with the at least one previous flight similar to the flight. The flight objects and the ancillary objects may be assembled into provider objects which are provided to the requesting device. The provider objects may be categorized based on provider object categorization criteria associated with the requesting device.