Server-Assisted File Transfer Gateway Ticket Mechanism
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing file transfer systems that rely on central servers become bottlenecks when transferring large files, especially over low bandwidth links, as they require uploading and downloading files through the server, leading to inefficiencies and limitations on attachment sizes in email systems.
Innovation Solution
A peer-to-peer file transfer system where a user's computer maintains a secure connection with a file transfer gateway, generating a unique ticket for the file that is encoded in a URL, allowing recipients to download the file directly from the gateway without needing to upload it, and optionally encrypting and streaming the file contents.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If files are transferred through a central server (upload then download), then file transfer can be mediated and managed, but the server becomes a bottleneck and transfer efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses a gateway server as an intermediary that generates unique tickets and manages the transfer coordination, but does not store or host the actual files. The gateway mediates between sender and recipient by providing authentication tokens, while the actual file transfer occurs directly between peer computers, eliminating the server bottleneck.
2Adaptability or versatility
If large files are transferred through email systems with encoding, then files can be sent via email, but file size is limited and transfer time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the file transfer function from the email system entirely. Instead of encoding files into email attachments (which causes size limits and encoding overhead), the system separates email communication (for sending ticket information) from file transfer (direct peer-to-peer), allowing large files to be transferred without email size constraints or Base64 encoding overhead.
3Reliability
If files are uploaded to a server for storage and distribution, then centralized control is achieved, but server load and bandwidth requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the file transfer process into three distinct functions: (1) gateway generates and manages authentication tickets, (2) sender uploads file directly to recipient's computer, (3) recipient downloads file from sender's computer. This segmentation eliminates the need for the server to handle large file uploads and downloads, reducing server bandwidth requirements while maintaining centralized authentication control.
Data Source
AI summary
A file transfer application maintains a secure connection over the Internet with a file transfer gateway. A user selects a file and the file transfer application requests a unique ticket from the gateway. The ticket is stored in both the gateway and the file transfer application. Next, the ticket is then encoded in a URL that can be sent to potential recipients of the file via conventional methods. Upon entering the URL into a web browser, the recipient will navigate to the file transfer gateway. The gateway decodes the URL to recover the ticket and looks up the ticket in the database to determine the associated application instance and file description. The gateway will then request the application instance to start encrypting and streaming the contents of the file identified by the ticket to the gateway, which then retransmits the encrypted stream to the recipient's web browser.