Patent Grant
12166506
Priority is claimed in the application data sheet to the following patents or patent applications, each of which is expressly incorporated herein by reference in its entirety:
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The present invention is in the field of data compaction, and more particularly is directed to the problem of efficiently compressing or decompressing various data types using a variety of methods simultaneously.
When it comes to compressing data into a smaller form, a large variety of methods exist. For many applications, such as video compression for streaming video, lossy compression techniques such as HEVC (high-efficiency video coding) optimize the use of available bandwidth. By definition, lossy compression involves the loss of some of the data being transmitted in the process of compression; in the video compression example, this results in lower-resolution video and provides the reason for pixelated video in low-bandwidth situations. By contrast, there exist scenarios where sacrificing information is not desirable. In one example, the compression of a text document would be meaningless if portions of the text were lost during the compression process. In some cases, single streams of information may contain portions where lossless compression is desirable and portions where lossy compression is sufficient. For example, some visual satellite data may be compressed using a lossy technique while the corresponding metadata may be compressed using a lossless technique to preserve as much information as possible.
Generally, with data compression, the set of data is passed through a single compression technique which results in a compressed output of that particular data set. This results in other types of data which may be closely related to the original set of data either being inefficiently compressed or not compressed at all. One example of this is visual or auditory satellite data where the actual visual or auditory data may be compressed but the associated metadata remains either uncompressed or compressed with loss. This is because visual and auditory data are generally compressed using a lossy compression technique.
What is needed is a system that allows for a variety of data types to be efficiently compressed using a plurality of techniques that maximize the amount and quality of information that may be recovered after compression.
Accordingly, the inventor has conceived and reduced to practice a system and method for multi-type data compression or decompression with a virtual management layer. The system and method allow a plurality of different data types to be sorted by their typing, for example, clustering all visual data together, clustering all metadata together, or clustering all text data together. This may be accomplished through a virtual management layer which controls the flow of information throughout the system. The system may incorporate a plurality of various data compression or decompression subsystems which are tasked by the virtual management layer with compressing or decompressing a particular data type. Additionally, the virtual management layer may flag information so that it can be easily identified after compression. The flag also allows data types which are associated with one another to be paired after the compression is complete. For example, visual satellite data and corresponding metadata may pass into the system. The virtual management layer may separate the two data types into visual data and metadata and flag them as being related to one another. The system would then pass the data through a compression subsystem which may be selected by the virtual management layer to maximize the efficiency of the compression or decompression of the particular data type.
In one embodiment of the invention, the system includes compression or decompression subsystems which use statistical compression or decompression techniques. Additionally, the system may include compression or decompression subsystems which use codebook or neural network-based compression or decompression compression or decompression techniques.
According to a preferred embodiment, a system for multi-type data compression or decompression with a virtual management layer, comprising: a computing device comprising at least a memory and a processor; a plurality of programming instructions stored in the memory and operable on the processor, wherein the first plurality of programming instructions, when operating on the processor, cause the computing device to: organize a plurality of incoming data types into a plurality of data sets in a virtual management layer, wherein the virtual management layer allocates a compression or decompression system for each data set; process the plurality of data sets through each data sets corresponding compression or decompression system where the compression or decompression system outputs a plurality of compressed or decompressed data sets; and output the plurality of compressed or decompressed data sets to a desired output location. is disclosed.
According to another preferred embodiment, a method for multi-type data compression or decompression with a virtual management layer, comprising: organizing a plurality of incoming data types into a plurality of data sets in a virtual management layer, wherein the virtual management layer allocates a compression or decompression system for each data set; processing the plurality of data sets through each data sets corresponding compression or decompression system where the compression or decompression system outputs a plurality of compressed or decompressed data sets; and outputting the plurality of compressed or decompressed data sets to a desired output location, is disclosed.
According to an aspect of an embodiment, a plurality of associated data sets may be flagged or marked as similar before entering the compression or decompression system by a data manager.
According to an aspect of an embodiment, the plurality of associated data sets that have been flagged or marked are regrouped together in a compressed or decompressed data manager after compression or decompression has taken place.
The inventor has conceived, and reduced to practice, a system and methods for multi-type data compression or decompression with a virtual management layer. It incorporates a virtual management layer which sends data to a plurality of data compression or decompression subsystems. The plurality of data compression or compression subsystems may be comprised of various compression or decompression techniques which include both lossy and lossless techniques. The plurality of techniques allows a variety of different data types to be compressed or decompressed as efficiently as possible for that particular data type. After compression, the compressed outputs may be paired with associated data that was separated by the virtual management layer before compression, or the compressed outputs may be directly passed to a desired location. The plurality of data compression or decompression subsystems may include compression or decompression subsystems which use statistical compression or decompression techniques. Additionally, the plurality of data compression or decompression subsystems may include compression or decompression subsystems which use codebook or neural network-based compression or decompression compression or decompression techniques.
One or more different aspects may be described in the present application. Further, for one or more of the aspects described herein, numerous alternative arrangements may be described; it should be appreciated that these are presented for illustrative purposes only and are not limiting of the aspects contained herein or the claims presented herein in any way. One or more of the arrangements may be widely applicable to numerous aspects, as may be readily apparent from the disclosure. In general, arrangements are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice one or more of the aspects, and it should be appreciated that other arrangements may be utilized and that structural, logical, software, electrical and other changes may be made without departing from the scope of the particular aspects. Particular features of one or more of the aspects described herein may be described with reference to one or more particular aspects or figures that form a part of the present disclosure, and in which are shown, by way of illustration, specific arrangements of one or more of the aspects. It should be appreciated, however, that such features are not limited to usage in one or more particular aspects or figures with reference to which they are described. The present disclosure is neither a literal description of all arrangements of one or more of the aspects nor a listing of features of one or more of the aspects that must be present in all arrangements.
Headings of sections provided in this patent application and the title of this patent application are for convenience only and are not to be taken as limiting the disclosure in any way.
Devices that are in communication with each other need not be in continuous communication with each other, unless expressly specified otherwise. In addition, devices that are in communication with each other may communicate directly or indirectly through one or more communication means or intermediaries, logical or physical.
A description of an aspect with several components in communication with each other does not imply that all such components are required. To the contrary, a variety of optional components may be described to illustrate a wide variety of possible aspects and in order to more fully illustrate one or more aspects. Similarly, although process steps, method steps, algorithms or the like may be described in a sequential order, such processes, methods, and algorithms may generally be configured to work in alternate orders, unless specifically stated to the contrary. In other words, any sequence or order of steps that may be described in this patent application does not, in and of itself, indicate a requirement that the steps be performed in that order. The steps of described processes may be performed in any order practical. Further, some steps may be performed simultaneously despite being described or implied as occurring non-simultaneously (e.g., because one step is described after the other step). Moreover, the illustration of a process by its depiction in a drawing does not imply that the illustrated process is exclusive of other variations and modifications thereto, does not imply that the illustrated process or any of its steps are necessary to one or more of the aspects, and does not imply that the illustrated process is preferred. Also, steps are generally described once per aspect, but this does not mean they must occur once, or that they may only occur once each time a process, method, or algorithm is carried out or executed. Some steps may be omitted in some aspects or some occurrences, or some steps may be executed more than once in a given aspect or occurrence.
When a single device or article is described herein, it will be readily apparent that more than one device or article may be used in place of a single device or article. Similarly, where more than one device or article is described herein, it will be readily apparent that a single device or article may be used in place of more than one device or article.
The functionality or the features of a device may be alternatively embodied by one or more other devices that are not explicitly described as having such functionality or features. Thus, other aspects need not include the device itself.
Techniques and mechanisms described or referenced herein will sometimes be described in singular form for clarity. However, it should be appreciated that particular aspects may include multiple iterations of a technique or multiple instantiations of a mechanism unless noted otherwise. Process descriptions or blocks in figures should be understood as representing modules, segments, or portions of code which include one or more executable instructions for implementing specific logical functions or steps in the process. Alternate implementations are included within the scope of various aspects in which, for example, functions may be executed out of order from that shown or discussed, including substantially concurrently or in reverse order, depending on the functionality involved, as would be understood by those having ordinary skill in the art.
The term “bit” refers to the smallest unit of information that can be stored or transmitted. It is in the form of a binary digit (either 0 or 1). In terms of hardware, the bit is represented as an electrical signal that is either off (representing 0) or on (representing 1).
The term “codebook” refers to a database containing sourceblocks each with a pattern of bits and reference code unique within that library. The terms “library” and “encoding/decoding library” are synonymous with the term codebook.
The terms “compression” and “deflation” as used herein mean the representation of data in a more compact form than the original dataset. Compression and/or deflation may be either “lossless”, in which the data can be reconstructed in its original form without any loss of the original data, or “lossy” in which the data can be reconstructed in its original form, but with some loss of the original data.
The terms “compression factor” and “deflation factor” as used herein mean the net reduction in size of the compressed data relative to the original data (e.g., if the new data is 70% of the size of the original, then the deflation/compression factor is 30% or 0.3.)
The terms “compression ratio” and “deflation ratio”, and as used herein all mean the size of the original data relative to the size of the compressed data (e.g., if the new data is 70% of the size of the original, then the deflation/compression ratio is 70% or 0.7.)
The term “data set” refers to a grouping of data for a particular purpose. One example of a data set might be a word processing file containing text and formatting information. Another example of a data set might comprise data gathered/generated as the result of one or more radars in operation.
The term “sourcepacket” as used herein means a packet of data received for encoding or decoding. A sourcepacket may be a portion of a data set.
The term “sourceblock” as used herein means a defined number of bits or bytes used as the block size for encoding or decoding. A sourcepacket may be divisible into a number of sourceblocks. As one non-limiting example, a 1-megabyte sourcepacket of data may be encoded using 512-byte sourceblocks. The number of bits in a sourceblock may be dynamically optimized by the system during operation. In one aspect, a sourceblock may be of the same length as the block size used by a particular file system, typically 512 bytes or 4,096 bytes.
The term “codeword” refers to the reference code form in which data is stored or transmitted in an aspect of the system. A codeword consists of a reference code to a sourceblock in the library plus an indication of that sourceblock's location in a particular data set.
The term “deblocking” as used herein refers to a technique used to reduce or eliminate blocky artifacts that can occur in compressed images or videos. These artifacts are a result of lossy compression algorithms, such as JPEG for images or various video codecs like H.264, H.265 (HEVC), and others, which divide the image or video into blocks and encode them with varying levels of quality. Blocky artifacts, also known as “blocking artifacts,” become visible when the compression ratio is high, or the bitrate is low. These artifacts manifest as noticeable edges or discontinuities between adjacent blocks in the image or video. The result is a visual degradation characterized by visible square or rectangular regions, which can significantly reduce the overall quality and aesthetics of the content. Deblocking techniques are applied during the decoding process to mitigate or remove these artifacts. These techniques typically involve post-processing steps that smooth out the transitions between adjacent blocks, thus improving the overall visual appearance of the image or video. Deblocking filters are commonly used in video codecs to reduce the impact of blocking artifacts on the decoded video frames. A primary goal of deblocking is to enhance the perceptual quality of the compressed content, making it more visually appealing to viewers. It's important to note that deblocking is just one of many post-processing steps applied during the decoding and playback of compressed images and videos to improve their quality.
Conceptual Architecture
Generally, information may be collected from a plurality of data sources. Different data sources may produce different types of data. For example, a satellite may produce images which also have corresponding metadata. The plurality of data would pass through the virtual management layer 110 in the form of an input stream 100. The virtual management layer 110 may then parse the incoming input steam 100 and categorize each set of incoming data into a particular type. For example, all incoming image data may be grouped together, likewise, all incoming text data may be grouped separately. In one embodiment, the virtual management layer 110 groups incoming data based on the plurality of available compression or decompression subsystems. Each compression or decompression subsystem may be comprised of different compression or decompression algorithms and systems. Each compression or decompression subsystem may be tailored to a particular data type present in the input stream 100.
In one embodiment, the virtual management layer 110 may include an index where each data types, or data subtype is mapped to a corresponding compression or decompression technique. The index may be updated based on user preferences and goals. For example, if the user is attempting to compress image data but some loss in information is acceptable, the user may want to map the image type or subtype to a lossy technique that maximizes efficiency. In some embodiments, the map may be generated and updated by the user based on which data types are being worked with. In another embodiment, the virtual management system 110 may utilize neural network architecture to classify incoming data and map them to a technique based on machine learning. The network may be trained using compressed and decompressed data over a variety of compression or decompression subsystems where the virtual management system 110 is able to learn which subsystems are best suited for each data type. A neural network can additionally be used in connection with an index where the index is updated by the neural network.
Once the input stream 100 is grouped into data sets of like type, the virtual management layer may pass each set of data through a data manager 120. The data manager 120 may flag sets of data that are associated with other data sets of a different type. For example, if the virtual management system 110 receives image data with corresponding metadata. The virtual management system 110 may split the two types of data into two distinct groups including the image data in one and the metadata in another. The data manager 120 may then flag both the image data and the metadata with a marker to indicate the image data and the metadata are associated data sets. A marker may be any digital indicator that a plurality of sets are associated with one another. The data manager 120 may apply flags or markers to a data set through a plurality of methods, including but not limited to metadata tagging, linked identifiers, cross-referencing, embedded markers, or custom flagging schemes based on user preferences and goals. Metadata tagging may include adding metadata tags to each set where the tag indicates the set's associations and relationships to other sets. Metadata tags include but are not limited to timestamps, source information, custom tags, or unique identifiers that are digital in nature. Linked identifiers may include unique identifiers where are digitally assigned to each data set. Unique identifiers may be generated using techniques such Universally Unique Identifier or hashing functions.
The data manager 120 may embed markers into the data sets themselves where the embedded marker may be a special character, header, or tag. The data manager 120 may additionally allow a user to develop and deploy a custom flagging scheme where the scheme is tailored to the specific needs of the user and their goal.
After each data set has been marked, each set may be passed through a compression subsystem 130 corresponding with the particular data set's data type. The plurality of compression or decompression subsystems 130 may include systems that utilize various compression or decompression techniques such as but not limited to statistical techniques, codebook techniques, or neural network techniques. Each technique generally provides its own pros and cons depending on the incoming data type. For example, some compression techniques are lossy or lossless where lossy techniques are generally better for video or image data types. Likewise, lossless techniques are better suited for text data types where loss of information can erode the integrity of the original file.
As mentioned, the compression or decompression technique used for a particular data type may be selected to maximize efficiency for a particular data type. For example, of the virtual management system 110 determined that the incoming data type is a text file, the compression or decompression subsystems 130 may include but are not limited to, Huffman Coding, Arithmetic Coding, Run-Length Encoding, or Burrows-Wheeler Transforms. For images which include but are not limited to Joint Photographic Experts Groups (JPEGs), Portable Network Graphics (PNGs), and Graphic Interchange Formats (GIFs), the compression or decompression subsystems 130 may include but are not limited to Discrete Cosine Transforms, Deflate Algorithms, Wavelet Transforms, and Lempel-Ziv-Welch Transforms. Generally, image compression may involve compression and decompression techniques that operate in a spatial domain, a frequency domain, or both, where spatial domain techniques operate directly on pixels where frequency domain techniques break images into color components and then operate on the components.
If the incoming data type is audio in nature, such as but not limited to MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 (MP3) files, the compression and decompression subsystems 130 may include techniques such as but not limited to Modified Discrete Cosine Transforms, Advanced Audio Coding, and Linear Prediction. For incoming data types that are video in nature, such as but not limited to H.264/Advanced Video Coding (AVC) files, H.265/High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) files, Audio Video Interleave (AVI) files, or MPEG-4 files, the compression or decompression subsystems 130 may include techniques such as but not limited to Discrete Cosine Transforms and Motion Compensation. Similar to images, video compression and decompression may also operate in a spatial or frequency domain. For data types including geometric data, compression and decompression subsystems 130 may include techniques such as but not limited to Binary Alignment Maps (BAMs), Compressed Alignment Maps (CRAMs), Variant Call Format Compression (VCF), or Reference-Based Compression. Additionally, for data types that include point cloud data, compression, and decompression subsystems 130 may include techniques such as but not limited to Octrec Encoding, Geometry Compression, Attribute Compression, Entropy Coding, and Quantization and Prediction.
After the plurality of data is compressed by the plurality of compression subsystems 130, the compressed outputs are passed through a compressed data manager 140. The compressed data manager 140 may receive compressed data from any number of compression subsystems 130. Additionally, the compressed data manager 140 may merge data that has been marked as associated back together into an associated data pair. For example, if an image data type with corresponding metadata was passed through the data manager 120 and marked as associated data types, the compressed data manager 140 may link those associated data types back together after compression. The compressed data manager 140 outputs a plurality of output streams 150 where each data stream represents a particular data type that has been compressed by a corresponding compression subsystem 130. In one embodiment all of the data is preserved in a single output stream where the single output stream represents all of the compressed data from the plurality of compression subsystems 130. In another embodiment, the output streams 150 may be a plurality of streams each coming from a corresponding compression subsystem 130. When the streams are kept separate, a user may access any compressed data set from any particular compression subsystem 130. For example, a user may specifically want to access compressed image data from a compressed subsystem 130 that maximizes the compression efficiency for images specifically.
The plurality of output streams 150 may be output to an output location 160. The output locations 160 may be any plurality of locations, including but not limited to a plurality of databases, a plurality of cloud storage systems, a plurality of personal devices, or any plurality of systems which has a sufficient memory capacity to store the compressed output streams 150.
In one embodiment, the decompression subsystem 200 may be configured to identify and prevent decompression bombs. Decompression bombs are malicious files which cause harm by overwhelming a systems resource during decompression. Generally, decompression bombs appear to contain small amounts of information, but when decompressed, actually contain more information than a system can handle at a particular time. In one embodiment, the decompression subsystems 200 may monitor the decompression ratio of a particular data set. If the decompression ratio exceeds a predetermined threshold that suggests the file is a decompression bomb, the decompression subsystem 200 may be forced to abort the decompression process. In other embodiments, the decompression subsystem 200 may either be self-contained, or store the decompressed output to a location which is self-contained from the rest of the decompression system. By self-containing the output or the decompression subsystem 200, decompression bombs would be unable to draw resources from the rest of the system.
After a data set is decompressed, it may be passed through a decompressed data manager 210. The decompressed data manager may cluster associated data typed that were separated during the compression process back together based on whether they have been marked by the data manager 120 as associated. If preferred, a user may simply output each data set individually without grouping associated data sets. The decompressed data manager 210 may then output the compressed data sets as a decompressed output stream 220 which may be a single stream from a particular decompression subsystem, or a plurality of streams where associated streams are linked together by marks that were applied by the data manager 120. Decompressed data sets may be output to any location a user selects, but it will likely be a user device that has sufficient memory to store the decompressed data sets. Additional decompressed output locations 230 may include but are not limited to, a plurality of databased, a plurality of cloud storage systems, local memory in a user's electronic device, or removable memory currently plugged into a user's device.
Following compression, the compression subsystems 330 and 340 may output independent streams corresponding to the input streams. In this case, compression subsystem 1 330 may output a compressed visual stream which is a compressed version of visual stream 310. Additionally, compression subsystem 2 340 may output a compressed metadata stream which is a compressed version of the metadata stream 320. Each stream may be passed through a compressed data manager 150 which allows a user to either group associated streams back together or to view independent streams individually.
System 1700 provides near-instantaneous source coding that is dictionary-based and learned in advance from sample training data, so that encoding and decoding may happen concurrently with data transmission. This results in computational latency that is near zero, but the data size reduction is comparable to classical compression. For example, if N bits are to be transmitted from sender to receiver, the compression ratio of classical compression is C, the ratio between the deflation factor of system 1700 and that of multi-pass source coding is p, the classical compression encoding rate is RC bit/s and the decoding rate is RD bit/s, and the transmission speed is S bit/s, the compress-send-decompress time will be
while the transmit-while-coding time for system 1700 will be (assuming that encoding and decoding happen at least as quickly as network latency):
so that the total data transit time improvement factor is
which presents a savings whenever
This is a reasonable scenario given that typical values in real-world practice are C=0.32, RC=1.1·1012, RD=4.2·1012, S=1011, giving
such that system 1700 will outperform the total transit time of the best compression technology available as long as its deflation factor is no more than 5% worse than compression. Such customized dictionary-based encoding will also sometimes exceed the deflation ratio of classical compression, particularly when network speeds increase beyond 100 Gb/s.
The delay between data creation and its readiness for use at a receiving end will be equal to only the source word length t (typically 5-15 bytes), divided by the deflation factor C/p and the network speed S, i.e.
since encoding and decoding occur concurrently with data transmission. On the other hand, the latency associated with classical compression is
above as well as N=512K, t=10, and p=1.05, this results in delayinvention≈3.3·10−10 while delaypriorart≈1.3·10−7, a more than 400-fold reduction in latency.
A key factor in the efficiency of Huffman coding used by system 1700 is that key-value pairs be chosen carefully to minimize expected coding length, so that the average deflation/compression ratio is minimized. It is possible to achieve the best possible expected code length among all instantaneous codes using Huffman codes if one has access to the exact probability distribution of source words of a given desired length from the random variable generating them. In practice this is impossible, as data is received in a wide variety of formats and the random processes underlying the source data are a mixture of human input, unpredictable (though in principle, deterministic) physical events, and noise. System 1700 addresses this by restriction of data types and density estimation; training data is provided that is representative of the type of data anticipated in “real-world” use of system 1700, which is then used to model the distribution of binary strings in the data in order to build a Huffman code word library 1700.
Encoder 2110 may utilize a lossy compression module 2111 to perform lossy compression on a received dataset 2101a-n. The type of lossy compression implemented by lossy compression module 2111 may be dependent upon the data type being processed. For example, for SAR imagery data, High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) may be used to compress the dataset. In another example, if the data being processed is time-series data, then delta encoding may be used to compress the dataset. The encoder 2110 may then send the compressed data as a compressed data stream to a decoder 2120 which can receive the compressed data stream and decompress the data using a decompression module 2121.
The decompression module 2121 may be configured to perform data decompression a compressed data stream using an appropriate data decompression algorithm. The decompressed data may then be used as input to a neural upsampler 2122 which utilizes a trained neural network to restore the decompressed data to nearly its original state 2105 by taking advantage of the information embedded in the correlation between the two or more datasets 2101a-n.
Deformable convolution is a type of convolutional operation that introduces spatial deformations to the standard convolutional grid, allowing the convolutional kernel to adaptively sample input features based on the learned offsets. It's a technique designed to enhance the modeling of spatial relationships and adapt to object deformations in computer vision tasks. In traditional convolutional operations, the kernel's positions are fixed and aligned on a regular grid across the input feature map. This fixed grid can limit the ability of the convolutional layer to capture complex transformations, non-rigid deformations, and variations in object appearance. Deformable convolution aims to address this limitation by introducing the concept of spatial deformations. Deformable convolution has been particularly effective in tasks like object detection and semantic segmentation, where capturing object deformations and accurately localizing object boundaries are important. By allowing the convolutional kernels to adaptively sample input features from different positions based on learned offsets, deformable convolution can improve the model's ability to handle complex and diverse visual patterns.
According to an embodiment, the network may be trained as a two-stage process, each utilizing specific loss functions. During the first stage, a mean squared error (MSE) function is used in the I/Q domain as a primary loss function for the AI deblocking network. The loss function of the SAR I/Q channel LSAR is defined as:
LSAR=[∥I−Iamp∥2]
Moving to the second stage, the network reconstructs the amplitude component and computes the amplitude loss using MSE as follows:
Lamp=[∥Iamp−Idec,amp∥2]
To calculate the overall loss, the network combines the SAR loss and the amplitude loss, incorporating a weighting factor, a, for the amplitude loss. The total loss is computed as:
Ltotal=LSAR+α×Lamp
The weighting factor value may be selected based on the dataset used during network training. In an embodiment, the network may be trained using two different SAR datasets: the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) SAR dataset and the Sandia National Laboratories Mini SAR Complex Imagery dataset, both of which feature complex-valued SAR images. In an embodiment, the weighting factor is set to 0.0001 for the NGA dataset and 0.00005 for the Sandia dataset. By integrating both the SAR and amplitude losses in the total loss function, the system effectively guides the training process to simultaneously address the removal of the artifacts and maintain the fidelity of the amplitude information. The weighting factor, a, enables AI deblocking network to balance the importance of the SAR loss and the amplitude loss, ensuring comprehensive optimization of the network during the training stages. In some implementations, diverse data augmentation techniques may be used to enhance the variety of training data. For example, techniques such as horizontal and vertical flops and rotations may be implemented on the training dataset. In an embodiment, model optimization is performed using MSE loss and Adam optimizer with a learning rate initially set to 1×10−4 and decreased by a factor of 2 at epochs 100, 200, and 250, with a total of 300 epochs. In an implementation, the batch size is set to 256×256 with each batch containing 16 images.
Both branches first pass through a pixel unshuffling layer 2211, 2221 which implements a pixel unshuffling process on the input data. Pixel unshuffling is a process used in image processing to reconstruct a high-resolution image from a low-resolution image by rearranging or “unshuffling” the pixels. The process can involve the following steps, low-resolution input, pixel arrangement, interpolation, and enhancement. The input to the pixel unshuffling algorithm is a low-resolution image (i.e., decompressed, quantized SAR I/Q data). This image is typically obtained by downscaling a higher-resolution image such as during the encoding process executed by encoder 110. Pixel unshuffling aims to estimate the original high-resolution pixel values by redistributing and interpolating the low-resolution pixel values. The unshuffling process may involve performing interpolation techniques, such as nearest-neighbor, bilinear, or more sophisticated methods like bicubic or Lanczos interpolation, to estimate the missing pixel values and generate a higher-resolution image.
The output of the unshuffling layers 2211, 2221 may be fed into a series of layers which can include one or more convolutional layers and one or more parametric rectified linear unit (PRELU) layers. A legend is depicted for both
A PRELU layer is an activation function used in neural networks. The PRELU activation function extends the ReLU by introducing a parameter that allows the slope for negative values to be learned during training. The advantage of PRELU over ReLU is that it enables the network to capture more complex patterns and relationships in the data. By allowing a small negative slope for the negative inputs, the PRELU can learn to handle cases where the output should not be zero for all negative values, as is the case with the standard ReLU. In other implementations, other non-linear functions such as tan h or sigmoid can be used instead of PRELU.
After passing through a series of convolutional and PRELU layers, both branches enter the resnet 2230 which further comprises more convolutional and PRELU layers. The frequency domain branch is slightly different than the pixel domain branch once inside ResNet 2230, specifically the frequency domain is processed by a transposed convolutional (TConv) layer 2231. Transposed convolutions are a type of operation used in neural networks for tasks like image generation, image segmentation, and upsampling. They are used to increase the spatial resolution of feature maps while maintaining the learned relationships between features. Transposed convolutions aim to increase spatial dimensions of feature maps, effectively “upsampling” them. This is typically done by inserting zeros (or other values) between existing values to create more space for new values.
Inside ResBlock 2230 the data associated with the pixel and frequency domains are combined back into a single stream by using the output of the Tconv 2231 and the output of the top branch. The combined data may be used as input for a channel-wise transformer 2300. In some embodiments, the channel-wise transformer may be implemented as a multi-scale attention block utilizing the attention mechanism. For more detailed information about the architecture and functionality of channel-wise transformer 2300 refer to
A first path may process input data through a position embedding module 2330 comprising series of convolutional layers as well as a Gaussian Error Linear Unit (GeLU). In traditional recurrent neural networks or convolutional neural networks, the order of input elements is inherently encoded through the sequential or spatial nature of these architectures. However, in transformer-based models, where the attention mechanism allows for non-sequential relationships between tokens, the order of tokens needs to be explicitly conveyed to the model. Position embedding module 2330 may represent a feedforward neural network (position-wise feedforward layers) configured to add position embeddings to the input data to convey the spatial location or arrangement of pixels in an image. The output of position embedding module 2330 may be added to the output of the other processing path the received input signal is processed through.
A second path may process the input data. It may first be processed via a channel-wise configuration and then through a self-attention layer 2320. The signal may be copied/duplicated such that a copy of the received signal is passed through an average pool layer 2310 which can perform a downsampling operation on the input signal. It may be used to reduce the spatial dimensions (e.g., width and height) of feature maps while retaining the most important information. Average pooling functions by dividing the input feature map into non-overlapping rectangular or square regions (often referred to as pooling windows or filters) and replacing each region with the average of the values within that region. This functions to downsample the input by summarizing the information within each pooling window.
Self-attention layer 2320 may be configured to provide an attention to AI deblocking network 2123. The self-attention mechanism, also known as intra-attention or scaled dot-product attention, is a fundamental building block used in various deep learning models, particularly in transformer-based models. It plays a crucial role in capturing contextual relationships between different elements in a sequence or set of data, making it highly effective for tasks involving sequential or structured data like complex-valued SAR I/Q channels. Self-attention layer 320 allows each element in the input sequence to consider other elements and weigh their importance based on their relevance to the current element. This enables the model to capture dependencies between elements regardless of their positional distance, which is a limitation in traditional sequential models like RNNs and LSTMs.
The input 2301 and downsampled input sequence is transformed into three different representations: Query (Q), Key (K), and Value (V). These transformations (wV, wK, and wQ) are typically linear projections of the original input. For each element in the sequence, the dot product between its Query and the Keys of all other elements is computed. The dot products are scaled by a factor to control the magnitude of the attention scores. The resulting scores may be normalized using a softmax function to get attention weights that represent the importance of each element to the current element. The Values (V) of all elements are combined using the attention weights as coefficients. This produces a weighted sum, where elements with higher attention weights contribute more to the final representation of the current element. The weighted sum is the output of the self-attention mechanism for the current element. This output captures contextual information from the entire input sequence.
The output of the two paths (i.e., position embedding module 2330 and self-attention layer 320) may be combined into a single output data stream xout 2302.
Detailed Description of Exemplary Aspects
The disclosed AI deblocking network may be trained to process any type of N-channel data, if the N-channel data has a degree of correlation. More correlation between and among the multiple channels yields a more robust and accurate AI deblocking network capable of performing high quality compression artifact removal on the N-channel data stream. A high degree of correlation implies a strong relationship between channels. Using SAR image data has been used herein as an exemplary use case for an AI deblocking network for a N-channel data stream comprising 2 channels, the In-phase and Quadrature components (i.e., I and Q, respectively).
Exemplary data correlations that can be exploited in various implementations of AI deblocking network can include, but are not limited to, spatial correlation, temporal correlation, cross-sectional correlation (e.g., This occurs when different variables measured at the same point in time are related to each other), longitudinal correlation, categorical correlation, rank correlation, time-space correlation, functional correlation, and frequency domain correlation, to name a few.
As shown, an N-channel AI deblocking network may comprise a plurality of branches 2710a-n. The number of branches is determined by the number of channels associated with the data stream. Each branch may initially be processed by a series of convolutional and PRELU layers. Each branch may be processed by resnet 2730 wherein each branch is combined back into a single data stream before being input to N-channel wise transformer 2735, which may be a specific configuration of transformer 2300. The output of N-channel wise transformer 2735 may be sent through a final convolutional layer before passing through a last pixel shuffle layer 2740. The output of AI deblocking network for N-channel video/image data is the reconstructed N-channel data 2750.
As an exemplary use case, video/image data may be processed as a 3-channel data stream comprising Green (G), Red (R), and Blue (B) channels. An AI deblocking network may be trained that provides compression artifact removal of video/image data. Such a network would comprise 3 branches, wherein each branch is configured to process one of the three channels (R, G, or B). For example, branch 2710a may correspond to the R-channel, branch 2710b to the G-channel, and branch 2710c to the B-channel. Each of these channels may be processed separately via their respective branches before being combined back together inside resnet 2730 prior to being processed by N-channel wise transformer 2735.
As another exemplary use case, a sensor network comprising a half dozen sensors may be processed as a 6-channel data stream. The exemplary sensor network may include various types of sensors collecting different types of, but still correlated, data. For example, sensor networks can include a pressure sensor, a thermal sensor, a barometer, a wind speed sensor, a humidity sensor, and an air quality sensor. These sensors may be correlated to one another in at least one way. For example, the six sensors in the sensor network may be correlated both temporally and spatially, wherein each sensor provides a time series data stream which can be processed by one of the 6 channels 2710a-n of AI deblocking network. As long as AI deblocking network is trained on N-channel data with a high degree of correlation and which is representative of the N-channel data it will encounter during model deployment, it can reconstruct the original data using the methods described herein.
A data processor module 2811 may be present and configured to apply one or more data processing techniques to the raw input data to prepare the data for further processing by encoder 2810. Data processing techniques can include (but are not limited to) any one or more of data cleaning, data transformation, encoding, dimensionality reduction, data slitting, and/or the like.
After data processing, a quantizer 2812 performs uniform quantization on the n-number of channels. Quantization is a process used in various fields, including signal processing, data compression, and digital image processing, to represent continuous or analog data using a discrete set of values. It involves mapping a range of values to a smaller set of discrete values. Quantization is commonly employed to reduce the storage requirements or computational complexity of digital data while maintaining an acceptable level of fidelity or accuracy. Compressor 2813 may be configured to perform data compression on quantized N-channel data using a suitable conventional compression algorithm.
At the endpoint which receives the transmitted compacted bitstream 2802 may be decoder module 2820 configured to restore the compacted data into the original SAR image by essentially reversing the process conducted at encoder module 2810. The received bitstream may first be (optionally) passed through a lossless compactor which de-compacts the data into an encoded bitstream. In an embodiment, a data reconstruction engine may be implemented to restore the compacted bitstream into its encoded format. The encoded bitstream may flow from compactor to decompressor 2822 wherein a data compaction technique may be used to decompress the encoded bitstream into the I/Q channels. It should be appreciated that lossless compactor components are optional components of the system and may or may not be present in the system, dependent upon the embodiment.
According to the embodiment, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) deblocking network 2823 is present and configured to utilize a trained deep learning network to provide compression artifact removal as part of the decoding process. AI deblocking network 2823 may leverage the relationship demonstrated between the various N-channels of a data stream to enhance the reconstructed N-channel data 2803. Effectively, AI deblocking network 2823 provides an improved and novel method for removing compression artifacts that occur during lossy compression/decompression using a network designed during the training process to simultaneously address the removal of artifacts and maintain fidelity of the original N-channel data signal, ensuring a comprehensive optimization of the network during the training stages.
The output of AI deblocking network 2823 may be dequantized by quantizer 2824, restoring the n-channels to their initial dynamic range. The dequantized n-channel data may be reconstructed and output 32803 by decoder module 2820 or stored in a database.
For each type of input data, there may be different compression techniques used, and different data conditioning for feeding into the neural upsampler. For example, if the input datasets 2101a-n comprise a half dozen correlated time series from six sensors arranged on a machine, then delta encoding, or a swinging door algorithm may be implemented for data compression and processing.
The neural network 3020 may process the training data 3002 to generate model training output in the form of restored dataset 3030. The neural network output may be compared against the original dataset to check the model's precision and performance. If the model output does not satisfy a given criteria or some performance threshold, then parametric optimization 3015 may occur wherein the training parameters and/or network hyperparameters may be updated and applied to the next round of neural network training.
The n-channel time-series data may be received split into separate channels 3210a-n to be processed individually by encoder 3220. In some embodiments, encoder 3220 may employ a series of various data processing layers which may comprise recurrent neural network (RNN) layers, pooling layers, PRELU layers, and/or the like. In some implementations, one or more of the RNN layers may comprise a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network. In some implementations, one or more of the RNN layers may comprise a sequence-to-sequence model. In yet another implementation, the one or more RNN layer may comprise a gate recurrent unit (GRU). Each channel may be processed by its own series of network layers wherein the encoder 3220 can learn a representation of the input data which can be used to determine the defining features of the input data. Each individual channel then feeds into an n-channel wise transformer 3230 which can learn the interdependencies between the two or more channels of correlated time-series data. The output of the n-channel wise transformer 3230 is fed into the decoder 3240 component of the recurrent autoencoder in order to restore missing data lost due to a lossy compression implemented on the time-series data. N-channel wise transformer 3230 is designed so that it can weigh the importance of different parts of the input data and then capture long-range dependencies between and among the input data. The decoder may process the output of the n-channel wise transformer 3230 into separate channels comprising various layers as described above. The output of decoder 3240 is the restored time-series data 3202, wherein most of the data which was “lost” during lossy compression can be recovered using the neural upsampler which leverages the interdependencies hidden within correlated datasets.
In addition to RNNs and their variants, other neural network architectures like CNNs and hybrid models that combine CNNs and RNNs can also be implemented for processing time series and sensor data, particularly when dealing with sensor data that can be structured as images or spectrograms. For example, if you had, say, 128 time series streams, it could be structured as two 64×64-pixel images (64 times series each, each with 64 time steps), and then use the same approach as the described above with respect to the SAR image use case. In an embodiment, a one-dimensional CNN can be used as a data processing layer in encoder 3220 and/or decoder 3240. The selection of the neural network architecture for time series data processing may be based on various factors including, but not limited to, the length of the input sequences, the frequency and regularity of the data points, the need to handle multivariate input data, the presence of exogenous variables or covariates, the computational resources available, and/or the like.
The exemplary time-series neural upsampler described in
A data compressor 3310 is present and configured to utilize one or more data compression methods on received sensor data 3301a-n. The data compression method chosen must be a lossy compression method. Exemplary types of lossy compression that may be used in some embodiments may be directed towards image or audio compression such as JPEG and MP3, respectively. For time series data lossy compression methods that may be implemented include (but is not limited to) one or more of the following: delta encoding, swinging door algorithm, batching, data aggregation, feature extraction. In an implementation, data compressor 3310 may implement network protocols specific for IoT such as message queuing telemetry transport (MQTT) for supporting message compression on the application layer and/or constrained application protocol (CoAP) which supports constrained nodes and networks and can be used with compression.
The compressed multi-channel sensor data 3301a-n may be decompressed by a data decompressor 3320 which can utilize one or more data decompression methods known to those with skill in the art. The output of data decompressor 3320 is a sensor data stream(s) of decompressed data which is missing information due to the lossy nature of the compression/decompression methods used. The decompressed sensor data stream(s) may be passed to neural upsampler 3330 which can utilize a trained neural network to restore most of the “lost” information associated with the decompressed sensor data stream(s) by leveraging the learned correlation(s) between and among the various sensor data streams. The output of neural upsampler 3330 is restored sensor data 3340.
Exemplary Computing Environment
The exemplary computing environment described herein comprises a computing device 10 (further comprising a system bus 11, one or more processors 20, a system memory 30, one or more interfaces 40, one or more non-volatile data storage devices 50), external peripherals and accessories 60, external communication devices 70, remote computing devices 80, and cloud-based services 90.
System bus 11 couples the various system components, coordinating operation of and data transmission between those various system components. System bus 11 represents one or more of any type or combination of types of wired or wireless bus structures including, but not limited to, memory busses or memory controllers, point-to-point connections, switching fabrics, peripheral busses, accelerated graphics ports, and local busses using any of a variety of bus architectures. By way of example, such architectures include, but are not limited to, Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) busses, Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) busses, Enhanced ISA (EISA) busses, Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) local busses, a Peripheral Component Interconnects (PCI) busses also known as a Mezzanine busses, or any selection of, or combination of, such busses. Depending on the specific physical implementation, one or more of the processors 20, system memory 30 and other components of the computing device 10 can be physically co-located or integrated into a single physical component, such as on a single chip. In such a case, some or all of system bus 11 can be electrical pathways within a single chip structure.
Computing device may further comprise externally-accessible data input and storage devices 12 such as compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) drives, digital versatile discs (DVD), or other optical disc storage for reading and/or writing optical discs 62; magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage, or other magnetic storage devices; or any other medium which can be used to store the desired content and which can be accessed by the computing device 10. Computing device may further comprise externally accessible data ports or connections 12 such as serial ports, parallel ports, universal serial bus (USB) ports, and infrared ports and/or transmitter/receivers. Computing device may further comprise hardware for wireless communication with external devices such as IEEE 1394 (“Firewire”) interfaces, IEEE 802.11 wireless interfaces, BLUETOOTH® wireless interfaces, and so forth. Such ports and interfaces may be used to connect any number of external peripherals and accessories 60 such as visual displays, monitors, and touch-sensitive screens 61, USB solid state memory data storage drives (commonly known as “flash drives” or “thumb drives”) 63, printers 64, pointers and manipulators such as mice 65, keyboards 66, and other devices 67 such as joysticks and gaming pads, touchpads, additional displays and monitors, and external hard drives (whether solid state or disc-based), microphones, speakers, cameras, and optical scanners.
Processors 20 are logic circuitry capable of receiving programming instructions and processing (or executing) those instructions to perform computer operations such as retrieving data, storing data, and performing mathematical calculations. Processors 20 are not limited by the materials from which they are formed, or the processing mechanisms employed therein, but are typically comprised of semiconductor materials into which many transistors are formed together into logic gates on a chip (i.e., an integrated circuit or IC). The term processor includes any device capable of receiving and processing instructions including, but not limited to, processors operating on the basis of quantum computing, optical computing, mechanical computing (e.g., using nanotechnology entities to transfer data), and so forth. Depending on configuration, computing device 10 may comprise more than one processor. For example, computing device 10 may comprise one or more central processing units (CPUs) 21, each of which itself has multiple processors or multiple processing cores, each capable of independently or semi-independently processing programming instructions. Further, computing device 10 may comprise one or more specialized processors such as a graphics processing unit (GPU) 22 configured to accelerate processing of computer graphics and images via a large array of specialized processing cores arranged in parallel.
System memory 30 is processor-accessible data storage in the form of volatile and/or nonvolatile memory. System memory 30 may be either or both of two types: non-volatile memory and volatile memory. Non-volatile memory 30a is not erased when power to the memory is removed and includes memory types such as read only memory (ROM), electronically erasable programmable memory (EEPROM), and rewritable solid state memory (commonly known as “flash memory”). Non-volatile memory 30a is typically used for long-term storage of a basic input/output system (BIOS) 31, containing the basic instructions, typically loaded during computer startup, for transfer of information between components within computing device, or a unified extensible firmware interface (UEFI), which is a modern replacement for BIOS that supports larger hard drives, faster boot times, more security features, and provides native support for graphics and mouse cursors. Non-volatile memory 30a may also be used to store firmware comprising a complete operating system 35 and applications 36 for operating computer-controlled devices. The firmware approach is often used for purpose-specific computer-controlled devices such as appliances and Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices where processing power and data storage space is limited. Volatile memory 30b is erased when power to the memory is removed and is typically used for short-term storage of data for processing. Volatile memory 30b includes memory types such as random-access memory (RAM), and is normally the primary operating memory into which the operating system 35, applications 36, program modules 37, and application data 38 are loaded for execution by processors 20. Volatile memory 30b is generally faster than non-volatile memory 30a due to its electrical characteristics and is directly accessible to processors 20 for processing of instructions and data storage and retrieval. Volatile memory 30b may comprise one or more smaller cache memories which operate at a higher clock speed and are typically placed on the same IC as the processors to improve performance.
Interfaces 40 may include, but are not limited to, storage media interfaces 41, network interfaces 42, display interfaces 43, and input/output interfaces 44. Storage media interface 41 provides the necessary hardware interface for loading data from non-volatile data storage devices 50 into system memory 30 and storage data from system memory 30 to non-volatile data storage device 50. Network interface 42 provides the necessary hardware interface for computing device 10 to communicate with remote computing devices 80 and cloud-based services 90 via one or more external communication devices 70. Display interface 43 allows for connection of displays 61, monitors, touchscreens, and other visual input/output devices. Display interface 43 may include a graphics card for processing graphics-intensive calculations and for handling demanding display requirements. Typically, a graphics card includes a graphics processing unit (GPU) and video RAM (VRAM) to accelerate display of graphics. One or more input/output (I/O) interfaces 44 provide the necessary support for communications between computing device 10 and any external peripherals and accessories 60. For wireless communications, the necessary radio-frequency hardware and firmware may be connected to I/O interface 44 or may be integrated into I/O interface 44.
Non-volatile data storage devices 50 are typically used for long-term storage of data. Data on non-volatile data storage devices 50 is not erased when power to the non-volatile data storage devices 50 is removed. Non-volatile data storage devices 50 may be implemented using any technology for non-volatile storage of content including, but not limited to, CD-ROM drives, digital versatile discs (DVD), or other optical disc storage; magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disc storage, or other magnetic storage devices; solid state memory technologies such as EEPROM or flash memory; or other memory technology or any other medium which can be used to store data without requiring power to retain the data after it is written. Non-volatile data storage devices 50 may be non-removable from computing device 10 as in the case of internal hard drives, removable from computing device 10 as in the case of external USB hard drives, or a combination thereof, but computing device will typically comprise one or more internal, non-removable hard drives using cither magnetic disc or solid-state memory technology. Non-volatile data storage devices 50 may store any type of data including, but not limited to, an operating system 51 for providing low-level and mid-level functionality of computing device 10, applications 52 for providing high-level functionality of computing device 10, program modules 53 such as containerized programs or applications, or other modular content or modular programming, application data 54, and databases 55 such as relational databases, non-relational databases, object oriented databases, BOSQL databases, and graph databases.
Applications (also known as computer software or software applications) are sets of programming instructions designed to perform specific tasks or provide specific functionality on a computer or other computing devices. Applications are typically written in high-level programming languages such as C++, Java, and Python, which are then either interpreted at runtime or compiled into low-level, binary, processor-executable instructions operable on processors 20. Applications may be containerized so that they can be run on any computer hardware running any known operating system. Containerization of computer software is a method of packaging and deploying applications along with their operating system dependencies into self-contained, isolated units known as containers. Containers provide a lightweight and consistent runtime environment that allows applications to run reliably across different computing environments, such as development, testing, and production systems.
The memories and non-volatile data storage devices described herein do not include communication media. Communication media are means of transmission of information such as modulated electromagnetic waves or modulated data signals configured to transmit, not store, information. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media includes wired communications such as sound signals transmitted to a speaker via a speaker wire, and wireless communications such as acoustic waves, radio frequency (RF) transmissions, infrared emissions, and other wireless media.
External communication devices 70 are devices that facilitate communications between computing devices and either remote computing devices 80, or cloud-based services 90, or both. External communication devices 70 include, but are not limited to, data modems 71 which facilitate data transmission between computing device and the Internet 75 via a common carrier such as a telephone company or internet service provider (ISP), routers 72 which facilitate data transmission between computing device and other devices, and switches 73 which provide direct data communications between devices on a network. Here, modem 71 is shown connecting computing device 10 to both remote computing devices 80 and cloud-based services 90 via the Internet 75. While modem 71, router 72, and switch 73 are shown here as being connected to network interface 42, many different network configurations using external communication devices 70 are possible. Using external communication devices 70, networks may be configured as local area networks (LANs) for a single location, building, or campus, wide area networks (WANs) comprising data networks that extend over a larger geographical area, and virtual private networks (VPNs) which can be of any size but connect computers via encrypted communications over public networks such as the Internet 75. As just one exemplary network configuration, network interface 42 may be connected to switch 73 which is connected to router 72 which is connected to modem 71 which provides access for computing device 10 to the Internet 75. Further, any combination of wired 77 or wireless 76 communications between and among computing device 10, external communication devices 70, remote computing devices 80, and cloud-based services 90 may be used. Remote computing devices 80, for example, may communicate with computing device through a variety of communication channels 74 such as through switch 73 via a wired 77 connection, through router 72 via a wireless connection 76, or through modem 71 via the Internet 75. Furthermore, while not shown here, other hardware that is specifically designed for servers may be employed. For example, secure socket layer (SSL) acceleration cards can be used to offload SSL encryption computations, and transmission control protocol/internet protocol (TCP/IP) offload hardware and/or packet classifiers on network interfaces 42 may be installed and used at server devices.
In a networked environment, certain components of computing device 10 may be fully or partially implemented on remote computing devices 80 or cloud-based services 90. Data stored in non-volatile data storage device 50 may be received from, shared with, duplicated on, or offloaded to a non-volatile data storage device on one or more remote computing devices 80 or in a cloud computing service 92. Processing by processors 20 may be received from, shared with, duplicated on, or offloaded to processors of one or more remote computing devices 80 or in a distributed computing service 93. By way of example, data may reside on a cloud computing service 92, but may be usable or otherwise accessible for use by computing device 10. Also, certain processing subtasks may be sent to a microservice 91 for processing with the result being transmitted to computing device 10 for incorporation into a larger processing task. Also, while components and processes of the exemplary computing environment are illustrated herein as discrete units (e.g., OS 51 being stored on non-volatile data storage device 51 and loaded into system memory 35 for use) such processes and components may reside or be processed at various times in different components of computing device 10, remote computing devices 80, and/or cloud-based services 90.
In an implementation, the disclosed systems and methods may utilize, at least in part, containerization techniques to execute one or more processes and/or steps disclosed herein. Containerization is a lightweight and efficient virtualization technique that allows you to package and run applications and their dependencies in isolated environments called containers. One of the most popular containerization platforms is Docker, which is widely used in software development and deployment. Containerization, particularly with open-source technologies like Docker and container orchestration systems like Kubernetes, is a common approach for deploying and managing applications. Containers are created from images, which are lightweight, standalone, and executable packages that include application code, libraries, dependencies, and runtime. Images are often built from a Dockerfile or similar, which contains instructions for assembling the image. Dockerfiles are configuration files that specify how to build a Docker image. Systems like Kubernetes also support containered or CRI-O. They include commands for installing dependencies, copying files, setting environment variables, and defining runtime configurations. Docker images are stored in repositories, which can be public or private. Docker Hub is an exemplary public registry, and organizations often set up private registries for security and version control using tools such as Hub, JFrog Artifactory and Bintray, Github Packages or Container registries. Containers can communicate with each other and the external world through networking. Docker provides a bridge network by default but can be used with custom networks. Containers within the same network can communicate using container names or IP addresses.
Remote computing devices 80 are any computing devices not part of computing device 10. Remote computing devices 80 include, but are not limited to, personal computers, server computers, thin clients, thick clients, personal digital assistants (PDAs), mobile telephones, watches, tablet computers, laptop computers, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor based systems, set-top boxes, programmable consumer electronics, video game machines, game consoles, portable or handheld gaming units, network terminals, desktop personal computers (PCs), minicomputers, main frame computers, network nodes, virtual reality or augmented reality devices and wearables, and distributed or multi-processing computing environments. While remote computing devices 80 are shown for clarity as being separate from cloud-based services 90, cloud-based services 90 are implemented on collections of networked remote computing devices 80.
Cloud-based services 90 are Internet-accessible services implemented on collections of networked remote computing devices 80. Cloud-based services are typically accessed via application programming interfaces (APIs) which are software interfaces which provide access to computing services within the cloud-based service via API calls, which are pre-defined protocols for requesting a computing service and receiving the results of that computing service. While cloud-based services may comprise any type of computer processing or storage, three common categories of cloud-based services 90 are microservices 91, cloud computing services 92, and distributed computing services 93.
Microservices 91 are collections of small, loosely coupled, and independently deployable computing services. Each microservice represents a specific computing functionality and runs as a separate process or container. Microservices promote the decomposition of complex applications into smaller, manageable services that can be developed, deployed, and scaled independently. These services communicate with each other through well-defined application programming interfaces (APIs), typically using lightweight protocols like HTTP, gRPC, or message queues such as Kafka. Microservices 91 can be combined to perform more complex processing tasks.
Cloud computing services 92 are delivery of computing resources and services over the Internet 75 from a remote location. Cloud computing services 92 provide additional computer hardware and storage on as needed or subscription basis. Cloud computing services 92 can provide large amounts of scalable data storage, access to sophisticated software and powerful server-based processing, or entire computing infrastructures and platforms. For example, cloud computing services can provide virtualized computing resources such as virtual machines, storage, and networks, platforms for developing, running, and managing applications without the complexity of infrastructure management, and complete software applications over the Internet on a subscription basis.
Distributed computing services 93 provide large-scale processing using multiple interconnected computers or nodes to solve computational problems or perform tasks collectively. In distributed computing, the processing and storage capabilities of multiple machines are leveraged to work together as a unified system. Distributed computing services are designed to address problems that cannot be efficiently solved by a single computer or that require large-scale computational power. These services enable parallel processing, fault tolerance, and scalability by distributing tasks across multiple nodes.
Although described above as a physical device, computing device 10 can be a virtual computing device, in which case the functionality of the physical components herein described, such as processors 20, system memory 30, network interfaces 40, and other like components can be provided by computer-executable instructions. Such computer-executable instructions can execute on a single physical computing device, or can be distributed across multiple physical computing devices, including being distributed across multiple physical computing devices in a dynamic manner such that the specific, physical computing devices hosting such computer-executable instructions can dynamically change over time depending upon need and availability. In the situation where computing device 10 is a virtualized device, the underlying physical computing devices hosting such a virtualized computing device can, themselves, comprise physical components analogous to those described above, and operating in a like manner. Furthermore, virtual computing devices can be utilized in multiple layers with one virtual computing device executing within the construct of another virtual computing device. Thus, computing device 10 may be either a physical computing device or a virtualized computing device within which computer-executable instructions can be executed in a manner consistent with their execution by a physical computing device. Similarly, terms referring to physical components of the computing device, as utilized herein, mean either those physical components or virtualizations thereof performing the same or equivalent functions.
The skilled person will be aware of a range of possible modifications of the various aspects described above. Accordingly, the present invention is defined by the claims and their equivalents.
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