Huawei Technologies Assigned Thirteen Patents

Write apparatus and magnetic memory
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Shenzhen, China, has been assigned a patent (9,741,418) developed by Fu, Yarong, Shanghai, China, Zhao, Junfeng, Wang, Yuangang, Shenzhen, China, Yang, Wei, Hangzhou, China, Lin, Yinyin, and Yang, Kai, Shanghai, China, for a “write apparatus and magnetic memory.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A write apparatus and a magnetic memory, where the write apparatus includes a first drive port, a second drive port, a first information storage area, a second information storage area, and an information buffer. A first area locates between the first information storage area and the information buffer. A second area locates between the second information storage area and the information buffer. The first information storage area, the second information storage area, and the information buffer are made of a first magnetic material. The first area and the second area are made of a second magnetic material. Magnetic energy of the first magnetic material is higher than magnetic energy of the second magnetic material. The write apparatus can ensure write stability of the magnetic memory.“

The patent application was filed on October 25, 2016 (15/333,235).

Storage unit
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Shenzhen, China, has been assigned a patent (9,740,418) developed by Lin, Yinyin, Shanghai, China, Wei, Zhulin, Zhao, Junfeng, Shenzhen, China, Yang, Wei, Hangzhou, China, Fu, Yarong, and Yang, Kai, Shanghai, China, for a “storage unit, memory, and method for controlling storage unit.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A storage unit includes a U-shaped magnetic track, a first drive circuit, a second drive circuit, a first drive port, and a second drive port. The U-shaped magnetic track includes a first port, a second port, a first storage area, and a second storage area. By controlling input voltages of the first port, the second port, the first drive port, and the second drive port and driving the first drive circuit, a current pulse is generated in the first storage area, and a magnetic domain wall in the first storage area is driven to move. By controlling the input voltages of the first port, the second port, the first drive port, and the second drive port and driving the second drive circuit, a current pulse is generated in the second storage area, and a magnetic domain in the second storage area is driven to move.“

The patent application was filed on April 20, 2016 (15/133,897).

System for pooling, partitioning, and sharing network storage
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Shenzhen, China, has been assigned a patent (9,733,848) developed by Gu, Jiongjiong, Min, Xiaoyong, and Wang, Daohui, Shenzhen, China, for a “method and system for pooling, partitioning, and sharing network storage.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Embodiments of the present invention provide a method and a system for sharing a storage resource, where storage resources of a hard disk and a storage array are divided into multiple storage partitions and the multiple storage partitions form a shared storage resource pool, a read-write control module is allocated to each storage partition, and global partition information is generated to record a correspondence between each storage partition in the shared storage resource pool and the read-write control module. The embodiments of the present invention implement fast and simple integration of heterogeneous storage resources, and therefore can efficiently use various storage resources, save cost, and avoid a resource waste.“

The patent application was filed on June 29, 2015 (14/754,378).

Data migration
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Shenzhen, China, has been assigned a patent (9,733,844) developed by Gong, Tao, Han, Kun, and Wu, Liming, Chengdu, China, for a “data migration method, data migration apparatus, and storage device.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method for extending life of a storage system, wherein a storage controller determines a source solid-state disk, SSD) in a disk group with a capacity usage ratio greater than an average capacity usage ratio of the disk group. The capacity usage ratio of the source SSD is a ratio of a used capacity of the source SSD to an available capacity of the source SSD. The storage controller selects at least one destination SSD in the disk group with a capacity usage ratio less than the average capacity usage ratio of the disk group. And then the storage controller calculates an amount of data to be migrated from the source SSD, based on the capacity usage ratio of the source SSD and the average capacity usage ratio. At last, the storage controller migrates the data to be migrated from the source SSD to the one or more destination SSDs.“

The patent application was filed on March 19, 2015 (14/662,928).

Storage server
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Shenzhen, China, has been assigned a patent (9,733,835) developed by Lin, Dayun, Chengdu, China, for a “data storage method and storage server.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Embodiments of the application disclose a data storage method and a storage server. The method includes: detecting actual usage of a hard disk corresponding to an initial capacity level in configured hard disk capacity levels, when it is determined, according to the detected actual usage, that the hard disk corresponding to the initial capacity level exceeds a limit, searching for a hard disk corresponding to a second highest capacity level and is higher than the initial capacity level, and when the hard disk corresponding to the second highest capacity level is obtained by searching, determining a migration ratio of a virtual node according to the initial capacity level, the second highest capacity level, and the actual hard disk capacity, and performing virtual node migration between hard disks that are corresponding to the configured hard disk capacity levels. By using the disclosure, hard disk capacity heterogeneousness in massive storage is supported.“

The patent application was filed on May 23, 2016 (15/162,064).

Cache management for non-volatile storage device
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Shenzhen, China, has been assigned a patent (9,727,487) developed by Zhu, Junhua, Hangzhou, China, for a “cache management method and apparatus for non-volatile storage device.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Embodiments of the present invention disclose a method and apparatus of cache management for a non-volatile storage device. The method embodiment includes: determining a size relationship between a capacity sum of a clean page subpool and a dirty page subpool and a cache capacity, determining, when the capacity sum is equal to the cache capacity, whether identification information of a to-be-accessed page is in a history list of clean pages or a history list of dirty pages, and when it is determined that the identification information of the to-be-accessed page is in the history list of clean pages, adding a first adjustment value to a clean page subpool capacity threshold, and when the identification information of the to-be-accessed page is in the history list of dirty pages, subtracting a second adjustment value from the clean page subpool capacity threshold.“

The patent application was filed on November 10, 2016 (15/348,056).

Data recovery
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Shenzhen, China, has been assigned a patent (9,710,331) developed by Wang, Daohui, Zhang, Feng, Shenzhen, CN, Fan, Wei, Xi’an, China, Zhang, Zhile, and Zeng, Yongqiang, Shenzhen, China, for a “data storage method, data recovery method, related apparatus, and system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A data storage method is used to improve storage consistency of a distributed storage system. The method includes: a primary storage node performs EC coding on a to-be-stored data segment to obtain a target EC stripe, determines in a storage node group to which the primary storage node belongs, m+k target storage nodes used to store m+k target EC blocks of the target EC stripe, sends a preparation message to the target storage nodes, receives a response message sent by a target storage node, and sends an execution message to the target storage nodes to instruct the target storage nodes to write target EC blocks that are in preparation logs.“

The patent application was filed on June 3, 2016 (15/173,327).

Controller for managing storage array
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Shenzhen, China, has been assigned a patent (9,696,938) developed by Gong, Tao, Chengdu, China, for a “method, apparatus, and controller for managing storage array.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method, an apparatus, and a controller for managing a storage array. The storage array is divided into a first subset of storage devices and a second subset of storage devices according to degrees of wear of storage devices, such that all the degrees of wear of the storage devices in the first subset are greater than or equal to all the degrees of wear of the storage devices in the second subset, and then, data from the storage devices in the second subset is migrated to the storage devices in the first subset. Therefore, service lives of storage devices in the second subset may be extended relatively by shortening service lives of storage devices in the first subset.“

The patent application was filed on February 25, 2016 (15/053,328).

Network storage
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Shenzhen, China, has been assigned a patent (9,686,724) developed by Tang, Pengcheng, Pentikousis, Konstantinos, and Zhou, Wei, Shenzhen, China, for a “network storage method, switch device, and controller.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A network storage method, a switch device, and a controller are provided. The method is applicable to a controller based on OpenFlow protocol. The method includes: determining, by the controller, that a first switching equipment is to cache data requested by a first data packet, and notifying, by the controller, the first switching equipment to cache the data requested by the first data packet, and notifying the first switching equipment to establish a first flow table entry according to issued match information corresponding to the first data packet and issued action instruction information corresponding to the first data packet, wherein the action instruction information corresponding to the first data packet is adapted to instruct the first switching equipment to forward the data cached in the first switching equipment and requested by the first data packet.“

The patent application was filed on March 26, 2015 (14/670,062).

Metadata updating and apparatus based
on columnar storage in distributed file system
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Shenzhen, China, has been assigned a patent (9,678,969) developed by Deng, Liqun, Shenzhen, China, and Zhu, Junhua, Hangzhou, China, for a “metadata updating method and apparatus based on columnar storage in distributed file system, and host.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A metadata updating method based on columnar storage in a distributed file system includes acquiring to-be-updated metadata in a data table, splitting data records of the data table into multiple row groups on a row basis, converting the data table into global file metadata and multiple row group files, where the row group file includes an actual data block, a data index block, a local metadata block, a metadata index block, and a file footer, determining whether the to-be-updated metadata belongs to the global file metadata, updating local metadata when the to-be-updated metadata does not belong to the global file metadata, and adding an updated local metadata block, an updated metadata index block, and an updated file footer to the multiple row group files according to updated local metadata. Dynamic updating of metadata saves time of executing an updating operation of this type and needed computing resources.“

The patent application was filed on August 19, 2016 (15/241,909).

Storage device processing data
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Shenzhen, China, has been assigned a patent (9,665,293) developed by Lin, Yu, and Liang, Shangdong, Chengdu, China, for a “method for a storage device processing data and storage device.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method for managing data in a hierarchical storage device which includes primary storage disks and secondary storage disks. The primary storage disks have higher performance than the secondary storage disks. The storage device detects an access frequency of a data block stored in the secondary storage disks. Based on the access frequency of a data block, the storage device determines that the access frequency of the data block reaches an access threshold value. And then, based upon the determination, the storage device moves the data block to the primary storage disks. After that, the storage device divides the data block into a plurality of sub-blocks and detects an access frequency of each of the sub-blocks. Finally, the storage device moves one or more of the sub-blocks of which access frequencies are less than the access threshold value back to the secondary storage disks.“

The patent application was filed on May 7, 2015 (14/706,616).

Migration of hot and cold data
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Shenzhen, China, has been assigned a patent (9,665,291) developed by Lin, Yu, and Liang, Shangdong, Chengdu, China, for a “migration of hot and cold data between high-performance storage and low-performance storage at block and sub-block granularities.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method and an apparatus for tiered storage processing of data, and a storage device. The method includes: splitting the migration unit into multiple migration subunits when a migration unit of low-tier disks is migrated to high-tier disks, and detecting a data access frequency of each migration subunit respectively, migrating the migration subunit to the low-tier disk when detecting that the data access frequency of the migration subunit is lower than a set threshold, and combining the multiple migration subunits into the migration unit when detecting that the multiple migration subunits are all migrated to the lower-tier disk. The present invention improves usage of storage media, and controls metadata storage resource consumption effectively.“

The patent application was filed on February 26, 2014 (14/190,264).

Partition extension
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Shenzhen, China, has been assigned a patent (9,665,284) developed by Zhang, Feng, Shenzhen, China, for a “partition extension method and apparatus.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “In a distributed storage system, a method for extending a number N of data node devices comprises a server receives an instruction of adding X new data nodes into the distributed storage system. Then, the server obtains a number M of the all partitions included in a hash ring and determines that M/(N+X) is lower than a preset threshold. The hash ring is organized according to a distributed hash table, DHT, and includes a plurality of partitions. Each partition is mapping to a data node. Based upon the determination, the server generates new partitions by multiplying partitions mapping to each data node, based upon the determination. After storing mapping relationship between the new partitions and the X new data nodes, the server adds the X new data nodes into the distributed storage system.“

The patent application was filed on June 26, 2015 (14/752,068).