Over 80% of file transfers are executed between a central site and its subsidiaries, satellites or clients? 70%-90% of the data transferred already exists at the target site. The Internet network is overloaded and overtaxed (some say by as much as 300% beyond its optimal capacity). Transfer of 1 Megabyte over the Internet may take 20-60 minutes on average, depending on the location of the downloading site and other considerations. The solution … TransFast^TM

The explosive growth of the Internet and Intranets in recent years has led to applications which utilise communications channels for the transfer of data from one place to another. This utilisation of communications channels has greatly exceeded all early expectations.

There us an ever-increasing awareness of the value of employing file-transfers in a wide range of uses.

The Internet has become a dominant tool in the distribution of files and software. Practically every professional software company now offers download services both of its software and of an evaluation copy. Other companies offer a wide range of services by means of transferring files and information to the customer.

Many organizations, such as banks, transfer data files from their data provessing contres to branch offices.

Research has revealed that more than 80% of the file transfers executed world-wide are based upon centrally located files which are updated from time to time. After update, these files must be distributed to many different locations. This update methodology is used regardless of the type of data files or software which is periodically updated.

Generally, when a file is updated, most of the original information will continue to exist in the new file, even though its location may change. In actual fact, if files are compared before and after update, one finds (in most cases) that the greater portion of the updated file has not been altered at all, although it is certainly possible that various sections of the file have been relocated in order to create space for new information.

In spite of the fact that most of the updated files contents existed in the previous version at the clients site, the entire newly updated file is transferred when transferring files between a central site and a client. This results in the needless transfer of huge quantities of information, and created noticeable overloads in existing communications channels.

Those who attempt to access software upgrades from the Internet, and are forced to wait a long period of time until the download has completed, realise how frustrating this wait-period can be. Obviously, downloading large files in their entirety when a large part of the information contained therein already exists at the downloading site results in excessive and unnecessary use of a key system resource (bandwidth) not only with respect to the client awaiting the files, but of the transmitting side as will. The transfer of superfluous information by a large number of users needlessly overloads the network, and may occasionally cause the system to fail.

In recognition of this problem, B.I.S. Software Systems Ltd. has developed TransFast^TM , a revolutionary product capable of effecting an immediate change in the amount of information transferred over various communications networks, and of course, drastically influencing transfer speeds.

The software is comprised of two components:
COMPONENT 1:
DELTA BUILDER (compress)

The Delta Builder component accepts two files as input. The first file is the prior version (i.e. the file that has not yet been updated), and the second file is the new version (the post-update file). These files may be on any type whatsoever: executable object code, data files, software source files, documents, graphic files, a zip containing all of the above, etc.

After comparing the two files, the software computes a Delta file which contains the differences between the pre- and post-updated files, in the most compact form possible.

COMPONENT 2:
RESTORE (decompress)

This component accepts the pre-updated file and the Delta file as input. The updated file is created from these two files. B.I.S. has developed 8 different algorithms for creating Delta files. These creation algorithms are suited to an extremely wide range of methods for updating files. The availability of multiple algorithms facilitates the creation of optimal Delta files for each type of file or update. With the help of the Delta Builder component of TransFast^TM , and organisation can very easily build small Delta files which the client can access and download quickly. The client can then use these Delta files to construct the entire updated file locally via the Restore component of TransFast^TM .

Where can TransFast^TM run?

Each of the two TransFast^TM software components were developed for the various working environments (platforms) used in distributed processing: Unix OS/2 Windows NT Windows 95 Windows 3.11 DOS and also for the different Mainframe environments: OS/390 MVS/XA/ESA VM/XA/ESA VSA/ESA TransFast^TM supports the combination of various working platforms and the transformation of files between them. Thus, one can perform a Restore in an environment different than the one in which the Delta file was created.

For all practical purposes, the two components of TransFast^TM can be executed in any work environment whatsoever.

Examples of Applications: Software distributed through the Intranet and Internet network. Banking organisations. Software companies. Any facility possessing a number of versions of large files.