ADAPTIVE PREFETCHING FOR COMPUTER NETWORK AND WEB BROWSING WITH A GRAPHIC USER INTERFACE

The present invention is based on a prefetching scheme consisting of two modules: a prediction module and a threshold module. After a use's request for a new file is satisfied, the prediction module immediately updates a database of history information if needed, and computes the access probability for each candidate file, where the access probability of a file is an estimate of the probability with which that file will be requested by the user in the near future. Next the threshold module determines the prefetch threshold for each related server, which contains at least one candidate file with nonzero access probability. The threshold is determined in real time based on then current network conditions. Finally, each file whose access probability exceeds or equals its server's prefetch threshold is prefetched. When prefetching a file, the file is actually downloaded if and only if no up-to-date version of the file is available on the local computer; otherwise no action is taken. Although web browsing is an important application for prefetching, the prefetch scheme of the present invention may be advantageously applied to any network application in which prefetching is possible.