System and method for providing hybrid on demand services to a work unit

Abstract

The present document describes a method and system for providing Hybrid On Demand (HOD) software and/or data to a plurality of normal nodes associated with a work unit. The normal nodes are serviced via two or more parent nodes using different communication networks. Normal nodes, which are connected to the Local Area Network (LAN) of the work unit, may receive software and/or data services from a local node via the LAN, and normal nodes which are outside of the LAN may receive software and/or data services from a SUPR node via a Wide Area Network (WAN) such as the internet. After synchronization with one the normal nodes, the parent nodes synchronize the updated data with each other, and then they push the updated data to all the normal nodes associated with the work unit to mirror the same data on all the normal nodes. Frequencies of synchronization and provision of software and/or data services and/or updates is governed by a set of synchronization rules that are embedded in the business layer of the nodes. This scenario may also be used for synchronizing data in a cache cloud manner between the different nodes of the wide and the local networks.

1 . A method for synchronizing data in a cache cloud environment comprising client nodes associated with a work unit and parent nodes, the parent nodes comprising a SUPR node accessible via a wide area network (WAN) and a local node accessible via a local area network (LAN), the method comprising:
 searching for closest parent node when new data is available at one of the client nodes;   synchronizing new data with the closest parent node;   synchronizing parent nodes with each other;   pushing new data to all client nodes of the work unit.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein synchronizing new data comprises when the closest parent node is local node but does not contain the data, getting the data from the SUPR node. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising synchronizing client nodes outside the LAN with the SUPR node, and synchronizing client nodes within the LAN with the local node. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the parent nodes include more than SUPR node accessible via the WAN, the method comprising synchronizing client nodes outside the LAN with the least busy SUPR node. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 synchronizing the SUPR node with at least one of client nodes and local nodes of different work units; and   filtering data pertaining to other work units from synchronization.   
     
     
         6 . The method of claim  15 , further comprising:
 assigning an identity (ID) to each of the normal nodes and local node of each work unit;   identifying the work unit to which the nodes belong based on the ID of the nodes; and   synchronizing only the data associated with the work unit to which the nodes belong.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising governing frequencies of synchronization by a set of synchronization rules embedded in the client nodes and parent nodes. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising providing a user interface (UI) and synchronizing the healthcare data independently of whether a user is logged into the UI or not. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the normal nodes comprise computing devices. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the wide area network comprise the internet, a wireless network, or a combination thereof.