Optimized consistent request distribution for balanced load distribution in a content delivery network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10116737-B2
Application number	US-201615014904-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 3, 2016
Priority date	Jan 9, 2013
Publication date	Oct 30, 2018
Grant date	Oct 30, 2018

Abstract

Some embodiments provide a proprietary 64-bit consistent distribution scheme that preserves the efficiencies of CARP while providing a significantly more balanced distribution of requests that is on par with schemes reliant on computationally expensive cryptographic hashes. The scheme performs hashing of requested URLs and identifiers of available servers over a 64-bit space while optimizing the hashing to remove computationally expensive operations. Some embodiments provide a variant of the scheme to provide a differentiated distribution on the basis of one or more differentiating factors. A first variant utilizes load factor values to adjust the resulting hashes and to produce a first distribution of differentiated content that varies from a second distribution of undifferentiated content. A second variant identifies requests for differentiated content from requests for undifferentiated content and utilizes a first scheme to distribute the differentiated content and a second altered scheme to distribute the undifferentiated content.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method comprising:
receiving a plurality of requests over the Internet at a load distribution server allocating the plurality of requests across a plurality of distribution servers, the plurality of requests comprising a first set of requests directed to a first content type and a second set of requests directed to at least a different second content type, the load distribution server comprising a processor and memory storing an identifier identifying each server of the plurality of distribution servers, the processor:
producing a hash result for each server of the plurality of distribution servers, wherein said producing comprises hashing the identifier identifying each server of the plurality of distribution servers;
selecting a first load factor value for the first set of requests based on the first content type of the first set of requests, and a different second load factor value for the second set of requests based on the second content type of the second set of requests;
distributing the first set of requests across a first set of the plurality of distribution servers by adjusting the hash result produced for each server of the first set of distribution servers with the first load factor value and by selecting a server from the first set of distribution servers to receive each request from the first set of requests based on the hash result of each server of the first set of distribution servers as adjusted by the first load factor value, the first load factor value increasing selection precedence of any server of the first set of distribution servers over a different second set of the plurality of distribution servers; and
distributing the second set of requests across the second set of distribution servers by adjusting the hash result produced for the second set of distribution servers with the second load factor value and by selecting a server from the second set of distribution servers to receive each request from the second set of requests based on the hash result of each server of the second set of distribution servers as adjusted by the second load factor value, the second load factor value increasing selection precedence of any server of the second set of distribution servers over the first set of distribution servers.

2. The method of claim 1 , the processor further producing a second hash result by hashing a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of each request of the plurality of requests.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein selecting a server from the first set of distribution servers is further based on combining the second hash result with the hash result produced for each server of the first set of distribution servers as adjusted by the first load factor value.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the hash result is a 64-bit value produced from a 64-bit hash of the identifier identifying a server of the plurality of distribution servers.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first content type comprises cacheable content and the second content type comprises content that is not cacheable.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first content type comprises content that is requested more than a specified threshold during a time duration and the second content type comprises content that is not requested more than the specific threshold during the time duration.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first content type comprises content with a first set of file extensions and the second content type comprises content with a different second set of file extensions.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first content type comprises content with high quality of service and the second content type comprises content with low quality of service.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the processor further differentiates the first set of requests from the second set of requests based on a URL, domain name, file extension, or Internet Protocol (IP) address associated with each request of the plurality of requests.

10. A computer-implemented method comprising:
receiving a plurality of requests over the Internet at a first tier server controlling distribution of the plurality of requests across a set of second tier servers, the first tier server comprising a processor and memory storing a threshold for differentiating hot content from regular content, the processor leveraging the memory in:
monitoring request rates for different content requested in the plurality of requests;
distributing a first set of the plurality of requests from the first tier server across the set of second tier servers according to a first consistent distribution scheme, the first set of requests comprising an intermixing of requests requesting at least first content, second content, and third content, and wherein said distributing according to the first consistent distribution scheme comprises sending requests for the first content to a first server of the set of second tier servers, requests for the second content to a second server of the set of second tier servers, and requests for the third content to a third server of the set of second tier servers;
classifying the first content as hot content in response to a request rate of the first content exceeding the threshold, and the second content and the third content as regular content in response to request rates of the second content and the third content not exceeding the threshold; and
distributing a second set of the plurality of requests directed to the first content from the first tier server across the first server and the second server according to a second consistent distribution scheme, and a third set of the plurality of requests directed to the second content or the third content from the first tier server to at least the third server according to a third consistent distribution scheme, wherein the second distribution scheme is based on results of the first distribution scheme adjusted by a first load factor value that prioritizes selection of the first server and the second server and deprioritizes selection of the third server, and wherein the third distribution scheme is based on the results of the first distribution scheme adjusted by a second load factor value that prioritizes selection of at least the third server and deprioritizes selection of the first server and the second server.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10 further comprising allocating additional server resources to serve the first content by producing the second consistent distribution scheme and the third consistent distribution scheme from the first distribution scheme, the second consistent distribution scheme selecting the first server or the second server for delivery of the first content and the third consistent distribution scheme selecting at least the third server for delivery of the second content and the third content.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 10 , wherein distributing the first set of requests according to the first consistent distribution scheme comprises hashing different identifiers identifying the first server, the second server, and the third server, and selecting one of the first, second, and third servers to receive a request based on results of said hashing.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12 , wherein distributing the second set of requests according to the second consistent distribution scheme comprises adjusting results of said hashing using the first load factor value.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13 , wherein distributing the third set of requests according to the third consistent distribution scheme comprises adjusting results of said has

Assignees

• Verizon Digital Media Services Inc

Inventors

• Yeager Donnevan Scott
• Hartrick Timothy W
• Peters Robert J

Classifications

• H04L67/1023 Primary

  based on a hash applied to IP addresses or costs · CPC title

• H04L29/12405

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L67/2842

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L67/1014 Primary

  based on the content of a request · CPC title

• H04L61/2528

  Translation at a proxy · CPC title