Server side content delivery network quality of service

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10666522-B2
Application number	US-201916544034-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 19, 2019
Priority date	Apr 6, 2015
Publication date	May 26, 2020
Grant date	May 26, 2020

Abstract

Aspects of the present disclosure involve systems and methods for monitoring and quantifying the performance of a content delivery network (CDN) from a client side perspective based on server side events. In one particular embodiment, one or more content servers of the CDN may provide connectivity or other performance information to a collector device or site. This information may be reported by each of the content servers for each request for content received at the server. The collector site may then store the received performance information in a database for analysis by one or more systems.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
at least one processor; and
a tangible computer-readable medium with one or more executable instructions stored thereon that when executed by the at least one processor causes the system to:
receive content request performance metrics related to processing of a content request from a client device by a content server of a content delivery network (CDN);
receive an identification of an access network through which the client device communicates with the content server;
receive network connection information associated with the client device;
based at least in part on the identification of the client device, correlate the received content request performance metrics with the network connection information to generate enriched performance metrics; and
based at least on the enriched performance metrics, distinguish a potential external network performance issue from a potential CDN performance issue.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the content request performance metrics are received via a transmission control protocol (TCP) socket established by the content server in response to the content request from the client device.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the content request performance metrics comprise an indication of a number of packet losses during processing of the content request.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the content request performance metrics comprise a round trip timer (RTT) indication corresponding to a total time measured for providing at least a portion of the content request.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the content request performance metrics comprise the RTT indication less a measured timing delay at a socket buffer to isolate a time for processing the content request.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the measured timing delay is due to network back pressure on the socket buffer during the processing of the content request.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the identification of the client device is an Internet Protocol (IP) address associated with the client device.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the network connection information comprises an estimated geographical location of the client device based on an Internet Protocol (IP) address associated with the client device.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the network connection information comprises an estimated geographical location of the access network based on the identification of the access network.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the identification of the client device further comprises an identification of a resolver device for the client device, and wherein the network connection information comprises an estimated geographical location of the resolver device based on the identification of the resolver device.

11. A method comprising:
receiving content request performance metrics related to processing of a content request from a client device by a content server of a content delivery network (CDN);
receiving an identification of an access network through which the client device communicates with the content server;
receiving network connection information associated with the client device;
based at least in part on the identification of the client device, correlating the received content request performance metrics with the network connection information to generate enriched performance metrics; and
based at least on the enriched performance metrics, determine one or more optimal paths through the CDN.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the one or more optimal paths through the CDN change over time.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the one or more optimal paths through the CDN provide an indication of high demand for one or more networks associated with the CDN.

14. The method of claim 11 , wherein the one or more optimal paths through the CDN provide an indication of slow performance for one or more networks associated with the CDN.

15. The method of claim 11 , wherein the one or more optimal paths through the CDN provide an indication of performance for one or more content servers associated with the CDN.

16. The method of claim 11 , wherein the one or more optimal paths through the CDN provide an indication of performance for one or more content servers or one or more networks associated with the CDN.

17. A method comprising:
receiving content request performance metrics related to processing of a content request from a client device by a content server of a content delivery network (CDN);
receiving an identification of an access network through which the client device communicates with the content server;
receiving network connection information associated with the client device;
based at least in part on the identification of the client device, correlating the received content request performance metrics with the network connection information to generate enriched performance metrics; and
based at least on the enriched performance metrics, identify an edge server in a geographically proximate location to the client device.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein content is cached at the edge server for delivery to the client device in response to the content request.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein caching the content at the edge server reduces network load over the CDN.

20. The method of claim 17 , wherein the network connection information comprises an estimated geographical location of the client device based on an Internet Protocol (IP) address associated with the client device.

Assignees

• Level 3 Communications Llc

Inventors

• Hopkins William
• Power William R

Classifications

• H04L41/12

  Discovery or management of network topologies · CPC title

• H04L43/0829

  Packet loss · CPC title

• H04L41/142 Primary

  using statistical or mathematical methods · CPC title

• H04L43/0864

  Round trip delays · CPC title