Cache management in content delivery systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12003808-B2
Application number	US-202217966861-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 16, 2022
Priority date	May 14, 2019
Publication date	Jun 4, 2024
Grant date	Jun 4, 2024

Abstract

Examples described herein relate to apparatuses and methods for managing caching for a content delivery system, which may include receiving a content request indicating that the caching agent is requesting content data for a client, filling the content data in a first cache storage of the business logic agent, providing the cached content data to the caching agent, and while a second cache storage of the caching agent is being filled with the content data, maintaining the cached content data in response to receiving additional content requests from the caching agent. The additional content requests may indicate that the caching agent is requesting the same content data for additional clients.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for managing caching for a content delivery system, the method comprising:
receiving, by a business logic agent from a caching agent, a content request indicating that the caching agent is requesting content data for a client, wherein the business logic agent and the caching agent are operatively coupled via a network;
filling, by the business logic agent, the content data in a first cache storage of the business logic agent, wherein the content data is received from an upstream node of the content delivery system;
providing, by the business logic agent, the cached content data to the caching agent; and
while a second cache storage of the caching agent is being filled with the content data, maintaining, by the business logic agent, the cached content data in response to receiving additional content requests from the caching agent, wherein the additional content requests indicate that the caching agent is requesting the same content data for additional clients, wherein the content request comprises an address of the content data and a range of the content data;
the address of the content data comprises a Uniform Resource Locator (URL); and
the business logic agent determines whether any of the additional content requests is requesting the same content data as requested by the content request based on the address and the range.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein
the content delivery system is a content delivery network (CDN);
the business logic agent and the caching agent are on a same edge node of the CDN;
the upstream node is an origin server that stores the content data or a node between the edge node and the origin node in the CDN that stores the content data; and
the network is a local host connection.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the local host connection is over at least one of a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) connection and a HTTP/2 connection.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein
the content delivery system is a content delivery network (CDN);
the caching agent is on an edge node of the CDN;
the business logic agent is on an intermediate node of the CDN, wherein the intermediate node is different from the edge node; and
the upstream node is an origin server that stores the content data or a node between the edge node and the origin node in the CDN that stores the content data.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein
the caching agent comprises a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) service engine configured to service HTTP requests received from clients; and
the caching agent comprises a caching engine, wherein the caching engine comprises the second cache storage.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, by the business logic agent from the caching agent, an authentication request before the content request is received;
authenticating that the content data is provided by a customer of the content delivery system; and
sending, by the business logic agent to the caching agent, an authentication response in response to authenticating that the content data is provided by the customer, wherein the authentication response comprises an authorization.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein
the content request identifies the upstream node; and
the business logic agent receives the content data from the upstream node based on the content request.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the content request is addressed to the upstream node.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the content request comprises a fill identification (ID), and the method further comprises:
determining, by the business logic agent, that a new copy of the content data is needed based on the fill ID; and
filling, by the business logic agent, the new copy of the content data in the first cache storage in response to determining that the new copy is needed.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the content request comprises a conditional request header, and the method further comprises:
determining, by the business logic agent, a key corresponding to the content request based on the conditional request header.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein while the second cache storage of the caching agent is being filled with the content data, maintaining the cached content data comprises maintaining the cached content data in response to determining that two consecutive ones of the additional content requests are received within a predetermined time interval.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining that no new additional content requests have been received for a predetermined time interval since a most recent one of the additional content requests has been received.

13. A method for managing caching for a content delivery system, the method comprising:
receiving, by a caching agent from a client, a request for content data;
determining, by the caching agent, that the caching agent needs to fill the content data;
sending, by the caching agent to a business logic agent, a content request indicating that the caching agent is requesting the content data for the client, wherein the business logic agent and the caching agent are operatively coupled via a network, and the business logic agent fills the content data in a first cache storage of the business logic agent responsive to the content request;
filling, by the caching agent, the content data from an upstream node in a second cache storage of the caching agent;
receiving, by the caching agent, additional content requests from additional clients, wherein the additional content requests indicate that the same content data is requested by additional clients; and
while the second cache storage is being filled with the content data, the cached content data is provided by the business logic agent to the additional clients, wherein the content request comprises an address of the content data and a range of the content data;
the address of the content data comprises a Uniform Resource Locator (URL); and
the business logic agent determines whether any of the additional content requests is requesting the same content data as requested by the content request based on the address and the range.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein
the content delivery system is a content delivery network (CDN);
the business logic agent and the caching agent are on a same edge node of the CDN;
the upstream node is an origin server that stores the content data or a node between the edge node and the origin node in the CDN that stores the content data; and
the network is a local host connection.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the local host connection is over at least one of a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) connection and a HTTP/2 connection.

16. The method of claim 13 , wherein
the content delivery system is a content delivery network (CDN);
the caching agent is on an edge node of the CDN;
the business logic agent is on an intermediate node of the CDN, wherein the intermediate node is different from the edge node; and
the upstream node is an origin server that stores the content data or a node between the edge node and the origin node in the CDN that stores the content data.

17. The method of claim 13 , wherein
the caching agent comprises a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) service engine configured to service HTTP requests received from clients; and
the caching agent comprises a caching engine, wherein the caching engine comprises the second cache storage.

18. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
sending, by the caching agent to the bu

Assignees

• Level 3 Communications Llc

Inventors

• Crowder William

Classifications

• H04N21/433 Primary

  Content storage operation, e.g. storage operation in response to a pause request, caching operations · CPC title

• G06F16/955

  using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL] · CPC title

• H04L63/08

  for authentication of entities (cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32) · CPC title

• H04L65/612

  for unicast · CPC title

• H04L67/025

  for remote control or remote monitoring of applications · CPC title