Server side content delivery network quality of service

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016294642-A1
Application number	US-201615091454-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Apr 5, 2016
Priority date	Apr 6, 2015
Publication date	Oct 6, 2016
Grant date	—

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 content delivery network monitoring method comprising:
obtaining content request performance metrics from a content server of a content delivery network (CDN), the performance metrics related to processing of a content request from a client device by the content server; storing the obtained content request performance metrics in a database; receiving enrichment information comprising network connection information; enriching the performance metrics by correlating received enrichment information corresponding to the processed content request with the performance metrics, wherein correlating the received enrichment information corresponding to the processed content request with the performance metrics is based at least on an identification of the client device; and isolating an external network performance issue from a CDN performance issue based at least on the enriched performance metrics.

2 . The content delivery network monitoring method of claim 1 wherein the content request performance metrics from the content server is obtained from a transmission control protocol (TCP) socket established by the content server in response to the content request from the client device.

3 . The content delivery network monitoring method of claim 1 wherein the content request performance metrics comprises an indication of a number of packet losses during the processing of the content request.

4 . The content delivery network monitoring method 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 a requested content.

5 . The content delivery network monitoring method of claim 4 wherein the content request performance metrics further comprise the RTT indication less than a measured timing delay at a socket buffer from network back pressure on the socket buffer during the processing of the content request.

6 . The content delivery network monitoring method of claim 1 wherein the identification of the client device comprises an Internet Protocol (IP) address associated with the client device and included in the content request from the client device.

7 . The content delivery network monitoring method of claim 6 wherein the received enrichment information comprises an estimated geographical location of the client device based on the IP address associated with the client device.

8 . The content delivery network monitoring method of claim 1 wherein the identification of the client device comprises an identification of an access network through which the client device communicates with the content server.

9 . The content delivery network monitoring method of claim 8 wherein the received enrichment information comprises an estimated geographical location of the access network based on the identification of the access network.

10 . The content delivery network monitoring method of claim 1 wherein the identification of the client device comprises an identification of a resolver device for the client device and the received enrichment information comprises an estimated geographical location of the resolver device based on the identification of the resolver device.

11 . A content delivery network comprising:
a content server receiving a content request from a client device in communication with the content server and obtaining content request performance metrics related to processing of a content request; a database storing the content request performance metrics; and a collector device comprising:
at least one processor;
at least one communication port for communication with the database; and
a tangible computer-readable medium with one or more executable instructions stored thereon, wherein the at least one processor executes the one or more instructions to perform the operations of:
receiving the content request performance metrics from the content server;
transmitting the content request performance metrics to the database over the at least one communication port;
receiving enrichment information comprising network connection information;
enriching the performance metrics by correlating the received enrichment information corresponding to the processed content request with the performance metrics, wherein correlating the received enrichment information corresponding to the processed content request with the performance metrics is based at least on an identification of the client device;
isolating an external network performance issue from a CDN performance issue based at least on the enriched performance metrics.

12 . The content delivery network of claim 11 wherein the content server comprises a transmission control protocol (TCP) socket in communication with the client device established by the content server in response to the content request from the client device.

13 . The content delivery network of claim 11 wherein the content request performance metrics comprises an indication of a number of packet losses during the processing of the content request.

14 . The content delivery network of claim 11 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 a requested content.

15 . The content delivery network of claim 14 wherein the content request performance metrics further comprise the RTT indication less than a measured timing delay at a socket buffer from network back pressure on the socket buffer during the processing of the content request.

16 . The content delivery network of claim 11 wherein the identification of the client device comprises an Internet Protocol (IP) address associated with the client device and included in the content request from the client device.

17 . The content delivery network of claim 16 wherein the received enrichment information comprises an estimated geographical location of the client device based on the IP address associated with the client device.

18 . The content delivery network of claim 11 wherein the identification of the client device comprises an identification of an access network through which the client device communicates with the content server.

19 . The content delivery network of claim 18 wherein the received enrichment information comprises an estimated geographical location of the access network based on the identification of the access network.

20 . The content delivery network of claim 11 wherein the identification of the client device comprises an identification of a resolver device for the client device and the received enrichment information comprises an estimated geographical location of the resolver device based on the identification of the resolver device.

Assignees

• Level 3 Communications Llc

Inventors

• Hopkins William
• Power William R

Classifications

• H04L43/0864

  Round trip delays · CPC title

• H04L43/0829

  Packet loss · CPC title

• H04L41/142 Primary

  using statistical or mathematical methods · CPC title

• H04L41/12

  Discovery or management of network topologies · CPC title

• H04L41/5038 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic