Content delivery methods and systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9503333-B2
Application number	US-201414454608-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 7, 2014
Priority date	Aug 8, 2013
Publication date	Nov 22, 2016
Grant date	Nov 22, 2016

Abstract

Aspects of the present disclosure involve provisioning customers of an aggregator, such as a reseller, of a content delivery network (CDN). In one aspect, content requests to the CDN are processed in accordance with the virtual IP (VIP) address at which the request was received, according to a property template bound to the VIP where the template is selected by the customer and only involves discrete parameters for the reseller. In another aspect, cache fills of the network are processed without direct knowledge of the customer origin through a combination of some request attribute, e.g., alias host of the customer, and an attribute of the reseller to make a DNS request to a name server outside the CDN. Another aspect involves receiving a property template selection, an origin and an alias from a customer of the reseller, and providing appropriate DNS entries to validate the customer and provide origin information to the CDN.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of managing content delivery in a computer network comprising:
receiving, at a virtual IP address of a content delivery network, a content request for content of a customer of an aggregator of services of the content delivery network;
identifying an attribute of the content request, the attribute used by the aggregator of services to identify the customer; and
combining the attribute with a fill template associated with the virtual IP address, the combination used to identify an origin of the content, a record of the origin stored outside the content delivery network.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the content request is an HTTP request and the attribute is a host header of the HTTP request.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the virtual IP address is associated with a property template defining property parameters associated with processing the content request, the property template being associated with the aggregator of services of the content delivery network.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the combination of the host header with the fill template provides a uniform resource locator to a canonical name (CNAME) established by the aggregator, the CNAME providing the origin and implicitly verifying the customer of the aggregator.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the implicit verification of the customer is based on resolving a valid IP address of the origin for the content, where the resolution of the valid IP address is from the presence of the established CNAME record by the aggregator.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein the uniform resource locator comprises the host header and a domain of the aggregator of services of the content delivery network.

7. The method of claim 3 wherein the property template is selectable by the customer of the aggregator, the selection including identification of an origin and an alias of the origin, the alias of the origin provided for processing requests for content of the customer of the aggregator to be processed by the content delivery network.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the content request received at the virtual IP address is from resolving at least one CNAME record providing an association between an alias of the customer of the aggregator and the virtual IP address.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the content request received at the virtual IP address is from:
resolving a first CNAME record based on the content request being initially associated with the alias; and
resolving a second CNAME record associating the first CNAME record with the content delivery network, the second CNAME record resolving to the virtual IP address based on a binding of the virtual IP address with the property template.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein:
the first CNAME provides an association between the customer and the aggregator of services of the content delivery network; and
the second CNAME provides a binding between the customer and the aggregator of services of the content delivery network and the virtual IP address of the content delivery network, the virtual IP address assigned to the aggregator of the services of the content delivery network to process content requests.

11. The method of claim 3 wherein the property template is one of a discrete plurality of property templates for the aggregator, each property template defining a discrete plurality of property configurations.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the discrete plurality of property configurations include at least one of a delivery region, a cache control setting, a domain protocol, an origin protocol, a query string setting and a geo-blocking.

13. The method of claim 2 further comprising recording one or more metrics for the customer of the aggregator of services of the content delivery network, the one or more metrics based on the host header and the virtual IP address, where the host header relates to the customer and the virtual IP address relates to the aggregator.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the one or more metrics comprise an identification of the customer of the aggregator and usage data for the identified customer.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising transmitting to the aggregator a file including the one or more metrics.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the aggregator is a reseller.

17. A non-transitory computer readable media comprising computer executable instructions to perform a method of managing content delivery in a computer network comprising:
receiving, at a virtual IP address of a content delivery network, a content request for content of a customer of an aggregator of services of the content delivery network;
identifying an attribute of the content request, the attribute used by the aggregator of services to identify the customer; and
combining the attribute with a fill template associated with the virtual IP address, the combination used to identify an origin of the content, a record of the origin stored outside the content delivery network.

18. The non-transitory computer readable media of claim 17 wherein the content request is an HTTP request and the attribute is a host header of the HTTP request.

19. The non-transitory computer readable media of claim 18 wherein the virtual IP address is associated with a property template defining property parameters associated with processing the content request, the property template being associated with the aggregator of services of the content delivery network.

20. The non-transitory computer readable media of claim 19 wherein the combination of the host header with the fill template provides a uniform resource locator to a canonical name (CNAME) established by the aggregator, the CNAME providing the origin and implicitly verifying the customer of the aggregator.

21. The non-transitory computer readable media of claim 20 wherein the implicit verification of the customer is based on resolving a valid IP address of the origin for the content, where the resolution of the valid IP address is from the presence of the established CNAME record by the aggregator.

22. The non-transitory computer readable media of claim 20 wherein the uniform resource locator comprises the host header and a domain of the aggregator of services of the content delivery network.

23. The non-transitory computer readable media of claim 19 wherein the property template is selectable by the customer of the aggregator, the selection including identification of an origin and an alias of the origin, the alias of the origin provided for processing requests for content of the customer of the aggregator to be processed by the content delivery network.

24. The non-transitory computer readable media of claim 17 wherein the content request received at the virtual IP address is from resolving at least one CNAME record providing an association between an alias of the customer of the aggregator and the virtual IP address.

25. The non-transitory computer readable media of claim 23 wherein the content request received at the virtual IP address is from:
resolving a first CNAME record based on the content request being initially associated with the alias; and
resolving a second CNAME record associating the first CNAME record with the content delivery network, the second CNAME record resolving to the virtual IP address based on a binding of the virtual IP address with the property template.

26. The non-transit

Assignees

• Level 3 Communications Llc

Inventors

• Newton Christopher

Classifications

• G06F40/186

  Templates · CPC title

• H04L41/50 Primary

  Network service management, e.g. ensuring proper service fulfilment according to agreements · CPC title

• H04L67/06

  specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP] · CPC title

• H04L47/82

  Miscellaneous aspects · CPC title

• G06Q20/123

  Shopping for digital content · CPC title