Responsibility-based cache peering

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9686148-B2
Application number	US-201313802366-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 13, 2013
Priority date	Dec 13, 2012
Publication date	Jun 20, 2017
Grant date	Jun 20, 2017

Abstract

A computer-implemented method, operable in a network comprising multiple delivery service endpoints running on a plurality of devices. Each delivery service endpoint delivers resources. A plurality of the multiple delivery service endpoints comprise a group, each node in the group having at least one kind of responsibility relating to delivery of resources. The method includes receiving, at the node, a request relating to a particular resource. The kind of responsibility the node has for the request is determined based on at least one kind responsibility assigned to the node for requests relating to the particular resource. Based on the determining, an attempt is made to process the request in accordance with kind responsibility assigned to the node for requests relating to the particular resource.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. A computer-implemented method, in a content delivery (CD) network (CDN) comprising multiple delivery service endpoints running on a plurality of devices, each of said delivery service endpoints constructed and adapted to deliver resources on behalf of one or more content providers, a plurality of said multiple delivery service endpoints comprising a group, wherein each node in said group has at least one kind of responsibility relating to delivery of resources, the method comprising:
(A) receiving, at said node, a request relating to a particular resource;
(B) determining what kind of responsibility said node has for said request, said determining being based on at least one kind of responsibility assigned to said node for requests relating to said particular resource, wherein the kind of responsibility the node has for the particular resource is defined in a policy associated with the particular resource, wherein the policy is defined for a group of resources, wherein the group of resources comprises a property, wherein a property comprises one or more resources associated with a particular content provider of said one or more content providers and delivered by the CDN on behalf of the particular content provider; and
(C) based on said determining in (B), attempting to process said request in accordance with kind responsibility assigned to said node for requests relating to said particular resource,
wherein the policy is based on one or more of: cacheability, and size of the resource; and
wherein the kind of responsibility that can be assigned to a node is taken from a discrete set of responsibilities comprising of: non responsible, cache responsible, and fill responsible; and
wherein there is a responsibility set corresponding to each kind of responsibility in said discrete set of responsibilities, and wherein each node in the group is assigned to at least one responsibility set.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said determining what kind of responsibility said node has for said request in (B) comprises:
(B)(1) determining said node's membership in said responsibility sets.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein:
(i) said node is determined to be non-responsible for said request when said node is in the non-responsible set for said particular resource; and
(ii) said node is determined to be cache-responsible for said request when said node is in the cache-responsible set for said particular resource; and
(iii) said node is determined to be fill-responsible for said request when said node is in the fill-responsible set for said particular resource.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein each resource is assigned a resource type and wherein said attempting to process in (C) is also based on a resource type of said particular resource.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein each resource is assigned a resource type from a discrete set of resource policy types comprising the types: rejectable, redirectable, and servable, and wherein said attempting to process in (C) is also based on a resource type of said particular resource.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein, when
(i) it is determined that said node is not responsible for said resource, and
(ii) said resource policy type indicates that said request is rejectable,
said attempting to process said request in (C) comprises:
(D)(0) said node rejecting said request.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein, when:
(i) it is determined that no node in said group has responsibility for said request, and
(ii) said resource policy type indicates that said request is redirectable,
said attempting to process said request in (C) comprises:
(D)(1) redirecting the request to a remote fill target outside the group.

8. The method of claim 5 wherein each resource of the type servable has a sub-type selected from the group consisting of: cacheable and non-cacheable, and wherein, when:
(i) it is determined that no node in said group has responsibility for said request, and
(ii) said resource policy type indicates that said request is servable, and
(iii) said resource sub-type indicates that said resource is non-cacheable,
said attempting to process said request in (C) comprises:
(D)(2) proxying the request to a remote fill target outside the group.

9. The method of claim 5 wherein each resource of the type servable has a sub-type selected from the group consisting of: cacheable and non-cacheable, and wherein, when
(i) said resource policy type indicates that said request is servable, and
(ii) said resource sub-type indicates that said resource is cacheable, and
(iii) it is determined that said node is not cache-responsible or fill-responsible for said request,
said attempting to process said request in (C) comprises:
(D)(3) proxying the request to a cache-responsible node of the group.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein said attempting in (C) comprises said proxying in (D)(3) when:
(iv) said particular resource is not in a cache of said node.

11. The method of claim 5 wherein each resource of the type servable has a sub-type selected from the group consisting of: cacheable and non-cacheable, and wherein, when:
(i) said resource policy type indicates that said request is servable, and
(ii) said resource sub-type indicates that said resource is cacheable, and
(iii) it is determined that said node is not cache-responsible or fill-responsible for said request,
said attempting to process said request in (C) comprises:
(D)(4) transferring the request to a cache-responsible node of the group.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein said attempting in (C) comprises said proxying in (D)(3) when:
(iv) said particular resource is not in a cache of said node.

13. The method of claim 5 wherein each resource of the type servable has a sub-type selected from the group consisting of: cacheable and non-cacheable, and wherein, when:
(i) said resource policy type indicates that said request is servable, and
(ii) said resource sub-type indicates that said resource is cacheable, and
(iii) it is determined that said node is cache-responsible and not fill-responsible for said request, and
(iv) said particular resource is not in a cache of said node,
said attempting to process said request in (C) comprises:
(D)(5) attempting to obtain the resource from a fill-responsible node of the group.

14. The method of claim 5 wherein each resource of the type servable has a sub-type selected from the group consisting of: cacheable and non-cacheable, and wherein, when:
(i) said resource policy type indicates that said request is servable, and
(ii) said resource sub-type indicates that said resource is cacheable, and
(iii) it is determined that said node is fill-responsible for said request, and
(iii) said particular resource is not in a cache of said node,
said attempting to process said request in (C) comprises:
(D)(6) attempting to obtain the resource from a remote fill target outside the group.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein a number of cache-responsible nodes for a resource is set based on a measure of popularity of the resource.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein said attempting to process in (C) is based on at least one of:
(i) whether said node is considered to be non-responsible for said resource,
(ii) whether said node is considered to be cache-responsible for said resource, and
(iii) whether said node is considered to be fill-responsible for said resource.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein said attempting to process in (C) is also based on whether said resource is considered to be

Assignees

• Level 3 Communications Llc

Inventors

• Varney Lewis Robert
• Lipstone Laurence R
• Crowder William
• Swart Andrew
• Newton Christopher

Classifications

• H04L67/06

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

• G06F15/173

  using an interconnection network, e.g. matrix, shuffle, pyramid, star, snowflake · CPC title

• H04L43/10

  Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route · CPC title

• G06F15/177

  Initialisation or configuration control {(processor initialisation G06F9/4405)} · CPC title

• H04L41/5041

  characterised by the time relationship between creation and deployment of a service · CPC title