End-to-end acceleration of dynamic content

• US 10,116,565 B2
• Filed: 04/21/2016
• Issued: 10/30/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Limelight Networks, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Limelight Networks, Inc.
• Inventors: Hofmann, Jason
• Primary Examiner(s): Lai, Andrew
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Chuong M
• Application Number:
  US14/999,296
• Publication Number:
  US 20170070432A1
• Time in Patent Office: 922 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/668 Internet protocol [IP] address subnets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/12 Avoiding congestion; Recovering from congestion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5007 Internet protocol [IP] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/563 Data redirection of data network streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5681 Pre-fetching or pre-delivering data based on network characteristics
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/14 Multichannel or multilink protocols

Abstract

A method of accelerating dynamic content between Points of Presence (POPs) and front-loading latency bottlenecks in a Content Delivery Network (CDN) may include receiving, at a first POP, a content request from a user device, where content responsive to the content request includes a first content portion that is not stored in the first POP. The method may also include determining that the first content portion is available through a second POP. The method may additionally include transmitting the first content portion through a persistent connection mesh from the second POP to the first POP, wherein the persistent connection mesh is maintained between the first POP and the second POP prior to the request for content being received by the first POP. The method may further include delivering the content responsive to the content request to the user device.

Claims

1. A system for accelerating content between Points of Presence (POPs) in a Content Delivery Network (CDN), comprising:

a first POP in the CDN configured to receive a content request from a user device, wherein;

the first POP comprises a first plurality of edge servers that store and distribute content in response to user requests; and

content responsive to the content request comprises a first content portion that is not stored in the first POP;

a second POP in the CDN, wherein the second POP comprises a second plurality of edge servers that store and distribute content in response to user requests, and the first content portion is available through the second POP; and

a persistent connection mesh between the first POP and the second POP, wherein;

the persistent connection mesh is maintained between the first POP and the second POP prior to the content request being received by the first POP; and

the first content portion is transmitted through the persistent connection mesh from the second POP to the first POP.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the persistent connection mesh comprises a first connection, and wherein the first connection is at least one of refreshed or renewed in response to the first connection becoming at least one of stale or unreliable.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the content portion comprises dynamic content.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the content portion comprises static content.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the content portion is retrieved from an origin server through the second POP.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the content portion responsive to the content request comprises static content stored in the first POP.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the first POP comprises a concentration server to maintain the persistent connection mesh.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the concentration server of the first POP aggregates requests of the edge servers of the first POP and transmits them to the second POP.

9. A system for accelerating uncached content between Points of Presence (POPs) in a Content Delivery Network (CDN), the system comprising:

a first POP comprising a first plurality of edge servers in the CDN configured to receive a content request from a user device;

a second POP comprising a second plurality of edge servers in the CDN; and

a connection between the first POP and the second POP, wherein;

the connection is available between the first POP and the second POP prior to the content request being received by the first POP;

a content portion is transmitted through the connection from the second POP to the first POP in response to the content request; and

the connection is pre-warmed to increase the congestion window.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the content portion comprises static content.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the content portion comprises dynamic content.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the connection comprises a first connection, wherein the first connection is at least one of refreshed or renewed in response to the first connection becoming at least one of stale or unreliable.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the content portion is retrieved from an origin server through the second POP.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the content portion responsive to the content request comprises static content stored in the first POP.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein the first POP comprises a concentration server to maintain the connection.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the concentration server aggregates requests of the first plurality of edge servers and transmits them to the second POP.

17. A Content Delivery Network (CDN) for accelerating content, comprising:

an origin server communicating with a plurality of origin addresses; and

a Point of Presence (POP), comprising a plurality of edge servers, maintaining a connection with the origin server,

wherein the connection is pre-warmed to maximize a throughput of the connection,

wherein the POP is configured to receive a content request from a user device while the connection is maintained with at least a portion of the content request resulting in a cache miss, and

wherein the POP is configured to request the portion of the content request resulting in the cache miss from the origin server using the connection.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the content portion comprises dynamic content.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the content portion comprises static content.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the content portion is retrieved from an origin server through a second POP comprising a plurality of edge servers.