Centrally coordinated peer assignment

• US 10,212,222 B2
• Filed: 04/16/2013
• Issued: 02/19/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Conviva Inc.
• Original Assignee: Conviva Inc.
• Inventors: Stoica, Ion, Zhang, Hui, Mccanne, Steven R., Zhan, Jibin, Ganjam, Aditya R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bengzon, Greg C
• Application Number:
  US13/863,994
• Publication Number:
  US 20140025739A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,135 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/11 Identifying congestion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/101 based on network conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1042 using topology management mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1063 Discovery through centralising entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1085 involving dynamic management of active down- or uploading connections
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/632 using a connection between clients on a wide area network, e.g. setting up a peer-to-peer communication via Internet for retrieving video segments from the hard-disk of other client devices broadcast-related systems characterised by transmission among terminal devices H04H60/80; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104

Abstract

Delivering information over a distribution network using a distribution manager is disclosed. A first source peer is designated at the distribution manager to function as a first content source for a first destination peer. A second source peer is designated at the distribution manager to function as a second content source for a second destination peer. The designation at the distribution manager of the second source peer to function as a second content source for the second destination peer is dependent on an anticipated effect of the designation at the distribution manager of the first content source for the first destination peer.

Claims

1. A system, including:

one or more processors configured to;

evaluate, at a distribution manager, a distribution topology;

based at least in part on the evaluation of the distribution topology, determine a set of feasible source peers, wherein a feasible source peer is capable of serving at least a portion of content requested by a first destination peer;

access a set of content delivery policies stored in a data store;

determine, at least in part by evaluating the set of feasible source peers against the accessed set of content delivery policies, that designating a given source peer included in the set of feasible source peers to function as a content source for the first destination peer would violate at least one content delivery policy in the accessed set of content delivery policies, and in response, prune the given source peer from the feasible set of source peers, wherein evaluating the given source peer comprises applying content delivery policies in the set of content delivery policies in an order according to a ranking of the content delivery policies;

designate, at the distribution manager, a first source peer in the pruned set of feasible source peers to function as a first content source for the first destination peer; and

designate, at the distribution manager, a second source peer to function as a second content source for a second destination peer, wherein the second destination peer is configured to obtain, from the designated second source peer, at least a portion of content requested by the second destination peer; and

a memory coupled to the one or more processors and configured to provide the one or more processors with instructions.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the designation of the second source peer is based at least in part on an evaluation of an impact of designating the first source peer with respect to an implementation of a content delivery policy.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the set of content delivery policies comprises at least one of a network policy, a provider policy, a client policy, and an administrator specified policy.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the first source peer and the first destination peer are in an affinity group.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the designation of the first source peer occurs concurrently with the designation of the second source peer.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the designation of the first source peer occurs before the designation of the second source peer.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the first content source and the second content source are sources of portions of the same content.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the first content source and the second content source are sources of portions of different content.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the one or more processors are further configured to detect at least one of a change in a network condition and a policy change.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the one or more processors are further configured to determine that at least one change should be made to a first assignment and send an updated assignment to the first destination peer.

22. The system of claim 1 wherein the one or more processors are further configured to evaluate a feasibility of the first source peer to serve as a content source for the second destination peer given the designation of the first source peer.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein evaluating the feasibility of the first source peer is based at least in part on an available amount of uplink capacity of the first source peer given the designation of the first source peer.

24. The system of claim 1 wherein the one or more processors are further configured to evaluate, based at least in part on information associated with the first destination peer, a feasibility of the first destination peer to serve as a content source for the second destination peer.

25. The system of claim 24 wherein the information includes a network with which the first destination peer is associated.

30. The system of claim 1 wherein the designation of the first source peer is based at least in part on the designation, at the distribution manager, of the second source peer.

11. A method, including:

evaluating, at a distribution manager, a distribution topology;

based at least in part on the evaluation of the distribution topology, determining, using one or more processors, a set of feasible source peers, wherein a feasible source peer is capable of serving at least a portion of content requested by a first destination peer;

accessing a set of content delivery policies stored in a data store;

determining, at least in part by evaluating the set of feasible source peers against the accessed set of content delivery policies, that designating a given source peer included in the set of feasible source peers to function as a content source for the first destination peer would violate at least one content delivery policy in the accessed set of content delivery policies, and in response, pruning the given source peer from the feasible set of source peers, wherein evaluating the given source peer comprises applying content delivery policies in the set of content delivery policies in an order according to a ranking of the content delivery policies;

designating, at the distribution manager, a first source peer in the pruned set of feasible source peers to function as a first content source for the first destination peer; and

designating, at the distribution manager, a second source peer to function as a second content source for a second destination peer, wherein the second destination peer is configured to obtain, from the designated second source peer, at least a portion of content requested by the second destination peer.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the designation of the second source peer is based at least in part on an evaluation of an impact of designating the first source peer with respect to an implementation of a content delivery policy.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the set of content delivery policies comprises at least one of a network policy, a provider policy, a client policy, and an administrator specified policy.

14. The method of claim 11 wherein the first source peer and the first destination peer are in an affinity group.

15. The method of claim 11 wherein the designation of the first source peer occurs concurrently with the designation of-the second source peer.

16. The method of claim 11 wherein the designation of the first source peer occurs before the designation of the second source peer.

17. The method of claim 11 wherein the first content source and the second content source are sources of portions of the same content.

18. The method of claim 11 wherein the first content source and the second content source are sources of portions of different content.

19. The method of claim 11 further comprising detecting at least one of a change in a network condition and a policy change.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising determining that at least one change should be made to a first assignment and sending an updated assignment to the first destination peer.

26. The method of claim 11 further comprising evaluating a feasibility of the first source peer to serve as a content source for the second destination peer given the designation of the first source peer.

27. The method of claim 26 wherein evaluating the feasibility of the first source peer is based at least in part on an available amount of uplink capacity of the first source peer given the designation of the first source peer.

28. The method of claim 11 further comprising evaluating, based at least in part on information associated with the first destination peer, a feasibility of the first destination peer to serve as a content source for the second destination peer.

29. The method of claim 28 wherein the information includes a network with which the first destination peer is associated.

31. The method of claim 11 wherein the designation of the first source peer is based at least in part on the designation, at the distribution manager, of the second source peer.

21. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising computer instructions for:

evaluating, at a distribution manager and using one or more processors, a distribution topology;

based at least in part on the evaluation of the distribution topology, determining, using a set of one or more processors, a set of feasible source peers, wherein a feasible source peer is capable of serving at least a portion of content requested by a first destination peer;

accessing a set of content delivery policies stored in a data store;

determining, at least in part by evaluating the set of feasible source peers against the accessed set of content delivery policies, that designating a given source peer included in the set of feasible source peers to function as a content source for the first destination peer would violate at least one content delivery policy in the accessed set of content delivery policies, and in response, pruning the given source peer from the feasible set of source peers, wherein evaluating the given source peer comprises applying content delivery policies in the set of content delivery policies in an order according to a ranking of the content delivery policies;

designating, at the distribution manager, a first source peer in the pruned set of feasible source peers to function as a first content source for the first destination peer; and

designating, at the distribution manager, a second source peer to function as a second content source for a second destination peer, wherein the second destination peer is configured to obtain, from the designated second source peer, at least a portion of content requested by the second destination peer.