Media resource storage and management

• US 10,255,229 B2
• Filed: 01/03/2012
• Issued: 04/09/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/24/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Level 3 Communications LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Level 3 Communications LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Crowder, William, Koller, Jeffrey, Fullagar, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Perez-Velez, Rocio Del Mar
• Application Number:
  US13/342,522
• Publication Number:
  US 20120102181A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,653 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/16 Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs coordinating program control therefor G06F9/52; in regulating and control system G05B
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/173 using an interconnection network, e.g. matrix, shuffle, pyramid, star, snowflake
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/10 File systems; File servers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/16 File or folder operations, e.g. details of user interfaces specifically adapted to file systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• 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: H04N 21/00 Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD] real-time bi-directional transmission of motion video data H04N7/14 ; broadcast or conference over packet switching networks H04L12/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2225 Local VOD servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2312 Data placement on disk arrays data placement in general G06F3/0604
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23439 for generating different versions
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2408 Monitoring of the upstream path of the transmission network, e.g. client requests monitoring data switching networks utilization H04L43/0876; scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/60

Abstract

Provided are computer-implemented methods and systems for performing media resource storage and management. The computer-implemented method and system implemented as a request manager is capable of monitoring requests for media resources in a content delivery network. For each monitored request, the request manager determines whether to generate a multifile for the requested media resource. For example, the request manager can first determine whether the media resource is eligible for multifile generation. If eligible, the request manager then determines whether the media resource has reached a popularity threshold. If the media resource has reached the popularity threshold, the request manager initiates generation of the multifile for the requested media resource. Generally, the generated multifile is stored in a storage system associated with the content delivery network.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for reducing disk read time in a cache server, the method comprising:

determining that resources are eligible to be grouped into a common file when a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) associated with the resources matches a regular expression, wherein the resources comprise portions of a media object having a sequential relationship among the resources;

determining that the resources exceed a popularity threshold;

at the cache server, iteratively requesting the resources to be grouped into the common file;

building, based on determining that the resources are eligible to be grouped into the common file and that the resources exceed the popularity threshold, the common file as a contiguous grouping of the requested resources according to the sequential relationship among the resources; and

initiating at least part of the common file to be served by reading at least some of the requested resources from the common file in a contiguous manner,

wherein the common file is associated with metadata that comprises a pointer to the common file, an offset to the requested resources within the common file, and a size of the resources within the common file.

2. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein building the common file as a contiguous grouping causes the requested resources to be read from a disk associated with the cache server.

3. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein the requested resources are obtained from at least one of an origin server or an intermediate server in a content delivery network.

4. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein the requested resources comprise video content having various resolutions, the requested resources being served to an end user that requested the video content.

5. A cache server operable to reduce disk read time by performing the steps of:

determining that resources are eligible to be grouped into a common file when a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) associated with the resources matches a regular expression, wherein the resources comprise portions of a media object having a sequential relationship among the resources;

determining that the resources exceed a popularity threshold;

iteratively requesting the resources to be grouped into the common file;

building, based on determining that the resources are eligible to be grouped into the common file and that the resources exceed the popularity threshold, the common file as a contiguous grouping of the requested resources according to the sequential relationship among the resources; and

initiating at least part of the common file to be served by reading at least some of the requested resources from the common file in a contiguous manner,

wherein the common file is associated with metadata that comprises a pointer to the common file, an offset to the requested resources within the common file, and a size of the resources within the common file.

6. A cache server as recited in claim 5, wherein the step of building the common file as a contiguous grouping causes the requested resources to be read from a disk associated with the cache server.

7. A cache server as recited in claim 5, wherein the requested resources are obtained from at least one of an origin server or an intermediate server in a content delivery network.

8. A cache server as recited in claim 5, wherein the requested resources comprise video content having various resolutions, the requested resources being served to an end user that requested the video content.