Content delivery network

• US 10,432,708 B2
• Filed: 03/28/2017
• Issued: 10/01/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/10/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vimmi Communications Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Vimmi Communications Ltd.
• Inventors: Sherf, Amnon, Mashnitsky, Max, Spiegel, Ehud
• Primary Examiner(s): Joo, Joshua
• Application Number:
  US15/470,962
• Publication Number:
  US 20170201571A1
• Time in Patent Office: 917 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0852 Delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0888 Throughput
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4511 using domain name system [DNS]
• 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 67/1008 based on parameters of servers, e.g. available memory or workload monitoring of computer activity G06F11/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1029 using data related to the state of servers by a load balancer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• 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 21/20 Servers specifically adapted for the distribution of content, e.g. VOD servers; Operations thereof

Abstract

A content delivery system comprising one or more one management servers comprising one or more processors for executing a code of one or more management agent instances. The code comprising code instructions to monitor a plurality of delivery servers of a distributed network to update dynamically a content record listing a plurality of content objects according to availability parameter(s) of each delivery server, code instructions to receive a content request from (user) client device to retrieve requested content object(s), code instructions to select preferred delivery server(s) from the delivery servers to provide the requested content object(s) to the client device according to analysis of the availability parameter(s) of each delivery server and code instructions to provide the client device with an IP address of the selected delivery server(s) to allow the client device to retrieve the requested content object(s) via a transmission session established with the selected delivery server(s).

Claims

1. A content delivery system, comprising:

a distributed content delivery network (CDN) segmented to a plurality of segments, each of said plurality of segments comprising;

at least one edge server;

at least one access point providing access for at least one client device to said distributed CDN; and

a plurality of delivery servers deployed in said each segment to deliver content objects to said at least one client device;

wherein each respective edge server of each respective segment of said plurality of segments comprising at least one processor for executing a code of at least one management agent, said code comprising;

code instructions to monitor continuously a plurality of delivery servers deployed in said respective segment to update constantly a first content record locally stored by said respective edge server and listing a plurality of content objects, each of said plurality of content objects is associated in said first content record with at least one availability parameter indicative of availability of said each content object from at least one of said plurality of delivery servers deployed in said respective segment,

code instructions to receive, through said at least one access point, a content request from said at least one client device to retrieve at least one requested content object of said plurality of content objects,

code instructions to select, according to an analysis of said at least one availability parameter associated with said at least one requested content object in said first content record, a preferred delivery server from said plurality of delivery servers deployed in said respective segment to provide said at least one requested content object to said at least one client device, and

code instructions to provide an internet protocol (IP) address of said preferred delivery server to said at least one client device, and

wherein said preferred delivery server comprising at least one processor for executing a code of at least one delivery agent, said code comprising;

code instructions to monitor continuously said plurality of delivery servers deployed in said respective segment to update constantly a second content record locally stored by the preferred delivery server,

code instructions to receives said content request from said at least one client device which uses said IP address to establish a transmission session with said preferred delivery server to retrieve said at least one requested content object, and

code instructions to provide said at least one requested content object to said at least one client device such that in case said at least one requested content object is not stored locally by said preferred delivery server said preferred delivery server fetches said at least one requested content object from at least another one of said plurality of delivery servers, said at least another one delivery server is identified according to an analysis of said second content record.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said first content record further comprising said at least one availability parameter indicates said availability of said each content object from at least one delivery server deployed in at least one another segment of said plurality of segments.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said code of the at least one management agent further comprising code instructions to communicate over a networked data grid with a plurality of delivery agents each executed by a respective one of said plurality of delivery servers, each of said plurality of delivery agents reports to said at least one management agent a dynamically updated local content record listing at least a subset of said plurality of content objects available by said respective delivery server.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein said at least one requested content object is a member selected from a group consisting of:

a data object, a media object, a text object, a video object, an audio object and a combination of any two or more members thereof,

wherein said at least one requested content object is identified by a content type, a content object identification record and at least one content characteristic of said at least one requested content object, and wherein said first content record is a member selected from a group consisting of a list, a table, a database and a combination of any two or more members thereof.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of said plurality of delivery servers is utilized by an edge server deployed in said respective segment to provide said at least one client device an access to at least one of a plurality of services provided through said distributed CDN.

6. The system of claim 3, wherein each of said plurality of content objects listed in said first content record is identified by a content type, a content object identification record and at least one content characteristic of said each content object.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein said at least one availability parameter indicates at least one of:

a latency for retrieving said at least one requested content object, an availability of network resources, an availability of storage resources, an availability of computing resources and a workload level.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein said at least one availability parameter indicates an accessibility to said at least one requested content object, said accessibility indicates that said at least one requested content object is available to a respective one of said plurality of delivery servers from at least one of:

a local storage, a content provider origin server, a remote server and a shared storage.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein said code of the at least one management agent comprising code instructions to adjust a routing map of a Domain Naming system (DNS) server serving said distributed CDN in order to direct said content request to said at least one edge server.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein said code of the at least one management agent further comprising code instruction to support at least some functionality to resolve said interact protocol (IP) address.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein said preferred delivery server is estimated to present a best performance among said plurality of delivery servers for providing said at least one requested content object, wherein said best performance is evaluated based on at least one performance criterion selected from a group consisting of:

latency, a size of a Link Aggregation Group (LAG), throughput, quality of service (QoS), network utilization, storage utilization and cost.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein said at least one management agent is informed of at least one new content object by dynamically monitoring in real time at least one origin server providing said at least one new content object.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein said code of the at least one management agent further comprising code instructions to instruct launching of at least one additional management agent for managing a plurality of additional content requests in case said at least one management agent is overloaded.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein said code of the at least one management agent further comprising code instructions to instruct launching of at least one additional delivery server for serving said at least one client device in case a plurality of delivery servers used for said selection of said preferred delivery server are overloaded.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of said plurality of delivery servers performs as said edge server executing said at least one management agent.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein said code of the at least one management agent further comprising code instructions to select said preferred delivery server according to at least one of a group consisting of:

at least one future availability parameter of each of said plurality of delivery servers based on an analysis of a content consumption pattern, at least one characteristic of a user using said at least one client device, and at least one operational characteristic of said at least one client device.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein said code of the at least one management agent further comprising code instructions to select said preferred delivery server from a plurality of 3^rd party delivery servers available from at least one other content delivery vendor.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein said preferred delivery server is capable of providing a plurality of alternative content objects to said at least one requested content object to allow said at least one client device to select a desired alternative from said plurality of alternative content objects according to said at least one operational characteristic of said at least one client device.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein said code of the at least one management agent further comprising code instructions to select said preferred delivery server to provide an adjusted content object in response to said content request, a network bandwidth required to retrieve said adjusted content Object is adapted according to network resources available to said preferred delivery server and said at least one client device.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein said code of the at least one management agent further comprising code instructions to direct said client device to re-issue said content request in order to establish said transmission session with another delivery server of said plurality of delivery servers for retrieving said at least one requested content in case said at least one management agent evaluates that said another delivery server is expected to present better performance than said preferred delivery server for providing said at least one requested content object, wherein said evaluation results from a change in said at least one availability parameter of said preferred delivery server that degrades a performance of said preferred delivery server or from a change in a geographical location of said at least one client device.

21. The system of claim 1, wherein said content request is one of a plurality of content requests and said code of the at least one management agent further comprising code instructions to employ at least one learning mechanism to identify at least one content consumption pattern by analyzing said plurality of content requests, wherein said at least one content consumption pattern is used for at least one of:

selection of said preferred delivery server, management of said at least one availability parameter of said plurality of content objects.

22. The system of claim 1, wherein said code of the at least one management agent further comprising code instructions to select said preferred delivery server to provide a represented content object in response to said content request, said represented content object is manipulated in at least one mode selected from a group consisting of:

including an additional content coupled with said at least one requested content object, overlaying said at least one requested content object with at least one overlaid content object and replacing said at least one requested content object with at least one replacement content object.

23. A computer implemented method of delivering content in a distributed content delivery network (CDN), comprising:

using at least one processor of at least one edge server deployed in each of a plurality of segments constituting said distributed CDN, said each segment comprising at least one access point providing access for at least one client device to said distributed CDN; and

using at least one processor of at least one of a plurality of delivery servers deployed in each of said plurality of segments to deliver content objects to said at least one client device;

wherein said at least one processor of a respective edge server of a respective segment is used for;

monitoring a plurality of delivery servers deployed in said each segment to update dynamically in real time a first content record locally stored by the at least one edge server and listing a plurality of content objects, each of said plurality of content objects is associated in said first content record with at least one availability parameter indicative of availability of said each content object from at least one of said plurality of delivery servers,

receiving, through said at least one access point, a content request from at least one client device to retrieve at least one requested content object of said plurality of content objects,

selecting, according to an analysis of said at least one availability parameter associated with said at least one requested content object in said first content record, a preferred delivery server from said plurality of delivery servers deployed in said respective segment to provide said at least one requested content object to said at least one client device, and

providing an internet protocol (IP) address of said preferred delivery server to said at least one client device; and

wherein said at least one processor of said preferred delivery server is used for;

monitoring continuously said plurality of delivery servers to update constantly a second content record locally stored by the preferred delivery server,

receiving said content request from said at least one client device which uses said IP address to establish a transmission session with said preferred delivery server to retrieve said at least one requested content object, and

providing said at least one requested content object to said at least one client device such that in case said at least one requested content object is not stored locally by said preferred delivery server said preferred delivery server fetches said at least one requested content object from at least another one of said plurality of delivery servers identified according to an analysis of said second content record.