Cache hinting systems

• US 10,594,827 B1
• Filed: 03/24/2017
• Issued: 03/17/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ViaSat Incorporated
• Original Assignee: ViaSat Incorporated
• Inventors: Lepeska, Peter
• Primary Examiner(s): Hussain, Imad
• Application Number:
  US15/469,006
• Time in Patent Office: 1,089 Days
• Field of Search: 709203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/6028 Prefetching based on hints or prefetch instructions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• 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 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/564 Enhancement of application control based on intercepted application data
• 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 69/22 Parsing or analysis of headers

Abstract

The present invention relates to systems, apparatus, and methods for improving web transactions using cache hints. In various embodiments, cache hints may be information for optimizing and extending the use of cached objects based on web transaction information from system users. This may enable indirect updates to caching directives, and may allow a proxy to respond to If-None-Match or If-Modified-Since requests using information from cache hints instead of prefetched information from a content provider.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

requesting from a cache hinting system, by a computing device, cache hints associated with a web page transaction;

receiving, at the computing device, a cache hint response comprising cache hint information, the cache hint response comprising at least one message comprising cache hint information for a plurality of objects associated with the web page transaction;

in response to determining, based on the cache hint information, that a version of a first object of the plurality of objects having a stale state in a cache of a web browser executed by the computing device is fresh, updating the first object from the stale state to a fresh state; and

obtaining the first object from the cache as a part of the web page transaction.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying, by the computing device, a web page associated with the web page transaction prior to requesting the cache hint information.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising rendering, by the computing device, the web page using at least the first object from the cache based at least in part on the cache hint information.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising transmitting web transaction information to the cache hinting system, the web transaction information based on the rendering of the web page by the computing device and comprising cache information indicating a use of the cache hint information in rendering the web page.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first object was stored in the cache based on a caching instruction defining a freshness period for the first object.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the cache hint information comprise updated caching instructions, the updated caching instructions defining an updated freshness period for the first object.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the updated freshness period is based on an observation of the version of the first object by one or more user devices or proxy devices.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a cache hint from the cache hint information for a second object of the plurality of objects, the second object having a stale state in the cache and the cache hint indicating that the second object is stale; and

based on the cache hint, requesting an updated version of the second object from a content server to replace the second object in the cache.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising intercepting, by the computing device, a cache validation request, and wherein the requesting the cache hints is responsive to intercepting the cache validation request.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the cache hint information comprises a hint for a temporary web object, the temporary web object identified as non-cacheable by a caching instruction and useable for a specified duration, the hint comprising an updated specified duration longer than the specified duration.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the cache hint information includes an object identifier and hint freshness information for an object corresponding to the object identifier, the hint freshness information based on usage data observed at one or more user devices or one or more proxy devices, and the updating the version of the first object comprising:

determining that the object identifier corresponds to the version of the first object; and

responsive to determining that the hint freshness information is different from cached freshness information for the version of the first object, replacing the cached freshness information with the hint freshness information.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein:

the cached freshness information comprises a freshness lifetime for the version of the first object;

the hint freshness information comprises an extended freshness lifetime greater than the freshness lifetime, and

replacing the cached freshness information with the hint freshness information comprises replacing the freshness lifetime with the extended freshness lifetime.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the cache hint information comprises an age of a last instance of the version of the first object detected by one or more user devices or proxy devices based on usage data observed at one or more of the user devices or one or more proxy devices.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the cache hint information comprises a time since a last instance of the version of the first object was detected by one or more user devices or proxy devices based on usage data observed at one or more of the user devices or proxy devices.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing device comprises one of a client computing device or a proxy device.

16. A system comprising:

a non-transitory computer-readable medium; and

a processor in communication with the non-transitory computer-readable medium, the processor configured to execute processor-executable instructions stored in the non-transitory computer-readable medium to;

request, from a cache hinting system, cache hints associated with a web page transaction;

receive a cache hint response comprising cache hint information, the cache hint response comprising at least one message comprising cache hint information for a plurality of objects associated with the web page transaction;

in response to a determination, based on the cache hint information, that a version of a first object of the plurality of objects having a stale state in a cache of a web browser is fresh, updating the first object from a stale state to a fresh state; and

obtain the first object from the cache as a part of the web page transaction.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the first object was stored in the cache based on a caching instruction defining a freshness period for the first object.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the cache hint information comprises updated caching instructions, the updated caching instructions defining an updated freshness period for the first object.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the updated freshness period is based on an observation of the version of the first object by one or more user devices or proxy devices.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the cache hint information includes an object identifier and hint freshness information for an object corresponding to the object identifier, the hint freshness information based on usage data observed at one or more user devices or one or more proxy devices, and wherein the processor is further configured to execute processor-executable instructions stored in the non-transitory computer-readable medium to update the version of the first object in the cache by:

determining that the object identifier corresponds to the version of the first object; and

responsive to a determination that the hint freshness information is different from cached freshness information for the version of the first object, replacing the cached freshness information with the hint freshness information.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein:

the cached freshness information comprises a freshness lifetime for the version of the first object;

the hint freshness information comprises an extended freshness lifetime greater than the freshness lifetime, and

replacing the cached freshness information with the hint freshness information comprises replacing the freshness lifetime with the extended freshness lifetime.

22. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising processor-executable instructions configured to cause a processor to:

request, from a cache hinting system, cache hints associated with a web page transaction;

receive a cache hint response comprising cache hint information, the cache hint response comprising at least one message comprising cache hint information for a plurality of objects associated with the web page transaction; and

in response to a determination that a version of a first object of the plurality of objects has a stale state in a cache of a web browser based on the cache hint information, prefetching the first object.

23. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 22, wherein the processor-executable instructions are further configured to cause the processor to:

identify the web page transaction for a web page prior to requesting the cache hints; and

wherein the cache hint information is associated with the web page transaction.

24. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 22, wherein the processor-executable instructions are further configured to cause the processor to:

render a web page using at least the first object from a computing device cache based at least in part on the cache hint information.

25. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 24, wherein the processor-executable instructions are further configured to cause the processor to:

identify the web page transaction for a web page prior to requesting the cache hints;

wherein the cache hint information are associated with the web page transaction.

26. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 25, wherein the processor-executable instructions are further configured to cause the processor to transmit web transaction information to the cache hinting system, the web transaction information based on the rendering of the web page and comprising cache information indicating a use of the cache hint information in rendering the web page.

27. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 22, wherein the first object was stored in the cache based on a caching instruction defining a freshness period for the first object.

28. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 27, wherein the cache hint information comprises updated caching instructions, the updated caching instructions defining an updated freshness period for the first object.

29. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 28, wherein the updated freshness period is based on an observation of the version of the first object by one or more user devices or proxy devices.

30. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 22, wherein the processor-executable instructions are further configured to cause the processor to:

identify a cache hint from the cache hint information for a second object of the plurality of objects, the second object having a stale state in the cache and the cache hint indicating that the second object is stale; and

based on the cache hint, request an updated version of the second object from a content server to replace the second object in the cache.

31. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 22, wherein the processor-executable instructions are further configured to cause the processor to intercept a cache validation request, and wherein the request for the cache hints is responsive to intercepting the cache validation request.

32. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 22, wherein the cache hint information comprises a hint for a temporary web object, the temporary web object identified as non-cacheable by a caching instruction and useable for a specified duration, the hint comprising an updated specified duration longer than the specified duration.

33. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 22, wherein the cache hint information includes an object identifier and hint freshness information for an object corresponding to the object identifier, the hint freshness information based on usage data observed at one or more user devices or one or more proxy devices, and wherein the processor-executable instructions are further configured to cause the processor to update the version of the first object in the cache by:

determining that the object identifier corresponds to the version of the first object; and

responsive to a determination that the hint freshness information is different from cached freshness information for the version of the first object, replacing the cached freshness information with the hint freshness information.

34. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 33, wherein:

the cached freshness information comprises a freshness lifetime for the version of the first object;

the hint freshness information comprises an extended freshness lifetime greater than the freshness lifetime, and

replacing the cached freshness information with the hint freshness information comprises replacing the freshness lifetime with the extended freshness lifetime.

35. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 22, wherein the cache hint information comprises an age of a last instance of the version of the first object detected by one or more user devices or proxy devices based on usage data observed at one or more of the user devices or one or more proxy devices.

36. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 22, wherein the cache hint information comprise a time since a last instance of the version of the first object was detected by one or more user devices or proxy devices based on usage data observed at one or more of the user devices or one or more proxy devices.