Method and system for providing content delivery to a set of participating content providers

• US 20030191822A1
• Filed: 04/17/2003
• Published: 10/09/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Daniel M. Lewin, Leighton, F. Thomson
• Original Assignee: Daniel M. Lewin, Leighton, F. Thomson
• Inventors: Leighton, F. Thomson, Lewin, Daniel M.
• Granted Patent: US 7,103,645 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2514 between local and global IP addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/30 Managing network names, e.g. use of aliases or nicknames name-to-address mapping H04L61/45
• 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 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10015 Access to distributed or replicated servers, e.g. using brokers
• 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 67/101 based on network conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1019 Random or heuristic server selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1021 based on client or server locations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1023 based on a hash applied to IP addresses or costs
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1029 using data related to the state of servers by a load balancer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1034 Reaction to server failures by a load balancer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/289 Intermediate processing functionally located close to the data consumer application, e.g. in same machine, in same home or in same sub-network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/563 Data redirection of data network streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/567 : Integrating service provisioning from a plurality of service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 : Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 : Network security protocols

Abstract

The present invention is a network architecture or framework that supports hosting and content distribution on a truly global scale. The inventive framework allows a Content Provider to replicate and serve its most popular content at an unlimited number of points throughout the world. The inventive framework comprises a set of servers operating in a distributed manner. The actual content to be served is preferably supported on a set of hosting servers (sometimes referred to as ghost servers). This content comprises HTML page objects that, conventionally, are served from a Content Provider site. In accordance with the invention, however, a base HTML document portion of a Web page is served from the Content Provider'"'"'s site while one or more embedded objects for the page are served from the hosting servers, preferably, those hosting servers near the client machine. By serving the base HTML document from the Content Provider'"'"'s site, the Content Provider maintains control over the content.

Claims

1. A method of content delivery wherein participating content providers identify content to be delivered by a service provider from a set of content servers associated with the service provider, wherein a given object of a participating content provider is associated with a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), comprising:

having the service provider establish a domain name system (DNS) having authority to resolve URLs associated with the objects identified by the participating content providers, the service provider'"'"'s domain name system having one or more DNS levels, wherein at least one DNS level comprises a set of one or more name servers;

for each of one or more participating content providers, delivering a given object on behalf of the participating content provider, wherein the given object is delivered by the following steps;

responsive to a DNS query, selecting a given one of the name servers in the service provider'"'"'s domain name system, wherein the selection of the given one of the name servers includes the following sub-steps when the service provider domain name system has a set of levels;

(i) having a name server in a given level select a name server in a next succeeding level; and

(ii) repeating sub-step (i) until the given one of the name servers is selected;

at the given one of the name servers in the service provider'"'"'s domain name system, resolving given data in the URL to an IP address, wherein the given data is resolved by the name server without reference to a filename for the given object;

at a server associated with the IP address, the server being one of the set of content servers associated with the service provider, receiving a request for the given object, the request having the filename associated therewith;

determining whether the given object is available for delivery from the server associated with the IP address; and

if the given object is available for delivery from the server associated with the IP address, serving the given object.

2. The method as described in claim 1 wherein the step of delivering the given object further includes the steps of:

if the given object is not available for delivery from the server associated with the IP address, fetching the given object from a server associated with the participating content provider, serving the given object from the server associated with the IP address, and selectively caching the given object at the server associated with the IP address so that the given object remains available to be served for a given time period to another requesting end user.

3. The method as described in claim 1 wherein the name server in the next succeeding level is closer to a requesting end user than the name server in the given level.

4. The method as described in claim 1 wherein the name server in the next succeeding level is selected based on network traffic conditions.

5. The method as described in claim 1 wherein the DNS query originates from a client local name server.

6. A system operative in a computer network in which users of client machines normally connect to content provider servers, comprising:

a set of servers associated with a service provider distinct from a set of participating content providers, the set of servers associated with the service provider being distinct from the content provider servers, wherein a given one of the set of servers is available for selectively obtaining content identified by a participating content provider if that content is not available at the server, for serving the content in response to an end user request, and for caching the content for a given time period for subsequent delivery during that given time period in response to a subsequent end user request; and

a domain name subsystem (DNS) operated by the service provider and having authority to associate DNS queries received from local name servers associated with the client machines with the set of servers, wherein the domain name subsystem has one or more DNS levels, wherein at least one DNS level comprises a set of one or more name servers, wherein at least one name server has a map that is updated periodically based on network conditions and that is used to associate the DNS queries with the set of servers.

7. The system as described in claim 6 wherein a given server associated with the server provider hosts content from a set of participating content providers.

8. The system as described in claim 6 wherein name servers in the domain name subsystem are arranged in a hierarchy of levels, and wherein a name server in a given level selects a name server in a next succeeding level of the hierarchy, and wherein as compared to the name server in the given level, the name server in the next succeeding level is closer to a given local name server from which a given DNS query originates.

9. The system as described in claim 6 wherein the map comprises a list of Internet Protocol (IP) blocks.

10. The system as described in claim 6 wherein a given content provider server serves a given markup language page having a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) associated with the content identified by the participating content provider.

11. The system as described in claim 6 wherein at least some of the set of servers are located at given network access points.

12. The system as described in claim 6 wherein at least some of the set of servers are located at given Internet Points of Presence.