Content delivery network (CDN) content server request handling mechanism with metadata framework support
First Claim
1. A method operative in a content delivery network (CDN) wherein participating content providers identify content to be served from a set of CDN content servers in response to requests, wherein the CDN uses metadata to determine how a CDN content server will handle a request for a given object, comprising:
- establishing a framework for delivery of metadata to a given CDN content server either in-band or out-of-band;
at a given CDN content server, parsing a request for the given object and identifying a set of metadata; and
applying at least one precedence rule to the set of metadata to identify given metadata to be applied to the given content prior to serving a response to the request from the given CDN content server.
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Abstract
To serve content through a content delivery network (CDN), the CDN must have some information about the identity, characteristics and state of its target objects. Such additional information is provided in the form of object metadata, which according to the invention can be located in the request string itself, in the response headers from the origin server, in a metadata configuration file distributed to CDN servers, or in a per-customer metadata configuration file. CDN content servers execute a request identification and parsing process to locate object metadata and to handle the request in accordance therewith. Where different types of metadata exist for a particular object, metadata in a configuration file is overridden by metadata in a response header or request string, with metadata in the request string taking precedence.
428 Citations
16 Claims
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1. A method operative in a content delivery network (CDN) wherein participating content providers identify content to be served from a set of CDN content servers in response to requests, wherein the CDN uses metadata to determine how a CDN content server will handle a request for a given object, comprising:
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establishing a framework for delivery of metadata to a given CDN content server either in-band or out-of-band;
at a given CDN content server, parsing a request for the given object and identifying a set of metadata; and
applying at least one precedence rule to the set of metadata to identify given metadata to be applied to the given content prior to serving a response to the request from the given CDN content server. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A method operative in a content delivery network (CDN) wherein participating content providers identify content to be served from a set of CDN content servers in response to requests, wherein the CDN uses metadata to determine how a CDN content server will handle a request for a given object, comprising:
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delivering metadata to a given CDN content server in a configuration file;
at the given CDN content server, parsing a request for the given object and identifying the configuration file; and
overriding the configuration file with any in-band metadata associated with the request. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. In a content delivery network (CDN) wherein participating content providers identify content to be served from a set of CDN content servers in response to requests and the CDN uses metadata to determine how a CDN content server will handle the request, the improvement comprising:
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a framework for locating metadata for a given object in one or more of a set of data structures selected from the set of;
a request string, a response header, and a configuration file; and
a CDN surrogate origin server including code for parsing a request for an object, for identifying metadata associated with the object, and for applying the metadata to the object prior to serving the object in response to the request. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16)
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Specification