DISTRIBUTING REQUESTS ACROSS MULTIPLE CONTENT DELIVERY NETWORKS BASED ON SUBSCRIBER POLICY

• US 20080147866A1
• Filed: 10/31/2007
• Published: 06/19/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Level 3 Communications LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Level 3 Communications LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Brady, Mark, Hagberg, Aric, Koller, Jeffrey, Warren, Michael S., Yevmenkin, Maksim, Salmon, John K., Stolorz, Paul E., Pfitzner, David
• Granted Patent: US 9,203,636 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0631 using root cause analysis; using analysis of correlation between notifications, alarms or events based on decision criteria, e.g. hierarchy, tree or time analysis
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/069 using logs of notifications; Post-processing of notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0894 Policy-based network configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/00 Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/04 Processing captured monitoring data, e.g. for logfile generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/045 for graphical visualisation of monitoring data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/06 Generation of reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0811 by checking connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0852 Delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/12 Network monitoring probes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/35 involving non-standard use of addresses for implementing network functionalities, e.g. coding subscription information within the address or functional addressing, i.e. assigning an address to a function
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4511 using domain name system [DNS]
• 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 67/1008 based on parameters of servers, e.g. available memory or workload monitoring of computer activity G06F11/30
• 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 67/1031 : Controlling of the operation of servers by a load balancer, e.g. adding or removing servers that serve requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1034 : Reaction to server failures by a load balancer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1036 : Load balancing of requests to servers for services different from user content provisioning, e.g. load balancing across domain name servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 : specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 : Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 : in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 : Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 : Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 : Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/20 : Services signaling; Auxiliary data signalling, i.e. transmitting data via a non-traffic channel

Abstract

A method, operable in a framework wherein resources of a content provider may be delivered to clients from at least two distinct content delivery networks (CDNs). Responsive to a client request, one of the CDNs is selected, the selection being based at least in part on one or more policies set by the content provider. The client is provided with information associated with the selected CDN. The information may be a domain name such as a CNAME for the selected CDN. The policies may include a load share policy that specifies a relative load share for each CDN, and the selecting may attempt to satisfy the load share policy. Updated content provider policies may be obtained, at regular intervals

Claims

1. A method, operable in a framework wherein resources of a content provider may be delivered to clients from at least two distinct content delivery networks (CDNs), the method comprising:

responsive to a client request, selecting one of said at least two CDNs, said selecting being based at least in part on one or more policies set by the content provider; and

providing the client with information associated with the selected CDN.

2. A method as in claim 1 wherein the information associated with the selected CDN includes a domain name associated with the selected CDN.

3. A method as in claim 2 wherein the domain name comprises a CNAME associated with the selected CDN.

4. A method as in claim 1 wherein the one or more policies include a load share policy that specifies a relative load share for each of said at least two CDNs, and wherein the step of selecting attempts to satisfy said load share policy.

5. A method as in claim 1 wherein said client request comprises a request from a resolver to resolve a domain name.

6. A method as in claim 1 further comprising:

obtaining at least one updated content provider policy, and

wherein said one or more policies used by said step of selecting include said at least one updated content provider policy.

7. A method as in claim 6 wherein said step of obtaining is repeated at regular intervals.

8. A method as in claim 6 wherein said at least one updated content provider policy includes a load share policy for at least one of said CDNs.

9. A method as in claim 6 wherein said at least one updated content provider policy is obtained from a location specified by said content provider.

10. A method as in claim 1 further comprising:

identifying a particular content server in said selected CDN; and

providing the client with an address of the particular content server.

11. A method, operable in a framework wherein resources of a content provider may be delivered to users from at least two distinct domains, the method comprising:

obtaining one or more content provider policies relating to delivery of said resources, at least one of said policies relating to a relative load share for each of said at least two domains;

receiving a request from a client'"'"'s resolver to resolve a first domain name, said request having been part of a client request for one of said resources of said content provider;

selecting, based at least in part on said one or more content provider policies, one of said at least two domains; and

providing the client with information associated with the selected domain.

12. A method as in claim 11 wherein the information associated with the selected domain is either (a) a domain name associated with the selected domain or (b) at least one Internet Protocol (IP) address of at least one server in the selected domain.

13. A method as in claim 11 wherein at least one of said at least two domains corresponds to a first content delivery network domain.

14. A method as in claim 13 wherein at least one other of said at least two domains corresponds to a content provider domain distinct from said first content delivery network domain.

15. A method as in claim 13 wherein at least one other of said at least two domains corresponds to a second content delivery network domain distinct from said first content delivery network domain.

16. A method as in claim 11 wherein the one or more policies include a load share policy that specifies a relative load share for each of said at least two domains, and wherein the step of selecting attempts to satisfy said load share policy.

17. A method as in claim 11 wherein said step of obtaining is repeated at regular intervals.

18. A method as in claim 11 further comprising:

identifying a particular content server in said selected domain; and

providing the client with an address of the particular content server.

19. A method, operable in a framework wherein resources of a content provider may be delivered from at least two distinct domains, the method comprising:

distributing requests among said at least two distinct domains based at least in part on one or more load share policies set by the content provider.

20. A method as in claim 19 wherein at least one of said two distinct domains corresponds to a content delivery network domain.

21. A method as in claim 20 wherein at least one other of said at least two distinct domains corresponds to a subscriber domain distinct from said content delivery network domain.

22. A method, operable in a framework consisting of at least two content delivery networks (CDNs), each CDN comprising a plurality of content servers, and each CDN being capable of delivering resources on behalf of at least one subscriber, the method comprising:

selecting a CDN from said at least two CDNs to handle a particular client request for subscriber content, said selecting being based, at least in part, on one or more subscriber policies; and

directing said client to said selected CDN.

23. A method as in claim 22 wherein the one or more subscriber policies include a subscriber-defined load share policy.

24. A method as in claim 22 wherein said step of directing comprises:

providing the client with a domain name associated with the selected CDN.

25. A method as in claim 22 further comprising:

identifying a particular content server in said selected CDN; and

providing the client with an address of the particular content server.