Systems and Methods for Directing Content Requests to Servers

• US 20100125626A1
• Filed: 11/20/2008
• Published: 05/20/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/20/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Gauld, Andrew G., Lucas, John F., Glasser, Alan
• Granted Patent: US 8,135,840 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• 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 67/101 based on network conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1023 based on a hash applied to IP addresses or costs
• 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

Abstract

A method of delivering content to a client includes receiving a request for the content from the client at a first server, determining the size of the content, and determining an optimal server to provide the content. The method further includes redirecting the client to the optimal server when the size of the content is above a threshold.

Claims

1. A computer readable medium comprising a plurality of instructions to manipulate a processor, the plurality of instructions comprising:

instructions to receive a request for the content from the client at a first server;

instructions to determine the size of the content;

instructions to determine an optimal server to provide the content; and

instructions to redirect the client to the optimal server when the size of the content is above a threshold.

2. The computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein the optimal server has a greater capacity to deliver the content to the client, has a lower network cost to deliver the content to the client, or any combination thereof compared to the first server.

3. The computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein the optimal server can deliver the first byte of the content in a shorter amount of time, can deliver the content to the client in a shorter amount of time, or any combination thereof compared to the first server.

4. The computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein the threshold is a file size above which redirecting the client to receive the content from the optimal server is more efficient than delivering the content from the first server.

5. A server, comprising:

a processor configured to;

receive a request for the content from the client at a first server;

estimate a first delivery cost, the first delivery cost including the cost to deliver the content from a first server;

estimate a second delivery cost, the second delivery cost including the cost to deliver the content from a second server; and

redirect the client to the second server when the second delivery cost is less than the first delivery cost.

6. The server of claim 5 wherein the processor is configured to estimate the first delivery cost based on a first network distance, a first link capacity, a first link utilization, or any combination thereof for a first network path between the first server and the client.

7. The server of claim 5 wherein the processor is configured to estimate the second delivery cost based on a second network distance, a second link capacity, a second link utilization, or any combination thereof for a second network path between the second server and the client.

8. The server of claim 5 wherein the second delivery cost is less than the first delivery cost by greater than an amount of network cost required to redirect the client to the second server.

9. A method of delivering streaming content to a client having an Internet Protocol address, comprising:

receiving a request for streaming content;

based on the Internet Protocol address of the client, determining an optimal server to provide the streaming content;

instructing the client to receive the streaming content from the optimal server; and

instructing the optimal server to provide the streaming content to the client.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the optimal server has a greatest capacity to deliver the content to the client, has a lowest network cost to deliver the content to the client, or any combination thereof.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein the optimal server can deliver the first byte of the content to the client in the shortest about of time, can deliver the content to the client in the shortest amount of time, or any combination thereof.

12. A method of delivering content to a client, comprising:

receiving a request for a content listing from a client at a first server;

determining an optimal server for providing the content to the client, the optimal server based on an address of the client;

embedding a link in the content listing to direct the client to the optimal server; and

providing the content listing to the client.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the optimal server has a greater capacity to deliver the content to the client, has a lower network cost to deliver the content to the client, or any combination thereof compared to the first server.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein the optimal server can deliver the first byte of the content to the client in a shorter amount of time, can deliver the content to the client in a shorter amount of time, or any combination thereof compared to the first server.

15. The method of claim 12 wherein the link is a Universal Resource Locator with a hostname specific to the optimal server.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the hostname includes an address of the optimal server.

17. A method of resolving a hostname, comprising:

receiving a request for an Internet Protocol address from a client, the request including the hostname, at least a portion of the hostname encoding at least a portion of an address of the client;

determining an optimal server based on the portion of the address of the client; and

providing the Internet Protocol address of the optimal server to the client in response to the request.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the optimal server has a lowest network cost to deliver the content to the client, has a greatest capacity to deliver the content to the client, or any combination thereof.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein the optimal server can deliver the first byte of the content to the client in a shortest amount of time, can deliver the content to the client in a shortest amount of time, or any combination thereof.