Dynamic Image Delivery System

• US 20100125649A1
• Filed: 01/25/2010
• Published: 05/20/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Akamai Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Akamai Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Liu (Zaide Liu), Edward, Swildens, Eric Sven-Johan, Day, Richard David
• Granted Patent: US 8,060,581 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0888 Throughput
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4511 using domain name system [DNS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4541 Directories for service discovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1458 Denial of Service
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• 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 67/1029 using data related to the state of servers 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 67/5681 Pre-fetching or pre-delivering data based on network characteristics
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5682 Policies or rules for updating, deleting or replacing the stored data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

A dynamic image delivery system receives a client request for an image at an image caching server. The image caching server measures the client'"'"'s network access speed and looks for an appropriate pre-rendered copy of the requested image that is rendered for the client'"'"'s network access speed in local storage. If the appropriate rendered copy is found, then the image caching server sends the rendered image to the client. If it is not found, then the image caching server dynamically renders a copy of the image and sends it tot he client.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method, comprising:

receiving a client'"'"'s request for an image file at an image caching server;

determining, by the image caching server, whether the client'"'"'s network access speed is stored in a local storage device, when the client'"'"'s network access speed is not found in the local storage device, determining the client'"'"'s network access speed and storing the client'"'"'s network access speed on the local storage device; and

sending, by the image caching server, an appropriate rendered copy of the requested image that is rendered for the client'"'"'s network access speed.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving the client'"'"'s request for the image file on a DNS server;

selecting, by the DNS server using load balancing as a selection factor, the image caching server among a plurality of image caching servers distributed across a network; and

sending the client'"'"'s request for the image file to the image caching server.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining step calculates the client'"'"'s network access speed from the client'"'"'s download of a Web page.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the client sends the image caching server its calculated network access speed and the determining step stores the calculated network access speed on the local storage device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the image caching server searches for an appropriate rendered copy of the requested image on the local storage device for the client'"'"'s network access speed, and wherein the sending step sends the appropriate rendered copy to the client when the appropriate rendered copy is found on the local storage device.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein a plurality of rendered copies of the requested image are pre-rendered for different network access speeds and stored on the local storage device prior to the client'"'"'s image request.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

rendering an appropriate copy of the requested image for the client'"'"'s network access speed when an appropriate rendered copy is not found on the local storage device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the sending step sends the client rendered layers of the requested image that create a cumulatively higher resolution image as each rendered layer is overlaid upon a previous layer(s), each layer having been rendered without information overlap with other rendered layers, and rendered layers are sent to the client until a time limit is met or all rendered layers have been sent before the time limit is met.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the image caching server receives a configuration file from an administrator that tells the image server how to render and store images.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein a customer that stores images on an image caching server is charged a fee for the use of the image caching server.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the fee is based upon demand for the customer'"'"'s images.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the fee is based upon the customer'"'"'s choice of rendering and storage requirements.

13. A computer-readable storage medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions for dynamic image delivery, which instructions, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to carry out the steps of, comprising:

receiving a client'"'"'s request for an image file at an image caching server;

determining, by the image caching server, whether the client'"'"'s network access speed is stored in a local storage device, when the client'"'"'s network access speed is not found in the local storage device, determining the client'"'"'s network access speed and storing the client'"'"'s network access speed on the local storage device; and

sending, by the image caching server, an appropriate rendered copy of the requested image that is rendered for the client'"'"'s network access speed.

14. A computer-readable storage medium as recited in claim 13, further comprising:

receiving the client'"'"'s request for the image file on a DNS server;

selecting, by the DNS server using load balancing as a selection factor, the image caching server among a plurality of image caching servers distributed across a network; and

sending the client'"'"'s request for the image file to the image caching server.

15. A computer-readable storage medium as recited in claim 13, wherein the determining step calculates the client'"'"'s network access speed from the client'"'"'s download of a Web page.

16. A computer-readable storage medium as recited in claim 13, wherein the client sends the image caching server its calculated network access speed and the determining step stores the calculated network access speed on the local storage device.

17. A computer-readable storage medium as recited in claim 13, wherein the image caching server searches for an appropriate rendered copy of the requested image on the local storage device for the client'"'"'s network access speed, and wherein the sending step sends the appropriate rendered copy to the client when the appropriate rendered copy is found on the local storage device.

18. A computer-readable storage medium as recited in claim 17, wherein a plurality of rendered copies of the requested image are pre-rendered for different network access speeds and stored on the local storage device prior to the client'"'"'s image request.

19. A computer-readable storage medium as recited in claim 17, further comprising:

rendering an appropriate copy of the requested image for the client'"'"'s network access speed when an appropriate rendered copy is not found on the local storage device.

20. A computer-readable storage medium as recited in claim 13, wherein the sending step sends the client rendered layers of the requested image that create a cumulatively higher resolution image as each rendered layer is overlaid upon a previous layer(s), each layer having been rendered without information overlap with other rendered layers, and rendered layers are sent to the client until a time limit is met or all rendered layers have been sent before the time limit is met.

21. A computer-readable storage medium as recited in claim 13, wherein the image caching server receives a configuration file from an administrator that tells the image server how to render and store images.

22. A computer-readable storage medium as recited in claim 13, wherein a customer that stores images on an image caching server is charged a fee for the use of the image caching server.

23. A computer-readable storage medium as recited in claim 22, wherein the fee is based upon demand for the customer'"'"'s images.

24. A computer-readable storage medium as recited in claim 22, wherein the fee is based upon the customer'"'"'s choice of rendering and storage requirements.

25. An apparatus, comprising:

a client request receiving subsystem on an image caching server that receives a client'"'"'s request for an image file;

a network access determining subsystem that determines whether the client'"'"'s network access speed is stored in a local storage device, when the client'"'"'s network access speed is not found in the local storage device, determines the client'"'"'s network access speed and stores the client'"'"'s network access speed on the local storage device; and

an image sending subsystem that sends an appropriate rendered copy of the requested image that is rendered for the client'"'"'s network access speed.

26. The apparatus of claim 25, further comprising:

a client request receiving subsystem on a DNS server that receives the client'"'"'s request for the image file;

an image caching server selecting subsystem on the DNS server that selects, by using load balancing as a selection factor, the image caching server among a plurality of image caching servers distributed across a network; and

an image file request sending subsystem that sends the client'"'"'s request for the image file to the image caching server.

27. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the determining subsystem calculates the client'"'"'s network access speed from the client'"'"'s download of a Web page.

28. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the client sends the image caching server its calculated network access speed and the network access determining subsystem stores the calculated network access speed on the local storage device.

29. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the image caching server searches for an appropriate rendered copy of the requested image on the local storage device for the client'"'"'s network access speed, and wherein the sending subsystem sends the appropriate rendered copy to the client when the appropriate rendered copy is found on the local storage device.

30. The apparatus of claim 29, wherein a plurality of rendered copies of the requested image are pre-rendered for different network access speeds and stored on the local storage device prior to the client'"'"'s image request.

31. The apparatus of claim 29, further comprising:

a rendering subsystem that renders an appropriate copy of the requested image for the client'"'"'s network access speed when an appropriate rendered copy is not found on the local storage device.

32. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the sending subsystem sends the client rendered layers of the requested image that create a cumulatively higher resolution image as each rendered layer is overlaid upon a previous layer(s), each layer having been rendered without information overlap with other rendered layers, and rendered layers are sent to the client until a time limit is met or all rendered layers have been sent before the time limit is met.

33. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the image caching server receives a configuration file from an administrator that tells the image server how to render and store images.

34. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein a customer that stores images on an image caching server is charged a fee for the use of the image caching server.

35. The apparatus of claim 34, wherein the fee is based upon demand for the customer'"'"'s images.

36. The apparatus of claim 34, wherein the fee is based upon the customer'"'"'s choice of rendering and storage requirements.